Take a deep dive into the common five structure options for your ELA block with benefits of each outlined in an informative and actionable manner.
In this post, I’ll share the components of my literacy block for second grade. I've also included some sample schedules for you!
Welcome back for the second part of my ELA blog post series! Today I am sharing all about my reading center routines and activities. If you missed the first post about my reading whole group lessons, you can click HERE to get caught up. Let me start by reminding you of my entire ELA block schedule. Center
Thanks for popping in to read the third part of my ELA blog series! If you missed either of the first two posts, you can use the links below to get caught up. Part One: Whole Group Reading Lessons Part Two: Reading Centers Today I am sharing all about my vocabulary instruction! Vocabulary instruction is
Let me see how close I am... You woke up this morning, made a cup of coffee, maybe scrolled through your Instagram feed read the newspaper...
Get advice on how to fit all domains into your reading block. Find tips for an efficient and effective Reading schedule!
Welcome back for the second part of my ELA blog post series! Today I am sharing all about my reading center routines and activities. If you missed the first post about my reading whole group lessons, you can click HERE to get caught up. Let me start by reminding you of my entire ELA block schedule. Center
Can I be really honest with you? Don't judge me, but I really hated teaching reading, writing and grammar during my first few years of teaching. I dreaded my ELA block every day. I found it boring to teach! I LOVE to read and write, but I felt like my lessons were causing my
October is here and we are gearing up for some fun, hands-on and engaging learning! We have you covered with NO PREP packets for: Preschool,
I receive a lot of questions about how I run my literacy block. At my school, our schedule is blocked out, but I have freedom to arrange my own blocks (if that makes sense). So my literacy block is 9:40 – 11:15, and this is what I’ve decided to do with it: We start right ... Read More about My Literacy Block
Check out a list of things to keep in mind when planning your ELA block that will benefit your students and make your life simpler & easier.
Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and their meanings. Teaching vocabulary consists of several things. 1. Expressing words through multiple meanings. Ex: fly (insect, something a bird can do, a way to travel in a airplane) 2. Giving students the tools they need to effectively communicate orally and in writing. 3. Kids need to be able to explain what words mean as well as understand what they mean. Research shows that students need to be exposed to words in multiple contexts in order for them to stick. Today I'll be sharing how I introduce new vocabulary words in my classroom. This post contains affiliate links. You can see my disclosure here. When introducing vocabulary I like to use the My Turn, Your Turn strategy. This comes from the book Word Nerds:Teaching All Students to Love Vocabulary. This model focuses on 6 things when introducing new vocabulary to students. 1. making predictions about the meaning 2. teaching parts of speech 3. give a kid friendly definition 4. discuss what they already know 5. use it in a sentence Here is an example of how it works. Teacher holds up a vocabulary card with the word bursting. •Teacher chants, “My turn, bursting. Your turn, _______.” •Students fill in the word bursting as they chant together. •Teacher claps the syllables as she slowly and carefully pronounces the word. •“My turn, BUR-STING, 2. Your turn, _________.” •They hold up the number of syllables with their fingers and say the number. • Teacher gives part of speech. • Discuss what you already know about the word. Turn and talk. • Use it in a sentence. Turn and talk. Example 2 •Teacher: All right, the next word for this week is My Turn, breathe, Your Turn, breathe. •Teacher: The word breathe has one syllable. Students clap and show with their fingers. •Teacher: The word breathe is a verb, so it is something that you can do. •Teacher: Ok boys and girls, what do we know about the word breathe? Turn and talk. • Teacher: Breathe is how air moves in and out of your mouth and nose-like an air tank. Model and have students do. •Let’s try it in a sentence, “I want to breathe some fresh air.” Can you try? Turn and talk. We repeat this process with each new word introduced and refer back to this method throughout the week. Once the kids have it down, I'll call on students to lead My Turn, Your Turn to review. I hope you can use this strategy in your classroom. If you are looking for more ways to to implement vocabulary into your classroom, you can check out this post about implementing vocabulary games into your classroom. You can also check out my vocabulary Pinterest board for more ideas.
40 read-aloud suggestions with FREE reading outlines to identify the grammar, comprehension, vocabulary, and phonics that can be taught using that particular text!
Check out a list of things to keep in mind when planning your ELA block that will benefit your students and make your life simpler & easier.
We’re at the point of the year where you know for certain if the things you set out to do this year are actually working or not. You dreamed up the way your classroom was going to run this summer, because don’t we all? You sorted your crayons out by color, because you had all of this glorious time.
