Word Work

We have started training for the Daily 5 and the kids are loving their choices for practicing their spelling words during the word work time.  I added more choices this year and this is what I have for it:

1. 

I found these colored pencils that write in a combination of colors.  They were at Dollar General for $1.  I don't know what it is about the kids this year, but instead of asking if they can use markers on stuff, they are asking if they can use colored pencils.  They were thrilled when I showed them these because not only are they colored pencils but they have a variety of colors when you write with them.

2.  

Gel Pens-these were at the Dollar Tree (I love the Dollar Tree).  They are like neon colors when they are on paper so the kids thought they were cool.

3.  

This was made by Gracehopper on TPT.  So, I printed it off and put it in a plastic sleeve.  

4.  

This could be one of my most daring ones that I've done this year.....yikes.   I'm pretty controlling and like to play things safe so this was a tough one for me.  It is a zip lock bag with washable paint in it.  It is sealed tight and the kids use their fingers on it to practice their spelling words.  We had a very long discussion about how to care for these and I will say that they have done very well with them.  

5.  

This was another daring one for me, but probably easier for me to do than the paint.  It is just some sand in the pencil box.  The kids love this one as well and no messes so far.....fingers crossed!

6.  

OK, the final and most popular one.  I didn't expect the kids to pick this one as their favorite but this is the one that is done the most.  They take a white crayon and write their word.  They can't see it because it is in white and then they use their marker to color it in and the word magically appears.  When I showed them, they thought it was magical.  Many said that they went home and showed their siblings and parents this trick.  Here is the end result:

I hope you are having a relaxing Labor Day!  Enjoy the rest of your day!

Five for…Saturday!

Happy long weekend!

Or for some of you…happy last weekend before you head back to school! ;-)

It has been a crazy couple of weeks for me, so I was beyond excited when I realized I actually took more than enough pictures to link up for Five for Friday over at Doodle Bugs.

1

I had to start with this one because it made me laugh so hard...

I challenged the class to practice bucket filling, so we drew names. This little sweetie…well, let's just say the person she had was doing everything BUT working hard this week. ;-)

2

I'm sorry if pictures of feet gross you out, but only a teacher would understand this...

At some point while teaching 1st grade social studies, I hurt my toe. I have no idea what I did! I just remember it hurting.

I pressed on--afraid to lose my students' focus.

Kinders come to me right after that and I was reading them a story, thinking, "Ouch! My toe really hurts!"

I looked down to find it covered in blood.

Again, I pressed on, knowing the Kinders need no distractions from the teacher. Ha!

The Jamberry wrap was holding my nail together. Ugh! 

Whatever I did broke the nail about halfway down my toe. OUCH!

And the picture…well, I took it an hour later to send to my hubby. That's how long it was before I could get away to clean it up.

3

Ignore the janitor cart in the background, but I put our "Screech" (cheater words) words around the door so we could practice as we were lining up. Now I just have to remember to refer to them often!

4

Word Work!

We only have one more Daily 5 "station" to learn next week--Listen to Reading. 

Then I hope to start Daily 5 rounds the following week. I'm just not sure how it is going to go with this bunch I have this year…

I may not be able to do it where I meet with each group every day this year--the way I've done it in the past.

We'll see…

5

 Here's a couple of samples of our artwork from this week:

These color wheel umbrellas were inspired by a pin I found from Color It Like You Mean It.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Most of my other pictures were already shared on Instagram. You can follow me there by clicking the button in the upper right sidebar. 

Enjoy your long weekend!

Small Groups - How is it going?

Well, if you've followed our blog for any amount of time, you know that this is our first year launching the Daily 5 and that we have combined this structure with our reading curriculum - Treasures. Kristi and I are now teaching what would have been "whole group" lessons to our small groups during the Daily 5 and we are loving it!

We've already learned a few things and made some adaptations along the way...

 

Check it out:

This is my small group table all set up and ready for tomorrow morning. I take my high group first thing, so I always leave a little list for them to start on while I quickly take attendance. In this case, they are re-reading our main selection (we read it together today) and working on their selection test. Then we will start on Thursday's lesson.

Folders! While I don't think all the worksheets that come with the curriculum are necessary or valuable, there are a few that I like to have students do (selection test, frequency word cloze activities, etc.). I found that I had stacks of worksheets and was having trouble remembering which group had done them and which hadn't or just remembering if we had to stop in the middle of something. I had to check my gradebook and make myself sticky notes. I had a brilliant idea - at least I think so! :-) - and made these folders today - colors match my "teams" and inside are the worksheets I think are valuable enough that I'd like to have time for this week. I also put some blank paper in there so I can take notes if I need to remember something about that particular group. Super excited about these!

This may be my favorite D5 update. Kristi and I tried the clip chart thing and it just was not working for us. We now have these posters and the kids can easily see what they are doing each round. We also took away the power to choose - I know shame on us - don't tell the Daily 5 police. It took entirely too long...and we had some "requirements" anyway. They have to do Read to Self and Work on Writing daily. Their choices were Word Work or Read to Someone and if they chose one on Monday, we made them choose the other the next day and so on and so forth. It is so much easier to have it up on the posters for them to check each morning. 

Word Work - We have spelling books with our Treasures series and handwriting books. When to fit them in? Here is our solution - again don't tell the Daily 5 police. We put 5 pages up on the board on Monday. The kiddos know that all 5 pages must be done and correct so they can do Fun Friday. Our suggestion to them is to do at least one page before moving on to Word Work activities. We also give them time throughout the day (i.e. after math).

 

Next week, we are going to do our Unit 1 Treasures testing. We like to have these to show at conferences. So our plan is to kick off Listen to Reading. I know the kids are going to love it!

 

Whew! Glad there is not really any Daily 5 police. We might be in trouble! :-) That being said, it has been great for the kids - which is what we wanted.

 

Have a great evening!

 

Crystal



The talk of the morning...my new hair color (it was blonde). We had to have a little chat to avoid the later questions of "What happened to your hair?" LOL! Kids are so funny. :-)



 

Word Work

We are so excited about the Daily Five that we just started in our classrooms this year.  So far, it is going great!  We have introduced the read to self and work on writing.  Next week, we plan to launch word work and read to someone.  We were curious about the word work and wondered what others were doing as activities for this part.  Would love to hear about the things you are having your kiddos do during this part of the Daily Five.

Hope all of you are starting your year off great!  Kristi