BOB BOOKS Giveaway!

Have you heard of BOB Books?  I first stumbled across them in a Scholastic book order.  Now I keep seeing the everywhere!  BOB Books offered to send me a set of books to try with my students.  I ordered Set 3, Word Families because I have some students who really struggle with vowel sounds.  I thought they might be good to use with those kiddos and may give them some additional support.

In this sweet little box is a set of 10 books.  8 books focus on different word families.

I started out with this book.  I love how they fit so perfectly in their hands.  They are so simple and I LOVE simple!  The font is just the right size and the simple pictures really helped him focus on the text while still having that picture support.

I noticed my student was having troubles every time he came across the word was, so I used some of my highlighting tape and placed some over the word each time in the book.  It really helped!

Each book has a list of words used on the last page.  It was helpful when I was trying to figure out which book to use with him.  He needs a lot of practice with short vowels, so this quick glance was perfect in helping me make my decision.  It also gives a list of sight words in the book, which I love as well.  You could also easily perform a running record with one of these books!  It even has the total number of words listed.  :)

The last 2 books are small activity books.  If you purchase these for your own child, they can write directly into the book.  I prefer to make copies so that I can use them year after year.  ;)

I was so in love with this set that I purchased the sight word set!  Each book has a few sight words that it focuses on, with the words listed at the front of the book.

Instead of activity books, the sight word set comes with a set of flash cards.  The words are printed on one side and are used in a sentence on the other side.  I'm a huge advocate of practicing sight words in context, so I was totally surprised and in love with this feature!  They are perforated so that you can easily tear them apart.

I honestly can't wait to get my hands on more BOB Books!  They are so perfect for RTI and my students love them!

How would you like to win a set???  BOB Books and I are teaming up to offer one lucky winner a set of books of their choice!  Enter through the Rafflecopter below!  In the meantime, check out the BOB Books website so that you can decide which set you want!  The winner will be announced on Wednesday, November 26th.  Good luck!!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How We Do RTI

RTI...so good and so frustrating, all at the same time.  Kind of like the Ole Miss vs. LSU game I'm watching right now.  Excitement, frustration, good plays, bad plays, flags, unsportsmanlike conduct...I feel like it all applies across borders!  ;)

I know the whole RTI process looks so different everywhere.  Last year we started something new in our building.  We take the Tier 3 students and divide them up amongst teachers with their reading endorsement or Masters in reading.  Tier 3 groups are no bigger than 4 students.  Our building has "RTI time" from 9:10-9:40.  The students can cross grade levels, depending on the skill level they need help with.  For example, I teach phonemic awareness.  Students who struggle with phonemic awareness come to me for 30 minutes and we do exercises and activities built around increasing their phonemic awareness skills.  We progress monitor weekly to keep data on the students.

In order to determine the exact skills a child needs help with, we use a tool I created called, Finding the Root of the Problem: An RTI Assessment Probe.  This helps us determine how to place the students in each group.

During this 30 minute block of time, I inherit 4 students.  We do the Phonemic Awareness Curriculum from Two Peas in a Pod.  Then I pull all sorts of resources that focus on sounds.

In the past, the rest of my class would've gone to another first grade classroom to work on grammar and handwriting.  Since I have no Tier 3 students this year and since our class sizes are much larger (24 students), that means there would be about 40 students in a classroom at one time.  No thank you!  We're talking crowd control at this point.  So this year I decided to keep my students and have them work at their own pace on their own reading level.  I purchased a subscription to Raz-Kids.  They each take an iPad, make themselves comfy, and read at their level for 30 minutes.  They love it and everyone is working at their own pace!

This is working so much better for my students and I feel like everyone is really learning a lot.  What I love most is everyone is learning at their level.  They are at a spot that's perfect for them.  This transition to more of a 21st century classroom is proving well-worth the effort!

CARPET! Reading Intervention! Thanksgiving Feast!

