Managing and Setting Reading Goals

  As I finish-up my last week of track-off I've decided that it's time to get my mind back into the classroom. Before we tracked-off I took some pictures of how my first grade kiddos have been keeping track of their reading goals. We started at the beginning of September by creating our goals. After conferring with each one, many of my first graders already knew what area they thought they needed to work towards.Some of my other kiddos needed a little more support in choosing their goal which we based off of small group and intervention data. We utilize several parts of the Daily 5 and I revamped the CAFE wall to meet the needs of my first graders. 

Here is a look at our "CAFE" wall. The skills that my kiddos are currently working towards are listed below each of the headers Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Extend Vocabulary.

After conferring with each of my kiddos to choose their reading goals they each wrote their name on a small sticky note and "stuck" it to their new reading goal.

I wanted to create an easy way to record and manage the activities that my kiddos are working on in small groups and one-on-one conferring to meet their reading goal. I also wanted something that was easy to share with interventionists, parents during conferences, and easy for my kiddos to use. Here is a peek into what we have been using the past month in our classroom. 

You can grab this reading goals management tool in my store now. Click on the image below to view more or to purchase. 

Christmas in July: Day 2

For the next 24 hours you can grab my Fry fluency games on sale in my store. Click on the image below to be taken to my store.

Christmas in July: Day 1

 Happy Sunday funday! It's hard to believe that I'm getting ready to start my fourth week of school. I will post about my new first grade classroom soon. Many of you are getting prepped to begin a new year and I'm here to help with my Christmas in July sale. Each day this week I will offer a "gift". For the next 24 hours my math journal bundles will be on sale.

Click on the pictures below to be taken to my store. 

Math Journal for the Year! Bundles

   I have FINALLY finished up all of my monthly math journals and word problem journals for August-May. Each journal page is aligned to a 2nd grade Common Core standard, but I also use these journals for my higher 1st grade kiddos and struggling 3rd grade kiddos. These journals are NO PREP...just print, cut in half, and staple! I save even more paper when I copy the journals front to back. They are the size of a half page of paper when assembled so they can easily be stored in a math folder, notebook, plastic tote, etc. I know most of you are not even thinking about the next school year yet, but these would be perfect to print now before the August rush in the copy room. You can purchase each journal separate or save over 30% with buying the year bundle. Grab the bundles below by clicking on the images to be taken to my store.

Teacher Appreciation Sale

  I hope your kiddos are extra sweet and special today. There are not enough days in the year to celebrate teachers and all the amazing work they do with each and every kiddo in their classroom so THANK YOU! To help celebrate my entire TPT store is on sale for 28% off! Below is a peek at some key products I will be utilizing for my kiddos to make it to the end of the year. Click on any of the images to be taken to that product in my store.

   My kiddos LOVE close reading. These nonfiction stories include vibrant photographs, vocabulary cards for matching games, comprehension questions to cite text evidence, true/false sort, and more. 

   These literacy and math centers are a perfect end of year review of key skills and allow kiddos to complete in partners or independently. Each center includes a recording sheet for accountability or use for assessment. 

   My kiddos LOVE our Q it Up! listening center stories. You print once, download a free QR Code reader on your iPads and kiddos are listening to stories. There are over 150 stories with 13 different themes of stories. 

   These math journals are perfect for my high flying firsties, second graders, and struggling third graders. We use them as morning work and then review the answers during our math block. No long prep is involved...just print, cut in half, and staple. 

   My struggling kinders are using the activities in this pack to help push their independent decoding skills. The activities are highly engaging and can be completed in small groups, centers, or as assessments. 

   What's more fun than using plastic worms or gummy worms to help build number sense up to ten? These activities will help your kiddos compose and decompose numbers up to ten by manipulating, building, and using puzzles. 

Thank you for everything you do. Click on the image below to be taken directly to my TPT store. 

Digging Deeper to Make Ten

   I don't know about you, but I am so READY for summer. We are getting ready for D-track to go on break next week which means I am so much closer to my summer break.

