Captions

Today we learned about captions.  I read the book shown below because it was rich with captions and because we will be learning about Johnny Appleseed next week.

 

I then made an anchor chart drawing a picture and putting captions in.  (I did not show you a picture of the chart because . . .well, let's just say it was subpar.  As soon as we discussed the chart, I flipped the page.  I did not want a grown up to pop in my room and even get a glance at it.  That's how bad it was.)

 

I gave each child six white labels and they went to their desks and got their journals out.  They drew a picture (I told them to draw whatever they wanted) and then they added captions.

 

 

If you can't read the first child's picture, it says:

This is a snake.  Snakes are poisonous.

This is my daddy.  He shoots snakes.

This is me.  I am scared of snakes.

 

 

I also had them glue the definition of a caption in their journals.  I took pictures of their journals before we glued the definition in.  You can grab yourself a copy by clicking on the picture below.

 

Happy Teaching!

 

No Interruptions Please

One of my goals every year is to figure out how to run reading groups without any interruptions from the students who are at centers or working at their desks. 

One idea I ran across was from a video I watched on Teaching Channel.  The teacher tells her class not to interrupt unless it is one of the 3 B's:  burning, barfing or bleeding. You can check out her video HERE.

I recently made this poster to hang close to where I do reading groups.  Students can see it and hopefully be reminded that they don't need to bother me during reading groups unless it is something really important like one of the 3 B's.   (you can grab a copy by clicking on the picture)

 

 

I also wear a purple necklace (like the one pictured below) that I picked up at our local dollar store.  I got 5 of the necklaces for $1.  My students know that if I have the necklace on, they are not to interrupt the reading group.

 

We are now on our second week of reading groups/centers and a handful of my little firsties are still working on not interrupting.

 

I would love to hear ideas that work in your classroom that help minimize interruptions.

Journeys Series Reading Assessments

I have had a ton of email questions wanting to know what I use for assessments with the Journeys reading series.  This is the main complaint I am hearing:
Students cannot do the tests independently because they are too hard.

The vocabulary that they put on the tests does not match the story vocabulary.  They haven't learned those words yet unless they walk in your door reading on a second grade or higher level.  Some of the answers are too long for beginning first graders to read.  They get tired and frustrated.

The assessments that are included in the "Grab-and-Go" resources are broken into:  phonics, comprehension, and vocabulary.  If you do all of these, you have used at least 3 pages for each test (some of them are longer.)  The paper copying starts adding up. 


I created an assessment pack to address these issues.

 

 

Here are examples from different stories that give you an idea of what is included in each assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each assessment has 13 bubble in questions:
4 questions using the phonics sounds for each story
6 fill in the blank question using the “words to know” vocabulary
3 comprehension questions about the story
(Answer Keys are provided in the packet)

The vocabulary on the tests I created matches the story vocabulary and does not included vocabulary they haven't learned or that is not decodable.   If your students can already read the assessments in the reading series independently, then this is not the product for you.

This is the third year I've taught this series, and I am just now starting to feel comfortable teaching it.  Hang in there!

{You can click on any of the pictures above to check out the pack in my TpT store.}

Football themed Noun and Verb Activity

It's football season again and football is big stuff in my small Texas town.  This is an activity my first graders love!  I am posting about it again because I have had several requests for the patterns for this activity.  You can read exactly what I did with this activity in a previous post HERE.  You can grab yourself a copy of the patterns by clicking HERE.

 

 

 

Happy Teaching!