Guided Reading and a Little Red Ribbon Week

I hope everyone is surviving Sandy!  It's crazy...what a massive storm!  I'm in central Ohio and it's been raining since yesterday.  The winds just picked up like crazy about half an hour ago.  Looks like they're currently gusting to around 40 mph.  They're supposed to be over 70, so I'm trying to hurry and get in a blog post before the power goes out!

I am warning you now:  LOTS OF PICS!

Last week we had Red Ribbon Week.  The theme was "Say Boo to Drugs" and we had a door decorating contest.  The high school students came over and judged them and our door won!  Woohoo!  We get a pizza party with the high school Teen Institute on Friday.  The kids are SUPER excited.  Here's a peek at our snazzy door...

The kiddos made pumpkin fold-overs and decorated the outside.

Then they wrote a sentence inside about why drugs are scary.  I took their picture using PhotoBooth and used one of the funky distortion options, which they picked.

Next topic of conversation (sorry I don't have a good segue into this portion)...guided reading!  It was something I struggled to get off the ground my first couple of years teaching.  I tried to follow how  the book wanted me to do it.  Bad idea.  It was horrible.  Can we say cookie-cutter machine?!?!  I felt like a robot with what they wanted me to do.  Yuck.

After attending a couple SDE conferences and doing some research, I came up with the best option for the moment.  And I say moment because I'm always changing things, so next year it'll probably look a little different.  :P

So how do I start?  Well, I collect a lot of data at the beginning of the year to decide what groups to put them in.  A lot.  I mean, TONS.  Then I come up with a list.  I typically have one below-level group, 2 on-level groups (split into a lower end and higher end), and an advanced group.  I work with one group for 30 minutes a day.  If you have to meet with every group everyday, God bless you.  I don't know how you do it.  I can barely squeeze in 30 minutes for one group!  But yet I WISH I had time to meet with each group each day.  But let's face reality, it's not realistic.  I do the best I can...

I put the names up on the board in a flip chart I made.  All I have to do is open it up and flip to the page with the group I need for the day.

All they bring is a pencil and I provide the rest.  Here's a look at what my plans look like.  I have a plan for below-level, on-level, and advanced for each story each week.  I keep them all in a binder with Unit tabs.  I just grab my binder, caddy, and books and I'm ready to go!  Part of the plans go with the leveled readers we have for Reading Street, but I added in a bit of my own stuff.

To get started, we review our high-frequency words.  I put them on my iPad with an app called "Flashcards +."  I put the words on a card and then a sentence on the back.  We practice reading, spelling, and recognizing the sight words for the week.  I also have an old wipes container with all the words in it.  I'm using these right now since I haven't had time to add some of the words to the app yet...

Then we move on to our "hunks and chunks" for the week.  It's just whatever phonics skill we're learning...short a, long o, sh, -ing, whatever...I created a huge, long project that drove me crazy last year.  I printed all sorts of words that follow the phonics skill onto a label and then put the label onto an index card.  Front and back.  Hundreds.  I think I bought around 15 packs of index cards.  Uggg.  What a nightmare.  THEN...I laminated all of them!  Eeek!  BUT, it was worth it.  Because now I have them ready for the YEAR.  We practice recognizing the hunks and chunks and reading them.  Sometimes we figure them out together, other times we raise our hand to read one when we know it, sometimes I call on random students, and sometimes we have little contests.  The kids love reading through them.  It's the little things!  ;)

Next, we move onto our story!  We talk about our reading skills and strategies.  Then I pass out the books and have them do a picture walk.  I let them predict what the story will be about and what will happen based on the pictures that they see.

Then we read!  Sometimes we read it chorally, other times we whisper read, and sometimes we read it with a partner.  Some days we even read it silently to ourselves!  I picked up these cute swizzle sticks from Hobby Lobby to use as pointers.  The kids LOVE. THEM.  They are MAGICAL to them!  I have simple ones with glitter and ones that are a little more chunky.  They pick out a stick and use it to track the print as we read.

After we read, I pass out our fiction dice or they draw a non-fiction stick.  They roll the fiction dice and answer the question.

