Guided Reading Plans

Well, I have to make an edit to yesterday's blog post. Today I'm not with my kids because we're having a

SNOW DAY!

But I have to tell you, it is not a pretty kind of snow day. It is a bitterly cold, windy, wet, nasty snow day. I'll take whichever, but I'm certainly staying inside today :)

So what does any good teacher do with a snow day? Especially when the rest of her family is snoozapolzing? Well, I finished up lesson plans for the next five weeks. Our basal reading series goes in 5 week units, so I try to plan those five weeks at one time. Then I just have to make little tweaks when I get to that actual week. 

Last Saturday, I wrote about reading Teaching with Intention and how I was going to try to take one subject and really make an effort into the plans for that. I had mentioned Writing and Whole Group Reading, but I decided to really take a look at Guided Reading. 

I wrote out plans Guided Reading for all five weeks - well, I've done that before, but it's been bare bones. This time, I noted if I wanted to make a chart with the kids, if I wanted to divide up a story and have each kid summarize it, etc. 

Also, our district is moving toward Rigor and Relevance. I have to admit that I don't understand all of what the district is expecting from us, but one thing that has been talked about is questions we ask our students. 

Here is a link to the type of questions that our district wants us to start using with our kids. They really want us using Quadrant C and D questions. So I even made notes about questions I wanted to ask my students. 

So, for example, for one group, their Monday will look like this:

Square M
Preview Story Thoroughly, discuss difficulties Anticipation Guide Make mini posters for each heading

This group's story for the week is about different groups that do weaving in different ways. So I've made a note to discuss difficult parts of the text. I'm also going to use an Anticipation Guide. These are kind of fun - my kids last year seemed to enjoy doing them. Go here for more about them. (Ha! Just realized that's also a link to my first blog post - a year and a day ago!) I'm also going to start little posters for each different group that the book talks about - Navajo, Asante, Maya, Maori. I'm hoping to have different kids fill in the posters and then talk about them to the small group.

I'm excited to see how this all works as I go through this unit. I'm hoping it helps me remember all those great ideas I thought of - and it holds me accountable for pushing my kids.

I am now done working! I'm going to go watch DVR things and consider cleaning the bathroom. Don't know how far I'll get with the 2nd - but the 1st is a certainty!  

Hope you've had a good day, too! Sara 

I'm a year old!

I'm a year old! For some reason, just a minute ago, I thought to myself that I ought to check when I wrote  my first blog post - and guess what - it was a year ago today! Happy Birthday to my blog!

 

I was thinking of writing a quick post tonight anyway, but I didn't take a picture, so I had sort of decided not to. But it was so sweet and since I'm doing a little happy dance about my blog's birthday, I'm going to include it!

This afternoon, we were finishing up a project called Heart Maps (I AM going to take pictures and share) and as students got done, I asked them to do some quiet reading. Toward the very end of the day, most everyone was reading, so I told them they could buddy read. We haven't done this in a while, and it was just terrific - all over the room, kids were sharing their books, reading, or at least intently look at pictures. Yeah! And I have pictures in my mind :)

I've got kids tomorrow and then parents on Thursday and Friday - that's right, parent teacher conferences. There's also some talk of a winter storm on its way, but ... you know, I don't like to think about the possibilities.

Have a great Wednesday! Sara

Saturday Sayings

 “I believe we cannot underestimate the power of our influence – what we choose to say and do in the classroom profoundly affects the ways children view their teacher, themselves, and each other.” Debbie Miller Teaching with Intention.

I’ve been slowly going through a small book called Teaching with Intention. Oh, it’s making me think! Sometimes that’s good, and sometimes I’d just rather not (if you know what I mean). 

I learned about Teaching with Intention from Deanna Jump’s blog.  A while back, I was reading her blog and she said something about when she started including more things in her lesson plans, particularly the questions she wanted to ask, she felt like she became a better teacher. (I can’t find this exact blog post, so this may be a huge paraphrase, but anyway!)

Well, let me tell you, I’ve always tried to make my lesson plans as short as possible. I want a week to fit on one type written page. Hmm, maybe I need to rethink that. One of my worst feelings is when the kids go home, and there on my desk is sitting that great idea that, whoops! I forgot to include.  And I am so forgetful! On days when I really want to remember everything, and I write myself a little note, guess what? It feels like things go better. 

