Becoming the Greater or Less Than Symbol!

Hi friends! Happy Presidents' Day Weekend!
For those of you who are new to this blog, I love integrating the Arts into my curriculum. I have been so fortunate to have had many trainings in integrating Dance, Drama, Visual Arts and Music with content. Using the Arts is so engaging for the students and helps learning "stick".

Last week, I gave a math test to assess my students before conferences.  Here's a look at the test. I included  the many different word problems we have been learning that are included in the Common Core.

 If you're interested in the test, let me know. It gave me great information about my students. However, I was shocked that my firsties had forgotten how to use the greater or less than symbols. :(

 Last weekend I came up with an idea to help them.Don't you love a teacher's brain?All of a sudden, this idea just popped into my head? I wanted to come up with a lesson that would be engaging and allow them to be up and moving so why not make them be the symbols!
I decided to give 2/3 of my class a number card between 20-100 and the other third became the greater or less than symbol.
I played music and the students danced around the room to the music. Once the music stopped, the students had to get into groups of three - 2 numbers and a symbol. After each group assembled, I called out " compare". At this cue, students put themselves into a number sentence and the greater or less than symbol would have to figure out which way to point. We then read the number sentences around the room.

The kids then switched jobs and we did it all over again!!!! So fun!

 The next day we played this dice roll game with 20 sided dice in partners to practice.

Unlovable- Valentine's Book and Written Response freebie!

Hi friends! I have a quick Valentine's book and activity to share. I always read the book
Unlovable by Dan Yaccarino.

It's an adorable book about a pug who is called "ugly" by the other pets in the house. He has no real friends and feels "unlovable". One day, a new dog moves in next door and rather than admitting to his new friend what kind of dog he really is, he tells him he is a retriever. They become the best of friends but soon the fence that separates then begins to break. The pug is so afraid that if his new friend sees his face he'll stop being his friend. However, when the fence finally gives way and the two come face to face, they realize they had more in common than they could have ever imagined. They find out they are both pugs and they both finally feel loved!



After reading, we talk about times when we feel loved. Here is a writing response paper for your students to use if you can find this book.

I have P/T conferences this week with two 10:00 early release days so we will be busy, busy!! I hope you have wonderful week!

I linked up with Laura Candler's Teaching Resources. Go check out the other freebies on her site!

Great Free Reading Website to Share!

Hi everyone!  Today is the last day of my giveaway. I will be emailing the winner soon! Yay! Good luck to you all!!

I wanted to share a couple random things today. Here's the agenda:

Snowman Change Unknown Word Problems
Surveys and Graphing
A new awesome reading website!

Snowman Change Unknown Word Problems
Have you seen these adorable snowmen on Pinterest?

Source: lh6.ggpht.com via Erin on Pinterest

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I used this idea for the snowmen but we wrote change unknown problems instead. They turned out so cute! It was also great practice solving missing part equations.

Surveys and Graphing

We have been working on collecting data and organizing our data into graphs. We have also been analyzing that data by writing comparative sentences ( _ more than or _ less than) and making conclusions as to why certain categories were picked most. I begin this unit with these surveys I got from Lakeshore. I love them!

Don't worry... I helped those sweeties who were graphing from the top!

Now, we have been making our own tally charts and graphs. They love getting up and asking others their questions! On the tally chart below, everyone had the question, "what is your favorite pet?". Then they got to pick their choices from a page of pets, cut them out and glue them onto their tally chart.


Awesome Reading site

And, last but not least I was shown this website yesterday. I have been looking for more decodable passages that I could print so students could read and highlight the phonics skill we are working on. This website has all that and more!!

Ok, that's all for today. Have a great weekend!!!

Erin

Howdy Neighbor! Doubles + 1 dance!

