Parent/Teacher Conferences

Conference time can be SO stressful.  I like to be super organized so that everything runs smoothly and it takes my stress level down a bit! :)  I use this conference form to show parents the kindergarten skills we are working on and to keep me on track during my parent/teacher conferences.

Click the picture to download a copy. :)  I did include a few different headers (fall, winter, spring, and just conference form) but unfortunately the skills can't be edited.  If you think you can use this, just click below!




Thanks for stopping by!

Guided Reading Lesson Plan Freebie

Hi teachers!

I posted this photo on Instagram the other day and wanted to share my Guided Reading Lesson plan template with you in case you would find it useful. 

Just click the picture below to pick up these plans!

Have a great evening!

Turkeys to Ten!

{Click the picture to download the freebie turkey pattern!}


Decomposing numbers can be tricky!  I always like for my students to see the relationship between the numbers before we start adding plus signs and equal signs.  I also like teaching decomposing numbers using the word "and."  This reinforces the idea that 8 and 2 make 10, & 2 and 8 make 10!  I always use the example:  "I like dogs AND cats" means the same thing as "I like cats AND dogs."  It doesn't matter what order the words are in, the sentence means the same thing.  This builds a solid foundation for later when we talk about the order of our addends in an addition sentence.

Happy Gobbling!

Guided Reading Organization

Organization in the classroom is SO important.  We know we shouldn't be wasting precious minutes with our kiddos searching for materials.  That is why I LOVE reading about how other teachers organize their instructional tools.  Today, I'm going to share with you how I organize my Guided Reading materials so I can see as many groups per day as possible (I have 5 groups and I see at least 4 per day).  

My five reading groups are the Tigers, Giraffes, Frogs, Zebras, and Monkeys.  I group them homogeneously by reading level (we use Dibels, Reading A-Z Benchmarking, and Star Assessment at my school).  Even if you don't use any of these assessments at your school, you can group your kids using any assessment!  One of the great things about Guided Reading is that your groups are always fluid.  You can move kids from group to group as they grow and change!

This is how I show my class who is in which group.  Easy to see and easy to change!

I store the groups' weekly supplies (books, reading tools, reading response sheets, etc.) in the matching group bin.

This chart is how I know which group to call over on which days.  This is an idea originally from Rachelle at What the Teacher Wants.  I cannot rave about her Guided Reading posts and items enough! 

Some of the leveled books I use are from our reading series, Journeys.  I also print books from Reading A-Z and Hubbard's Cupboard.  Those are great because the kids get to take them home!  For homework at the beginning of year, they had to create a Book Box at home to keep their paper books in.  That way they can read them over and over again at home!

 

I snagged this easel from a rummage sale for $2.00 and I use it daily!  I write our sight words on it before we read to prep the kids.  I also use it during guided writing or anytime I need to show something to the group!

Under the easel, you can see our whisper phones.  After we read the book together at least twice, the group whisper reads it to themselves while I observe for certain reading behaviors.

 

This is my favorite blue Ikea cart (that I think has been discontinued!).  The top shelf holds all the tools I use daily or weekly with my groups.  Some of these items include dry erase boards and markers, ABC charts (use EVERY time a group meets), work mats (stretchy snake, Elkonin boxes, tracking practice mats), ABC flashcards, and of course pencils and crayons!  Having all of these things right there if I need them makes my groups run so much more smoothly.

I also have my timer right there to ensure I don't spend TOO much time with any certain group. :)

 

Next to my group bins, I have two baskets that hold more tools for easy access.  This bin holds snakes and slinkies for stretching words, a CVC word maker, and reading highlight strips. 

The highlight strips help kids that struggle with reading multiple lines.  For example, a child that struggles with visual discrimination or one-to-one correspondence (even when "pointing") may have trouble reading this page. 

However, using the highlighter, the child is likely to be more successful in reading the page, and he/she won't be so overwhelmed.

 

This is one way we s-t-r-e-t-c-h out our words!  The snake was from the Target dollar spot awhile back.  The Stretchy Snake work mat is from Deanna Jump! 

This is another version of Stretchy Snake... Elkonin boxes.  You can use cubes or coins to allow students to segment the phonemes in the words.  If your group needs to work on phonemic awareness skills, you would use Stretchy Snake or the Elkonin boxes without letters (just use items to segment).  If your group is ready for phonics practice, you can have them write the letters they hear!

Here is another bin, full of pointers to help with one-to-one correspondence!  We also use the finger puppets to help with reading strategies. 