I have to say I am so thankful for Thanksgiving break!  It was one long day.  Another teacher and I were talking about the 3 longest, most painful days of the school year:  the day before Christmas break, the last day of school, and the day before Thanksgiving break.

I left school and went and got a manicure with a sweet teacher friend of mine.  Much deserved, if I do say so myself. ;)

Tomorrow I'm headed to Michigan to head to the grandparents.  My son and I are headed up in the morning and the hubs is heading up Thursday morning (he works tomorrow night...night shift...working for a Budweiser distribution center and loading up trucks...yuck...).  Are there any bloggy friends in MI?  I know this is totally last second, but we could get together for coffee tomorrow somewhere around Detroit!  Yeah, it's late.  This probably won't work.  I'll plan better next time. ;)  I guarantee I'll head up again in the summer at some point.  Besides, I live in Ohio.  You live in Michigan.  Technically, we can't be friends this week.  Hey, I don't make the rules.

O-H!!!!!!!

Ok, onto all things teacher-related.

First of all, on Tuesday afternoon, I had the biggest surprise!!!!  At least I think it was Tuesday...my days now run together.  Anyways, my firsties INSISTED on doing their morning work at their new carpet!  When they came in they went straight to the carpet and sat down.  I had to ask them to remove their coats and get out their morning work.  Seriously.

THANK YOU, AGAIN, TO ALL THOSE WHO HELPED FUND OUR CARPET!  WE ARE LOVING IT!!!!!

Today we had our annual 1st Grade Thanksgiving Feast in the hallway.  I stayed up last night making popcorn and cranberry muffins.  At least they ate it all.  Our class was designated as Pilgrims, so we spent all morning and afternoon making our garb.  Then after music we shut the doors and let the feast begin!

I've mentioned this before, but I teach the 1st grade Reading Intervention class.  We meet once a day for an extra 30-minutes of reading instruction.  This is in ADDITION to the Title I services they receive.  So basically, they're taught reading skills in the classroom, in Title for an extra 30 minutes, and then another 30 minutes for RI.  I take the bottom 10 or so kiddos in the 1st grade.  These are the ones that are in jeopardy of repeating.

We keep data with AIMSWeb, if any of you are familiar with that program.  My kiddos are tested weekly with AIMSWeb for progress monitoring.  I have really started to try and target the skills that they are assessed on.

I give you...READING INTERVENTION KITS!  That's right, folks.  I have 5 sets of materials to target all the necessary early literacy skills for the firsties.  Nonsense words, rhyming words, letter recognition, phoneme segmentation, and fluency.  I make all the cards based around the same idea for each month.  I just switch them up a tad so that they get exposed to different words, sounds, phrases, etc.  And it's always fun to change up the graphics so they're not staring at the same thing for weeks and weeks and weeks.

For nonsense words, I made nonsense word cards (6 for each short vowel).

I've suggested 4 different games/activities for each target area to use with the cards.  On this particular day, we used the nonsense word cards and sat in a circle.  I played music (Ohio State marching band music...it IS football season, after all!) and the kids passed their card clockwise around the circle.  When the music stopped, they had to read the card that they ended up holding.  They LOVED this!

Another day we played with rhyming words.  I made a T-Chart with two words (in this case, "cat" and "dog") and gave each of the kids a word card. They had to decide if it rhymed with "cat" or "dog".  They came up and stuck it on the board.

For letter recognition, I gave each student approximately 3 cards.  I asked "Who has the letter that makes the /a/ sound?" and so forth.  Then I gave them time to line them up in order.

One of the activities for phoneme segmentation was to have the students create their own 3-letter words.

To practice fluency, I put several Fry Phrases on cards.  I split the class into two teams.  I would show one team a card and have them try to read it.  They got 2 tries to read it correctly AND they could help each other out (remember, these guys are pretty low...they struggle...we have an open, loving, encouraging classroom where they don't have to be ashamed to get it wrong!).  If they still couldn't get it, the other team had a chance to steal.  Whichever team was able to read the card got the point.  My kids love anything competitive.