   Prepping for my kinder intervention kiddos the next two weeks I'm needing some activities to keep the munchkins engaged as well as allowing them to dig deeper into their number sense skills which are lacking. With my last group of kinder kiddos we worked on composing and decomposing numbers up to 10. We used gummy worms and plastic worms in pails with shovels to add some excitement. Oh, boy! Everything just seems to click when you add some props and food of course. My assistant principal was actually in our room for an observation during our Squirmy Wormy number bond activity and she was amazed how engaged the kiddos were from start to finish. 

   I finally put all of the materials together in a pack to create four activities to help your kiddos practice their number sense skills up to 10. They can be used in small groups, in centers, or as RTI intervention. Each contains a teacher direction page, student "I Can" visual posters, recording sheets, and game pieces. Games include...

*Wormy Sorts: Making two groups of objects to equal a number. Play three ways with number tiles (included), a dice, or dry erase marker.
*Slimy Number Bonds: Use enclosed number bond mats and manipulative to make number bonds, Four types of recording sheets are also included for extra practice, homework, or assessment.
*Making Ten Frames: Use picture cards as a Memory game. Two recording sheets are provided.
*Draw it, Build it, Solve it: Kiddos can make number books that allow for three activities per page. They count pictures of worms to see how many more are needed to make ten, color in a ten frame, and complete an equation.

Here is a peek at my kinder kiddos at work with the sorting mats and number bonds. 

   Using gummy worms as manipulative are always a fun way to keep kiddos motivated to show what they know. Plus, we get to eat our math tools at the end!!! Signage is provided in the pack to label cups, buckets, pails, or whatever you have laying around the classroom to hold your manipulative. 

 Recording our findings on one of the four number bonds recording sheets provided in the pack. 

Use the sorting mats with or without the recording sheets.

Click on the image below to grab this Squirmy Wormy pack for your kiddos. 

Animal Mania! Nonfiction Close Reads

  After many requests I have bundled just my nonfiction animal close read texts and activities together from my Warming Up to Winter! unit. I don't know about you, but my kiddos LOVE close reading nonfiction stories. My intervention kiddos already struggle with vocabulary, background knowledge, and comprehension before they come into our off-track session. Close reads allow my kiddos to focus on one short text  and "dig dipper" into it.

   Included in Animal Mania! {14 Close Reading Texts & Activities} are articles about moles, hedgehogs, rabbits, owls, badgers, fox, bear, mouse, pig, horse, hen, geese, cats, and dogs. Each article contains simple text with content specific vocabulary and vibrant photographs. Activities for each nonfiction article also includes vocabulary cards with the word, meaning, and visual representation, note taking recording sheet, comprehension text evidence response sheet, and true/false sort. Here is a peek at the close reading activities.

Nonfiction text with real photographs and fact boxes. 

Large vocabulary cards: Laminate and cut the vocabulary word, picture, and meaning apart. Place in pocket chart for reference or as a sorting game in a center. 

After reading the text kiddos can record their new knowledge on the animal note taking recording sheets. 

Kiddos will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the text by referring back to the article to find the evidence to support their answer. 

Use these true/false sorts as an assessment or as a center to demonstrate if students really understood what they read. Differentiate by place with the animal article for kiddos who may need more support or alone without the article for your high flyers. 

   You can grab Animal Mania! {14 Nonfiction Close Reads & Activities} by clicking on the image below. Happy reading!

All About Insects

   Is it finally starting to get warmer in your backyard? Springtime in Colorado is a bit like riding a roller coaster. We enjoy highs of 70 degrees and then the next day it can snow and be in the 30's. As much as I love Colorado these spring ups and downs really play with your allergies. Plus its time for the Bug Man to come out and spray for those pesky creatures that start to come out of the woodwork! Ewww bugs...just in time to begin learning about insects in the classroom!

   Over the next couple of weeks my intervention kiddos will be working on everything BUGS! I love learning abut insects, just not cohabiting with them. I just finished my newest iPad QR Code Listening Center Books that we will be utilizing during center time. Click on the image below to download from my store.

   We will also be using my Ant Informational Writing unit as well. You can click on the image below to download from my store too.

