New Blog Look, My Guided Reading Tub, and a Freebie

I love my new blog look!  To celebrate the new look, I have a little Halloween Ten Frame Freebie for all my followers.  I also want to share what's inside my guided reading tub.

Here is what my tub looks like.  I have it stuffed full of things for this week.

I bought the smaller whiteboards in the Target dollar spot, but I have also seen them at the Dollar Tree.  These fit inside the container nicely and I no longer have to get up and get my larger whiteboards.

I have my sight words to review at the beginning of my guided reading lesson.  I review sight words with my students at least 3 times a day.  I have multiple copies of the sight words so I don't have to search for them.  I have a set everywhere that I am sitting/standing to review.

This week, I have smaller copies of my sight words and a few CVC words in baggies for the students to build sentences.

I have my pointer fingers and the books that I will use with my groups.  The students love using the fingers to point to the words.  I do take them away at one point in the year because brain research shows that students need to be able to track with their eyes because we actually look at more than one word when we are reading.

These are my whiteboard erasers.  I bought microfiber washcloths at the Dollar Tree and cut them into four pieces.  The work wonderfully and they are cheap so I can't go wrong there.  The bonus is that I can wash them too.

Now to get my Halloween Ten Frame Freebie click the picture below.

I almost forgot.  I'm linking up with Table Talk with C and C for a Fall/Halloween Giveaway!

This is a huge giveaway!  There are over 25 products!  One of my products are included in the giveaway as well.  Click the linky pic to check it out.

The Winner is....

The winner of my rafflecopter giveaway is Mariann B.!  Congratulations Mariann!  I sent you an email with your prize.

Today is Sunday and I am busy working on plans for next week.  I hope it doesn't rain because tomorrow I plan on taking my class on the school's nature trail on a little nature scavenger hunt.  We are going to gather leaves some signs of fall.  I have some activities in mind for the leaves but you will have to find out later this week what that is.  I'm experimenting with a few ideas and I want to see how they turn out before I share.  It could be a total disaster.

This week we will be learning about the letter N and we will make a letter N hat from my Phonics Alphabet Hats pack.  You can get them here or here.  We will continue to use some of my math and literacy centers from my Firefighter Math and Literacy Pack.

We didn't get to use all of the literacy centers last week so we will be using all of them this week.  Students will practice beginning sounds, rhymes, and ABC order while practicing their letter formation.

In math, I will put the Clip It! Ten Frames back out along with the Trace, Build, Write.  I will show students how to do the Count and Graph and my aide will help students with patterns.  I plan to add the Build It! Ten Frames to the Clip It! Ten Frames center.  Click on one of the pictures above to see where you can get this pack.

This week in math we are going to talk about symmetry, patterns, and make a number book.  Well that's all I have.  I better get started on finishing up my plans.  My late afternoon nap put me behind. :)

Center Saturday

I have slept a lot today.  This past week has worn me out!  My giveaway is ending soon so if you haven't entered you better do it quick!  Just go here and enter the rafflecopter.

Here is a look back at some of our centers this week.  As always, I have a listening center going during our guided reading time.  Students usually have 3 book options to choose from.  This week I will be adding in a response sheet for this station because I want students to work on their writing more.  You can get a copy of my listening center response sheet here.  Just scroll down and click the picture of the listening log.

 We continue to practice and review the alphabet and it's order.  Students love using magnetic letters on the cookie sheets.  Next week I will switch the cards to have the middle letter missing.  This allows students to practice putting the alphabet in order with a familiar activity.

 The I Spy Fire Safety was a freebie from A Differentiated Kindergarten.  You can check out the blog here and tell her you found her through Lesson Plans and Lollipops and thanks for the freebie!  My students loved using the magnifying glasses to find the letters in the picture!

 I'll just let you browse the rest of the pictures.

 You can get the number puzzles below from my freebies page!  

There are some changes that will be happening at my blog soon.  Don't forget that my giveaway ends at midnight!

Freebie Friday!

Happy Friday!  I survived the week after being off all last week.  I am exhausted!  I am keeping this post short tonight.  Here is the freebie I promised last night.  It's a set of ten frame number puzzles in neon pink and green for numbers 0-20.  Just click one of the pictures.  Enjoy!

