Guided Reading Literacy Work Stations

I am in the process of making Literacy Work Stations for my students to work on during guided reading.  I don't use the Daily 5 (gasp) because I prefer work stations.  I usually start the second week of school and I don't have to wait for my kids to build stamina in order to work independently for 15-20 min.  I am not saying that my way is better, but it works for me.

I meet with every reading group, every day.  I know I have said this before, but it is still true today: Guided Reading is the BEST part of my day.

I usually have one group (4-5 students) working with me, one group (4-5 students) at their desks working on an assignment, one group (4-5 students) at Literacy work stations, and one group (4-5 students) on computers and chrome books (I have 4 computers and 3 chrome books in my room right now.)  Depending on the number of students in my class, those groups could increase to 6.

My rotation poster looks like this:

Students working independently at their desks may be working on:
1.  a spelling or phonics assignment (early in the year)  Here's an example of us working on ai/ay ~ we did ai one day and ay the next day

2.  a writing assignment (later in the year)
3.  science or social studies activities
4.  math facts or more math practice
5.  or anything else that I need to do during that time

My early finishers usually read AR books and take tests or write in their journals.

My school still uses the Journeys reading series, but we are up for a new adoption this year and I have no idea what we will pick.

So, I am creating work station packs that are generic and can be used with any reading series.  I have Week 1 in my TpT store now.  I started with short a CVC words.  (while I am putting them in the order I prefer, they can always be rearranged according to your needs.)

I do not like to grade a ton of papers, so I have been putting the recording sheets inside reusable Write & Wipe pockets like the ones found  HERE.  Slide the recording sheet in the pocket, students write answers with a dry erase marker and erase when finished.  It saves me time (no grading) and it saves paper for those of you with paper limits.  I also use them at the reading table.  Here is a picture of my kiddos using them during guided reading:

I have also attached the TEKS and Common Core standards to each work station.  This will be helpful for anyone who has to attach standards to lesson plans, like me~😢.

Note:  I do not claim to be a Common Core standards expert, so if you see a mistake, feel free to give me constructive feedback.

If you are interested in checking out this pack, click on the picture below.  And if you would like more info on how I do my Guided Reading block, comment below and I will try to answer your questions in a future post.

Happy Teaching!

Christmas Gift Tags

 

I needed some Christmas gift tags for my students to put on their parent gifts and thought I would share.  The cute Santa is from My Cute Graphics.  There is a color copy and a black and white copy.  Click on the pictures above to snag yourself a copy. Merry Christmas!

TpT Sale and Brand New School

For the past year, we have been watching our new school being built and I am excited to say it is almost finished.  I will be teaching in that brand new building this year!  {happy dance!} 

This is the front of the building: 

My stuff all moved into the new room:

And more stuff:

After putting away most of my stuff, I started arranging the room:

The old furniture from the old school looked outdated and mismatched  so I painted it.   It looks a thousand times better. {I did realize that the older I get, the less I like to paint.  In fact, I decided that I HATE to paint.}

After painting, I had to do something fun so I decorated the front of my computer desk.

I also worked on my Focus Wall. 

I love the title and I made it using Amy Groesbeck's Editable Subject Banner.

I used Chirp Graphics Free Chalkboard Label Frames to make the subject titles.

I am planning on purchasing Creation Castle's First Grade TEKS Bundle of I Can and I Will Statements to display under each subject.  That is one of the many items already in my cart for the big TPT sale Aug 1-2.

Speaking of the TpT sale, all of my items are on sale as well.  Click on the link below to go to my store.  Be sure to use the code:  BESTYEAR when checking out to get the extra savings.

I will post more pictures of my classroom as I get it done. 

Happy Teaching!

Literacy Groups In Action

I thought I would share what is going on in literacy groups this week.  Right now, my literacy groups consist of 3 things:  phonics skill, reading, and sight word practice.  When a group comes to the table, we usually work on our phonics skill first.  This week, we are working on blends with r.  Today, students circled pictures that started with dr and fr, then they flipped over and circled the blend that each picture started with.

Then we read.  I have different groups reading different books based on their reading levels.  Below, you can see pictures of two different groups reading.  I have students read using whisper phones (that my hubby made- I used the directions from Priscilla at teacherificfun.blogspot.com.) This allows me to lean in and listen, intervene and question students as needed.  All the kids are engaged in the reading the whole time.

We also work on sight words.  I use the rapid response sheets that I made to go with our Journeys series.  You can grab those here, here, here, and here.

You can see the sight word rapid response sheets in the picture below.  I didn't grab a picture of the students actually reading those.

Literacy groups are actually the favorite part of my day!

Happy teaching, friends!