Reading Trickster Tales

One great thing about my job: I basically loop with my locos each year.

One not always great think about my job: I'm constantly learning all new grade level subjects.

But, reading is reading. I love how even if the grade level changes, good reading skills will always be good reading skills.

I teach a mixed reading group of 3rd and 4th graders.

Currently we are working on my Trickster Tale Common Core Unit:

After some playing around with reading plus Daily 5 plus CRAFT - we have it figured out!

Opening - Always a CRAFT lesson that matches out standards for the week.

Mini Lesson - This is a reading and focus from my Trickster Tales - Common Core Unit 1. After we are finished with this one, we will move on to my (currently being finished) Unit 1

Work Period -

1) Work with Someone (Teacher!) - this happens every day for each student. they are strategy based groups working on the standards from the mini lesson.

2) Word Work - this is done in partners. It occurs for my lower students 3 times a week; for my higher students, 2 times a week. The focus is different for each group and they are partnered based on my phonics assessment (that I am working to bring to y'all).

3) Read to Self - Never enough time for this!

Maybe it's my OCD, but my students always have a graphic organizer or reader's response sheet to fill out as they read to self. Something like this:

click [HERE] to grab it from TpT.

 4) Blog Book Review - This is an extension of Reader's Response. My students work to develop a short book summary and then add it to our classroom blog (more to come about this!)

5) Fluency Practice/Listen to Reading - My students practice a poem 3x, then record themselves reading it on the computer. Afterwards, they listen back to themselves reading it. There is a short reflection to fill out about what they noticed and how to improve. They then record themselves a second time. But to balance this out, for every one time they record themselves, the next time they are are listening to a book on CD. Got to have a balance, locos.

How does everyone else work out reading centers??

**My usual editor/teacher/friend was swamped this week! Any 3rd grade teacher want to review my Trickster Tales packet with a fine editor's eye? Email me!**

5th Grade Fictional Narratives

So, to follow Common Core with fidelity (does any one else's district use this term... a lot?)

Anyways, to follow the CC, I have modeled 5th grade writing after the idea of spiraling through the genres.

If you haven't already, you can read a little bit more here on my post about 5th grade Writer's Workshop.

I have also created these questions to go along with the CC standards that I use when I am planning the lessons. 

They have essential questions to use while planning, but I also take them with me when I am student conferencing and working in small groups. You can check them out here. I have created them for all 5th grade standards here.

 So, we spent three weeks on our fictional narratives. Here they are to show-off.  I am a big believer in making my lessons and supplemental look fantastic. My 5th grade collaborator is a big believer in making classroom displays look phenomenal.  We are a very good match.

The frames are from Michelle over at 3AM Teacher.  I LOVE her stuff. I just bought her Trace Me A-Z Letters Clipart at TpT.

Since this was our first writing piece, our publishing options were limited. According to the student created rubric, to meet the standard, they had to rewrite their story to include all the revising and editing.

To exceed the standard, according to our student created rubric, they had to rewrite their story AND include "a little something extra".  That, my friends, is one of the reason I love my locos so much. A little something extra...

The locos decided that creating a book or creating a summary of their story would be a sufficient "something extra".

And last, the students self-reflected a glow and a grow from their writing.

A glow is something that the students are very proud about within their writing. This student said "I think I did a good job with Funky and Fabulous words." I love that term, I use it in every grade level.

A grow is something that the students identify as an area to work on within their writing. This same student said "To improve my fictional narrative by writing more dialogue."

Then the teachers get a chance to ALSO writing a glow and grow about their writing.

It's all about making them more aware of their writing, right?

You can grab this {HERE} to use.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Kinder Center and 5 Senses Freebie

One of the greatest joys of living in the South - a true appreciation of everything football. Did you catch my boys working hard yesterday against Vanderbilt? So proud, so proud.

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I was at Target the other day (don't you love stories that start with those exact words?)

So, anyways, at Target and I ran into this little item

And I thought, oh, that's funny. It's a picture frame AND a tic-tac-toe board.

And it's on clearance. 

I looked at it for a minute. It doesn't fit my style at all. But something was intriguing about it. So I walked away and went to the school clearance items.

And then it hit me. This would make a fantastic independent practice for my kinder ELL's during our groups. 

My kinder locos are working on letter recognition, so while I work individually or assess a student, I am going to have the others play tic-tac-toe. Each loco will take a turn, identify a letter, and then turn over the X or the O to mark that they said it. 