Centers

 

I think the apple tress that we made with our fingerprints turned out really great and they look good on our cabinets.  Sorry about the poor quality in my photos.  I started taking more pics with my phone.  I so need to find my digital camera.  I have an older one that I usually keep at school, but I haven't been the best organized person at home lately.  I wanted to show you some of the centers we are working on this week.  This week is our fire safety week so my math and literacy centers fit the theme.

This is our Clip It! Tens Frames with fire trucks.  Once students clip the clothespin on the answer, all they have to do is flip it over to check.

This is our Trace, Build, Write activity.  Each student has a work mat. They select a letter card and place it on the mat.  Next, they trace the letter on the card.  Then they use pipe cleaners, links, Wikki sticks, or play dough to build the letter.  Finally, they write the letter on the line.  This week we are using pipe cleaners.  I think it's important to switch it up from time to time.

 

Here is the same activity but with numbers.  Students select a number card.  Then build the number and finally they write the number.

 

 

This is our Clip It! Alphabet Cards.  Students select a card and they clip a clothes pin on the beginning sound.  Once they are finished, they flip the card over and look for the dot that I marked on the back to see if they have the correct answer.

 

 

This is Clip It! Rhyming words.  The students look at the picture and clip yes or no.  Then they flip the card over and look for the self-correcting dot.  These cards can also be used with the whole class to play quiz-quiz trade.  We love playing quiz-quiz trade!

 

Here is the center that didn't get cut out this week, but I plan on using it next week.  This is Clip It! Beginning Sounds.  The students decide if the pictures begin with the same sound and clip yes or no with a clothespin.  They will flip the card over to look for the self-correcting dot on the back that I write with a Sharpie.  This also can be played as a whole class quiz-quiz trade.

 

If you like the centers that you have seen, they can be purchased in my TPT or TN store.  They are from my Firefighter Math and Literacy Center Fun pack.

 

 

It's 99 pages of fun!  It has 5 literacy and 5 math centers.  Just click on one of the pictures to take you to my store.  The first pick with take you to Teachers Pay Teachers and the last two will take you to Teachers Notebook.

 

Come back tomorrow for a freebie!

 

 

Fire Truck Craftivity Freebie and a Little About my Reading Block

Isn't this such a cute fire truck?  This week we have been talking about fire safety so we made a fire truck craftivity.  We used pipe cleaners to make the ladder and we talked about the shapes that we used to make the trucks.  After we built our trucks, I let the students get creative and add details to their pictures.  We have been talking about details in our writings and drawings all year, and how details help someone better understand the story we are trying to tell.  If you click the picture above, you can get the patterns to make this fire truck with your own class.

I have been reading a lot about what other people do during their reading block this week so I thought I would share a little bit about my own schedule.

7:50-8:10 Students arrive and work on morning work
8:10-8:55 Whole Group Reading Instruction

At 8:10 I play the Good Morning song from Greg and Steve.  When students hear this song, they start cleaning things up and they put their work (finished or not) in my finished work basket and sit on the carpet.  Everyone is singing while we clean up and prepare to start reading.

Once everyone is on the carpet, I project a page on the SmartBoard that has a mix of about 10-15 letters with some that repeat.  We go through those letters.  As I point to the letters and click my little castanets, the students name the letter after the click.  Then we start over on the same chart of letters with the students telling me the sounds. 

Our next chart that I put up, is a list of sight words.  There may be a few repeats of the same word.  When I point to and make the click sound, students tell me the word.  I provide a small pause for think time between each word.  The list usually has 10-15 words with some repeat words.  My word and letter list changes every morning so we get repeated practice and review.

After we review the letters and the words, I segment a word like /p/ /o/ /t/ and the students must give me the word.  They would say "pot."  I do about 10 words this way every morning.  Then I give the students 10 words to segment together for me.  They must give me a sound for every finger I raise on my hand.

After all that practice and review which takes about 10 minutes, we begin to talk about our vocabulary for the day and we talk about pictures related to our vocabulary.  We use Reading Street if you're curious.  I call on a student or two to put a Post-It with the vocabulary word on the picture which is on a flip chart.  We sing our weekly song that has the vocabulary words with some kind of motion when they hear the days two words (thumbs up, hand on head).  Then we read and discuss our story.  Sometimes we have an activity to go with the story too.