All I did for the non-fiction sticks was take oversized popsicle sticks and write some questions on them.

We wrap up everything by working on a little worksheet that comes with our leveled readers.

And that's it!  Simple, huh?  ;)

The wind is howling...off I go!

Ok, I can't resist...here's my little guy dressed up for Halloween!

Writing Workshop and some exciting stuff!

In the past, I've really struggled to teach writing.  What is suggested in our Reading Series...well...I just don't like it.  There's no logic to it really.  It's like someone throws feathers up in the air and you just catch what you catch.  I've tossed around different things.  Tried a few things here and there.  And I'm all about logic.  Systematic.  RELEVANT.  Nothing drives me more crazy than randomly teaching my firsties something that has no rhyme or reason or sense to it.  They don't get it and neither do I.

So this year I've combined a few things and come up with something that is actually working for once.  Hey, that's what teaching is all about, right?  Try something and if it doesn't work, try something else.  Tweak.  Adjust.  Experiment.

So here's how I have my schedule arranged.  Every morning after announcements and lunch count and the daily "chores", we do our "writing workshop" for 30 minutes (I wish I could do longer, but alas, the schedule does not allow it).  I am telling you, Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills have been a GODSEND.  I am not kidding you.  It has been such a great thing in my classroom and the best part is that the kids LOVE IT.  They get SO excited about writing workshop.

If you haven't checked it out, here's the link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-Through-the-Year-Unit-1-Aligned-with-Common-Core

Then I've kind of/sort of incorporated the Daily 5.  Unfortunately, I do not have a big enough block to do The Daily 5 five times in one day.  So it's kind of a modified version.  Anyways, those of you familiar with The Daily 5 know that one of the components is Work on Writing.  For this, the students have several options of what to do.  They can:

-Write in their journal (their choice OR a pre-written topic).
-Make a card.
-Write a report.
-Write a book report.
-Write a letter.
-Write a list.
-Write a story.

They choose.  I have drawers on our writing table with everything already copied.

Inside each drawer is an idea list and a template sheet.  I laminated them and put them in the drawers for reference.  The letter list actually has an example on the back of how to format the letter so they can see the proper way to date it, address it, write it, close it, and sign it.

These are the journals I have for my students.  I found these binders at Odd Lots for somewhere in the neighborhood of $0.80 a piece.  I put a cover page and several blank journal pages inside.  The journal pages are from Journals Through the Year by Rachelle Smith.

Blank pages are already in their binders.  They can add pre-written prompts if they have a hard time thinking of something to write.

Here are some of my firsties during Work on Writing!

Making a card...

Writing a report on weather...

If you're interested in the drawers full of writing goodies, you can pick it up at my TPT shop!

A couple more notes before I head to bed...

1.  I now have a Facebook page!  If you look to the right, you will find a link to "like" my page.  I'm a Facebook junkie, so don't be surprised if you see an update pretty often on there...and I LOVE to chat, so you might see lots of opportunities to chime and converse in some teacher talk!  ;)

2.  I have to give a shout-out to my school.  We are "officially" rated an EXCELLENT SCHOOL DISTRICT!  The only one in our county!  Woo-hoo!  :D  Hard work, dedicated teachers, community/parental involvement, and a love for our schools has brought us success!  Congrats to all those in the Pleasant Local School District in Marion, OH!

Assessments and My Donor's Choose Project

So is this yucky sickness invading your school, too?  Man...I've had this crud for over a week now.  Fortunately I was able to schedule a doctor's appointment for tomorrow.  I was out last Tuesday, as were 9 other teachers!  You should've seen us walking around today.  It's only gotten worse.  Boo.  :(  Z Pack, here I come!

