Schedule Spotlight Series #8 - Small Groups

Hey y'all! I am so sorry for the late post - is it me or does your Blogger scheduling post function not work??? I have tried this to no avail for a few years! Every time I schedule a post for a busy week {like this one} it DOES.NOT.POST. It seems easy - like ridiculously easy, so I am just not sure what I am missing!!! Has anyone else struggled with this?? I feel kind of dumb :)

This is the eighth post in the 10 week Schedule Spotlight series!

For those of you just joining in the fun, we are going through our day, minute by minute and hour by hour! Almost as a good as observing…but saving money on gas and sub pay! :)

7:45 - 8:15 ~ Morning Work {Post #1 - June 10}
8:15 - 8:30 ~ Calendar {Post #2 - June 17}
8:30 - 9:00 ~ Math {Post #3 - June 24}
9:00 - 9:45 ~ SPECIALS
9:45 - 10:30 ~ Phonics {Post #4 - July 1}
10:35 - 10:55 - RECESS
11:00 - 11:30 - LUNCH
11:30 - 12:40 ~ The Daily Five Sessions 1 and 2 {Post #5 - July 8}
{Writing Mini Lesson - Post #6 - July 15}
12:40 - 1:10 ~ PE
1:15 - Restroom Break
1:15 - 1:45 ~ The Daily Five Session 3 
{Comprehension Mini Lesson - Post #7 - July 22}

Let's dig right into to this weeks topic - SMALL GROUPS!

I think small groups are one of the most important parts of our day! I pull two, sometimes three small groups a day! 

To begin every small group, we chant either the Alphabet Chart or Blend and Digraph chart. I start with the Alphabet chart with some groups and introduce the Blend and Digraph chart with all groups by Christmas! It only takes a minute or so, but I think it is a great daily review, and it signals to their sweet brains that we are about to start our group time! 

Both the Alphabet Chart and Blend and Digraph chart are free downloads in my TpT store!

After our chart chant, we move into a review of our phonics skill of the week. This part takes about 5 minutes and I use a variety of materials. Sometimes we do a Roll and Read, or maybe a quick card game from a phonics unit! Check out my newest unit for short vowel /a/, Crab Trap! 

After our chart chart and phonics review, we begin a little guided reading lesson. I read one book with each of my groups every week. One day is for prereading activities, such a picture walk through the book, sight word previews, and I Spy {I spy a word they might have difficulty with and they find the word and read it out loud}. 

The next day is for reading and re reading! Sometimes we partner read, read in different voices. I always try to give each reader a compliment on this day! "I love the way Brady read with expression today!"

The third day is for re-reading for fluency and a writing activity.

Link up below to tell us all about your favorite resource or routine for your small groups!

Join us next Monday, August 5 to hear about how social studies and science goes in my classroom!

Have a fun in the sun week! :)

Schedule Spotlight Series #7 - Comprehension

Hi, friends!!! Hope you all are soaking up every second of summer! Can't believe it is coming to an end! I am kind of a dork and love ordering my new lunch bag and cup for the new school year!! 

Here is my new lunch bag from Scout! Love or love?!?!?! 
Can't wait to see my hot pink monogram on it! :)

This is the seventh post in the 10 week Schedule Spotlight series!

For those of you just joining in the fun, we are going through our day, minute by minute and hour by hour! Almost as a good as observing…but saving money on gas and sub pay! :)

7:45 - 8:15 ~ Morning Work {Post #1 - June 10}
8:15 - 8:30 ~ Calendar {Post #2 - June 17}
8:30 - 9:00 ~ Math {Post #3 - June 24}
9:00 - 9:45 ~ SPECIALS
9:45 - 10:30 ~ Phonics {Post #4 - July 1}
10:35 - 10:55 - RECESS
11:00 - 11:30 - LUNCH
11:30 - 12:40 ~ The Daily Five Sessions 1 and 2 {Post #5 - July 8}
{Writing Mini Lesson - Post #6 - July 15}
12:40 - 1:10 ~ PE
1:15 - Restroom Break
1:15 - 1:45 ~ The Daily Five Session 3 
{Comprehension Mini Lesson - Post #7 - July 22}

1:15 - 1:30 ~ Comprehension Mini Lesson

After a quick restroom and water break when we get back from PE, we head straight to the carpet for our comprehension lesson. This is one of my favorite parts of the day!!! The kiddos are tired from PE and I turn the lights off to settle them down. 
They hang on to every.single.word of the story! 

