October Daily Messages

At the end of September, I posted a set of October Daily Messages for Kindergarten.  Would you believe that I'm just now gettin' around to blogging about them?  Oy...  You can find them in my Tpt store and I'm working on a November set as well.

The messages included look about like the image below, but each one is a little different.

When I did a daily message in my classroom, I put it under the document camera each day. We solved the words with missing letters together.  That gave us an opportunity to talk about specific phonemic awareness skills, phonics skills, word wall words, spelling words, decoding strategies and comprehension strategies together.  Then I gave each student their own copy of the message and they filled in the blanks, read it to themselves and read it to a partner.  Finally, they took their copy home to read it to their parents (or their dog, or a stuffed animal).

When we worked on blends, if we discovered a word that had a consonant blend at the beginning we added it to our Book of Blends.  You can also find My Book of Blends in my Tpt store.

I am lucky enough to visit lots of classrooms for my new job, which I love! I've shared my Super Spelling Forms and Autograph Bookmarks with several of my teacher friends for word work and accountability for independent reading time.

I'm off to a Painting with a Twist event with a friend!  Have a great week!

Can You Be Funky in 2nd?

Big news!  I'm going to 2nd grade!  The good news is that moving to 2nd grade was by choice.  I have AMAZING students and parents and I'm looping to 2nd grade with my class!  I am very excited and so are my students and their families.

The bad news...it means changing rooms AGAIN.  This will be my 8th time changing rooms in 14 years in my current district.  I like to throw things away so I'll get over that and one of my friends down the hall likes to collect all kinds of "treasures" out of my trash can each time I change rooms. She might be a hoarder, but I still love her.

I will still be blogging under Funky First Grade Fun (Funky 2nd Grade Fun just doesn't sound quite right).  And...who knows what my next adventure will be?

We still have 15 1/2 days of school left.  It's the time of the year when students are getting excited about summer and I'm trying to do everything I can to keep them on task.

One of the most successful things (at least for me) in my bag of tricks is the use of autograph bookmarks.  I made autograph bookmarks for my students this year, to help hold them accountable during quiet reading.  During quiet reading time (and when my students are finished with their work), they grab an autograph bookmark.  For each bookmark they work on, they are responsible for reading to one other student or adult in our classroom.

We use Fountas &Pinnell leveling.  So, I expect my students who read level H or under to read their entire book to a peer before getting an autograph.  Students who are reading level I or higher are expected to read 10 pages of their book to a peer in order to get an autograph.  In the beginning of 2nd grade, I'll use these during read to someone.  I might even send some home for students to use with their parents.

You can peek at my autograph bookmarks by clicking on the image below.

2nd grade will be fun, right?

In the spirit of wrappin' up the school year...I went shopping this weekend.  I bought new fabric for the bulletin boards in my new room and shopped at Schoolgirl Style for matching borders and giant pom poms!  Ooops...all this "throwing away" made me feel like shoppin!

Any advice for 2nd grade or for looping?

Sunday Funday is about to end...guess I better finish up my plans for the week!

Reusable Anchor Charts

This year, I'm really trying to focus on working smarter not harder. I'm not sure if it's working yet...but it's worth a try. Oy...

 In the spirit of working harder, I'm trying to make some of my anchor charts reusable. I did some reading and rethinking about my anchor charts this summer. You can read a post about how I'm working on improving my anchor charts and see some other pictures here.

 Here are two of the reusable charts that I made with my students last month. The first one is from writer's workshop. I made this chart when we learned about how writer's share stories. The first picture shows the parts of the chart that I made and laminated in advance. The second picture shows samples of student work added to the chart to help the children understand the two ways writer's share stories. Since the chart is laminated, I can change the student work samples to give different students a chance to be featured.