This is a 3-day week for us (can I get an amen?!?!), so we're using this week to assess, assess, assess in 1st grade.  My mind is fried after today.  And I still have to do fluency checks and finish up about 8 Houghton-Mifflin assessments tomorrow.  Whew.  Tonight will be an early bedtime, for sure!  Here's a view of a desk outside my room today as I was in the midst of Houghton-Mifflin checks (yes, the caffeine was a necessity!):

With the millions of assessments we do in 1st grade, I simply compiled mine into one chart showing what each child scored on each assessment.  I color-coded each assessment to show if they were high (green), in the middle (yellow), or low (red).  Then I color-coded which reading group I would put them in (Advanced = green, On-Level High = yellow, On-Level Low = orange, and Low = red).  This helps me plan my guided reading groups, as well as see an overall picture of my class.  I update it as the year goes and I gather more data.  I'm a very visual person, so the colors help!

One last thing for the night:  I have a Donor's Choose project in need of some funding!  There are only a few hours left of a special promotion they are having.  For every donation made, Donor's Choose will match the donation!  So let's say you donate $20.  Donor's Choose will match that, therefore it's like you donated $40!!!  Crazy and so amazing!  What a blessing!  I'm trying to get a new carpet for our classroom.  We have to purchase our own and mine is not meant for classrooms at all.  :(  If you would like to help, please visit this link:  http://www.donorschoose.org/mrs.kirby

BE SURE TO ENTER THE CODE "pumpkin" when you checkout so that they will match your donation!  :)  Thanks friends...kids are totally worth little things like this that seem so insignificant.  

Ok, off to do some more work on Reading Street stuff, as well as some stuff for my Reading Intervention class.  :)  Happy Mid-October!  :)

What a Sweet Day!

I've had an Ohio State student the past 6 weeks.  It's her first education placement.  Let me tell you what...I can just TELL this girl is going to be a fantastic teacher one day!  She is the sweetest!  Whitney has been SO helpful in the last few weeks.  She's helped me with assessments, helped with some of my challenging students, helped cut out loads of laminated stuff, and just been a delight to have in our room.  The kiddos absolutely loved her.  And I instantly knew that we would get along when she informed me that the season premier of Criminal Minds was a few weeks ago.  Had she not said something, I might've never known.  Thanks to her, I stayed up until 10 last night watching the latest episode.  Special friendship right there, I tell you what!  ;)

She made the most darling little goodie bags for the kids for her last day today.  She took the time to write each kid a PERSONAL note.  I mean, really!?!?!  Once again, I can just tell she'll be amazing.  Not to mention the absolutely heart-warming note she wrote me.  Thank goodness I'm not in that crying "time of the month", otherwise my desk would've been flooded with tears.  Seriously.

Here are the cute Halloween bags she made for the kids.

Time for a group hug!

After she left, one of the kids spotted her walking in the parking lot to her car...this is what happened next:

Now for the sweet gift I got...check it out!  She was telling me all about this book one day and showed it to me.  I wrote it down because it looked awesome and I REALLY wanted to read it.

So to my surprise...

I am so. pumped.  Oh yeah, and there were 2 Cheryl's cookies...I definitely already ate one.

Anyone else ever read this book?  I'm excited to dive in!  I think I need it right now with all the stress of school.  I need to be reminded of why I'm doing what I'm doing.  Some days are so hard, and I've been really struggling this year.  I feel like I'm not good enough and that I will never be good enough.  Now, with that being said, I constantly try to improve myself.  Every year I change things up and try new things.  That will never stop.  It's just not in me to settle and do the same thing day after day.  But to feel like the state or country will never tell me that I'm as good as they can get...that bothers me.  I know that probably sounds really egotistical and selfish.  I don't mean it that way at all.  If there are any other Type-A people out there, you probably understand what I'm trying to say.  You just need to be told you're doing a fantastic job.  For no other reason than to know that what we're doing is making a difference and is appreciated.  I don't want fancy lights and billboards with my name all over it.  At all.  I just want to know that I'm succeeding at what I'm doing and that the kids are getting a quality education when they're with me.  It's not about me.  It's about leaving a mark.  Make sense?

Found this on Pinterest awhile back.  It explains a lot.  :P

Eh, anyways...I just love college students.  :)  They remind you of when you first stepped in the classroom and the journey it took to get to where you are today.  Lord, may we all be reminded...

What do you love about college students and student teachers?

Good News and a Winner!

