Literacy Block Facelift

Ok, so in my last post I mentioned being inspired to give my literacy block a little facelift.  A week and a half ago I went to another school in my district to visit a T1 classroom.  When these kids came into this classroom they were about 5 months behind where a first grader should be.  This wonderful teacher has obviously worked extremely hard because her students seem to be right where they need to be now.  She has the amazing blessing of having 3 adults in her room-- teacher, assistant, and tutor.  Clearly, this allows her to do a rotation of 3 intensive small groups daily.  Call me crazy, but I felt determined to take this idea back to my classroom and make it work.... even if I do have 4 more kids and 1 less adult.

So, here's what I came up...
I have 3 groups of 8 {leveled homogeneously}.  I gave each group an animal name-- Lovely Lions, Marvelous Monkeys, Happy Hippos.  The students never know this, but I named my groups to match their levels {low, medium, high}.  It helps me keep it all straight in my head.  I do 4 rotations of 20 minutes each.  During this time, I see my lowest students twice and my medium and high students once each.  My assistant sees my medium students twice and my lowest and high students once each.  When a group isn't with my IA or myself they are doing independent work.  Want to know the secret to successful independent time?  I gave them a notebook to do their work in!  They think those notebooks are the best thing since sliced bread!  Not a peep from those indpendent workers!

{These are all of the sheets I am using to make

my groups and plan activities.}

In my IA's group, she does the phonemic awareness tasks from our reading basil, leads games and word sorts, and other review reading and word study activities.  All of this is led by an adult so students are on-task and corrected when not understanding.

In my group, I also do a variety of reading and word study activities with a focus on reading fluency.  We spell words on whiteboards, read leveled books, reread previous books, put together cut apart sentences, and much more.  I try to keep it really fast moving to keep interest and minimize behaviors.

My independent workers go to the tub and find their group's folder.  They are to first open the folder to look for any practice sheets or assignments I've put in the folder.  If they finish that task or there is nothing there, they move on to work in their notebooks.  On the front of the folder I have a sheet with their tasks.  Each group is similar, but slightly different based on their level.  First, create a Circle Map and write the room for ___________ {insert various tasks such as beginning and ending letter, long vowel patterns, etc}.  Next, write me a letter.  {I'll respond to their letter each day!}  When all of the other tasks are complete, they are to read quietly until it's time to change.

So far, so good.  I'm really excited that my lowest students are getting 40 minutes of direct instruction each morning.... compared to my old way of doing stations with 24 kids randomly scattered around the room getting louder and more off task as the minutes passed, making it very difficult for me to pull my reading groups.  I only have 8 kids unattended at a given time which is wonderful.  I'll keep you all posted on how it's going or any speed bumps I hit along the way.  Thanks for visiting me!  :)

--Mrs. Pollard

CVC Spelling Mats

I have a large ESL population in my class this year and they are really struggling with medial short vowel sounds.  I made this station to give a little more practice with this skill-- it is also helpful for vocabulary for my students.  Check it out in my TPT store!

Picture Syllable Sort & Sticky CVC Words

I just posted two new activities to my TPT store!  Great for whole group and small group practice!

Check them out:

Click {Here} to Download

Click {Here} to Download

--Mrs. Pollard



Syllable Sort Station

Here's another freebie for you!  It's a syllable sort.  Students will read the words and decide if they have one, two, or three syllables.  They will sort the words onto the sorting mats.  Also included is a page with syllable rules.  This is mostly for teacher reference, but you know there's always a few firsties who are very advanced and will read it themselves!

Click {here} to Download

Enjoy!  :)

--Mrs. Pollard

Silent E Freebie!

I've made a freebie for you all!  This station will help your students read CVC words and then add an e to the end to change the word.  In my classroom, we use the Secret Story called Mommy E... you may know it better as Silent E or Bossy E.  Whatever you call it, this activity will help to reinforce this concept for your students.

Click {here} to Download for FREE

--Mrs. Pollard

Short Vowel Word Family Sorts

Every fall when my new batch of kiddos comes to my room, I have to remind myself how much hand holding they need in the beginning.  With those precious little ones in mind, I have made literacy work stations focused on short vowel word families.  I used almost all CVC words so students will gain confidence in their reading skills as they sound out the words and sort them where they belong.  (I also included a few words with blends for a challenge.)

Check them out at my TPT store!

Short vowels A, E, I, O, U

Click here to download the Short A Word Family Sort.

