Writing

Today I thought I would share a little bit of how I teach writing!!  Of course I start off the year with some handwriting practice.  I usually start with A and work my way through the alphabet.  I teach my students that some letters are tall and some letters dig down below the line. 

 

 

 At the same time I start teaching my students to focus on only one topic at a time.  I LOVE to use beanie babies to help them write.  This also help them practice describing.  During the first week of school we practiced describing this little cutie “Lips”.

picture from amazon.com

 

 

 We also practice writing about animals.  I read an easy reader and my students write what they learned.  During the second week of school I read this little book about frogs. 

picture from scholastic.com

 

Then, we created this anchor chart and wrote about what we learned.

We use Lucy Calkins writing workshop but I like to throw in a few extra lessons here and there.  For the past few weeks we have also practice writing about small moments.  I'll try and post some pictures soon. :)

How do you teach writing in your classroom?

Addition Math Centers

Hey Everyone!!  I’ve been hoping to post for a few weeks but y’all I have been so tired after school!!  Since I work at a year round school today was DAY 21!!  I can’t believe it. 

We start math with a Daily Word Problem of the Day!!  I purchased this back during the Back to School sale and it has made my life so easy!!

 

Next we do our daily lesson.  As soon as each child finishes they head over and start their math center.  This allows me to be free to help any child that needs a little extra support.

We have been doing some easy back to school math centers for the last few weeks.  This week we started using my Back to School Addition Centers!!  My students LOVE math centers. 

 

Here are some pictures from this week:

Apple Adding - Match the apples and add.  

 

 

 

 

Apples Away - Find ways to make 3, 4, and 5

 

 

Lunch Box Parts - Find the missing part

 

 

 

Backpack Match-Up

 

Here is a closer look at this Addition Pack.

If you are interested you can purchase this pack here.

 

 

Throwback Thursday - Starting Daily 5 - Read to Self

Hey Everyone - Tonight I'm linking up with Cara from First Grade Parade for a Throwback Thursday!! 

 

 Today I'm throwing back to the beginning of last year when I started Daily 5.  This is what we have been doing again this year to get ready to start our Daily 5 centers.

__________________________________________________

 

 

Last week we tracked back in for part to two of our first nine weeks!!  I loved starting the year having three weeks to feel out the class and then have a few work days to “finish” getting ready!! It was just enough time to reorganize my books by levels!!  I was so excited to have these baskets ready for students to use during Read to Self!!!

 

I also attending a school workshop on starting the Daily 5 and decided to “try again”  We started with this graph from the left side the first 12 minutes stand for how long we were reading before we left.  We created a new set of rules for Read to Self and then started the timer. 

I sat back at the Guided Reading table and watched to see if the students were following the rules.  When the students began sharing and talking I stopped the timer.  We made it for 5 minutes.  We came to the carpet and then gave a thumbs up if we thought we did our best and a thumbs sideways if we thought we could have done better.  This allows the students to self assess.  And it allowed us to take about if we were reading.

Each time I colored our progress on this graph!!

We reviewed the rules and tried again, we made it for 8 minutes that time!  I told them I was so proud of them and we talked about what we did right!!  We again did the thumbs up/ thumbs sideways. 

 

A closer look at our Read to Self graph!! 

 

 

Next we did a Word Work activity as a class.  We did create a list of rules and I had the students work quietly.  I wanted the students to practice working like they would work in the Word Work station.  I also timed them to get an idea of “how long they would need to be able to read”.  The students took 20 minutes to complete the activity.  So I knew they needed to be able to read for at least 15 minutes or more!!

The next day we review the rules for Read to Self and I told them if anyone broke the rules we would have to STOP!  We only made it for 2 minutes.  We did the thumbs up/ thumbs sideways and most students knew they could have done better.  We talked about what we did right and wrong.  We reviewed the rules and tried AGAIN!!  We made it 10 minutes!!!  I told them I was so PROUD.  Again we went over the Word Work rules and did a second activity that will be in Word Work. 

We continued Read to Self each day like that:

 Wednesday we read for 12 and 14 minutes,
Thursday we read for 14 minutes,
and by Friday we read for 17 minutes!! 

 

Each day we practiced activities for Word Work or Work on Writing as a class, following the rules so that we would they would know what to do in that station!!

 

Today we started all of the Daily 5 at once.  We were able to do three rotations.  Tomorrow we will finish the last two and try to start all over.  In between each rotation I do a minilesson, Work Work, Comprehension, or Work on Writing!

Hope this helps!!  I'm excited to keep trying!! 

 

Classroom Tour

Today is Day 6 for me!! I was hoping to post these sooner but last week was so busy I didn’t have time to post them.

 

 

View from the Door

Whole Group Area

Daily 5 Posters can be found HERE!!

Math Posters can be found HERE!!

 

 

Calendar

 

SMART Board

 

Math Materials

 

Word Wall / Word Work

 

Writing Area/ Work on Writing

 

Library

 If you follow me on Instragram under StephKinley you probably have already seen some of my classroom pictures. 

 

 Check back later this week to see some student work from our first second week!  Sorry I guess I didn't take any pictures the first week!!