 

I made this chart (based on the Daily 5), to introduce the 3 ways to read a book during our beginning of the year reader's workshop lessons. I've made this chart for 5 years in a row. Since I'm working smarter, not harder...I won't have to remake the whole thing next year. I put the title, the image and numbers on the chart in advance and laminated it. I do think it's important to build the chart with my students, so the handwritten parts are written on large post-it notes and added to the chart during my lesson.

 

As I'm sitting here typing, I just received an email notification that I have my first donation for my Donor's Choose project that just got posted today!  Yippeeee!!!!  I'm trying to get a mini iPad funded for my classroom.  You can read about my project and check out my Donor's Choose page by clicking on the image below.  Donors Choose is matching any donations made to my project for the first few days when the code INSPIRE is used.  Fingers crossed...

Time for me to get some sleep and prepare for a sleep in past 5 a.m. day!

Candy Corn Word Family Mobiles - shhhh!

Do you ever feel like you have to close your classroom door, pull down the shades, creep around like a Navy Seal and prepare a statement of defense in advance to do an art project these days? 

Folks - it's a crime. Not doing the art project, but feeling like that when 

KIDS NEED ART. 

Last week, with the doors open and the window shades up... I let my kids make candy corn word family mobiles at our art center (which is one of my weekly literacy centers). Yep, I said it. I let them paint, use shaving cream, playdoh, ink dot bottles, play foam and sometimes I let 'em touch the markers. The project they do at the art center is always an opportunity to practice something we are working on, but at least my paint is not getting crusty in the cupboard.

This is my sample.  

I used the at family, 

but I invited students to use any short a word family.

 My students LOVED making the mobiles and were only slightly disappointed when I told them they had to leave them at school so I could hang them up.

  I'm only 4'11", so the mobiles hanging all over my room don't hit me in the head. I thought I saw the fire marshall shake his head at them when he was visiting last week, but he didn't say much so I think I'm safe for now. I won't keep them up for long because I can only handle thing dangling from the ceiling for a couple weeks the kids want to take them home.

Considering that I fell asleep in the chair at the hair salon tonight, I probably should go to bed.  Oh, how I love Fridays!

Making Words (and Sale Announcement)

19 parent conferences down, 6 more to go!  I think I can.  I think I can.


 Two quick things before I head off for round 2. I just posted a Holiday Making Words pack on Tpt and at Teachers Notebook. My kids love trying to make as many little words as they can out of a bigger word. So, I created a holiday pack with several different versions. We will be using these in our working with words center (and sometimes for morning work) during the next several weeks. You can click on the preview below to check it out.

Have a I confessed that I don't know how to cook? Now, my secret is out. I have a chef husband who is a fabulous cook. So, the only thing I could think of to do (while everyone else is cooking to prepare for Thanksgiving) is to throw a SALE!

 I appreciate all of you so much. Here are the details...

Ding, ding, ding... ROUND 2 (parent conferences)!

 I CAN DO THIS!
 

Organizing My Mentor Texts

I kind of wish my one little word (OLW) for 2012 would have been organize. It was really "faith", but that's another post and a half that I'm not ready to talk about in cyberspace. Not that you would know by looking at my desk, my office/craft room, kitchen counter or classroom countertops...but I really do love the feeling of organizing specific things. 

I've been working on organizing my mentor texts for specific lessons that I do each year. I decided that it would be easier to put books that I use for reader's workshop lessons, writer's workshop lessons and math lessons in one place, rather than sticking them back in the "cupboard full of books".   

So, I've been using these bins (not very pretty or exciting yet) to help me collect the books that I use each year for specific lessons. The card in front of each book is labeled with the title/author/focus for the lesson. After trying alphabetical order last year, I decided to put them in order of how I would teach each lesson throughout the year. For example, the books that I would use for reader's workshop at the beginning of the year are in the front of the reader's workshop section. It's still a work in progress, but I love the fact that it's easy for me to find the books I need for specific lessons.

Last year, I hosted a linky party about mentor texts for writer's workshop.  You can find the linky party post here.  You can also find the list of mentor texts for writer's workshop that I made from the linky party here.  