In this post, I’ll share the components of my literacy block for second grade. I've also included some sample schedules for you!
Hey Ya'll! Do your kids love to learn by playing games? What if I told you that you could increase your students vocabulary by playing games that take 20 minutes or less? Vocabulary is something that is highly stressed in my district. It seems like each year, more and more pressure is put on us to increase students vocabulary. Today I'm here to share with you 4 easy games that you can implement into your class to increase vocabulary and make learning fun AND engaging! Kids should get excited about learning. Implementing games into our daily routine helps increase their learning when they don't even know it. All of these activities that I'm about to share can be used in a whole or small group setting. First up is Heads Down, Vocab Up! This is a game I like to have my kids play when I have a few minutes to kill before moving onto the next subject or when their little brains just need a break. It's super simple. Does your class like to play "heads down, thumbs up" or some call it "heads up, 7 up"? Mine do! Heads Down, Vocab Up! is just like that only using word cards. You can use any type of vocabulary cards you'd like. We play using sight words, compound words, contractions, academic vocabulary and more. Here is how to play: Pick 3-4 students to be it. Give each student picked a vocabulary card. Turn off the lights and the rest of the class puts their head down (NO PEEKING!) and their thumb up. The students chosen go around the room and pick someone by touching their thumb. When the teacher turns the lights on, those picked stand up and try to guess who picked them. Rather than calling out the students name, they must call out the vocabulary word that student is holding. If they get it right, they get to trade places and be it. If they get it wrong, they sit back down. Then the next round begins. You can also have your students tell the meaning of the word, use it in a sentence or give a synonym. This way it can be easily differentiated for various learners. When using academic vocabulary cards, I like have them say the word and their own meaning of the word. This is a simple review that can be done in 5 minutes or stretched out into a whole group lesson. Up next is a little game I like to call Word Speed! Word Speed is quick game that we play daily throughout the week. I do this with vocabulary and grammar skills mostly. All you need is some chart paper and makers. You could easily laminate chart paper and use dry erase markers to make it reusable. What you'll see below is bulletin paper from our workroom. Here is how you play... 1. Split your class up into 2 teams. (You can do more if you'd like) 2. Tape a piece of chart paper on opposite sides of the room for each team. You want them far enough apart where the other team can't see the others paper. 3. Write the topic you are covering at the top of the chart paper. 4. Time them for 1-2 minutes (sometimes this will be longer such as 3-4 minutes until everyone has a turn, but they think they only have one minute). 5. Each person write a vocabulary word and passes the marker to the next person. They are not allowed to talk while doing this. (The picture above, they had to write a pair of synonyms. They cannot write something that has already been written.) 6. They have 1-2 minutes to write as many words as they can. 7. When the time is up, the person holding the marker brings it to you. 8. I give each team one point for having the correct words. They race every day. On Monday-Wednesday, I do not count off for spelling. On Thursday and Friday, if a word is misspelled, I do not count it. This helps with preventing tie-breakers. 9. At the end of the week, the team with most points is the Word Speed Champ for the week! We play with a new piece of paper everyday so that they are able to use the same words. On Tuesday, I use the back of the page that they wrote on, on Monday. I kept a tally of the points on the board. I found that they loved this game so much, that they would go home and ask their families for words to use. Once the kids got into the routine of playing for various concepts, they would always ask if it was Word Speed time! Now lets talk about a class favorite that I use for multiple concepts. This little game is a BIG DEAL! It's called KABOOM! I blogged about this concept awhile back. You can read about it here. I'll do a quick recap. All you need to create KABOOM is popsicle sticks, a permanent marker, and a cup. Here's how to play: Color one tip of each popsicle stick. This end sticks out of the cup. Write a vocabulary word on each stick. You also need 5-10 KABOOM sticks. (For my academic vocabulary sets, I put 2 sets of vocabulary words that are 8 words each, and then 5 Kaboom! sticks. For sight words, I do a full set and then 10 KABOOM sticks. Place all the sticks in a cup with the colored tip sticking up. Students play rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. The first player draws a stick and reads the word. For academic vocabulary they must read the word correctly and tell the meaning or use it in a sentence. This is good for differentiation in your groups. If the student reads the word and uses it in correctly they get to keep their stick. If they read it incorrectly or use it incorrectly, the stick must go back in the cup. If they draw a stick that says KABOOM! They have to put all of their sticks back into the cup. This is a BIG DEAL ya'll! The player with the most sticks at the end of the game wins! I like to play KABOOM with academic