I have a flipchart I use every month and we quickly review it to remind of the skill we are focusing on. We focus on one skill each month. 

This was our plan last year:

AUGUST - Characters

SEPTEMBER - Setting

OCTOBER - Main Idea and Details

{This is perfect for seasonal fiction and nonfiction text!}

NOVEMBER - Making Connections

{We do a Kevin Henkes author study during this month!}

DECEMBER - Making Predictions

{Perfect for holiday read alouds!}

JANUARY - Making Inferences

{We do a David Shannon author study this month!}

FEBRUARY - Asking Questions

MARCH - Retelling

{Did the Wizard of Oz for the first time this year - IN LOVE}

APRIL - Summarizing

MAY - Visualizing

We use a variety of resources for our comprehension mini lessons, including The Primary Comprehension Toolkit and of course, amazingly creative bloggers like YOU! 

I can for sure say blogging has made teaching comprehension WAY more fun! :) Here are some of my fave comprehension ideas from some super talented ladies!

Making Connections - {Making Connections posters by 

Live Laugh Love Kindergarten}

Making Inferences - {The Snow Day Case Files and the 

Mystery Box by Babbling Abby}

   

Retelling - I decided to do a chapter book read aloud for this month and I chose The Wizard of Oz! I have never read it to my class before and THEY LOVED IT! We read one chapter every day and practiced retelling events from the chapter. We ended the month with a special mystery reader {my sweet room mom dressed up as Dorothy!} and had a viewing party {we watched the movie and snacked on festive food, like Yellow Brick Road Rice Krispie treats, Emerald City grapes {sparkle grapes with lime jello}, and more! 

I am OBSESSED with these Yellow Brick Road retelling cards from Cara Carroll. Snag these for free! :)

Summarizing - {Summarizing with the Stars from Sarah Cooley}

Link up below to tell us all about your comprehension lessons!

Join us next Monday, July 29 to hear about how small groups roll in my classroom!

Soak up the sun this week! :)

Schedule Spotlight Series #6 - Writing

Happy Monday!!! I am NOT watching the Bach right now...I decided to catch up on TiVo tomorrow morning! I didn't want to succumb Mr. B to it yet another week! :)

This is the sixth {say what?!?!?} post in the 10 week Schedule Spotlight series!

For those of you just joining in the fun, we are going through our day, minute by minute and hour by hour! Almost as a good as observing…but saving money on gas and sub pay! :)

7:45 - 8:15 ~ Morning Work {Post #1 - June 10}
8:15 - 8:30 ~ Calendar {Post #2 - June 17}
8:30 - 9:00 ~ Math {Post #3 - June 24}
9:00 - 9:45 ~ SPECIALS
9:45 - 10:30 ~ Phonics {Post #4 - July 1}
10:35 - 10:55 - RECESS
11:00 - 11:30 - LUNCH
11:30 - 12:40 ~ The Daily Five Sessions 1 and 2 {Post #5 - July 8}
12:40 - 1:10 ~ PE
1:15 - Restroom Break
1:15 - 1:45 ~ The Daily Five Session 3

I mentioned in the last Daily Five post that my first Daily Five mini lesson is writing! I do a mini lesson first thing when The Daily Five starts, so that all kiddos will have had the mini lesson before they Work on Writing.

11:40 - 11:55 ~ Writing Mini Lesson

I have done this differently every year. For the past two years, I have incorporated Writing Workshop into The Daily Five. Because we have both specials and PE most days of the week, there just wasn't enough time to do 2 or 3 sessions of Daily Five in addition to Writing Workshop. 

