Keeping up with Book Boxes- a management tip

This system works so well! Each group has a specific day of the week they are allowed to change books. While everyone else is reading to self, the group of the day is allowed to trade books in the library. The empty squares next to each group is where I write the level they can choose from. It's so simple. It takes a little bit of training, but then book trades run themselves.This leaves me open to conference with other students. Not sure if this is a mind blowing tip, but when I had teachers come observe last year, this is what they raved about so I thought I'd share the idea. :)

Bear-y Common Core Updated with Bear-y Good Freebies!

Wow! Two posts in one week from me. I am on a roll! :)
We start school in exactly two weeks! Yikes! Since we start on a Wednesday, I like to have the first 3 days filled with fun activities. Last year we changed our theme to bears and it was so fun! The kids loved the unit, so we are sticking with it!

Here are some of the activities we used.
First, I projected the Bears non-fiction reader and we read it as a class.

We read it one more time and had to decide on our favorite bear and why. I let students know they had to pick a bear from the text because of something they heard or saw in the text. In other words, "because it's soooo cute!" was not an acceptable answer. Then, the kids looked around the room to find the bear that was their favorite. They moved to the corner with their bear and when signaled they buddied up with a partner. When signaled again, they told their partner the reason they chose the bear.
Last year, this was pretty much an experiment. Could first graders give a text based reason within the fort three days of school? And guess what? They could!

Next, the students completed this opinion writing activity. Click the pic for this freebie!

We did lots of other fun filled math activities too.
-Making 5 with Teddy Grahams. Click for freebie!

-Gummy Bear Sorting/ Graphing

- Bring a Teddy day. We sorted our bears, measured our bears, described our bears..

If you're thinking about trying this unit out but study bears later in the year. You're in luck! I just added 4 new student readers for each bear and a venn diagram for compare/contrast. It would be a perfect mini student directed research project. Check out the unit on my TPT shop!

Read Like a Detective

Hello, Friends!
I have been MIA on this blog for quite awhile now, but I'm back!

For some reason last year threw me for a loop. I started the year with thirty firsties and had to split my class up in January because we added a teacher. It was so hard! I really hope I don't ever have to do that again.

I wanted to share something I worked on this summer after working on curriculum for my district in June. We started to design assessments for our Common Core Frameworks and are modeling them close to PARCC (a Common Core assessment consortium). We also reviewed and helped re-vamp the AZAC which is a Arizona reading comprehension test starting in 2nd grade. As a first grade teacher, reading the 2nd grade tests made me realize my students need to be exposed to these types of multiple choice text-based evidence questions in first grade. We can work through the questions together in whole group and small groups to better prepare them for 2nd grade when they need to be able to answer them independently.

Sooo... this summer, I started writing original passages to use when teaching the RL and RI standards. I am so excited to use these. The hardest part about teaching Common Core for me is finding passages that fit my needs at the primary level. I use Read Works all the time but they don't have skill specific passages for Kinder or First Grade. These are going to save me so much time next year!

These 50 passages are bundled or you can buy them separately if you only want a specific standard. The standards addressed in these passages include: RL.2,RL.3,RI.2,RI.4,RI.8,RI.9.

Here is what is included in the bundle:

-10 passages that focus on RL.2& RI.2 

Students will practice retelling text with key details. There are 5 literary texts and 5 informative/explanatory texts including a how-to and a recipe.

-10 paired passages that focus on RI.9 
Students will find similarities and differences between two texts on the same topic.

-10 passages that focus on RL.3 

These passages will allow teachers to teach students to describe characters, setting and events. These passages also include developed characters that will allow students to describe a character’s traits and justify with evidence from the text. Most primary texts do not have well developed characters so teaching this skill is difficult unless done during a read aloud. Central message is also reinforced in these passages.

-10 Differentiated Opinion Passages that focus on RI.8 20 passages total! 

The best part is that I have included 2 levels of opinion pieces with/ without details/explanations for each support. This will allow for differentiation as well as the opportunity to use the passages as a writing lesson for students who are ready to add details/explanations to their supports. In order to write opinion pieces well, students need to have read many opinion pieces and studied the structure of this type of writing. 