                            

THEN, my imagination when wild. Uppercase letters, lower case words, sight words, short vs. long vowel words, antonyms, synonyms.... oh the madness.

Thank goodness I bought all three that my Target in Athens had.

So I want to give away one to someone out there! I will even mail it to you. AND include what cards I have created by that time.

The giveaway will end at 11:59PM Wednesday, September 26th.

You can enter by:

1)following my blog

2)following my TpT store

3)blogging about the giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! Check back here on Thursday to see if you won!

Here is a sheet our Kinder's used to record what they found using their senses on a science learning journey we took last week.

Hope Monday is good to all.

New Schedule & Collaboration Freebie

So, I have had a lot of recommendations

pleas

suggestions that I take on a grade level blogging schedule. I completely realize that MOST of you out there do not teach all grades K-5th, so it would be beneficial for me to have a routine.

Imagine that - teachers enjoying a routine :)

So here is the new blog schedule:

Mondays:                  

Tuesdays:                

Wednesdays:          

Thursdays:              

Fridays/Saturday:  
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I wanted to show you all the Pirate Writing Unit we finished up today.

click {HERE} to see on TpT.

We started with a Tree Graphic Organizer and made our way to a Y chart.

And today we finished our corresponding craftivity. I'll share a picture of the completed writing later.

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I am often (also) asked about my collaboration.

Let me go ahead and tell you that NO, a resounding NO, collaborations are not always easy. Merging of teaching styles and teaching strengths/weaknesses is hard at first.

I believe in collaboration, especially for my English Language Learners (ELLs). 

This year I am collaborating directly with three different teachers (Kinder, 1st, and 5th). But I have collaborated directly with all grades.  The three teachers I am working with this year are all new collaborators to me.

I make a LARGE effort at the start of school to communicate with my teachers about their expectations, planning, behavior, etc. I want to walk in the first day of collaborating and push full steam ahead.

To accomplish this, I use a beginning of the year collaborator checklist. The teacher and I (and teaching assistant if necessary), go through the checklist, communicate, and then we sign.

I know it sounds silly, "sign it?!"

But I came to the point one year where the collaborating teacher and I were just NOT on the same page and my ELLs were starting to feel the effects. The checklist is what we referred back to remind ourselves of each other's expectations. In the end, the collaboration did not work out between us, and it became a pull out. But I think with that line of communication open, it was easier to have those conversations.

click {HERE} to grab it.

You are probably like - what does this have to do with 1st grade? Well, if you read between the lines, you will see what I thought of sharing this today when I thought of first grade :) 

Always a work in progress.

Kindergarten Writing Rubric & Freebie

kindergarten - writing

I have created a rubric a time or two.

But it has always been for the upper elementary students. And the students themselves have always been the ones to create the rubric, I just facilitated and wrote it down.

So when Kindergarten Team said THEY wanted to try some rubrics for writing, I laughed. Not in my head. and LOUD.

But, thank goodness I am not afraid to admit when I am wrong. 

 The rubric consists of three levels - one star, two star, three star.
**disclaimer: yes, I realize that it does not have a fourth star option (or a way in which a student can show he/she is exceeding). It's always a work in progress!

To model it, we drew a picture that was a one star. As a class, we talked about why it was a one star. Then, we talked about how we could bump it up to a two star. Once it was a two star, as a class, we talked about what would make it a three star.  The kids were INTO it.

For the work period, they went back to writing they had been working on and tried to take it up to a three star. It was amazing how self critical the students were.

entitled: Don't Give The Pigeon an Ice Truck.

If you look in the right hand corner, you can see the three stars.

We will keep using this rubric for the rest of the quarter, and create a new one for the second quarter of writing.

Here are some personal rubrics we are going to start using with the kids.

click {HERE} to grab it.

Kindergarten Common Core

This is my first year in Kindergarten - EVER.

I mean, no substitute teaching, no observations, no practicum placements - nada.

So I was very excited to find this:

A 600 page resource that covers Common Core for Kindergarten teachers. It's Kindergarten Common Core and you might need to check it out!

It includes Common Core worksheets for both Language Arts and Math. 

Worksheets are not normally my thing, but they can make for good assessments or extra/extension homework. What I am TRULY excited about is seeing what others think the standards look like and how they can be practiced. 

Hope it is helpful for someone else out there in the same boat!