vocabulary at the beginning of each small group. I can easily differentiate each question I ask based on each student to fit their needs. We also play whole group using sight words, parts of speech, and for various math concepts. This is a favorite during stations as well. I keep all of my games set up in baskets and the kids can easily grab a cup when they have time. All the other games I have created are stored and labeled in ziploc bags. Last but most certainly not least is my personal favorite, Beach Ball Vocabulary! I originally started playing this game with math facts and learned that I could use it for all different subjects. You can read my math fact post here. All you need is a beach ball and a maker. Write vocabulary words all over the ball in a random order. Here is how to play: Have students form a large circle around the room while you or another student stands in the middle. GENTLY toss the beach ball to a student. Whatever word their thumb (you can pick right or left) lands on, they must tell the definition, use it in a sentence, or give an example of. Then they GENTLY toss the ball back to you and you throw it to another student. The example shown above was played with antonyms. Students had to say the antonym of the word one of their thumbs landed on. For academic vocabulary, I have all of unit 1 words written on a ball, all of unit 2 words written on a ball, etc. This way they are getting review of words we have already learned. All of the games show above can be used with multiple concepts such as academic vocabulary, synonyms/antonyms, prefixes/suffixes, compound words, contractions, parts of speech, sight words and so much more. Use them cross-curricular for math concepts or science and social studies. I hope you can incorporate at least one of these activities into your classroom! My kids love them and I hope yours do too! Have a great day!
Hey hey there! I know that many of you are enjoying long and lazy summer days. I also know that many of you are still trucking away in your classrooms and my thoughts are with you! I wanted to give you some extra insight into Rooted in Reading and especially give you an idea of how I set up my interactive notebooks with my students. If you have NO idea what I am talking about when I say "Rooted in Reading" read THIS POST here to see all about the 2nd grade version. You can also look at the Bundle or the August unit by itself. Amy did an amazing job on the previews so we hope that answers a lot of your questions! If this is your first time using interactive notebooks, having them organized from the beginning can help you avoid a lot of headaches down the line. Most 8 and 9 yr olds need the extra help with organization (goodness my 34 yr old husband needs a lot of help with organization), and I think these notebooks will be a great way to scaffold this skill! Step 1: Clearly mark the covers of your notebooks. We always had several notebooks for different subjects so this helped lessen confusions. I have included a color and black and white cover that you can print on bright paper if you would like! Step 2: Print out tab dividers on Astrobright paper AND laminate. I promise the laminating step is key to having these bad boys last! Step 3: After cutting dividers out use clear packing tape to put your dividers into your notebooks. The order I chose was Anchor Charts, Comprehension Activities, Vocabulary Words, Daily Deep Dive, and Grammar. Before doing this you will want to think about how long you want to use the notebooks. I personally liked a notebook per semester so I would put enough pages between each divider to get me through the semester! I also suggest lining up the tabs so only the bold words stick out the side- cover up the cursive word with the clear tape. If you are using a standard size composition notebook AND all five tabs, you will also need to overlap them a little! Step 4: Glue in the book list to the inside of the notebook on the first page. Either one or two copies depending on how many books you plan on covering using this book. I LOVE this addition because I think students will love looking back over the list of books that they have so lovingly studied this year. I also think the genre column is a key component for test-taking skills! You can find all the materials I used in a freebie found in my store Here! If you have other great ideas for setting up notebooks, we would love to hear them! If you are on instagram use our hashtag "RootedinReading3rd" and Amy and I will definitely check you out! Phew now that we have those kids all set up, we can talk about YOU- the teacher! My personal favorite way to store my units is in binders. I spent a couple hours one morning and printed all four weeks of August out. I went a head and laminated my anchor charts and prepped the nonfiction mini-readers so the students can see an example. Don't they look pretty?!?! We even have binder spines for each books so you can feel extra organized! You can find everything you need for organizing your teacher binders in the freebie below from Amy! Other Blog posts you may want to check out to learn more about Rooted in Reading: 2nd Grade Complete Book List and Overview 3rd Grade Complete Book List Establishing a Kind Classroom with Picture Books September Rooted in Reading October Rooted in Reading Bats! The Rough Face Girl
As promised, I am here sharing my Reading Overview for the year! I've probably said this a million times before, but I still get asked this question a
Discover 10 things you need daily in your ELA block plus best practices including tips, objectives, and freebie downloads..
