One of our standards is that students write brief comments about a text. After demonstrating this repeatedly during read alouds – science lessons, chapter books, etc. – I put a stack of sticky notes out and tell the students that I want them to start using them during Read to Self and Listen to Reading. They can write a comment on something they learned or write a question they had during reading. I make sure that all students have done this several times by having them leave their books out after a round of Daily 5 and making a quick checklist. This has also helped them be more concise when they share after a round. Who would have known sticky notes would be so easy to implement and keep track of?
I hope the pictures show that this can be used in Read to Self and Listen to Reading, with fiction and non-fiction, and at all levels of reading.
After we have used an anchor chart and moved on I like to put it up in another location for a little longer. This is my anchor chart area in the classroom. It changes during the year but it gives the students another location to go to as a resource for spelling during Writer’s Workshop and / or Work on Writing.
Storage Tip
My district uses Investigations and enVision as our math programs. We use Investigations to guide our teaching but supplement pieces of enVision when needed. However, we get the consumables for enVision every year. Luckily we don't get those long student books that you have to rip pages out of any more...we get shrink wrapped sets of pages. It is much easier to pull out one or two pages you actually want to use in this format. But the stacks and stacks of shrink wrapped pages take up a lot of room. Until I discovered that I could fit every single piece into one filing cabinet drawer. I use a permanent marker to write on the spine what unit it is so I can easily find the few pages I use during the year. I will gladly give up one filing cabinet drawer to get rid of the stacks and stacks of math consumables from my shelves.
Formative Assessment
My district is pushing formative assessment to help guide our teaching. This was a great idea one of the other teachers shared. It worked like a charm in my class. All you do is have a sticky note for each student and ask a question. They can post their note in their corresponding square on the chart. Some of my questions were: What was one thing you learned about the food chain today? Use the 3 numbers on the board and make all 4 equations in a fact family. If I know that 7+1=8, then I know 8-__=__. Write down the main character(s) in one of the books you read during Read to Self. This was a simple poster to make with a lot of flexibility in how to use.
I know these were a bunch of random tips. But hopefully they will give you some easy ideas you might want to implement.
I always struggle with morning work on the last day of school. It is a fun day…we have a water party at the end of the year. But we have to survive up until that point. Usually I have a summer word search but even I’m b-o-r-e-d with that. So this year an idea just came to me. And it turned out AMAZING so I thought I’d share.
I covered the tables in white butcher paper and wrote the kids’ names in my best junior high bubble writing. Then I put crayons in the middle of the table and had the kids decorate them. It was something fun and different enough to keep their attention even on the last day of school.
I originally found this idea on Pinterest…but I had to Dorothy-ify it and make it my own. I like the idea of the kids eating and filling 10-frames. The only problem is that my school district is very picky about making sure everything we do is tied to standards even on fun days like this. So I made the 10-frame page with equations underneath each one. This fit the ‘noticing patterns in subtraction’ standard because I make sure the 10-frames show patterns.
Basically you buy a bunch of snacks and have the students fill their 10-frames with those different snacks. They transfer their snacks one 10-frame (on a paper plate) at a time to a 10-frame paper (with 10 total 10-frames to make 100) on their desk. After all of the 10-frames are filled you begin. I would have them eat a few pieces off of each 10-frame and write the corresponding equation underneath. For example I have them everyone eat 3 pieces off their first 10-frame and then write 10-3=7. The next time I would have them eat 7 and write 10-7=3. That’s how I made sure it met the standard. At the end all the extra snacks are then put in a bag to take home. I even had my principals come watch the fun for this one to show that we can have fun and meet the standards.
This year I made 18 plates around the room so almost all my students were busy filling up their 10-frames. That really helped this activity move quickly and kept anyone from waiting around like they did the first year. My best buy in the snack departments was the Great Value (Walmart brand) Fruity Puffs cereal. I separated the 5 or 6 colors into their own category so with one purchase I had a bunch of ‘choices’ for the buffet. Other easy ones were Smarties, M&M’s, colorful marshmallows, Red Hots, Nerds, and chocolate chips.
This activity in all takes over an hour so make sure to plan a chunk of time for this if you try it.
100 Chart Puzzles
I printed 14 100 charts on different color cardstock and laminated them. Then I cut them up in different shapes. The kids partner up and put the puzzle together. If I have students struggling I hand them a 100 chart to use as the base. But most of the time the kids can figure it out without the added help. This seems like a simple activity but the LOVE it.