So, in an effort not to go overboard, I’m thinking what if I took one subject – say writing, or whole group reading – and really made an effort with those lesson plans. Instead of putting all my thinking into the WHAT I’m doing, what if I put the majority of my thinking into the HOW I’m going to do.  (Or better yet, how THEY are going to do  :)) And then did step 2 - wrote it down in my plans so I'll remember when it comes time to do it!

This is the perfect timing for me, because guess what I’m doing this weekend? You got it – lesson plans! Here comes some Teaching with Intention!

I really enjoy reading Saturday Sayings – they do make me think and reflect about what I’m doing in my classroom. Thanks, Tammy, for letting me join in with you this week.  Make sure you head over to Forever in First and read Tammy's Saturday Sayings, and then hop over to her other guest contributors this week.

And have a great weekend - whether you're working or having fun! Sara

I did not go crazy

Good Sunday morning to you! 
Have you been shopping yet? I have finished my TpT shopping - and I'm not looking back. No thinking about one more thing - or looking. No, No, No! I actually was getting myself stressed out, looking for "what else do I need?" so I went and talked some sense into myself with my hub-bub. I mean I talked and he agreed - he's so nice. (And he really doesn't care how much I spend!) 

Anyway, here's what I got today:
 Yeah - I'm most excited about the first two - they go together. Donna at the Math Coach's Corner has gotten me excited about trying some more opened ended math work. I'm hoping these two products will do that. I wish they were magically printed out and laminated so I could use them tomorrow.

 

 These look like some good, seasonal problems that will hopefully get my kiddos thinking.

 

For some of my little sweeties who are having So Much Trouble learning their math facts - I purchased this. I'm hoping that having the dots and stars will help them come up with the math fact answers without using their cute little fingers! :)

 And this just looked like a good idea - I can't wait to try it, probably after spring break.

I'm so thankful for the sale - and that I didn't go over board. I am realizing that I need to desperately go through my files and see what I've already got that I should be using. Several of my wishlist freebie things wee ideas for Geometry - which I just finished! Some I can still use for centers, but others would have been great while I was teaching!

Now off to buy some clip art :)

Happy shopping, happy football, happy Sunday! 
Sara

(editing: I joined a linky party: Show Us What You Bought. Join up if you want to share.)
 

101 Days of School

I was in the right place at the right time and got this wonderful 101 day celebration packet from Anita Goodwin at I love 2 learn, I love 2 grow.  (What a cute name for a blog!)  I was one of 3 commenters and Yahoo! I got mine for free.

This packet is just in time because the kindergarten teachers have told me that Friday is our 100th day, so that makes Monday 101! What a fun and different thing to celebrate.  The packet has a couple craft ideas, some ELA activities and some math games. I'm going to pick and choose this year, because, well, even though it's a week away, yikes! I have so much on my plate right now. 

Anyway, if you are interested in celebrating 101 days - or Dalmatian Days - click HERE to get your own copy for $3.

I can't wait to try it out on Monday! 
Sara

Kansas Day, Part 2

Yikes and yuck - I have a cold, again, or it's back, or something. I don't know, but it does not help that I did not sleep very late at all this morning. Do you think there's any chance this could just be a two day, weekend cold? Please??

Oh, on to something much more fun! If you read my last post, you know I'm from Kansas and next Tuesday is Kansas Day. If you want to read about part 1 activities, go here. 

I had been debating all day yesterday about what to do. Our state flower is the sunflower, and I just love to have the kids paint sunflowers. I show them some pictures and then have them draw and paint their own. But I just didn't know how I could find time this year. So I debated skipping math and doing it then. (I know, very naughty!) I was still debating at lunch time. I had recess duty and when I went out, the teacher that was on duty with the 4th graders said, ah, go for it. So I did.

First of all, I made all my little twittle bugs who didn't work during literacy centers, do some work. I had some grumpy children then. But I let them join us after about 4 minutes of probably the hardest work they had done all day. And I saw hardest because they got more done in 4 minutes than they did in 20 minutes when they were supposed to be doing it! Oh, whatever.

I did some delegating - yeah, me, sometimes a little hard for me to let go like that. Somebody else passed out papers, somebody else passed out paintbrushes, somebody else passed out palettes (paper plates for the paints :). I did take control of sharing the paints - I'm not a crazy woman! 