I still do the essential elements of Writing Workshop, including mini lessons, conferencing, and student author sharing...it is just broken up a little up during The Daily Five. 

I love this set up for one main reason: Not all 18 of my kids are sitting at tables at the same time trying to concentrate and write! During the Daily Five, there are 3 sessions and only 5-6 kiddos are writing at one time. This means that only 2 kiddos sit at each table and have plenty of room to spread out and get in the writing groove! :) This also allows me to conference with more writers more often! If we are doing a lot of publishing or editing on a certain writing project, I will have all 6 of the kiddos who chose Work on Writing for that session meet with me for a writing small group!

We use a variety of resources for our writing lessons, including Lucy Caulkins' Units of Study for Primary Writing, Talking, Drawing, Writing: Lessons for Our Youngest Writers by Martha Horn and Mary Ellen Giacobbe, and of course, fab bloggers like YOU! 

I can honestly say blogging has made teaching writing WAY more fun! :) 

This was our plan last year:

AUGUST - What Writer's Write

SEPTEMBER - Why Writer's Write

OCTOBER - Fix It Up! Editing

NOVEMBER - Descriptive writing

DECEMBER - Letter writing

JANUARY - Paragraphs

FEBRUARY - Nonfiction writing

MARCH - How To writing 

APRIL - All About books 

MAY - Booklets **Changing to Opinion writing in 2013 - 2014!*

I loved setting the tone for our writing time with the What Writers Write and Why Writers Write ideas from Cara Carroll! Check out her awesome post about this {here}.

Link up below to tell us all about your Writing time!

Join us next Monday, July 22 to hear about how small groups roll in my classroom!

Have a fab summer week! :)

Schedule Spotlight Series #5 - The Daily Five

Happy Monday! We are floating away here in the South...rain, rain, and more rain! Hope everyone had a happy 4th!

My hubs and I are headed up to my classroom tomorrow to move the furniture back in place. I am about to start my 9th year of teaching and I am preparing things ahead of time - things I KNOW I will need. Hoping it makes the start of the year easier!

This is the fifth post in the 10 week Schedule Spotlight series!

For those of you just joining in the fun, we are going through our day, minute by minute and hour by hour! Almost as a good as observing…but saving money on gas and sub pay! :)

7:45 - 8:15 ~ Morning Work {Post #1 - June 10}
8:15 - 8:30 ~ Calendar {Post #2 - June 17}
8:30 - 9:00 ~ Math {Post #3 - June 24}
9:00 - 9:45 ~ SPECIALS
9:45 - 10:30 ~ Phonics {Post #4 - July 1}
10:35 - 10:55 - RECESS
11:00 - 11:30 - LUNCH
11:30 - 12:40 ~ The Daily Five {Post #5 - July 8}

We have settled back in our room after lunch. We have a quick restroom break and then we are ready to start The Daily Five...my favorite part of the day! After the initial 20 day launch period, those kiddos are ready to go! 

11:40 - 11:55 ~ Writing Mini Lesson

I have done this differently every year. For the past two years, I have incorporate Writing Workshop into The Daily Five. Because we have both specials and PE most days of the week, there just wasn't enough time to do 2 or 3 sessions of Daily Five in addition to Writing Workshop.

More about writing next week! :)

11:55 - 12:12 ~ Check in and Daily Five Session #1

For check in, I use a oral clipboard system! I call their name and they tell me their choice. When enough kids have made a choice, I say "Read to Self is closed". The Jungle Guide {or helper of the day} crosses Read to Self on our flip chart, so the rest of the class knows to make that choice for this session. 

Second semester, I allow them to come up to the flipchart and write their class number in a square next to their name.

I like to keep a record of their choice on a clipboard. I have thought about having them make their choices when we come back in from lunch. I might experiment with that this year!

During the first session, I pull my lowest group for a small group lesson. We spend about 5 minutes on the phonics focus for the week and then begin our Guided Reading lesson. 