Hello darlings! Amy here from That Teaching Spark! When I teach spelling, I am often on the hunt for fun, yet practical activities for my students to practice their spelling pattern for the week. This year, I am meeting with my students in small groups to work on differentiated spelling lists. One of my rotations is called Choice. This is where students get the “Choice” of the activity they would like to complete. They are allowed to choose from a list of activities on their Choice Board. We glue these boards onto the inside cover of our Word Study Journals so students have them all year. (Freebie at the end of post!) At the beginning of the year, I introduce each activity choice and have students practice it. That way when rotations come along, I have a well oiled machine with students working independently. While I completely agree that activities such as these are NOT effective in long term application of spelling words, research shows that adding kinesthetic activities helps with memorization. I teach the understanding and the word pattern “rules” during my Teacher Rotation. A few Favorites…. I created the Michelangelo Spelling activity after our art teacher did a project with my kiddos about the Sistine Chapel. My kiddos LOVE taping their paper to the underside of their desks and “painting” like Michelangelo. Of course, they are just writing their spelling words, but it is incredibly motivating. My kiddos also love Ghost Spelling. They write their words on paper with a white crayon and then color over the crayon with a marker. It “magically” shows up. Another favorite of mine is Context Clues. Students must write a sentence with the word that is so detailed, that another student could figure out the word if the word was covered up. I use the little sticky flags for this activity. I wanted to give this Choice Board to you FREE!
Teaching theme and summarizing can be challenging, but with my tips, guides, and resources to help with your methodology, you can be successful!
I wanted to share a couple of anchor charts and some of the organizational tools I am using for the beginning of my current unit, Book Clubs: Books in a Series. I decided to use a hot pink star as a visual cue for my students. I placed hot pink stars on the baskets of series books in the classroom library. I added a hot pink star to the focus board to show students were studying a new unit, book clubs, but were still focusing our learning on following characters into meaning. Students will have their first book club meeting tomorrow, so check back for more details! Students use the following chart to help guide their Book Club conversations. Students came up with reading behaviors that demonstrate what Book Clubs look like and sound like.
Hey Ya'll! Do your kids love to learn by playing games? What if I told you that you could increase your students vocabulary by playing games that take 20 minutes or less? Vocabulary is something that is highly stressed in my district. It seems like each year, more and more pressure is put on us to increase students vocabulary. Today I'm here to share with you 4 easy games that you can implement into your class to increase vocabulary and make learning fun AND engaging! Kids should get excited about learning. Implementing games into our daily routine helps increase their learning when they don't even know it. All of these activities that I'm about to share can be used in a whole or small group setting. First up is Heads Down, Vocab Up! This is a game I like to have my kids play when I have a few minutes to kill before moving onto the next subject or when their little brains just need a break. It's super simple. Does your class like to play "heads down, thumbs up" or some call it "heads up, 7 up"? Mine do! Heads Down, Vocab Up! is just like that only using word cards. You can use any type of vocabulary cards you'd like. We play using sight words, compound words, contractions, academic vocabulary and more. Here is how to play: Pick 3-4 students to be it. Give each student picked a vocabulary card. Turn off the lights and the rest of the class puts their head down (NO PEEKING!) and their thumb up. The students chosen go around the room and pick someone by touching their thumb. When the teacher turns the lights on, those picked stand up and try to guess who picked them. Rather than calling out the students name, they must call out the vocabulary word that student is holding. If they get it right, they get to trade places and be it. If they get it wrong, they sit back down. Then the next round begins. You can also have your students tell the meaning of the word, use it in a sentence or give a synonym. This way it can be easily differentiated for various learners. When using academic vocabulary cards, I like have them say the word and their own meaning of the word. This is a simple review that can be done in 5 minutes or stretched out into a whole group lesson. Up next is a little game I like to call Word Speed! Word Speed is quick game that we play daily throughout the week. I do this with vocabulary and grammar skills mostly. All you need is some chart paper and makers. You could easily laminate chart paper and use dry erase markers to make it reusable. What you'll see below is bulletin paper from our workroom. Here is how you play... 1. Split your class up into 2 teams. (You can do more if you'd like) 2. Tape a piece of chart paper on opposite sides of the room for each team. You want them far enough apart where the other team can't see the others paper. 3. Write the topic you are covering at the top of the chart paper. 4. Time them for 1-2 minutes (sometimes this will be longer such as 3-4 minutes until everyone has a turn, but they think they only have one minute). 5. Each person write a vocabulary word and passes the marker to the next person. They are not allowed to talk while doing this. (The picture above, they had to write a pair of synonyms. They cannot write something that has already been written.) 