Click here to download the Short E Word Family Sort.

Click here to download the Short I Word Family Sort.

Click here to download the Short O Word Family Sort.

Click here to download the Short U Word Family Sort.

--Mrs. Pollard

Fun Finds

Yes, I am still on vacation... and I'm blogging again!  It's addicting.  I really need one of those cute new shirts that TBA is selling!

Anyways, back to my fun finds.  Let me just say that garage sales in my hometown ROCK!!  The Goodwill stores are also like a gold mine!  Below are just a couple of the treasures I found while making my rounds yesterday....

I have never seen index cards like these before!  The use for index cards is endless so I thought these would be great because of their writing lines.  I'm still trying to figure out what I will use them for, but for $1, I couldn't pass them up.  Any ideas?

I got this game at Goodwill for only $3... it is awesome!!  It's called Zingo.  It is basically a Bingo game, but with a twist.  It comes with 8 player cards (double-sided... green is easier and red is more competitive).  To play you move the dispenser forward and then backward and it spits out two yellow tiles.  The first player to call out the word (and that has that word on their card) gets the tile.  The first player to fill their card is the winner.  What I like most about this game is that it has the picture and the word, so even my non-readers should be able to look at the picture and identify it while still seeing the word written.

(Here is a link to buy it at Amazon: Zingo- Bingo with a Zing!  The other games on there by this company look great, too!) 

I got other great deals on some games and books, too!  I love a good bargain!!  I'm still trying to figure out how all of these things are going to fit in my suitcases.  I'm considering abandoning the game boxes and retrieving them on a future trip home when I drive!

--Mrs. Pollard

Last Week of School

The official countdown is on.... 4 1/2 days left!  I still have loads of paperwork to finish up in the next week, but I also have 23 little ones to entertain who are just as anxious for summer.  We'll be starting the week with Babbling Abby's Popcorn Adjective unit, making Father's Day tie books (I'm sorry I can't remember which blog I found this on), and a memory book from The First Grade Parade.  We will also have our end of the year awards this week.

Although I'm not doing a full-blown camping unit this week, we will talk about camping and complete a few activities.  I'm sharing these camping activities with you for free!

Click {Here} to Download all 3

--Mrs. Pollard

Tic-Tac-Toe

Here's an activity I've been doing with my kids to practice our five weekly Word Wall words.  I display the Tic-Tac-Toe board on my Promethean Board and the kids do their work on the recording sheet.  They enjoy the independence of choosing the activities they want... and they think it's the coolest think ever to make silly letters or letters with dots!  This could also be used as a Literacy Station.

Click {Here} to Download the Tic-Tac-Toe Board

 Click {Here} to Download the Recording Sheet



Fly Swat Y Sort

First, I must say... it's finally Spring Break!  Phew!

When we return from break, we'll be doing a two week study of insects so I'm working on making stations to use.  This is a word sort focusing on the ending y sound.

 Click {Here} to Download

--Mrs. Pollard

Batter's Up!

Last weekend I posted about baseball eggs and a bucket that I picked up at the store.  Here's the game I made to go with them.

Click {Here} to Download

This is the bucket and eggs.  I'll put the words on the bats inside the balls.

Today my kids made the discovery that I can actually make these stations they are using so they began putting in requests for specific themes-- race cars and princesses were on the top of their list!  (I don't know where they think all of this stuff has been coming from all along... maybe a station fairy!)

--Mrs. Pollard

Letter Frogs on a Log

This idea is very basic, but can be adapted to be more challenging... some of my firsties can still use CVC word practice.  I hope someone out there can use this station, too!  (I included some blank frogs in case you want to add blends or word families.  Also, I plan to mat the vowels differently so kids know that needs to go in the middle for CVC.)

Click {Here} to Download

Popcorn Words

I know I'm not the creator of the whole popcorn word idea, but here's what I plan to use as a station.... I am just going to write words on yellow paper and cut them out with a bubbly edge, then crumple them up and put them in the popcorn container.  Students will select five different pieces to record on their paper and then use in a sentence.

Click {Here} to Download



I never knew Easter could be so much fun!

Thank you to Mrs. Anna Brantley at Crazy for First Grade for this great idea!  After I saw her adorable little chick and carrot Easter eggs I ran straight to the Dollar Tree to pick up my own.  Personally, I prefer the carrots so I got 3 packs of those (3/pack).  I had trouble with the chicks staying closed so those aren't being used yet.  Any ideas?