If you're interested in these passages, click here to go to my TPT site.

Need help, please!! There's a freebie if you do!

So... I'm sure I don't have any readers anymore because I never post but one of my many resolutions is to get back to blogging. I think it's just been a crazy year. My teammate and I had 30 kiddos all semester and finally got word we were getting another teacher. We spent those last 5 crazy days with no prep because we had interviews for our new teammate. We found someone but now I'm just sad to lose some of my students.:( I know it will be better for all of us in the long run because I can't meet all the needs of that many students. The new teacher was supposed to start the Monday we go back but now they aren't sure when her paperwork will all clear. The students don't know and I'm not sure the best way to approach the issue with them. Does anyone have experience with this? What worked or didn't work well with your class? Here's a simple freebie I created today to practice comparing sentences. I need to practice this skill before we really dig into data analysis and comparison word problems. Just click here to grab a copy!

Also, does anyone know why I can't make blogposts in "compose" anymore and only html? Please help! :)

Squanto, the Pilgrim's Best Friend Freebies!

As we all gear up for the next few weeks of Thanksgiving activities, I wanted to share these freebies I made. My teammate and I always have a Pilgrim and Indian switch days where we each teach a different lesson about these historical groups. I always teach about Squanto and how he taught the pilgrims to plant corn. I read a story and then we make a tissue paper corn craft.

I wanted something more rigorous (buzz word!)so I created a paper for a how-to writing. The students can write the steps that Squanto taught to the Pilgrims. I also made a fill in the blank version for Kindergarten.

Then I ran across this blog called the Teacher's Chatterbox.
She had the cutest idea to make a Squanto Corn Planting snack out of Oreos, Swedish Fish and Candy Corn.

I just made a recipe for students to follow and a how to writing paper. If you want any of these freebies, just click the picture!

I also have a great unit about the Pilgrims and Wampanoag that is very rigorous. Students read a text (included) that compares and contrasts Pilgrims and the Wampanoag and then answer text dependent questions. After they compare and contrast the two groups, they write an opinion piece in which they choose if they would have rather been a Pilgrim or Wampanoag child in the 1600's and why based on evidence from the text. Click to check it out on TPT!

For a Turkey Measurement Freebie, click here!

Story Elements Reader's Theatre Freebie!

I have an awesome freebie for you today! I wrote a short Reader's Theater about story elements. This really helps my students with the vocabulary of story elements and serves as an anchor all year.

I seriously can ask my students in May, "class, what's a solution?" and everyone answers "how they fix the problem!" with some hammering to follow. :)

Click here to download the file from Google Drive.

This week,we will be working on diving deeper into the Story Elements to "describe" the characters, setting, problem and solution.

Check back soon (or follow me!) for a great close reading lesson that focuses on describing characters! 

Meanwhile, enjoy this short video of my kiddos performing their reader's theater. This performance was in our classroom 5 min before the bell on Friday; so, it's a little rougher than the performances we took on the road earlier that day. :)

First Month Recap

Hi, friends!

I am really not good at balancing teaching, a family and blogging but I have the best intentions... Really, I do!

This past month has been great with my new superstars! I wanted to share a few of the highlights in case you just started this past week.

 Here's my son and I on the 1st day.

 We started the school year by celebrating our uniqueness! We sang a super cute poem and drew a self portrait:

 (Tune of Frere Jacques) 

" I am special!

 I am special!

Yes, I am!

Yes, I am!

There is no one like me.

There is no one like me.

I am unique!

I am unique!

We read the Colors of Us and talked about skin color uniqueness. Then we mixed paints to find our skin color and paint our "faces". 

We also completed an awesome activity from Stephanie's Back to School Bash unit. First, we read a book called Everyone is Smart ( it's included in the unit!) and then thought about how we are all smart in different ways ( multiple intelligences). The students then wrote their names on post-it notes and chose the ways in which they are smart. 

We also made our All About Me books!

If you want more activities to celebrate uniqueness. Check out my back to school unit on TPT.

 We will be moving on to our 5 Senses and, of course, apples at the end of the month. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Apple-Activities-Common-Core-330785

Have a great week!!