Currently



Here's a template I filled in from a cool site called http://ohboy3rdgrade.blogspot.com/

                    

New Year's Resolution

Well, other than my son and I being sick for the last two days I've had a very relaxing break! (caught up on bunches of sleep and figured I really didn't need to bake all those cookies after all!) When I finally woke up out of my haze my hubby had all the presents wrapped and stockings filled. What a wonderful present for me!

 My New Year's Resolution as far as school goes is to finally make Calendar Time a consistent part of my daily routine.

I found these freebies that I love, love, love at Confessions of a Homeschooler and I now feel inspired to start 2012 with a fun calendar time! 

Calendartime2

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Fountas and PInnell for Kindergarten

Presentation1

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I had so much fun making all the lessons for the first grade Fountas and Pinnell Phonics program that I decided to make them for my Kindergarten pals. This is one of the slides from one of the 64 Smartboard lessons I made for the Kindergarten Fountas and Pinnell Program.


You can get this lesson for free HERE on TPT.


 If you would like to check out my 64 lesson F and P pack for Kinders you can see it HERE 
The first grade pack is HERE



Classroom Tour

 





This is the wall by the back door and the bathroom. I use plastic pencil boxes to separate different phonics chips and cards. I also like to keep scissors and glue out of reach unless they need it.





These magazine holders have saved my sanity. Whenever I have something I don't have time to file (they should teach paper management in college) I throw it into it's section (magazine holder). Then when I finally have a minute(LOL) I can grab one of the holders and file/trash what's inside.

 



 



Behavior Board. The cloud is for extra good days!

This is the back counter. I love that I have so many built in cabinets at our wonderful new school! I have drawers to hold papers that I need the most often. (I think I am going to put a rectangle of scrapbooking paper on the inside of each drawer, I LOVE PINTEREST!) And I keep their math tubs on top- filled with the manipulatives needed for the "jobs" the groups have to do that day.

These are small group task card games. I have them organized by skill. There are five groups in my classroom 

(4 multileved groups and 1 group with my SuperHighFlyers that are really on a 2nd grade level) 
                              

Green=Math

Orange=SightWords     fluency, syllables, making sentences

 Blue=Phonics       Fountas and Pinnell games mostly

Pink=ComprehensionCause/Effect,Fact/Opinion,Classifying

White=Grammar-Parts-of-Speech,Punctuation, Singular/Plural

Each group does all the reading centers that have the same letter each day.

Math is organized by RIT band since I have such a mixed ability group in math this year.
I have 4 boxes for each skill labeled A, B, C, D. My four groups rotate through all colors with their letter for that day.

My HighFlyer Group (aka group 5) practices higher level skills that are kept in bags in the black crate beside the boxes. These 4 kids partner up to complete their tasks because I have found that the more advanced the students are the more "discussions" (arguements) arise. Can anyone say type A?

They also complete powerpoints or help other students with skills they are working on. (Teaching things to others helps kids learn something more deeply)


Groups have a "Group Leader" each day that rotates. (see chart below) That person goes first and solves any disputes (See my post about behavior management for my "trick".

They take turns in the same order each day always starting with the group leader. These games save my life. If I ever have a 10 minute chunk of time for some reason I can just have groups go to their rug (they meet in the same place) and play the games from a certain color box. I also use it for early finisher work, and when we first come in from lunch or specials ( so I can to whatever teacher"y" thing I have to do)

This is my chart that holds my spelling words, math group cards are the small green cards, and my ELA small groups are the white cards. The tiger paws (Go Clemson!) have letters on them that I rotate down each day. The group completes the games inside the boxes with the corresponding letter that day.

Thanks for checking out my room!

Behavior Management

Well towards the middle of the year I always feel like my students start acting more like brothers and sisters than classmates. Tattling is always such a tedious thing to deal with, especially when it is about every little thing.

 To help with this I use a very simple strategy from the very beginning of the year... I have them say "Please follow directions" to the student who is not behaving appropriately. If the rule breaker continues THEN they can come and let me know. 

 The beauty of it is if the rule breaker stops after being reminded IT ENDS THERE without me having to step in at all. It really has changed my class. It empowers students to solve their own problems in a quick and respectful way. ( I do let them know if a person is doing something that could be harmful to themselves or others that they should tell me immediately.)

 I think it is pretty awesome to hear my "rule followers" reminding the others nicely and to see the ones that need reminding starting to follow suit more often.

                           

Arrival - PALS time

I try to get my kids on task right when they get in the door in the morning.

As soon as they unpack their homework I pair them up quickly with another student who has also just come in and they complete an oral phonics/fluency activity called PALS. I was trained on this by my district last year and I love it. I kind of tweaked it to fit my style but I really have seen results!

It basically requires one student to be the "pointer" and the other to be the "reader" once they have completed both sides they switch roles.

 I have student numbers in my classroom and I alternate between "higher number" days and "lower number" days so they figure out whose student number is higher/lower and that is who points first.

I walk around and monitor this for correct behavior (on task, sitting correctly etc.) alot at the beginning of the year, so hopefully by now I don't have to address so many behaviors. 

When partners finish reading they either move to independent reading/AR (higher readers) or read with me at the back table(strugglers).

You can check out the PALs website by clicking  HERE

DQ's

The second half of first grade is definitely my favorite:) I love seeing all the things they can do now and how independent they've become.

One of the things I add to my partner reading portion of my Reading Workshop are "Door Questions" (I call them that because every year I have the questions hanging on the bathroom door.)

After the partners finish reading their book they go to the door and talk about each question. I start with one question and gradually add one at a time.

 I sit nearby and act like I'm doing something else:) and listen and take notes about any strengths or difficulties.

I also use these same questions as jumping off points during my shared reading lessons with the whole group and my guided reading groups. I really am amazed at the student's abiltiy to read these questions and the higher level thinking and sense of community created between partners.

Grinch Word Problems Freebie

               

Here's a fun Smartboard activity to do with your kids. I took it a step further and introduced multiplication with this. To get this free at TPT click HERE .

Holiday Frenzy!

Well four more days and it is finally time to get some rest. I just finished my parent gifts that I do every year...If you live near palmetto trees and nice landscaping guys they are an inexpensive way to give a pretty neat gift.