Peek at my Week-Fire and a Freebie

Fire safety week is right around the corner.  We have our firetrucks scheduled to come to our school next week. So I took some time to update my fire themed math work station.   It is more than double its original size and if you have previously purchased it,  you can get your update for FREE!!!

Click on the picture to get your update or purchase for $5.00

Here is your Free emergent reader.

Have a great week!

Writer's Workshop: Trusting the parachute

This week we launched Unit 2 of writer's workshop which centers around narrative texts.  We also started making books.  Yesterday I was thinking that whoever wrote Unit 2 was an idiot! I mean Unit 1 went so smoothly...why on earth would I want to change a perfectly comfortable process in favor of making books?   Thus my title... Why jump out of a perfectly good airplane?  It was not broken... why fix it?

Making books is messy business.  I start to hyperventilate when I can no longer dictate the minutia of writers workshop.   It makes me want to breath into a bag.   But you know what?  It is not about me.   It is really about moving the students forward.

I won't go into the benefits of student's making books versus a page a day. We did that in great detail this summer with our book study. If you missed it, you can read about it here.

Here is one page I came across today during a writing conference. This was from one of my sweet babies who had trouble holding the pencil at the beginning of the year.  He could not write his name.  At first glance, you would think this writing lacks meaning.

However, when I sat down to confer with him, this is what I found out.

I LOVE his dad's expression!!!

Wow!   This little guy worked on this for 3 days.   He sustained his focus over time.  He knows that a book's subject is connected in meaning. He also knows that books contain words made up of letters. Since he has no letter/sound knowledge,  I was thrilled that he wrote a string of letters.

Confession:   We outlined the conferring note book in Unit 2, but I started it around week 2 of school.

Here is what mine looks like.

I added names to the tabs

I have my conferring schedule on the inside cover

Deanna and I are working hard on Unit 3 which will focus on informational (procedural) texts. 

If you are following along with our Writing Through the Year units, we would love to hear how it is going for you!

Peek at My Week: Apples and 5 Senses-Free Stuff Too!

Next week will be the true test!   I will be starting my small groups.  It takes a lot of preparation to get these going... but it is a good thing I know a few smart people to get my resources from.

First... I literally did a little happy-clap-hop move when I saw this one.  I am going to start this right away for a few of my sweeties!   Like many of you, I have some of my kiddos who know all of their letters and some of my cuties who do not know any.   Small group is a perfect way to service both of these groups! I will also introduce my kiddos to my sequence game.

Click on the image to find the source

 My math groups will be using teacher-lead activities from this resource.

Click on the image to find the source

Sara Cooley has the cutest Apple Tasting kit EVER!    Oh! My! Word! She made her own adorable clip art!   We will have a blast with this activity!

click on the image to find the source

Tammy At Live, Laugh, Love Kindergarten has a cute apple unit too!

Here is another emergent reader FREEBIE... nothing fancy!

I also just added this item.  I will teach it in small group this week as well. This will be great for my higher group who already know their letters and I want to strengthen their consonant sound identification.

I will leave it at a discounted rate for this weekend only.  Click on the picture to find  this item.

Here is how next week will look in my room!

Click on the picture to grab these plans with source links

Click on the picture to grab these plans with source links

Have a great week!

A week in photos!

This will be a post of mostly photos!

We celebrated! 

We finished Reader's Workshop Unit 1

I like books about dogs.

I like books about dogs.

Um...more dogs!  Ha!  There really were other books subjects, I promise.

We published our writing as we finished out our first unit of Writer's Workshop.

We placed our published pieces along the wall.

 I introduced another option at the overhead station. They! Loved! It!

Station fun.   We kicked it up a bit!

 We used the Literacy Station Task Cards through out the day.  

Using the "I Can..." Cards during Reader's workshop while we looked for capital letters.

Poetry Station

Some pocket chart options.

We had a great week!

Behavior Management Linky Party

I love Rachelle and Natalie over at What the Teacher Wants! They have been reading my mind!   

Spooky! Really!  Let me tell you about it how it goes!

First of all... this is my behavior system.  I blogged about it here.

Essentially everyone starts the day as "Ready to Learn" but they can move up to blue for stellar behavior or kindness.  They can also move down... so sad.

Yesterday I whipped these "Blue Day" Tickets up for my class.   Basically, I hand out tickets to my kiddos who get a blue day.  They save them up and when they get 5, they take a dive into the treasure chest... 

Cue the angels to sing!

Click on the picture to grab a copy for yourself!

As I was driving to school, I was thinking about the excitement these little blue tickets would cause, when I heard this report on NPR (yes... I am a nerd)!

It is about how teacher expectations influence student learning... VERY interesting!!!

Click on the picture to hear this report... fascinating!

After hearing this report, it reminded me to reset my expectations, refocus on the positive, and recognize the brilliance within each of my sweeties (even my stinkers).

Well, as I expected, my kiddos LOVED the blue ticket idea.  

Need some ideas around behavior management?   

Click below for some inspiration!!!

Peek at my Week-Apples, Updates, and FREEBIES!

Shut the front door!  I have these posted on Saturday... It only took me 4 weeks to get these posted on a Saturday.   

I spent this morning updating my Apples Math Work Station Unit! It is now more than twice the size!   If you have already purchased this unit, you can grab the update at no extra charge!   Just go to "My Purchases" at TpT!

 I added the Common Core Standards for each activity.  This will last you at LEAST 2 weeks... perhaps even longer!  

I have made some more emergent readers. This week we are working on "like" and "play" so I made an interactive reader for these two words. It is not fancy... but it is FREE!

click on the image to grab your freebie!

I also made an emergent reader for math.

Click on the image to grab your freebie!

(yes... I am trying to help fill up their nightly book bags with emergent readers).

Here are some adorable books from Danielle Kroger!   You can find them on TpT!

Click on the image to go to her store!

Here are my lesson plans.  I am actually ready to start small groups, but I may hold off for another week.  I am currently helping another classroom get their stations started, so I won't actually be in my room for the first few days of this week during stations time.

Click on the image to grab the plans with hyperlinks.

Click on the image to grab the plans with hyperlinks.

 I am excited that we will be finishing Unit 1 of Reader's Workshop and Unit 1 of Writer's Workshop.   Here are the next two units I will follow starting next week!

That's it folks!!! Have a GREAT week!