12:15 - 12:35 ~ Check in and Daily Five Session #2

I do not teach a mini lesson in between the first two sessions! There is simply not enough time before we have to leave for PE!

During the second session, I pull my medium group for a small group lesson. We spend about 5 minutes on the phonics focus for the week and then begin our Guided Reading lesson. 

12:40 - 1:10 ~ PE

1:15 - 1:25 ~ Reading Comprehension Mini Lesson

I am not sure how this will look this year with the addition of our new series, Wonders. My grade level sat down with our reading coach a few years ago and expressed our interest in teaching comprehension strategies with authentic, QUALITY literature. We basically came up with our own plan! We focus on a comprehension strategy for a month and incorporate author studies and quality literature. I find so many of our best comprehensions lessons and ideas from you and the blogging community! 

This was our plan last year:

AUGUST - Intro to Daily Five

SEPTEMBER - Characters and Setting

OCTOBER - Main Idea and Details

NOVEMBER - Making Connections

DECEMBER - Making Predictions

JANUARY - Making Inferences

FEBRUARY - Asking Questions

MARCH - Retelling

APRIL - Summarizing

MAY - Visualizing

1:25 - 1:45 ~ Check in and Daily Five Session #3

During the third session, I pull my high group for a small group lesson for a Guided Reading lesson two days a week. The other 2 days, I rotate around to conference with writers. 

Now its time for PE!!  

Link up below to tell us all about your Daily Five time!

Join us next Monday, July 15 to learn more about what Writing time looks like in my classroom!

Have a great week! :)

Schedule Spotlight Series #4 - Phonics

Happy July, friends! How is it already July??? That means I am about halfway done with summer - how is that even possible?!?!? It will be time to set up my classroom before I know it! 

This is the fourth post in the 10 week Schedule Spotlight series!

For those of you just joining in the fun, we are going through our day, minute by minute and hour by hour! Almost as a good as observing…but saving money on gas and sub pay! :)

7:45 - 8:15 ~ Morning Work {Post #1 - June 10}
8:15 - 8:30 ~ Calendar {Post #2 - June 17}
8:30 - 9:00 ~ Math {Post #3 - June 24}
9:00 - 9:45 ~ SPECIALS
9:45 - 10:30 ~ Phonics {Post #4 - July 1}

We are back from specials! My friends head straight to their tables for a quick restroom and water break! We did not have a snack time last year, but I am thinking this is where I want to fit one in this year! Those babies are hungry!!!

After our restroom break, we head down to the carpet for our Phonics mini lesson. The mini lesson lasts about 10-12 minutes. I really, truly believe that the longer we teach, the more kiddos start to lose interest! I teach very explicitly and it is fast paced. One key to mini lessons is to have all of your materials ready to go. If you are only teaching for 12 minutes, you don't have time to stop to dig for your word cards!

We just adopted the Wonders series for the 2013 - 2014 school year. We were previously using Harcourt. We followed the progression, but pulled in a lot of other resources, including Wright Skills Phonics, The Phonics Dance, and others!
I love to incorporate quality children's literature and poetry into this time! I also love to watch Between the Lions video clips, use flip charts, and of course, Annie and Moby from Brain Pop! 

10:00 - 10:10
I have a focus board with a few phonics picture and word cards and the way I start every Phonics lesson {another auditory cue!!} is to say, "This week we are learning all about the /sh/ sound. A digraph is two letters put together to make a new sound. s and h make /sh/ like in shell, sheet, wash, and brush. 

Then, we usually do some making word manipulation, changing beginning, medial, and final sounds to make new words! Then, we read a poem or story and make a list of all the words we hear with that sound! 

This takes us to our small group time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays! On Mondays, we have a longer whole group time as we explore the new sound and spelling pattern, and Friday we play a game and take our spelling test! 

10:10 - 10:30

After our mini lesson, I spilt my class into two groups {higher} and {lower}. One group does Read to Someone {buddy reading} with decodeable texts {from our series} while I teach one group on the carpet and then we switch! 