I also picked up the little bunny head containers that Mrs. Brantley posted to use as dice shakers... brilliant!  All of these creative ideas on the blogs just blow my mind!

While out and about at the Dollar Tree, Walmart, and Target (my FAVORITE), my brain was working overtime trying to come up with ideas.  I ended up with a $1 popcorn container that I'll use to hold words that I write on yellow paper and crumple up... details to come.  I'm most excited with my baseball find.  Walmart had baseball themed Easter eggs, but they were actually round instead of egg shaped.  They were 12 for $1.97.  Then at Target I found the most perfect baseball pail with the Easter baskets for $5.  (Starting to get a little pricey, but I know my boys will adore this station!)  I don't have an idea yet, but was thinking something about the -all and -at word families.  Hmmm.... any other ideas out there??!

Monster Mania 3

I forgot to share this wonderful little creature when I posted about monsters....

Have a mentioned how amazing my husband is?!  I cannot take credit for this adorable trash can.  Mr. Pollard just loves helping me with these creative projects.  Whenever we do something really fun and cool in the classroom the kids ask if Mr. Pollard made it for us!  (And the answer is usually yes.)

We made this monster to be used with the book The Hungry Thing.  (Scholastic is the only place my co-worker and I were able to find this book.)  It's made out of a trash can so the mouth opens for words to be put in.

A Fun-Tastic Zoo Adventure

Seriously, who can't resist a good animal print?!?  I must admit I love me some zebra print!!!

Anyways, with the help of my husband on the game board, I've created a zoo themed fluency phrase game.  (I was inspired by someone's post a few weeks ago with an Easter egg fast phrase game-- which my kids are really enjoying.)  In May we will be exploring animal habitats and classification so I'm trying to make more zoo stations to carry the theme across every part of our day.  If you'll be doing a zoo theme, you should really check out Mrs. Jump's TPT unit.

This game includes 32 fluency phrase cards and a gameboard.  (You'll need to provide the game piece markers for the players.)

Click {Here} to Download

If anyone has any station ideas, please share!  I absolutely love to create them, but sometimes my brain won't cooperate with me!

Word Family Life Savers

This year I discovered the amazing word family poster set from Carson Dellosa.  I laminated all of the posters and used a dry erase marker to write the words (this way I can just erase and reuse next year).  The key to these posters being useful is actually writing the words on them WITH the kids.  They came up with the words so they know they are there and use them when writing.  Definitely among the best $20 I've spent on my classroom.

Bugging Out... A Contraction Matching Activity

Finally, with my husband's help, I was able to get the sample images to display below.  I love these little bugs and think the kids will have a lot of fun with it at stations.  Enjoy!

 

Click {Here} to Download

--Mrs. Pollard

Nouns, Adjectives, & Verbs

I've been very motivated this weekend to work on my team's upcoming animal habitats and classification unit.  Mrs. Jump's recent Zoo Unit on TPT is a definite inspiration.  I'm not overly thrilled with my station creation below, but I'm going to mat it on some fun scrapbooking paper.

Click {Here} to Download All Pages for Station

  

Click {Here} to Download Recording Sheet

--Mrs. Pollard

Monster Mania

This week my team will be teaching about money.... and what goes better with money than monsters and robots!?!  It's kind of random, but I'm really excited about the week.  For reading everyday, we will read and do activities with "My Robot" from our Harcourt reading books.  Our writing will be all about monsters.  (We will be doing a Double Bubble Map to compare and contrast robots and monsters.)  During math, we will be exploring money.  And our Social Studies block will focus on goods and services.  Since we plan as a team, some of the items were created by other teachers... keep an eye on Ms. Fleming's blog to see if she posts some of her creations.

Click {Here} to Download

Again, this is a half page (double-sided) in an effort to save paper.  This is an independent practice activity after a whole group lesson.  I will also be adding contraction stations into my literacy rotations.

Click {Here} to Download

If you haven't seen this book, check it out.  It's is great for adjectives.  In each bubble we will write a descriptive phrase (for example: long bluish-greenish nose).

The book ends with, "Go away monster... and don't come back until I say so."  So, the next day we are writing a story about where we think the monster went.

Click {Here} to Download

To practice the money skills we will have studied all week, I will have a "Monster Munch" sale on Friday.  These are the labels for the bags.  (Pictures to come later.)

--Mrs. Pollard