8:55-9:40 We do guided reading and our reading groups.  I have 4 groups.  One group works with me, one group works with the classroom aide, and two groups have independent activities.  We do two rotations a day so I see the entire class every two days.

9:40-10:20 We have interventions.  Students who need additional reading help get pulled by a reading specialists.  The rest of the class is with me and we do whole group activities to reinforce what we have learned.  The activities change frequently and I try to get in a short cooperative learning activity like quiz-quiz-trade or a partner syllable or word sort.  This is also the time that we may do pocket chart activities or a word building activity.

10:20-10:50 We do Saxon Phonics.  It doesn't always take the whole time so we may get in another learning activity too.

That is a basic outline of how my morning goes.  We have lunch at 10:55! 


Don't miss my Halloween Giveaway!  It's 156 pages of Halloween Fun!  Click the picture below to enter.

Tuesday Centers and an Alphabet Hat

 

This week we made out letter A hat.  This is in my new Phonics Alphabet Hats pack (TN).  They kids loved this!  They wanted to wear them all day and they received lots of complements too.  I had them practice writing the letter on the sentence strip with a crayon first.  Then they colored and cut out the pieces.  There were a few distractor pictures so they had to think which pictures begin with the /a/ sound to glue onto the strip.  This is new in my store and is 50% off today and tomorrow!  I made them while I was off last week.

During guided reading, my class rotates between for stations.  One of the stations this week is to fill in the missing letter.  I gave them both upper and lowercase letter magnets and a cookie sheet.  The students get a card and place it on the cookie sheet and then determine if they need a capital or lowercase letter to fill in the missing letter.  I also made this activity with the middle letter missing and the first letter missing.  Students can use an alphabet strip if they feel they need one.  Later in the year, I will switch this activity up by giving them cards with different letters missing.  I have also made these for my TPT and TN store.  You can see them here or here.  It's a simple activity that doesn't require a lot of ink.  144 different cards in all!  Only 24 pages.

Today, I brought out my little pointers for the kids to use during guided reading while they were pointing to the words.  They love using little pointers.  I have more than just the fingers.  My favorite are the monkeys.  I'll have to post those sometime soon.  This was the first time I brought the pointers out this year.  I wanted to set my behavior expectations first before giving them a potential play thing.

 Here is a look at another independent center this week.  I have been recording my own stories on CDs.  I just record my voice on my laptop and I ring a bell as an indicator to turn the page.  The best thing about making my own CDs is that they automatically play and they are finished when the book is finished.  Next week, I plan on introducing a response sheet for after they listen to a story, but for now, I am just having them listen.  I think it is important that they have plenty of time to get use to the equipment and the CD players are much easier to use than cassette player, but we use those too.  I previously posted that I bought a wonderful headphone jack so up to 5 students can listen at the same time.  I bought the cheapo headphones from the Dollar Tree.  Maybe one day I will buy more expensive durable ones, but for now these will do.  I was trying not to spend too much.  I only have 4 students at this station so two share a book and CD so I don't have to worry about having multiple book copies.  This week, they are listening to Green Wilma, The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash, and Miss Nelson is Missing.  Since stories are not all the same length, there is always an extra in the basket.

 

My aide has been working with students on letters recognition and beginning sounds.  These are the kid cards that come with our Saxon Phonics program.  The activities at this table change depending on the group, just like my guided reading group activity.  Previously, she has played rhyming bingo, matching, ABC Bingo, and has helped them work on writing their names.  It all depends on the needs of the group.  Currently, we have 4 students in each group and on Fridays, one group has 5 kids because I have a student that spends the afternoons with us and all days on Fridays.  The mornings he goes to preschool and next year he will be in my class full time.  I also have a student that comes to my class from first grade for reading in the morning.  He may be coming back over to kindergarten all day, but the final decision won't be made until next week.  Either way, I love having both of them.  The shocker of the days is that another kindergarten class just got a new student today.  We have been in school for 7 weeks now and it was his FIRST day!!!  Um, what were his parents thinking?

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Come back later to learn how I run my reading block.