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! :) 

Schedule Spotlight Series #1 - Morning Work

Hey y'all! Welcome to the first post in the ten week Schedule Spotlight Series, all about Morning Work!

Let's start with first thing in the wee morning hours with groggy teachers... and bright eyed kiddos! I am NOT, repeat NOT, a morning person!!!  I have barely wiped the sleep out of my eyes and consumed a half cup of coffee! You feel me???

At our school, the kiddos can be dropped off starting at 7:30 and they sit in the hallway outside of their classrooms for a school wide reading time. We rotate morning hallway duty...we each take one day a week.  I really like that the kids all come into the classroom at the same time!

When the bells rings at 7:45, my kiddos come in and unpack. 

Every.single.day {only exceptions are field trip days} they:

 1. Unpack their binders and lunches 

2. Head straight to their seat and get started on their Math Journal

3. After the math journal is completed, they work on 
Mountain Math 

I have done several different things over the years for morning work. THE most important thing to me is that they can do it independently. By themselves. No assistance. I think consistency is key in the morning! Just like breakfast is the most important meal, morning work consistency lays the ground work for a calm and structured day!

While they work on their morning work, I check the binders for paperwork, notes from the parents, lunch money, take attendance and lunch count. I like to get all of this taken care of first thing in the morning...before everything else takes over! I can get this done quickly and efficiently if the children are engaged in a meaningful activity that requires little direction from me - enter the math journal!

My very first year of teaching, I did different worksheets from the Mailbox magazine! Blast from the past, right there! Our sweet media specialist used to email me to tell me when the newest Mailbox magazine came in the mail! This was clearly before the TpT craze! I despised the random worksheet for three reasons: I would have to give directions every.single.day.,  I was making a million copies every week, AND I had to pass them out every morning! That added up to a lot of work for me...and non engaging busy work for them! Lose, lose, lose! 

After a year of random worksheets, the next year I switched to literacy journals. In Kinder, they started out copying a sentence from the board. {Example: A is for apple}. They copied the sentence and drew a picture. After we got to Z, we switched to: A is for _____ and they filled in the blank and drew a picture. After we got to Z with this format, we switched to word of the day. They would use the word of the day in a sentence {Example: The word of the day is the. The bird is blue.} They did all of this work in journals from Starfall. After shopping around, these are a great deal! We now put them on our school supply list...each child gets 4 for the school year.

When I looped up to first grade a few years ago, I knew I needed to revamp the literacy journals. I loved the idea, but I already done it with my Kinders the previous year! Our school had a school wide goal of increasing math journal use, so I decided to go with that and I LOVE IT!

Every Monday, there is a new page at their seats with the 4 math journal prompts for the week. We do math journals Monday - Thursday, and something fun {think poetry, crossword puzzles, word searches} on Fun Fridays!

After completing their math journal {with words, pictures, and a number sentence}, they complete a few problems from our Mountain Math board. Mountain Math is a spiraling math activity. Read more about it {here}. We complete 24 problems over the course of 1 week. We do not start Mountain Math until January. Until then, it takes the kiddos about 20 minutes to complete their math journals. 

If any kiddos finish with both their math journal and Mountain Math, they can read from their Bag of Book for a few minutes. 

The kiddos begin their morning work at about 7:45 and we will meet on the carpet for calendar at 8:15. 

What do you do for morning work??? 

Link up to tell me all about it!

Coming next week on June 17 - Calendar

Have a fabulous week! :)

Schedule Spotlight Series Details

Hey y'all! Hope everyone's summer is off to a great start! And for those of you still in school, bless you! The end is near! 

I am so excited to kick off this new series!

Join me this summer as I dive {sorry, couldn't help myself} into our school day! We will go minute by minute, hour by hour, and discuss every little aspect of the day in my classroom...and yours...if you join me in the linky! It is almost like we can BE in each other's rooms...but without the hassle of sub plans and road trips! I can't wait to hear about how everyone's day flows and to hear your tips and tricks along the way! 

I will post each linky on Monday for the week! 

Please link up below to spread the word and let your readers know all about it! :)
Oh - and I am going to link up first to test the link! Hahaha!

 Loading InLinkz ...