First few days back to school!

I started school on Monday and it has been a hectic start! We have some many new things that we're implanting this year. New reading and math curriculum, new lesson plan format from the county, new professional growth plan, new principal, and lots of new staff!

I've had an awesome start in my classroom though! My students are babies who need to be whipped into shape. I feel like I say this every year at the beginning! They are just so little and not independent at all! My feet hurt so bad from all the jumping up and walking around the room! I'm getting the kids comfortable with the routine, rules, and first grade work.

I've used Kagan structures this week for class building and team building. So far I've used Find Someone Who, Round Robin, and Timed Pair Share.  In Find Someone Who kids walk around when the music starts and when the music stops they pair up with the person who is closest to them. Then the students introduce each other. Then the person with the shorter hair (I just did because it was easy for the kids to determine) asks the other person if they can fill something out on their paper. I used Abby Mullins Find a Friend sheet from her Fun with Firsties back to school packet. It was perfect for first graders and easy for them to read. Then they switch and the other person fills out their paper. Then it starts all over again. The kids LOVED getting to know their classmates this way. They enjoyed moving around, meeting new people, and finding out new things about them.

Timed Pair Share is exactly how it sounds. In pairs, students share with a partner for about 30/45 seconds while the other listens and then they switch. This has been great for pair work and math talk!

I also used Round Robin for team building. the students shared what they did over the summer with their table. They just take turns talking about what they did to generate ideas for a writing activity. Everyone has a chance to talk and they keep talking about ideas until the time is up. We've done this with some other fun questions I just have a sleepy brain and can't remember right now!

Here is their writing from those wonderful summer activities: 

I'll have to take more pictures of my kids actually doing all this! I've been bad about taking pictures! I did take 1st day pictures of my cuties and I'll make a magnet for the parents of it for open house.

I'm loving the chalkboard stuff right now! I got this sign off Pinterest! 

I took some pictures of my kids doing read to self! How adorable! They read for 7 minutes! They were great at finding spots, staying in one spot, getting out and putting away their book boxes. We broke the stamina because one little guy was goofing off and "fake" reading which led to a whole new lesson.

I'm trying to stay organized but papers just keep piling up this week!

Thank goodness for cute binders and bins! 

I'll leave you with some school humor.

Hang in there teachers we're half way through the week! 

Monday Made It { Journeys Spelling Lists}

It has taken me all summer long to join in Monday Made It but I finally made it today!

Today I made spelling list for Journeys Common Core series for 1st grade. I'm really excited about using this new series and I wanted to create a spelling list that was differentiated. 

     I have made two spelling lists per Journeys lesson. The first spelling list is on grade level spelling words taken from the series. I added on more spelling words to make 10 regular spelling words and then added bonus words as well. In the beginning of the year lessons there are less bonus words but as the spelling list progress so do the bonus words.

The second list is an above grade level list for your students who are ready to move on and spell more within the same phonics principle. For example if the spelling words are short /a/ for the week the above grade level list will just be a harder set of short /a/ words.

To determine which students study which list I have my students take a pre-test either on Friday after their spelling test or first thing Monday morning. If they get 9/10 or 10/10 words correctly then they are on the above grade level list. If you don’t think you have enough time each week to do a pre-test then simple divide your students by their reading level. Your top 2 reading groups should be able to handle the above grade level list and your other reading groups can study the on grade level words.

Check it out!

I'm printing, laminating, and cutting to get ready for the school year! I still have 2 weeks left and plenty to do! I have a stool to paint, crate chairs to finish up, and putting it all together to get ready for Meet the Teacher.

I'm not too fussed though because I'm been making something else...non school related but very yummy. I just got this fabulous mixer as a wedding gift and I love using it! It is the only appliance I use in the kitchen! 

Delicious chocolate chip cookies! 

Hope you are having a marvelous Monday! Enjoy these last few ones before we have to wake up and be at school!

Last Chapter of Daily 5

Putting it all Together:

Now that we have read the whole book so how do you put it all together?  This is how I put it all together. First take it slow you don’t have to try everything the first day and you certainly shouldn’t. If your kids are building their stamina in read to self and then the next day they fall behind take a step back evaluate what went wrong, practice, and model again with the kids (can not stress this enough it is probably the most important thing that will set the tone for the whole year!) and try again. The kids will get there you just have to be patience and take your time teaching all the correct steps to Daily 5. Look back and read those first few chapters on how to get things started and know that this will work with time.

Once you get all 5 of your rotations down and everything is going smoothly let the kids pick their Daily 5. I know it sounds scary but I promise the kids will be so much more engaged and ready for the activity if they get to choose. Make it clear they have to pick different centers and they can’t go to the same one twice. My kids are accountable for the centers they have gone to and keep others accountable as well. In the pass I have written down who goes to what center but I really think it’s a waste of valuable time.

I love checking in with my students. During clean up time. Once I ring my chimes the kids know it’s time to clean up. I might have to remind certain kids or tap students who are listening that the chimes have rung but everyone knows it is a quiet clean up time to meet on the floor. I softly talk with my students about the books they read, what game they played, or what they were writing about. They love the individual attention. I also ask my class whole group how they did thumps up or down. They are very honest and we briefly talk about what we could do next rotation to make it even better. I like to focus on the positives! I’m going to be using Mel D’s Daily 5 necklaces this year to motivate my students to work hard during each rotation.

Check in chart. The Daily 5 cards are on the left and each kid chooses which rotation to go to and their picture gets moved. This is a great visual for the kids and I to see who is in which Daily 5 and if anyone leaves a mess we know who needs to clean it up.