Do you organize your mentor texts in a specific spot or leave them with the rest of your books?

Chapter 7 - Daily 5 Book Study

Chapter 7 - Putting It All Together and Troubleshooting

Welcome!   Here we are at the last chapter of our Daily 5 book study!  I'm co-hosting this chapter with Corrina from Surfin' Through Second.  Corrina is representing 2nd/3rd grade for this chapter.  Please stop by to visit her too!

 
One of the things I've learned as a teacher is that things don't always work exactly like I planned...and it's ok.  I've heard the 2 Sisters speak two different times.  Both times, I left completely inspired, with lots of new ideas and a few "worries" about why I couldn't get a few things to work quite like the 2 Sisters suggested.

This chapter is all about putting things together and working out the kinks (if you have any kinks...like me).

Every once in a while, I'm guilty of trying something new and never trying it again after it didn't work exactly like it was supposed to.  Thank goodness I didn't give up on the Daily 5, because I truly think it's worth moving into the troubleshooting phase (if it's not magically working exactly like the 2 Sisters get it to work). 

First step:  Self Evaluation

I use this form to pinpoint things that are working well and things that are working not so well with a particular class.  Yep.  I use the form each year because what works well in one class does not always work well with the next class (or even at a different time in the same year). You can click on the image below if you'd like to download a copy.

Check In
I think it's really important to make the check in time meaningful.  I "check in" before each rotation during my literacy center time. I don't check in with everyone, but I randomly choose students and they happily share/report to the class what they worked on.

I use a different check in signal each year.  Last year, I used the green bells.  But, this year I think I'm gonna bring back the rain stick.  Whichever signal I use to introduce check in time, I continue to use that same signal all year (unless I find that a particular class needs a much louder signal at some point throughout the year).

Typical questions I might ask during check in time...
What kind of story were you reading?
Were your partners good listeners?
Who is your audience for the writing you did today?
What stage of writing are you working on?
Did anyone enjoy a nonfiction book?

I do not ask students to record the choices they make during Daily 5, because my students do 8 literacy centers each week (5 of those are Daily 5).  However, I made this recording sheet for students to keep track of the choices they made when I did the Daily 5 the real way (before I changed a few things to make it work better in my room).  I thought I'd share it, in case it's useful for any of you.  You can click on the image below if you'd like to download a copy.

Schedule
Many teachers express that they have a hard time with the Daily 5 if  they do not have a literacy block or if their literacy block is interrupted each day or on specific days.  My literacy block is not the same each day.  It is always in the morning.  But, sometimes it is early in the morning, sometimes late and on certain days it is split.  Just as the 2 Sisters suggest, sometimes I have to tell my students that we will continue with the Daily 5 (literacy centers in my room) when we return from whatever special class we have that day.

My literacy block includes:
morning message (focus is on sight words, spelling patterns, reading fluency)
minilesson for reader's workshop (focus is on reading strategies)
literacy center time (Daily 5 during this time)
check in time between rotations
small group reading instruction
assessment 

Assessment
The most common problem for most teachers who are trying to accomplish assessment during the Daily 5 is that students won't stop interrupting them.  I do some assessment each day during my small group instruction.  The assessments I do include: teacher notes based on observation, phonemic awareness inventories, running records, vowel assessments and the Ganske Spelling Inventory.  I use two strategies to help me accomplish my assessments.

1.  a fancy hat

 (that no student can miss on my head when they come to the table to interrupt me)

When I'm wearing the hat, it is a visual cue for the students

 to let them know that they can not interrupt me.

 

There have been years when I have had to resort to the pizza hat.  

It's about the size of a large Domino's pizza and fits right on my head.  Ha!