Hi everyone!!!
 I have something so fun to share with you. I wanted a better video but this will have to do. I've tried to get someone in to video this lesson and it isn't working out. Due to the fact I'm videoing myself, it's hard to see the whole room and I had to use my CD player that skips rather than my iphone. I was bummed you can't play music and video. I need to write Apple...
Anyway...

Here's the fun, super simple dance to teach your students!

Warning: you will want to try this immediately!

I have been teaching the Doubles + 1 strategy for a few years now but noticed many students could use the strategy in isolation but wouldn't apply it on a worksheet of mixed facts. I thought the reason could be that students weren't able to find the "neighbor" ( numbers next to each other in sequence: 2and 3,3 and 4,4 and 5,etc.) So, my arts team and I created this quick dance to help with this concept.

1. Students get a number necklace to wear ( 1-9).
2. They dance to the square dancing music while its on.
3. When the music stops, they get back to back with a "neighbor" to their number.
4. The teacher says, " Howdy, Neighbor!" The students bow to their neighbor and repeat, " Howdy, Neighbor!"
5. Do-si-do for 8 counts
6. Solve their answer using the doubles +1 strategy.
7. Stand silent back to back when they have their answer.
8. The teacher calls on each partnership to make sure the problem has been solved correctly.
9. Switch numbers with the partners next to them and dance again!


Watch the video to see it in action. Sorry again that the music is skipping because I couldn't play it on my iphone and that I didn't get the whole dance because my phone died! If I get a better video, I'll replace this one!

Dont't forget to enter my big giveaway! You still have one more day!

100 Follower Giveaway Right Here!!! 45 products!

Hi Everyone! I am so excited to have finally hit 100 followers! 
( Scroll down for the 45 product giveaway!)
This journey over the last 10  months has been so rewarding. I didn't really agressively promote my blog, I found it really difficult to post at the beginning of school and keeping up with a blog is so much harder than it seems; I never seem to take pictures of what I need and finding the time to dedicate to a quality post is sometimes impossible. However, I have learned so much from all the other teachers that share themselves on their own blogs and blogging has made me even more reflective than ever.  I am so glad I started this little blog!

I appreciate all of you who read my posts and I hope I can share more and more in the future with you! But today, you'll have to settle for a giveaway!!

I really want to say thank you to Katie King ( Queen of the First Grade Jungle), Reagan Tunstall(Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits), Lisa Mattes ( Growing Firsties), Molly ( Shining and Sparkling in First Grade) and Dana Lester ( Fun in 1st Grade)who graciously donated their products to the giveaway. Please check these items out!

I also want to thank all the teachers on TPT who donated items! I was overwhelmed by the response!
There are over 45 items that will be given away. I created three different giveaways so there'd be more winners!!!
Giveaway 1- 15 Thematic Packs

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Giveaway 2- 20 Literacy Packs

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway 3 - 10 Math Packs

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Enter now! The giveaway will run until Monday!!!!

I've leveled my students. What next?

Have you ever leveled your students, progress monitored or looked at your DIBELS scores and thought, "Okay, what now?"

A few years ago, I really began to think about how I teach reading and what assessments I could use to better inform my instruction. I used Running Records to level my students but I didn't have a strong gasp on where to go next instructionally. I needed something that would measure what skills my students were applying when reading decodable texts. I wanted to know what skills I needed to explicitly reinforce. It's hard to tell that from a leveled text. I soon developed these Phonics Reading Assessments. ( I'm not sure if that's a good name for them or not. I don't think it gives a good idea of what they are. Any suggestions?)

These tests have transformed the way I teach reading. Now I can make sure my instruction matches needs and I can pull texts that reinforce the skills the students need. I see great growth in a short time. Out of 28 students this year, I had over 10 who couldn't even read short vowel words in August. Now I have 25 who are at grade level or above. I really think the growth is from providing the right instruction at the right time. These assessments not only help you plan for your strugglers but challenge your high reader as well.