    And I am finishing up my newest unit Squirmy Wormy:Digging Deeper to Make Ten. I'm hoping to have it finished and posted by the weekend as I'm needing it for my kinder kiddos next week so we can "buggy out" our number sense! Here's a sneak peek....

Hunt for the Gold and St. Patrick's Day Sale

   Last week with my kinder intervention kiddos we were all about number sense, composing, and decomposing numbers. We practiced making five with bingo daubers and making ten using gold beads on a pipe cleaner bracelet. Because I only have my kiddos for one week at a time I wanted them to be able to practice their skills with a St. Patrick's Day twist. Utilizing number bonds and some gold pots my kiddos were ready to search and hunt for all the gold coins they could find.

  

 I started by recycling some small black pots that I had in my Halloween centers and taped shamrocks to the front with numbers 1-9 on them. Inside of each pot I placed gold coins to match the number on the shamrocks and then hid them around our classroom. 

   Each kiddo got a clipboard and a recording sheet. On the sheet were numbered pots of gold to match the pots around the room. Kiddos had to go search for a pot, match the number on the shamrock to the pot on their recording sheet and then create a number bond. Kiddos were encouraged to use the gold coins in the pots to help create their number bonds. Before kiddos could move to the next pot they had to raise their hand and explain their thinking. They received a gold bingo dauber stamp on their recording page and could then go find their next pot. 

   This kiddo was so exact at every pot making sure he had two piles of coins in an exact line! 

That number one is so tricky to create a bond for.

   I hope you have some great activities planned for St. Patrick's Day this week. All of my March activities are on sale the next two days in my store if you are looking for additional materials to add to your collection. Click on the images to be taken to the discounted product. 

Fluency Games Galore

   While working with my intervention kiddos I am always looking for interactive ways to build their fluency of sight words and tone and expression. My kiddos have loved using my One Smart Cookie {Fluency Phrases for the First 100 Fry Words} but are now ready for more of a challenge. I am getting ready to introduce two more sets of games for my kiddos to use Catch Those Bugs! {Fluency Phrases for the Second 100 Fry Words} and Bowling for Fluency {Fluency Phrases for the Third 100 Words}. Both these packs offer three interactive games as well as ten fluency pages and trackers that can be used to create a notebook or placed into a fluency center. Here is a peek at Catch Those Bugs!

  There are ideas of how to organize your games included. I print, laminate, and place all my pieces into large envelopes with the game header glued to the front of each envelope. Then I laminate the outside of the envelope to keep from wear and tear.  

   Here is Spraying for Bugs! Kiddos can use a clear plastic spinner or a paperclip to spin and grab a bug that corresponds to the color on the spinner. Kiddos will read the phrase on each of the bugs. This game can be played with or without a timer.

   In Bug Collecting kiddos will read as quickly as they can the phrases on each of the bugs. This game can be played with a partner and students can place bugs in the "correct" jar or "try again" jar on various fluency mats included. This can also be played with or without a timer to fit the needs of your students. 

   In SWAT! A Memory Game kiddos will use two sets of bugs and flip over playing the traditional Memory game, but must read the phrases on both bugs flipped over. You can add plastic fly swatters for kiddos to use to "swat" the two cards they want to flip over or I have included two swatters that can be printed and laminated. 

   If your kiddos are ready for more of a challenge I just finished  Bowling for Fluency utilizing the third 100 Fry words. Again three interactive games are included with ten fluency pages and trackers to create or add to your exciting fluency notebooks or centers. Here is quick preview. 

   I have bundled all three Fry Fluency sets together. You save over $3 than if you purchase the sets separate. Click on the image below to begin your kiddos fluency adventure! 

Teachers Are Heroes Sale & Freebie

   Want to celebrate "hump day" with a sale? Head on over to Teachers pay Teachers today for the HUGE Teachers Are Hero's sale. My whole store is 20% off with an additional 10% off when you use the code "HEROES". Click the image below to head on over to my store. While your there you can grab my new Spinning Craze! {Interactive Math Spin & Graph Games} for FREE.