6. They have 1-2 minutes to write as many words as they can. 7. When the time is up, the person holding the marker brings it to you. 8. I give each team one point for having the correct words. They race every day. On Monday-Wednesday, I do not count off for spelling. On Thursday and Friday, if a word is misspelled, I do not count it. This helps with preventing tie-breakers. 9. At the end of the week, the team with most points is the Word Speed Champ for the week! We play with a new piece of paper everyday so that they are able to use the same words. On Tuesday, I use the back of the page that they wrote on, on Monday. I kept a tally of the points on the board. I found that they loved this game so much, that they would go home and ask their families for words to use. Once the kids got into the routine of playing for various concepts, they would always ask if it was Word Speed time! Now lets talk about a class favorite that I use for multiple concepts. This little game is a BIG DEAL! It's called KABOOM! I blogged about this concept awhile back. You can read about it here. I'll do a quick recap. All you need to create KABOOM is popsicle sticks, a permanent marker, and a cup. Here's how to play: Color one tip of each popsicle stick. This end sticks out of the cup. Write a vocabulary word on each stick. You also need 5-10 KABOOM sticks. (For my academic vocabulary sets, I put 2 sets of vocabulary words that are 8 words each, and then 5 Kaboom! sticks. For sight words, I do a full set and then 10 KABOOM sticks. Place all the sticks in a cup with the colored tip sticking up. Students play rock, paper, scissors to see who goes first. The first player draws a stick and reads the word. For academic vocabulary they must read the word correctly and tell the meaning or use it in a sentence. This is good for differentiation in your groups. If the student reads the word and uses it in correctly they get to keep their stick. If they read it incorrectly or use it incorrectly, the stick must go back in the cup. If they draw a stick that says KABOOM! They have to put all of their sticks back into the cup. This is a BIG DEAL ya'll! The player with the most sticks at the end of the game wins! I like to play KABOOM with academic vocabulary at the beginning of each small group. I can easily differentiate each question I ask based on each student to fit their needs. We also play whole group using sight words, parts of speech, and for various math concepts. This is a favorite during stations as well. I keep all of my games set up in baskets and the kids can easily grab a cup when they have time. All the other games I have created are stored and labeled in ziploc bags. Last but most certainly not least is my personal favorite, Beach Ball Vocabulary! I originally started playing this game with math facts and learned that I could use it for all different subjects. You can read my math fact post here. All you need is a beach ball and a maker. Write vocabulary words all over the ball in a random order. Here is how to play: Have students form a large circle around the room while you or another student stands in the middle. GENTLY toss the beach ball to a student. Whatever word their thumb (you can pick right or left) lands on, they must tell the definition, use it in a sentence, or give an example of. Then they GENTLY toss the ball back to you and you throw it to another student. The example shown above was played with antonyms. Students had to say the antonym of the word one of their thumbs landed on. For academic vocabulary, I have all of unit 1 words written on a ball, all of unit 2 words written on a ball, etc. This way they are getting review of words we have already learned. All of the games show above can be used with multiple concepts such as academic vocabulary, synonyms/antonyms, prefixes/suffixes, compound words, contractions, parts of speech, sight words and so much more. Use them cross-curricular for math concepts or science and social studies. I hope you can incorporate at least one of these activities into your classroom! My kids love them and I hope yours do too! Have a great day!
I mean...why WOULDN'T you use cootie catchers in your reading block? It makes perfect sense. Ok - remember last week how I was talk...
In this post, I’ll share the components of my literacy block for second grade. I've also included some sample schedules for you!
Today we are talking all things SCHEDULES! We all know the challenge of “fitting it all in”. I hope that sharing our schedules with you helps you to find a schedule, an idea, or a way …
Are you ready for the first week of school? Last year I shared my ELA and Math Plans, and I made a few updates, so I wanted to share them again! You can click on the pictures below to download them
My favorite subject to teach is reading. I love meeting with small groups and listening to them read each and every day. I often get asked: "How do you meet with EVERY group EVERY day?""How do you f
Compound Words. I just LOVE them! They are so much fun to teach because firsties just LOVE them too. I introduced them last week using my anchor chart I created below. {I most always pre-make my charts for the purpose of introducing a topic} We also watched Dr. Jean's catchy song. My class this year is a singing group! We read the book Once There Was a Bull.... (Frog). This book is a great compliment to an introductory lesson as well. It gets the kids involved as they guess the second half of the compound word using the clues the book lends. In small groups we played a card match game. I wrote compound words on 2 different color cards and the kiddos had to match the two words together to make a new one. I put together a FREEBIE with all the activities mentioned in this post (minus the book and song). Click on the picture above to download. It includes: *anchor chart *center game *recording sheet Have a great week and happy {almost} Thanksgiving!