SMALL GROUPS

I work with my lower group first. We do sound stretching and writing in our Phonics Notebooks {those good ole Starfall journals!}

Tuesday - Writing Words {I Do, We Do, You Do model}. 

I stretch and write two words and they copy. Then we stretch two words out together and they write them in their journal, and then I give them two words to stretch and write on their own. These words are not our spelling words, but words that have the sound we are learning about!

Wednesday - Stretch the Sounds

We work with our spelling words on Wednesdays! I simply say the word, and we stretch each sound on our fingers. For example, dish

d - i - sh, dish. /d/ d, /i/ i/ /sh/ sh. 

Then they write the word on their paper! 

Easy, peasy, but effective!!!

Thursday - Sentence Dictation 

On Thursdays, I do one sentence with my lower group and two sentences with my higher group. I heard at a workshop once to echo read the sentence twice, count the number of words and then let them have at it! 

For example,

ME - I found a shell at the beach. 

Echo - I found a shell at the beach. 

ME - I found a shell at the beach. 

Echo - I found a shell at the beach. 

Let's count the words. I - found - a - shell - at - the - beach. 7 words

So, that's that! I wish I had more pictures of this time!!! 

Now its time for recess and lunch!! Woohoo! 

Link up below to tell us all about your phonics time!

Join us next Monday, July 8 to learn more about what The Daily Five looks like in my classroom!

Happy early 4th of July to you! :) 

Schedule Spotlight Series #3 - Math

Happy Monday, friends! I am coming in a little late tonight - had to watch the Bach with a sweet neighbor! I was blown away on the 2 on 1 date -- who saw that coming??? {I won't give it away if you haven't watched yet!} And what is up with all the tight hoodies this season?? I can't deal!

This is the third post in the 10 week Schedule Spotlight series!

For those of you just joining in the fun, we are going through our day, minute by minute and hour by hour! Almost as a good as observing…but saving money on gas and sub pay! :)

7:45 - 8:15 ~ Morning Work {Post #1 - June 10}
8:15 - 8:30 ~ Calendar {Post #2 - June 17}
8:30 - 9:00 ~ Math {Post #3 - June 24}

My first grade friends are already on the carpet from our calendar time and we head straight into our math mini lesson! 

My mini lesson lasts about 10-12 minutes. I really, truly believe that the longer we teach, the more kiddos start to lose interest! I teach very explicitly and it is fast paced. One key to mini lessons is to have all of your materials ready to go. If you are only teaching for 10 minutes, you don't have time to stop to pull out the unifix cubes! 

We adopted the enVision math series in the 2012 - 2013 school year. I use their online lessons a few times each week. I like that there is a visual and auditory lesson on the Promethean board!  I also bring in Brain Pop, Jr. video and quizzes in the mini lessons, as well as literature, songs, poems, flipcharts, and Safari Montage video clips. 

I am thinking about incorporating Math tool kits {pencil boxes} for each kiddo so they can have all the manipulatives they need for our lessons. I will change them out every month or so with the materials we will need. They will pick up their tool kit when they come to the carpet for calendar. I thought this might eliminate time wasted passing out and collecting manipulatives. Thoughts???

At about 8:42 {I know all of you primary teachers are time specific} we go in to Math Work Stations. I implemented Work Stations for the first time in the 2012- 2013 and I love them! I feel about them the same way I feel about Daily Five - best changes to my teaching!! 

I have 9 tubs. 7 are hands on activities and 2 are technology {1 computer tub and 1 iPad tub}. 

**Click {here} to read my post all about Math Work stations. I was going to retype it - but really this post says it all! :) There are also some Math Work station freebies!

At about 8:56, we clean up from work stations. I play a song {sometimes a clean up song, other times a seasonal or thematic song we are singing to that week} and by the time the song ends, all kiddos should be back on the carpet. I step back during the song and let them clean up independently. I find that they will work it out without me - you know, all the junior teacher assistants out there?!? They will call somebody out politely tell a friend they left a piece on the floor or need to log out of the computer! 