I went ahead and picked a winner tonight since tonight is the last chance you'll have to get the October Math Centers for $4.  :)  The winner is...

That means that Suzy Q is the winner!  Congrats!  I will be e-mailing the file to you as soon as I'm done with this update.  :)

In case you didn't know, my principal follows my blog.  :P  She's totally into the blogging world, which makes me happy!  What a trendy principal!  ;)  She read my blog post last night and we had a nice chat this morning when I got to work.  She suggested, in order to give us more teaching time, that we should do our intervention during 2nd recess.  Then those teachers don't have to add in my kiddos to their class AND they don't have to plan for supplemental lessons AND we get an extra half hour with our homeroom firsties to keep on teachin'!  Isn't that wonderful!?!?!  I was insanely giddy when she suggested that as a fix for our problem.  It was like a huge weight lifted off our shoulders!  And of course, my team totally went for the idea.   I mean, hello...who doesn't get excited about having ONE LESS thing to plan for and try to fit in when there's so much else to do?!?!  I truly am blessed to have a great principal that is willing to help her teachers (I'm not trying to suck up to you, Shelly...promise!  I totally mean what I say!).  :)  I feel a MILLION times better tonight.  It was so nice to have an HOUR to teach math/calendar instead of cramming it into 30 minutes.  You teachers know how it is, you can do so much more with your students and really make sure they understand something when you have more time with them!  Just amazing.

:)

Have a blessed week everyone!  It's beginning to look like the middle of autumn around here and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!  Soak it in and enjoy it!  :)

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!  :)

Fact and Fun Fridays

I have really taken a liking to math in the past year or so.  I was NOT good at math once I hit about 5th grade.  That's why I teach 1st.  ;)  Just kidding...kind of...

Every year I kind of change how I do math in my classroom.  As with everything else, so much to do, so little time!  I loved the idea of math centers and games and all of that fun stuff, but I just couldn't fit it in on a normal day.  We use Everyday Math in our district, so if you're familiar with it, you know that there's a lot, and there's not.  I have mixed feelings about EM...but that's a story for another day.  ;)

I don't like to introduce anything new on Friday.  At that point, our brains are fried and the last thing any of them can do is sit still and learn something brand new when they know the weekend starts in a matter of hours.  Plus, I assess like CRAZY on Fridays, so I need time to pull kids individually.  It's a nice little break to have a good time practicing skills in a laid-back sort of way.  :)

The idea of "Fact and Fun Friday" came into my head this summer.  I purchased Gumball Math to help my firsties with learning their math facts.  SO. PUMPED. about this program.  My kiddos already love it.  It's sooooo much more age-appropriate for them.  You should absolutely check it out.  So we do our fact practice the first part of our math block.  It doesn't take long at all.  We do a quick recap on adding and subtracting, might do some Around the World or quick fact practice together, then they take a 3-minute test to try and complete 50 problems.  That whole ordeal only takes about 5-10 minutes.

Then the kids pair up to do centers!  I have started creating my own monthly math centers that are Common Core based.  I pull the standards, come up with a quick game/activity, print, laminate, and put them in labeled drawers.  I put velcro on the back of my labels, that way I can easily change them out each month.

The first Friday we spend time going over how to play each game or what to do for each activity.  I made assessment sheets for each one to hold them accountable.  They turn them in when they're done and I do a quick check to see how they did.

Let's just say they LOVED IT.  They were really into it and had a blast.  I can't wait for Fun and Fact Friday this coming week!

If you're interested in my monthly math centers, check out my TpT store.  They are based on Kindergarten and First Grade standards, but I know that it would've worked great in my 2nd grade classroom last year, especially if you have a lower 2nd grade math class.  The September Centers are up and for sale!  I'm getting ready to start the October math centers tonight, so they should be up in the next week or so.

September Math Centers

Here are the kiddos picking out their centers.  I pull sticks to determine the order of how they get to pick.

I have GOT to start remembering my camera!  The iPhone is nice, but the quality of pics just isn't great...oh well..c'est la vie...

Off to paint our laundry room!  Enjoy the weekend, friends!  :)