100 Seconds
This is another Pinterest find. What I can do in 100 seconds – with a bunch of activities like hop up and down, write the alphabet, blink, etc. This was really fun for the kids and so much fun for me to watch – seeing them blink and trying to keep up counting was hilarious. I don’t know who created this, but she was smart – it had them hop at just the right time. Then they moved onto something more restful then go back to sitting and standing. It was great to have movement in there at just the right time.
And I’m sure you have all seen cute pictures online of what I’ll look like when I’m 100. My kids also draw pictures of what they will look like when they are 100. Because of that standard correlation I also have them write about what they will look like or act like when they are 100.
Here is another mini-lesson using a strategy for the Accuracy section of the CAFÉ wall. I use the Accuracy mini-lessons to teach strategies (flip the sound) and phonics (long a, sneaky e).
You can also tell from this video that we had begun using Word Work. I usually do a lot of Word Work activities whole group first so the students have all had a chance to practice them before it is a choice in Daily 5. For example, I have a long a, sneaky e PowerPoint where the students read the words and the picture pops up to show them if they are correct. After we have read the words as a class I have them pull out their Word Work spiral.
Since it is early on in Word Work I would have the whole class practice rainbow spelling with the PowerPoint words. If you put your PowerPoint on the screen where you can see all the slides (slide sorter view) it helps students move at their own pace. This gives me a chance to see all of the students using rainbow spelling correctly. If a child is writing the word ‘snake’ but writes the ‘s’ in blue, green, red then the ‘n’ in blue, green, red and so on then he is not really learning how the word is spelled. Many children make that mistake with rainbow spelling; but if I have them all doing it at the same time I can walk around and correct them quickly. That way when they are at Word Work independently I can work with small groups and trust that they are using rainbow spelling correctly.
As I see my students have learned a couple of different Word Work activities by using them whole group then I will let it become a choice in Daily 5. My first three activities are usually: rainbow spelling, word family flip books, sight word hunting with monster fingers.
Rainbow Spelling – all you need are crayons and paper. The students write words (word sort we have done on a pocket chart or sight words from the word wall) in 3 different colors. *Management Tip – Make them use the same 3 crayons for the whole session so they aren’t changing colors with each word*
Word Family Flip Books – all you need are word family flip books (or something like them), pencil, and paper. I use Lakeshore’s word family flip books. The link is below. The students write each word in pencil noticing the pattern in the word family.
Sight Word Hunting – all you need is the student’s book bag, a monster finger, pencil and paper. I use monster finger pointers from Really Good Stuff. The link is below. The students go through their books from their book bag and use the monster finger (it just keeps them focused for some reason) to hunt for sight words from our word wall and then write them down as they find them.
Once these three Word Work activities have been taught it is really easy to manage. When I first started Daily 5 I got really caught up in a bunch of ‘cool’ supplies for Word Work. It ended up being a mess and I hated that choice. It is much better now that I remember to focus on the patterns in words and not the supplies. I don’t have to change the activities very often. Rainbow spelling changes based on the phonics rule and sight words so they are changing weekly. I change out the flip books to reflect word families that we have already learned so they change out every few weeks without needing to teach anything new. Sight word hunting is always changing because we add new sight words each week and the students change out their books from their book bags.
I have found that if I can make some things easier to manage then I am more likely to focus on teaching instead of supply management and/or clean up.
I have focused a lot on what I teach in the Comprehension mini-lessons of the CAFÉ. Here is a mini-lesson I use for the Accuracy part of CAFÉ. I use word family cards from Cherry Carl’s website. This week we had focused on short u as our phonics sound. Each day I have a quick short u word family sort like this one. I also have PowerPoints, poems, etc. that have short u instead of a specific short u word family.
On Fridays I use a few cards from each of the short u word families from the week in a slightly different way. The kids LOVE this activity. I’ll take 2-3 picture and word cards from each of the sorts and mix them up. Then I pass 1 card out to every student and tell them not to show anyone. When I start the music they have to go around the room and find their partner without talking. As soon as they have found their partner they sit down right where they are. Once I see all of them have found their match and are sitting I stop the music and let them know how long it took them. If I hear any talking I add 5 seconds to the time. They love to see how fast they can partner up and try to beat that time the next week. Then I have each partner group say their cards and we put them back on the board until we have reviewed each of the word families. This is a very engaging way to get them to focus on the phonics strategy before we have a spelling test.