We finish up with Math at 9:00 and then its time to head to our Special! {Yay! Time to reheat my latte in the microwave!}

Link up below to tell us all about your math block!

Join us next Monday, July 1 to learn more about what Phonics looks like in my classroom!

Have a super summer week!!! :) 

Schedule Spotlight Series #2 - Calendar

Hey y’all! It is has been a rainy day here in the South…perfect for a blog post! :)

This is the second post in the 10 week Schedule Spotlight series!

For those of you just joining in the fun, we are going through our day, minute by minute and hour by hour! Almost as a good as observing…but saving money on gas and sub pay! :)

7:45 - 8:15 ~ Morning Work {Post #1 - June 10}
8:15 - 8:30 ~ Calendar {Post #2 - June 17}

At 8:15, I walk around and check everyone’s math journals. I try to do this 2 times a week…just enough so that they know I am going to check and they don’t just scribble all over! I glance over the last day when I check the current day, so everything gets checked! Sometimes it’s a sticker, sometimes it’s a smiley face…and sometimes it is good ole verbal praise! :)

I call my friends down to the carpet by table. When they come down to the carpet, they sit in our sharing circle. Once everyone is settled, I start every single day with “Good morning, Bollman’s Bunch!” and they respond, “Good morning, Mrs. Bollman!” I then say, “Today is Monday, June 17, 2013. Our special today is Art and our Jungle Guide is Brady.” I went to a workshop a while back that said verbal cues are an important part of a structured schedule. So they have several cues that we are about to start calendar time: we are sitting in a sharing circle, and I just said my Good morning spiel! Spiel – reminds me of my waiting table days in college! 

With the addition of the Promethean Board in my classroom in 2008, I have scaled back on my 'wall' calendar and spend more time on our interactive calendar! 

Here is a pic of our wall calendar. I have since spiffed it up with zebra number cards and day of the week cards from Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching! We flip over the number for the day, do the Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow cards, add a straw and count them, write how many days we've been in school and write the date. The Jungle Guide is the calendar helper. This takes about 5 minutes...even less as the days go on! I have thought several times about taking it down, but I like for the calendar to be there throughout the day for them to reference! 

Next, we move on to the Promethean board calendar! The Jungle Guide leads the board calendar, as well. They call on other students to drag and click...it takes about a month of training and then they can do the board calendar SOLO! It is so fab -- it gives me a couple minutes to think through our math mini lesson and pull any manipulatives I may need!

This is the page sequence of our calendar flipchart:

*Starfall calendar

*Math Movement Songs 

{my fave thanks to Cara Carroll is Have Fun Teaching's videos on School Tube} - My kiddos {and ok, ok, mine too!} is Counting by 5's! 

*One More, One Less, Ten More, Ten Less 

{with the number of days we have been in school}

*Mystery Number 

{drag a shape to cover numbers on the hundred chart}

*Greater Than, Less Than 

{with the random number generator and alligator mouths}

*Time Poem

*Coin Poem

I wish I could post the calendar flipchart I created, but it tons of songs, clipart, and images I have borrowed from other flipcharts - it would be a copyright and credit nightmare! :( 

So...I searched for some on TpT for you! :)

Ms. Arnold {my Bham neighbor} has ones she adds each month {Check out May}

Michelle Hanson has one that is pretty comprehensive and chock full of fun {Flipchart}

Dizzy for Kindergarten has one for every month 

{Check out February}

My plan to implement a Calendar Notebook this year to give some accountability during calendar! Because calendar is repetitive, some of my busy kiddos start to wander a bit...this will hold them accountable! Check out Cara's Calendar Companion!

We finish up with Calendar by 8:30 and then its time to begin our Math mini lesson! 

Link up below to tell us all about Calendar time in your classroom!

Join us next Monday, June 24 to learn more about our Math block!

Have a fun in the sun week! :)