When everyone is on the carpet I have students start choosing their Daily 5. Each student makes their choice and leaves to start quickly expect for the read to someone kids who wait to choose a partner and then go. I’m the last person to leave our check in. If kids are working with me they know to take out their book boxes and start reading until I get to the table. Some days when I need to do assessments I just ask one student at a time to come to my table. I pick students who are in read to self and eventually will get everyone checked off the list. Students know if I am sitting down at the table to not come and interrupt but this is a hard lesson learned at the beginning of the year. I am thinking that I need a special hat like I saw in Funky First Grade Fun.

I know it can be hard to fit it all in so make it work for your schedule and your kids. I have a 90-minute reading block each morning from 9:30-11:00.

Whole group reading 9:30-10:00

Daily 5/guided reading 10:00-11:00

This is what has worked for me in the past but every class is different and it may take longer in the beginning. If we ever didn’t finish during this time we would come back to it after lunch. The kids were very understanding or this and knew what was expected.

Thanks so much for reading about the Daily 5! This has helped me to think about the upcoming year and what I need to get ready for my students. I hope this information has helped you. Please feel free to ask any questions about the Daily 5 and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Our wonderful hosts for these chapters are Funky First Grade Fun and Surfin' Through Second. Check out their great ideas! 

A special thanks Mel from Seusstastic Classroom Inspirationsand Nicole from Teaching With Style for organizing this book study for everyone!  Please stop by to visit them as well.

Work on Writing

I am falling more in love with my class each day. Every time I ask them to do something new they rise to the occasion and exceeds my expectations. They are just so great...I hope this honeymoon period does NOT end! This week we started Work on Writing and they jumped right into it. I explained that was just like Read to Self time expect for writing.

Day 1: I introduced Work on Writing and we made our anchor chart. We talked about what it looked like, sounded like, and how we would try to build stamina. I taught them to underline words they weren't sure they spelling correctly and to phonemically spell their words out. I modeled for them so they understood. I have them a topic so they wouldn't spend time thinking about it when I wanted them writing. The topic was "What I did this weekend". The student's took off with their writing and wrote for 3 minutes. I stopped them even though they were still writing because some people started to whisper to each other and I wanted them to know no talking was aloud during Work on Writing. My students were excited exclaiming " I wrote 3 sentences!" and "Wait, I need to put a period or I'm not finished!" Those words are like music to my ears. I had my student sit at their desks for the first day so they can just get used to writing. I'm just impressed that they are listening to my directions and trying their best. :)

BTW I love blogging because it is a wonderful reflection on my day's events. I hope you enjoying reading as much as I do writing.

Launching Daily 5 and CAFE

Daily 5 and CAFE

This was my first week back at school and I started the launch of Daily 5 and CAFE. I have previously launch both but never at the same time. I have done Daily 5 for two years and CAFE for one.  Here is what my week look liked.

Day 1: I started by introducing I choosing good fit books. I let my students then pick books for their book boxes. I then read aloud to them and introduced Check for Understanding. We took a brain break and played a boggie game and then started back up. I introduced Read to Self and we practiced independently reading for 2 minutes. We then graphed our progress, kissed our brains, and set off for other exciting activities. 

Day 2: I reviewed what we had learned from yesterday and introduced 3 ways to read a book. The students caught on fast and were ready to get into their book boxes. My students read to 4 minutes! We celebrated by graphing our stamina and gave ourselves a pat on the back!

Day 3: We reviewed everything and I was thinking my students might be a little overwhelmed with information. Perhaps launching Daily 5 and CAFE was a little too much for them. My students only increased their stamina by 1 minute and we graphed this time talking about making sure we stay in one spot and read the whole time (no talking to others!) 

Day 4: Thursday came with a bit of a shock! My students were asking when we were going to read. They really knew the information when we were reviewing! My students read for 8 minutes independently! WOW! They did such an amazing job! I even got to read with some of my more wiggly friends to keep them on track. I was super impressed and I celebrated their progress. They were excited to see our stamina graph growing.

Day 5: We reviewed everything we had learned from the week and let me tell you my students are super smart this year! They remember everything we had learned! This time my students read to 9 minutes. Not much of an increase but they read the whole time, stayed in one spot, and we stopped because 1 person stopped reading. I heard groans when I rang the bell and one student didn't even stop reading. I had to tap him and say please put your book box away.

My principal also came in during this time and not one child noticed she was even in the room. She came in took a look around and then left a little note in my bucket. We are a bucket filler school so everyone has a bucket outside their door. She said she loved my common core standards, today's password sign, that my students were all engaged, and everything was organized! What a compliment! It really made my day! Thanks to all my blogger friends I'm super organized this year! Daily 5 is also really organized too so that helps as well. I'm glad that my principal approves of what I'm doing. It confirms that my professional decisions are correct and truly working for my students.

I told them when we came back to our meeting spot that their ultimate goal was 20 minutes. They look a little scared...but then asked "what happens when we get there?" "do we get a prize?" I was taken aback...I have never had this asked before. I said we would celebrate and that then I would get to read with everyone individually. They nodded their head in approval. I continue to encourage them and tell them they were so smart and I knew they could do it! Now what to do to celebrate?? I've made a promise...which I have to keep! I thinking balloons or a special snack? Thoughts?

Anyways I hope your week went as well as mine! I will be posting more about launching Work on Writing next week and the continuation of Read to Self. I have a good feeling that my students will do amazing!