Speaking of spelling tests…we don’t tell our students a list of 10 words and have them memorize those words for the week. We give them a rule – like short u – with a few examples on the newsletter. Then we do activities like the whole group word sorts, individual word work activities, etc. to go along with that rule. The spelling test is a ‘cold’ test since they don’t know the words ahead of time. We make sure they are easily phonetically sounded and spelled out. That has helped make sure they aren’t focusing on a few words but really internalizing a spelling rule. This really transfers over to their writing because they are used to stretching out words and spelling them using a rule. It takes a little more to explain this to the parents at the beginning of the year, but I think it is well worth the effort because of the results.
Here is the website I get my word family cards from:
It has change over the years so you’ll need to look around. You can purchase CD’s with all her stuff of get some of it for free (that’s what I did). If you go to the link specifically for the short u word family and look at the PDF I’ll explain how I use certain parts of it.
The cards of pg. 26-30 of the PDF are the picture and word cards like I used in the video. I don’t use all of them…I choose the ones I really want to focus on so the lesson doesn’t get too long. Then during word work the students might use pg. 10 of the PDF to put the words in ABC order. After we have done a word family sort together whole group then I will have morning work to review it the next day.
I level the morning work – pg. 5 would be a cut a paste and I make sure all the words on that paper were done in the whole group lesson the day before. This is the level I use for my struggling readers.
For my average readers I can use pg. 6. In this page the students have to decide if the word fits the word family or not. If it does fit the word family then they finish writing the word. They x it out if it does not belong to the word family.
For my higher readers I use pg. 9 of the PDF. This is where they see the picture and have to use the word family to write the correct word. By leveling the work I am making sure that I have introduced the same phonics rule to all my students, but changed my expectation of what they need to do to show me they understand it.
I hope this gives you some ideas of what you can do for your accuracy mini-lessons, leveling work, spelling and phonics rules. There are lots of awesome resources out there like Cherry Carl’s website…you just have to find them.
Poetry! Do you get really excited about your poetry unit? I do. Our school has been on a kick about poetry because testing scores were low in that area and a bunch of people were saying it was because we didn't have any resources. Luckily in first grade some teachers had started putted resources together a while ago so I've never felt worried. It seems like a bunch of people want to do poetry on a shallow level all year long - like a poem a week type thing. I disagree with that method. If you teach poetry as a unit and really go in depth with it then I know the students will pick up so much more than if you just read a poem and do some little activities with it...but I'll get off the soap box now.
Our year finished off with a poetry unit. I like it because that is so different than the other types of units we have done all year that it really grabs and holds their attention. And that is no small feat at the end of the year!
Here is a quick video of a Writer's Workshop mini lesson. I always start with a mini-lesson and then have them go out and write for a large chunk of time. At the end of EVERY Writer's Workshop EVERY child shares his / her writing. I feel that is a very important part of the writing process - talking about what you did and what you plan to do next. So the students all partner or small group up and share what they did that day. After that I will pull some examples of writing that I want to highlight. This gives me a chance to show all the class what other authors are trying and that they could do it too. This is one of those times - at the end of the lesson when I'm showcasing student work.
I love the freedom with which first graders approach poetry. I can do that! That's the type of attitude I want them looking at all writing with when we study it. Once you immerse the class in a genre study of poetry then you will notice how willing they are to try poetry.
So each year I try to focus on one aspect of my teaching and improve. Someone once made the comment that you can’t be a good teacher if you teach everything (self contained classroom). She didn’t mean anything by that, just that it’s a ton of work. I took that comment as a personal challenge. I want to be an expert at reading and writing, at math, at science, at everything! From then on I have chosen one area in my teaching that I wanted to focus on for the year. That doesn’t mean I ignore other areas of professional development or anything…I just give myself a focus.
This year I wanted to work on my Writer’s Workshop. I love teaching writing and I feel confident in my abilities. But I wanted to really look at my practice and make sure that what I was doing aligned with my beliefs about education.
One of the best outcomes of this focus were my student portfolios at the end of the year. I send home books that students have written throughout the year. I also send home a bunch of writing that has accumulated over the year at the end. But this year I really used those student portfolios to help guide my teaching and form a more complete picture of each individual student as an author.
Here are two samples of student portfolios towards the end of the year.
I know that I can get even better next year…but I am excited at what I was able to send home at the end of the year with each student.