There are 4 assessments and the best part is that each assessment breaks down the phonetic components so you can see the areas to work on next.  The students just read the sentences on a student copy while you follow along just like a Running Record. After the student is finished, you can tally errors and begin to really analyze the student's mistakes. Here are the assessments:

The short vowel assessment is more basic because it tests the 5 short vowels and 3-4 phoneme words. This assessment will show you if a student is missing a particular vowel sound, not blending properly or unable to blend more than 3 phonemes.

Once students can read short vowels fluently, you can give the short vowel blends assessment. This test includes every beginning and ending blend, beginning digraphs and 4- 5 phoneme words. This assessment gives so much information! You will also be able to analyze short vowel errors because many times I've seen students who begin making short vowel errors once they start decoding 5 phoneme words.

The third assessment focuses on long vowels,  r- controlled vowels and common dipthongs.  Due to an increase in text complexity at this level, students are also assessed on their ability to decode words with inflectional endings, compound words and multisyllabic words.








 
The last assessment looks at a student's ability to apply more advanced phonetic skills. Less commonly used dipthongs, digraphs, long vowel patterns, soft "c" and "g" and inflectional endings are among the skills tested.






If you're interested in these assessments, click here. I think they could really help;especially if you find yourself asking, "what next?"

Building Comprehension with Mental Images- Free Unit!

Hi Friends!
 I wanted to share a mental image unit we worked on this week that is based on the book Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller. If you've never read this book, you must! It's full of ideas and books that will help your students think and write after reading to build comprehension. This unit was developed using ideas and texts from this book.
 I have the unit plans, poems and printables for you. I haven't "cutesified" these yet but they do the job. Keep reading to find them!

Lesson 1- Our Mental Images are Different!
We start the unit by listening to a few poems. We try to figure out what they are about using the mental images created in our mind from the words in the text.

Then we make a mental image of our dream birthday cake. I pass out a post-it note to each child and they draw their mental image. We make this anchor chart for the unit. It was made quickly, don't judge. :)

 I refer back to this chart throughout the unit to explain that since we all have different mental images, authors must use very specific words to help the reader create their mental image.

Lesson 2-
 I read the book the Quiet Place without showing the pictures and have students use text clues to create mental images. They then try to infer the setting of each page.

The Best Part of this lesson: The last quiet place in the book is the place you find when you read books and create mental images to take you to far away places. Love it!!!

Lesson 3-Using Text to Support your Mental Image
 I read Miss Nelson is Back without showing the kids the Viola Swamp illustrations.We discuss clues from the text that can help us draw our image. I then have them draw their mental image of the mean substitute before showing them the picture.  The suspense drives them crazy!











Lesson 4- Mental Image Can Change While Reading

I use the Napping House to show students that your mental image can change as you read and gain more information from the text. I read the whole book without showing the illustrations and stop 4 times to let the students draw their mental image each time.




Lesson 5- Talking with Others Can Change Your Thinking

I also read the Salamander Room without showing the illustrations. I have students try to add as many details of the room as they can based on the text they hear. I stop between each page so they have time to draw. After their first drawing, we talk about how adults use Book Clubs to share with each other and the conversations can lead to a better understanding of the book. I then ask the students to confer with a partner to see if there were any details they forgot to add to their mental image. If they missed a few details, they draw them in the box on the right side of the paper.

Lesson 6- Reading Text and Drawing a Mental Image

For this lesson, I help the students read 5 different poems. The students then choose the poem that gave them the best mental image and they draw their image. 

Click Here if you would like to download the unit for free. If you can use it, let me know!!!

*** Disclaimer**Although the Common Core doesn't explicitly address mental images, we need to teach children to identify sensory language in text( 1.RL.4). These lessons give my students the experience listening to words with great language and description before we begin to really dig deep into text to identify and write with sensory language. It also is so important to teach children this skill as they prepare to read chapter books that do not include picture supports.

I linked up with Friday Flashback since this was my comprehension focus this past week. Go check out the other bloggers' weeks!