2.  a student monitor
The student monitor is a job assigned by the teacher.  The student monitor carries a clipboard and a pencil.  Other students are encouraged to ask the student monitor if they have a question or need help solving a problem.  If the student monitor can not answer their question or solve the problem, he/she writes the question/problem down and passes it to me like we used to pass notes to each other (back in the day).

2 Things that Have the Most Effect on the Success of the Daily 5 in my Room
1.  practice sessions - In a previous Daily 5 post, I shared about my practice sessions.  You can read this post here.

2.  room arrangement - Defining each space has been helpful in terms of the success of the Daily 5 in my room.  In each space, I include the anchor chart that we made together for introducing that part of the Daily 5.  I also include a picture of what each space should look like while students are working there (student participation in a photography session required) and what it should look like when it is all cleaned up.


Making the Daily 5 Work When You Get New Students
Unfortunately, there are sometimes students who miss the introduction of the Daily 5.  When this happens in my room, I give the new student a literacy center partner to help them with the procedures/rules.  I also check in with the new student privately between each rotation until he/she seems comfortable.

What Do I Do When a Student is Not Able to Be Independent with the Daily 5?
 I follow the same procedure as the Sisters (on page 103).  I have had to take a few choices away from three students in the past few years.  I'm happy to report that all three students were motivated enough that they all were able to earn the right to make their own choices back quickly.

Legal Lingo:  The freebies in this post (and my other Daily 5 posts) are not endorsed by the 2 Sisters. Please consider visiting their website at www.thedailycafe.com.

*The fonts I used to create the freebies are from Hello Firstie Fonts by Jen Jones.  The clipart is from Digiweb Studios. You can find links to both on my sidebar.

I'm looking forward to reading about your successes and any troubleshooting you may have done in your classroom.  Please link up to share your thoughts about this chapter of Daily 5 below.  Posts that are unrelated to chapter 7 of the Daily 5 will be deleted.

Don't forget to stop by to visit Corrina from Surfin' Through Second. She is hosting this chapter for 2nd/3rd grade teachers.

I would also like to thank Mel from Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations and Nicole from Teaching With Style for organizing this book study for everyone!  Please stop by to visit them as well.

I'm so glad that you joined us for the Daily 5 book study!  I've learned a lot from the things other teachers shared during each chapter!  It's not too late to return to the posts about the other chapters if you have not read those yet. So much to learn, so little time.

I'm glad you stopped by to visit today!

 

Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - Working on Writing and Word Work 

 Working on Writing

In the first part of this chapter (about working on writing) the sisters write about the importance of providing time for students to write about what really matters to them. I do writer's workshop in my classroom. But, I do not have students continue working on something from writer's workshop during the working on writing center. If you've been following my other Daily 5 posts, you'll remember that I have 8 literacy centers and 5 of those are Daily 5 activities.

To be honest, I probably have a different philosophy than many elementary teachers when it comes to writing.  I believe that it is important to develop good writing habits when practicing writing.  Call me type A.  Call me a control freak.  I like the writers in my room to develop good writing habits and produce high quality work.  Yes, I like them to express their creativity and I encourage them to share their thoughts in writing.   But, I admit that I feel a little crabby if  a student in my classroom tries to write page after page of letter strings (with no visible conventions) that he/she is unable to read. I want to be able to read it.  I want them to be able to read it too.  I also want it to make sense.  I can't be the only teacher who feels like that, right? 

Since I have those preferences about developing good habits during writing, my students do very specific things during writer's workshop and very structured things when they visit the working with writing center.  I think the structure of the activities that my students do during the working with writing center allows them to be independent enough for me to accomplish my small group time without interruptions.  Below are some of the things my students do during the working with writing center time. 

My students work on how-to writing, which they are able to accomplish independently.  This is a summer how-to writing book that I made for my students.  Each student gets their own copy of the book but can work on the pages in any order (giving them choices).  If you click on the picture you can download the book.  I have how-to books for other times in the year that I will be adding to my Tpt and Teachers Notebook shops soon...just haven't gotten around to that yet.

