Favorite Read-Alouds Linky Party

I'm linking up with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera. She is having us all share are favorite read-alouds. Right up front I shall be honest "my favorites" are subject to change upon new discoveries, different seasons, and different curriculum. That said one of my favorite authors is Chris Van Dusen and I love his books. Some of my favorite are. . .

Randy Riley's Really Big Hit

The Circus Ship

If I Built Car

Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee

I also love 

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type

Duck for President

And of course Stuart J. Murphy's math books

I purchased this set of books to add to my math literature collection. I purchased it from amazon! 

As a child and now as an adult I simply LOVE to read. It is one of my favorite things to do. Amazon makes my book addiction quite easy. Hopefully if you haven't heard of some of these titles you'll go check them out. They are awesome. 

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. 

New Blog Design, The Lovely Blog Award, and a Freebie!

     I'm the girl who likes to be original. When I first started my blog I wasn't sure what type of response I would receive. Well, after some time I'm pretty thrilled to have 50+ followers! (P.S. when I reach 100 followers there will be a sweet giveaway for all of you lovely readers to enter!) I originally used a blog template that anyone else could use and when I would see another blogger with it I would think two things. First, you have great taste ha! Second, if it confuses me to see the image associated with my blog on another blog it probably confuses some readers. This put me on the hunt for custom blog designs. OH MY Alicia from Dream Like Magic is AMAZING. I explained to her exactly what I wanted and she did EXACTLY what I wanted. She did it so well. I'm in love with it! I hope you all enjoy it to.
      Now as for my sporadic posting, I have been sick and the on Spring Break. My goal is to post at least 4 times a week. Lord willing more as I get more experienced at this.
      Pamela from First Class Teacher awarded me The One Lovely Blog Award! That was super duper sweet of her. I was awarded this award awhile back and my response to it is HERE. Please go check out the other teacher blogs I awarded. They have some GREAT stuff. Also be sure to check out Pamela's adorable blog I'm a fan of it and I think you should be to ;-)
      I have also been creating some things. I would love to offer the first three commenters who follow my blog, follow my TPT store, and leave me there email address to get a free copy of the three units I've been working on. The only thing I ask is for some feedback on TPT. I truly want to do the best I can with what I make. Now for those of you who are not the first three (I can relate because I seem to enjoy being fifth or sixth. . . oh well) there is a freebie for you!

Pond Hopping Inflectional Endings -s & -es

Leaping Syllables

Nouns & Adjective: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell

FREEBIE
This freebie is a reading response/writing activity for students to complete after reading There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell!

Have a great Easter Weekend! I'm looking forward to tomorrow as a time to ponder and celebrate the fact that He, Jesus Christ, has RISEN!

Vocabulary Creations

Oh my! Today was a GREAT day! 

First off - I danced in front of all the elementary school for our school fundraiser program. Let this be made clear I do NOT dance ~ at all period. The program our school uses is amazing. I completely understand why all my kids were so psyched about it. It was contagious and I danced. . . 

I had a blast teaching today. Starting Monday off right really does set the tone for the rest of the week. I figured out a couple ways to get through to a couple of my difficult sweets and it was SUCCESSFUL! Who knew one little skittle could be such a motivation booster. I've said it before and I will say it again "If you are EXCITED about what you are teaching your kids will be EXCITED." 

There is something I've been wanting to share with you guys. Now we all teach vocabulary and if you don't I would be a bit bemused. About a month ago when I was thinking of some ways to make learning fun I came up with this vocabulary introduction activity. My sweets keep asking when we will do it again. So far, we've been doing at the beginning of every new reading story. 

Here is how it works ~

1. Split your sweets into mixed groups (I have three groups in my classroom)

2. Assign each group a couple new vocabulary words (I assign about 2 vocabulary words to each group)

3. Tell them they will be paying charades so they must keep their assigned vocabulary words TOP SECRET (my sweets are extremely serious about this part)

4. Give each group a piece of white construction paper per a vocabulary word

5. Each group is responsible for finding the book definition, creating a definition in their own words, create a sentence with it, draw it, and think about how they will "act" it out in charades. 

6. I give my kiddos this sheet:

Vocabulary Creations FREEBIE

They fill it out as a group and then they create a "poster" for each vocabulary word they were assigned. The poster must included the book definition, a sentence, and picture "showing the vocabulary word.

7. When time is up I have each table "act out" their vocabulary word(s) and the class must guess what the word is (this is the charades part). Once the class guesses correctly they explain their poster and what they found.

This is an example of some finished posters. The words were: ranch, exhibition, dappled, and landscape business.

I would love to know some ways you teach vocabulary in your classroom!