http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Short-Vowel-Fluency-Word-Work-Unit-Differentiated-1293951
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Short Vowel Fluency
I just finished the short vowel fluency unit that I'm going to use to start my year next year with my first graders. Since I'll have a combo I'll start long vowels with my second graders. I love the way this unit turned out and below are a few pages from the unit. The unit combines phonics, fluency, and common core language skills. I'm going to use these units as focus lessons for phonics, but also as work work and a work on writing option for daily 5. If interested check out the link below to find the entire unit on TPT.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Short-Vowel-Fluency-Word-Work-Unit-Differentiated-1293951
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Short-Vowel-Fluency-Word-Work-Unit-Differentiated-1293951
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Phonics Through fluency
So I tried a few new things with phonics last year, and I think it worked out really well. I needed to add more fluency practice into my day and I did not know where to put it. So, I thought of phonics. After introducing the phonics of the week and sorting words by phonics chunk, nouns/verbs, singular/plural etc... I decided to add fluency to the mix. I wrote passages that had the chunk that we were studying. I wrote several versions with the chunk inside so that the kids would have 4 new passages a week (Friday was review/test day). I also wrote 2 versions of each passage (one at a lower level and one at a higher level). I wanted the kids to have as many opportunities with the words as possible. During word work (Daily 5 time) later they would also have the opportunity to find the phonics chunks in texts. I also was having a hard time fitting sight word practice into the day. So I had the kids sort out the phonics chunk and pull out and sort sight words. This latter part, the sight words, gave me more than I bargained for. Since the kids were reading the passage, pulling out the sight words, and writing the sight words daily they became SUPER at writing and reading those sight words, and I loved that it was all in the context of a story. We added other things like phonics games in word work Daily 5, but for the most part the fluency routine and sorts were the bulk of it. This class I had did remarkable on our end of the year fluency and I think teaching phonics this way was part of it. If interested I added some links to the units on TPT. I just bundled the long vowel units in 2 versions (1 just a few no prep games/centers and 1 with a large variety of centers/games). I'm going to write units for the short vowels this summer so I can start my year with it. Below is one story from the oo unit that one of my students highlighted. They then wrote the words in the sort. I like the written sorts because it really helps them with their fine motor and writing fluency.
New Beginnings
Well, after 18 years in the same classroom I've not only moved classrooms, but I've moved schools. I'm excited and nervous, but also a little sad because I'm leaving behind a whole history of families and lovely people I've come to know. Change is good (and quite a bit of work), but I'm so thankful for my sweet daughter who has patiently helped me unpack boxes, sort and resort books, and to my whole family who has listened to me ask whether I should do a black and white polka dot or chevron striped accents (my husband and son looked at me like I was from another planet) and traveled to many Dollar Tree stores to find storage bins. I'm also thankful for my team partners, new and old. You know you have a true friend when she offers to go pick fabric out with you for your walls. I'm excited and feeling blessed!!!!
Thursday, May 22, 2014
New Phonics Unit
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Long-i-word-work-unit-Differentiated-1252637
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Goal Setting
Yesterday I tried a new spin on goal setting with my class, and it worked GREAT! I could sense the need to change things up a little with spring fever going strong so I did a mini-lesson on goals. We then decided to set a daily goal based on something we could do in class. Most of the kids chose a behavior goal, but some chose learning goals also. I gave them a quick 3-5 minutes to write their goal, and they turned them into me. If they felt comfortable I read them, and I told them that at the end of the day we would revisit them and see if we met our goals (I wrote one too). I also told them that I would pick a few randomly at the end of the day out of the pile, and if those people met their goals then I would reward them with a raffle ticket for our school behavior plan. I was so impressed with their goals. Below are a few of them:
During the day, it was AWESOME because they kept reminding each other to keep working on their goal. Even my student on a behavior contract met his goal (this was way more motivating to him than anything else I've tried this year...go figure!). A the end of the day, they reflected on how they did. The added benefit was that at the end of the day the reflection put a calm spin on a rushed Friday afternoon. I loved this activity so much. I'm definitely going to try it again on Monday!
#goalsettingfirstgrade#learninggoals#behaviorgoals
New Common Core Reading Literature Unit -Days With Frog and Toad -The Hat
I just finished writing this unit and we started working on it in class this week. The kids LOVE the story! It is the perfect unit to end the year because the Frog and Toad series has so many options for books. I am teaching the main comprehension strategies with this unit for The Hat, and the kids are reading up the other Frog and Toad stories like crazy during Daily 5 time. I also added poetry analysis and a fun little structured poetry writing activity. Some fun game additions that we play with this unit are "Jeopardy" type game with the comprehension questions, and we play "Build a Tower" with the questions that they write in the unit. I got all the CCSS RL standards in this unit except for CCSSRL5, and they are labeled to make planning easy. If you are interested in checking it out see the link below.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Comprehension Fun!
As part of our common core reading literature unit featuring the David McPhail book, Lost, the kids wrote text-based questions about the story. The twist was that they had to cite the page number that the answer was found on. They wrote them on index cards and we played an awesome game called Build a Tower with their cards. The great learning came when students were crafting their questions. Some of the questions were inferential and it was hard for them to come up with the page number that the answer was found on. This was great because it led us to a great discussion on the two types of questioning. Through some redefining and refining the students came up with a clear difference between inferential and text based questions. These first graders AMAZE me!
Below is a picture of the game and below that is a link to the unit we used if you are interested.
Below is a picture of the game and below that is a link to the unit we used if you are interested.
and the companion informative text unit on bears
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