The saddest thing of all was I have a young man whose last day in my class was Friday and he didn't want to paint. Oh, pooh. I even offered to let him paint another Kansas symbol. But he just sat there and played with his erasers. 

For the rest of the afternoon, we had some grade level fun. In the past, our school has had a school wide behavior plan with a reward celebration thing each month.  This year, it has been moved (passed - ha) down to the grade levels and the teachers. So our 2nd grade team decided to focus on Kansas Day this month. We each planned a 20 minute activity and we rotated the kids to each class. One team member did a boys against girls game - I'm not sure exactly what. The other team member showed some video clips of Kansas symbols. And I made up a Bingo game. But I added a little twist. First of all, this is a pretty good site, I thought, for making Bingo cards and it's FREE! (Love that!!!) This Bingo card generator will make several (I made 25) Bingo cards and it puts all the words in random places. And it also gives you a word list. Yeah! 

So what did I do to make it a bit more challenging? I put the answers on the Bingo card. Such as buffalo, meadowlark, sunflower, 34th, 15th. Then I had a light bulb moment. I have a Smartboard, so I used the Random Chooser on that and I typed out the clues on it. Such as State Mammal, State Bird, State Flower, Admitted to the US, # in Land Size. When we were playing, I had one kid come up and push the select button and the Random Chooser would pick a clue, I'd read it and if most of them would know the answer, we'd all answer together - like on the State Mammal. But if most of them didn't know, I'd have kids raise their hand and somebody would tell the answer. Bingo winners got a dorky sticker. It was pretty fun for them and easy for me, so that's obviously a win-win.

I had something else of Great Importance to share, but now I can't remember what it was, so maybe it's importance wasn't really that great :)

Have a terrific weekend. I think mine will be spent clearing off DVR things. Like Downton Abby - please no spoilers, I'm about 2 weeks behind!

Sara   

Kansas Day

 

I'm from the good ole state of Kansas and Kansas Day is next Tuesday. I think it's 152 years of statehood for us. So our grade level team decided to do a couple things in honor of that. 

First, we had the zoo come visit our school. I've mentioned before on my blog that we have a wonderful zoo for our medium sized city. The great part is they have this outreach program, so they come visit the school and it doesn't count as a field trip! Wahoo!! So the zoo gal came and brought a couple animals. One was our state amphibian - the barred tiger salamander.

She pulled this guy out of the cooler (they carry the animals around in a cooler) and was talking about him. Meanwhile, he's swishing his tail to beat the band. After she had talked about him a bit, we got to touch him. They use the two finger touch system, and we had to wet our fingers first. Let me tell you, they are SLIMY little creatures. Gross! (Not that I let any kids know I thought that :) 

Then one of my sweeties asked a question. Why do his eyes bug out? And the zoo gal said that was the best question anyone had asked so far. And she proceeded to tell us that when they have something in their mouth, the salamander pulls his eyes in (toward his mouth) to help crush whatever he's eating (like an insect) and push it down toward his stomach. His eyes are kind of like our tongue. Umm, double gross, but fascinating!

Next, she got out our state reptile - the ornate box turtle.

This was kind of interesting - as soon as she pulled him out of his container, he was trying to bite her and swipe at her with his front legs. But his back legs were pulled all the way into his shell. She said he has a hinged shell, so when he pulls himself in, he can be all contained. Other turtle just pull themselves in and hope to hide their softer parts. Didn't know that either. We got to touch the box turtle - that was quite mild to this teacher - especially compared to the salamander.

Now, the rather funny thing. Last year, we tried to have the zoo come out around Kansas Day, but we called too late and they couldn't come. But they did have a biofact tub that I checked out and was able to show the kids some animal pelts, bones, and a turtle shell, among other thing. When I got that tub home and opened it up, there was a fox pelt, complete with legs and everything. It was just too much for me. I couldn't stand to handle it and I didn't share it with the kids. Just a little too realistic - or reminiscent - of the real thing. Well, guess what was the first thing she pulled out of her biofacts tub. Yup, a fox pelt. Not as bothersome when she's holding it, I'll tell you. She also had an otter pelt, a coyote pelt and two skunk pelts. 

Man, I was going to tell you about tomorrow's activities - but this is longer than my arm as it is. I'll share over the weekend. 

Doing the happy dance because tomorrow is Friday! Are you too? 
Sara