Mother's Day and Guided Reading

Good Morning! I'm a bit bummed that I am out sick and only have 14 and a half days left with my sweet students! I'm going to cry and I've already accepted it. The bright side is I will see them next year when they are off in third grade.

On Mother's Day I went into school and made sub plans. Ladies and the occasional gentleman I am on a zpack (you know the medicine that wipes out your cold) well apparently my body doesn't like to respond :( The funny thing is I'm wide awake and as I'm typing this my sub is just NOW getting my kids from the pick up spot. I'm going to go stir crazy sick in bed. I also know I have several autoimmune disease and if I don't rest now I'll be sick for the last three weeks of school. Being responsible can be a bit frustrating at times. 

About Mother's Day . . . Yes I know I am super behind the ball at posting this. Simply remember I am a first year teacher and think back on your first year of teaching. It is a lot of FIRSTS. I decided to have my students complete Deanna Jump's Happy Mother's Day Gift book. My sweets loved it and it was pretty low maintenance to facilitate. Then I started thinking I needed to do more. I went online and googled some homemade scrub recipes. I found one that I tweaked a bit. Vanilla Brown Sugar Scrub ~ it almost sounds like dessert! Some of my boys aced if they could eat it! I kept explaining it was for mom's hands and feet. Anyway, then I bought 1/2 pint Ball mason jars at Publix. I created some cute labels to print out, place on colored card stock, have students write a simple message, sign their name, and then I laminated them. Click on the picture of the jar to go to my TPT store and download the labels for FREE for next year. I printed my labels on sticker paper because the round circles the kids stuck on the lid of their jars. 

Now onto guided reading. Our school does not require guided reading or small groups. I understand why guided reading is the way to go. I completely believe in small group instruction. This year I was not diligent with guided reading. Partly because it is my first year and I'm trying to get an understanding of my curriculum. Partly because my school doesn't require it. Well I started amping it up a bit for the last couple months of school. It is awesome! My sweets love it. I needed a system to stay organized. I really am in "next-year" mode. I created binder covers for almost ALL my binders ~ candy themed of course :)

I purchased this container (19L) from Office Depot. Inside of it I keep a blue, green, red, and yellow file folder. Everything I need for each group is in there color coded file.  So if I'm meeting with my blue group I would get my leveled readers from my blue hanging file folder, I would get out any copies or charts I placed in their and I would be all set.

This is my binder cover. All my binders have this design so they match.

If the spines of my binders are not labels it drives me CRAZY!

I use numbered tab dividers in almost all my binders. I find it simpler that way.  Tab 1 is my Guided Reading Schedule. After the first couple weeks of school I create a "set in stone" schedule to use throughout the year. This allows me to get to know my students and appropriate time frames for them. Tab 2 is my Guided Reading General Info. The reading level correlations, the tips and pointers I find on blogs, some stuff from the Lesson Plan SOS' Reading Binder. Tab 3 is Blue Group. Tab 4 is Green Group. Tab 5 is Red group. Tab 6 is Yellow Group. Each group tab keeps the current lesson plans, running records, informal assessments, and notes. Tab 7 is Guided Reading Lesson Plans. There are several books I'm reading or read and they have lesson plan templates for different reading skills and I'm place them under tab 7. Tab 8 is Helpful Resources aka miscellaneous misfits.

These are my group identifiers. I printed and laminated them. This allows me to have my groups  on display and easily changeable. I only have four students per group. I was thinking of creating some more that had five kids per group and six kids per group. I've read six is really the biggest small group you should have and it can be pushing it. That said I know lots of teachers have large class sizes. 

Green Group

Red Group ~ I also have a yellow group one. I just have three groups this year because I only have 12 students! Yes I know I am SUPER SPOILED.

Well that's all I got for now. I'm thinking of putting all the guided reading stuff up in my TPT store for free. If anyone is interested let me know and I'll put it up.