I can hear you now..."But Sarah, Thanksgiving is over..."  Fear not!  I already have my December Kit up in my shop.  ;)

CLICK HERE TO SNAG A COPY!

Alright, friends, time to knock out a little more on my December Math Centers and then I'm headed to bed.  Long day ahead tomorrow!  Enjoy your turkey and time with friends/family!

Calling All Ohio Teachers! Plus a little giveaway ;)

Ug, another late night.  I have GOT to start going to bed earlier.  But I guess it's who I am...

So those of you who live in Ohio (and other states if this applies) - let's talk about this 3rd grade reading guarantee.  Not that I want to, but I'm so stressed and perplexed about some of this crazy law.  So how many of you have been implementing this new reading intervention class (outside if Title I/Reading Recovery)?  Meaning it has to be taught by a classroom teacher and teaching the lowest kiddos.  Please tell me someone knows what I'm talking about?!?!?  If you don't, that will stress me out more.  :P  What I want to know is how your school is doing this.  We are implementing this extra reading intervention class K-2 (3rd and up departmentalize, so they have it covered in a different way).  What I'm struggling with is the lack of time I have to teach what I'm supposed to teach.  I have stressed, gotten angry, and cried over the ridiculouslessness (if that's a word...auto-correct says it's not...oh well, it's SO a word to me! :P).  I can IMMEDIATELY feel my blood pressure rise when I think about this.  I need to let it go.  I just wish the state understood what they're doing to the kids who AREN'T low.  Between Title I pull-outs, speech, and now intervention, I have half an hour to teach math, half an hour to teach writing, and an hour and a half to teach reading/language arts.  Um, 2 1/2 hours?  Are you serious?  I struggle everyday.  Majorly.  Add in lunch, 2 recesses, and bathroom breaks, and out of the 6 hours we're at school, I get 2.5.  2.5.  2.5.  I'm MAJORLY bothered by that.  And I'm the teacher that's teaching 1st grade intervention, so there's that.  Not that I mind.  I like reading and I'd rather teach intervention than science/social studies any day...

How does your school do it?!?!?  Please, we need ideas.  We have done intervention the past few years, so that piece isn't new, but the scheduling and now the REQUIREMENT of it is really getting us.  In past years 1st grade has done it 3 days a week, not 5.  That really did help because Monday is the busiest day introducing lots of new concepts.  So that extra half hour was golden.

I truly apologize for venting, but this has been on my mind so much since the beginning of the year and I'm overwhelmed to the max on how to fit it in and teach it all.  I promise I love my job more than anything (sometimes too much), but as we all know there's a lot of stress involved!  Once I can figure out how to maneuver my schedule I'll be fine.  But I've rearranged it 3 times.  Ugggg.  I do reading groups/Daily 5 during Title I time, but you can't really introduce anything new while other kids are out of the room.  Between Speech, Title I, and Intervention, I lose an hour a day.  Ok...enough venting.  Just tell me what you do.  Please.  Pretty please?  :)

If you comment and leave your thoughts, please leave your e-mail address because I'm going to give away my October Math Centers to one lucky person!  Even if you have nothing to say because you have no idea what I'm talking about, I want to know that, too.  I need info from every realm.  And if you don't want a chance to win the centers but would still like to leave a comment, please do, just omit your e-mail address.  :)  I realize I could get comments from upper-elementary bloggy friends, and these centers are appropriate for K-2, so it might not do you any good.  :P

As a sidenote about the October Math Centers, I'm going to put them on sale for TOMORROW (10-1) ONLY!  You can pick them up for only $4!  :)  And if you just can't wait to see if you've won and you want to pick them up tonight, I'm having a 15% off sale tonight...you've only got 25 more minutes, but you can snag them real quick!  :)

Thanks, guys!  :)