Here are two of the other things that my students do during working on writing time.  These products can be found in my both my Tpt store and my Teachers Notebook shop.

Word Work
Word work is a student favorite in my classroom.  It is also one of my favorite things to plan/create.  My students do lots of sorting activities, spelling activities, sight word practice, word family activities and even practice sentence building (and identifying parts of sentences) during the word work center.

I do not introduce any new concepts or skills during my centers.  I want my students to be able to work independently during this time.  I want the children to be challenged enough to stay busy, but able to work without help while I work with small groups of students.

I use this planning sheet when planning my word work activities.  It helps plan a variety of work work activities over time. You can click on the image to download a copy if you'd like.

Here are a few of my favorite word work activities.  These can be found in my Tpt store and at my Teachers Notebook shop.  In August, Tpt is having a back to school sale and I'm going to stock up on some new word work activities from other bloggers.

Deb from Fabulously First is hosting this chapter of our Daily 5 book study for first grade.  Jenn from Best Practices for Teaching is hosting this chapter for 2nd/3rd grade. Please stop by to visit their fabulous posts and to read what others are saying about this chapter.  You can even link up your own post about this chapter of the Daily 5.

 

Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - Read to Someone and Listen to Reading 

Let's start with Read to Someone...

In this chapter, the sisters outline the focus lessons for introducing read to someone.  I do all of those lessons, except Day 5 (How to Choose a Partner). Since I do the Daily 5 during my literacy center time, my students do read to someone with their literacy center partners.  As I mentioned in the previous book study posts, I have 8 literacy centers each week.  Five of those are Daily 5 activities. 

I think the key to success during the introduction of read to someone is the concept of  EEKK (elbow to elbow, knee to knee).  Most of my students do really well when they are sitting that close to each other.  While my students are building stamina for this part of the Daily 5, I take pictures of each pair of students sitting EEKK.  I print the pictures and each child writes about why it is important to sit EEKK during read to someone.  When they take it home, I ask them to explain it to their parents.  Here are 2 different versions of a EEKK sign that I made. The form that I use for the EEKK writing with their pictures.  And... a read to someone form that I use to hold students accountable during read to someone time.  Directly below you will find the legal lingo to go with them. 

Legal lingo - These freebies are not endorsed by the 2 Sisters.  Please consider visiting them at www.thedailycafe.com.

The fonts, one of the borders and the backgrounds I used are from Hello Fonts by Jen Jones.

I love her stuff!

Like most lower elementary teachers, I spend LOTS (and I mean lots) of time establishing routines and procedures in my classroom.  The older I get, the more time I spend on it.  Years ago, I would feel frustrated by the amount of teaching time it took to establish routines and procedures.  I quickly learned that it was not worth it to cut that time short and jump into the real curriculum.  The Daily 5 feels the same way to me.  It only works for me if I am patient during the introduction/establishing routines/building stamina phase.


Listen to Reading

I didn't realize it until I became a teacher, but I am sensitive to loud voices.  I'm not really sensitive to other loud noises, but those kids who talk/whine loudly/yell in the classroom drive me bonkers!  This year, I'd like to use this book when I teach the lessons about the appropriate volume I would like to have in the classroom.  Just have to find a copy that costs less than $33.  I'm working on that.

I tie the introduction of Listen to Reading together with the life skill of "listening" that I also cover at the beginning of the year.  Here are some of the mentor texts I use for mini lessons about the importance of listening.

 
I'm linking up with Kelli from Castles and Crayons. She is hosting the 1st grade portion of the book study for this chapter. Mechele from Barrow's Hodgepodge and Melissa from Dilly Dabbles are hosting this chapter for 2nd/3rd grade. Please visit them to check out their fabulous posts!  You can also link up with your ideas about this chapter of the Daily 5.  Please make sure you only link up if your post is about this chapter of the Daily 5 (Yes, I have to say that... sad, but true).