In today's post, I'll explain the differences between shared reading and a readaloud!
by Abc123is4me 1st - 3rd Grade A very simple graphic organizer to use with Common Core Standard: CCSS.ELA- Literacy. RL.2.1. Use i...
Upper elementary classroom tips and ideas with a focus on classroom management, student engagement, & cooperative learning.
If you're like me you've tried a lot of different schedules for your literacy block time. And no matter what you try, it's still a major scheduling challenge. Every year I'd try a new schedule or rotation system and it never quite worked like I planned. Why does it always look so good on paper and then fall apart once you put it into use???? I'd have one group that needed more time so I'd want to keep them a little longer, but that meant that another group would have to be cut short. I also had a hard time keeping up with the students at the centers because they needed varying amounts of teacher assistance. Finally one year I came up with a way to keep my literacy block very simple. It was one of those "Duh!" moments and it turned out to be the best thing for my third graders and for me! I called this TeRC Time . . . Teacher, Reading, Centers. Basically, the literacy block is divided into two parts: Independent Reading, and Centers. The students are also split into two groups. Make sure the groups are a good mix of ability levels. Also make sure that both groups have good models of behavior and work habits to follow. Group A works on independent reading first and then switches to centers. Group B is the opposite, working on centers first and then independent reading. During the Reading part of the schedule students read. It can be a book they choose for themselves or one selected by the teacher. They can also read with a partner or listen to a recorded story. During the Centers part of the schedule students work on the other activities or written practice. The centers can focus on any literacy skills or strategies for reading or writing. Students can work independently. with a small group or with a partner. During the entire literacy block time the teacher calls small groups to meet with her. Regardless of where the students are at the time, reading or at centers, they put away their task and join the teacher at the reading table. When their time with the teacher is finished they return to their reading or center activity. While the teacher works with small groups or conferences with individual students the rest of the class is either reading or working on a literacy center task. This puts more responsibility on the students because they have to pace themselves to complete their tasks by the end of the week. If they are called to work with the teacher during their center time then they may have to complete that center work the next day. Students are also responsible for completing any assignments given in the small groups. This should always be their first priority when they leave the group. To sum it up: (click to download this graphic.) Click to download Fridays are a “catch-up” day. The teacher, generally, does not call small groups. It’s a good day for the teacher to also catch up on conferences or work with students who need reteaching of skills/strategies presented through the week. The students have the time to finish the reading and center tasks for the week. If they finish everything then they can have more reading time or perhaps play a literacy game. I hope you'll be able to use a few of these ideas to use during your literacy block time and Keep It Super Simple!
This is the second week of the Reading in the Wild book study! Several amazing bloggers are sharing how they arrange their Reading workshop. Here is an outline of what my Reading & Language Arts weekly schedule looks like. We have a large block of time in the morning, where we do mini-lessons, vocabulary, grammar, and Daily 5, […]
Wanna know what is funny? EVERY grade in our K-5 school is in the middle of an informational text unit RIGHT NOW. Totally by coincidence or teacher think-alike? Not sure. All I know is that our librar
Organization, storage, and planning tips and strategies for your guided reading groups, including lesson plan pages and anecdotal notes printables.
I love that my students love to write! They are so creative and come up with some of the best story plots with all the right elements. But there’s just one thing… They tend to overuse the word said when writing dialogue. I often get multiple stories with “he said”, “she said”, I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. Or even worse, they use the wrong synonym for said when conveying a feeling or an action. Does this sound familiar? Don’t worry! Stick around, and we’ll talk about how to break up with this bad writing habit for good. Teaching students to write and punctuate dialogue doesn't have to be hard!
Today I'm going to to be talking all about setting up a Writer's Notebook, which can be easily implement at the beginning of the year...
Helping K-2 Teachers Like You Save Time, Grow Instructional Skills, and Teach With Confidence!
After wrapping up suffixes last week, this week was all about prefixes. We kept our focus just on prefixes un- and re-. I wanted to pop in real quick and share a few freebies with you all. Most of o
I suggest a schedule for your 90-minute literacy block that can be used in kindergarten, first, and second-grade classrooms. I break it into three parts 1) whole group phonics instruction 2) small group instruction and 3) whole group language comprehension. I explain what specific literacy skills should be taught in each part of the 90-minute block. Finally, I leave you with a FREE downloadable 90-minute literacy block planning template.