Here is an example of the "finger light" pointer!  The kids love this one!  (Vowel tracking mat is from Julie Lee!)

 

This is a bin that holds items I don't necessarily use every time I meet with groups. I store future activities in the colorful pouches.  This bin is still right behind my table in case I realize I need something from it during Guided Reading.

Some items inside are reading cues and questions...

more Elkonin boxes and CVC cards... 

 

and sight words (I pull out the ones we have learned or are learning and keep them in the Ikea cart!)

 

Here is a look at the area altogether!  We are adding our reading strategies to the wall as we learn them.  I love having everything I need organized and ready to go for my Guided Reading time!

 

 

Common and Proper Christmas Nouns!

Hi everyone!  Sorry about my lack of posts lately - if you are in year 3 of RESA I know you feel me when I say I have had NO time between that and actually teaching to do much of anything else!

I just wanted to do a quick blog post because I just finished and submitted my first RESA task (woo hoo!) and now I have some time to share a little something!

I've just introduced common and proper nouns to my firsties.  We started with this anchor chart...

 

I had the common nouns listed and we worked to turn them into proper nouns together.  After we did this together, I had the students go back to their seats and do this sort independently.  They did a great job!

 

Click below for this freebie!

Halloween Math Centers

Hi friends!  I'm here to share some math center ideas today. I hope you can use some of these in your classroom this fun/busy week! :)

 

 

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Students roll one die and then double the number.  They color in the picture of their sum.

 

 

Spooky Shake-Up

This is an idea I originally saw on First Grader, At Last!  I just tweaked it to fit our needs.  I'm not including this in my freebies since you can get a similar egg carton cover (along with other holidays!) here in Sarah Cooley's shop!

 

 

Spider Addition

This center uses black and orange spider rings that can be found at most dollar stores.  They grab a handful of spiders and write their addition sentence.

 

October Roll, Add, and Color

This was a center that I blogged about last week.  I wanted to upload it in case anyone would like to use it!

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

 

This is how we do it: Morning Meeting!

Hello friends!  I'm here for some "This is how we do it!" fun... all about morning meeting!

 

I love morning meeting because I am a huge proponent of starting every day on a positive note.  Morning meeting gives us a chance to gather together, say good morning, read, sing, talk, and have fun together.  Here are the different things we do during our morning meeting: 

 

Good morning song

The first thing we do after we gather together on the carpet is sing a good morning song.  I created a little booklet of fun good morning songs and we use it like a flip chart, turning to the song we'd like to sing for the day.  Sometimes I pick, sometimes I let them pick! 

 

If you would like to download our good morning song book, click {HERE!}  It is geared to first grade, but if you would like me to edit it to your grade, please let me know!

 

After we sing our good morning song, we say good morning to the teacher (and any other aides/adults in the room) and then to each other!

 

Morning message

After greeting each other, we read the morning message.  I like to keep it short and sweet, and usually ask a question at the end.  Some days I let them have dry erase boards and they write their answer down.  Other days (depending on time) we just discuss it.

 

 

(You can see the good morning song we chose for that day in the above picture!)

 

Poetry

Next, we practice fluency through our weekly poem.  This poem is from Caitlin Clabby's (Kindergarten Smiles) free poetry pack.  I get poems from many, many different places.  We read this every day for a week or more, depending on the poem.  We practice reading it fluently -- not like robots!  "Read like you talk!"

 

Read aloud

Next, I read a story aloud to the class.  This read aloud is usually a theme book.  We've been digging into our Halloween books recently!  We also just finished up a class book, "Bootiful Halloween Adjectives" that I plan on reading aloud soon.

 

Sometimes, instead of a themed read aloud, I choose a big book and we choral read it together.

 

 

After the read aloud, we normally do a little comprehension activity.  This can be as simple or as complex as I feel necessary.  Here's one we did earlier this week.  We read "The Three Little Pigs" and used a venn diagram to compare and contrast the story to our weekly story.

 

Calendar

Lastly, we do our calendar routine.  We don't do ALL of these things every day (I pick and choose based on what I feel we need to work on), but here are the things we focus on during calendar time:  singing the months of the year and the days of the week, reading our monthly words, talking about the season, skip counting, talking about the year, etc.

 

And that about wraps it up!  All in all, our entire morning meeting lasts about 15-20 minutes.  If we do a longer story/activity, we will have a shorter calendar time, and vice versa.  It's all about balance! :)

 

Did I miss any important morning meeting staples??  Comment and let me know how you do morning meeting!