The debacle of taking grades.... I know some teachers that take a grade on EVERYTHING. Meaning, everything the kids do, they take a grade on and put in the "gradebook." I can't do that. BUT, I do use everything as an informal assessment. I used to have these nice, LOOOOOONG, drawn out plans for small groups. I was really proud of my plans for my small groups. But, then I realized I was missing out on some great teaching opportunities because I HAD to do those plans. lol Well, I decided to try something new and I've "thrown out" those lesson plans and started using our work throughout the day as a "telling" for what I need to do for small groups. I do it for both reading and math - if I see there are a handful of kids that are having trouble with a concept, then I will pull them back. Or if it's after I've already done my small groups, then I will do it for the next day. OR, if I have almost an entire class do it?? Then it'll just be a whole group lesson. Here - I happen to have an example from this week, that I actually took a picture of. Last week, when we were doing Sarah's er, ir, ur pack, I used one of the activities as an informal assessment, which will lead to my vocabulary lesson next week... They were doing the word sort, and I noticed that almost EVERY person did this...... SO, I'm guessing that they don't know the words "lurk" or "smirk" - lol. So, I will be using those two words as one of my vocab words... well, the correct spelling of lurk anyway - ha! Click the pic to down load - and there are "directions" for box for in the download for ya. In case you were wondering where I got the spelling activity - it came from Sarah Kirby Let me tell you, I will own ALL her word work packs eventually! lol In fact, this week we're getting ready to use her /oo/ pack. She has some really great ideas in them! There are certain people/sellers that have year-round activity packs...and I have them ALL Like Kathy Law's Color By Codes Sailing Through First's Super Sentences Yvonne' Math Journal Prompts and Anna's Math Journal Prompts Katie's Busy Teacher Denise's Printables Pack Lisa's Monthly Thematic Graphic Organizer and now Sarah has been added to that list. Also, this week, we've been working really hard on our 3-digit numbers, especially with all the skills in my Numbers Every Day pack - and as we've been doing it, I've been making a few tweaks....I just uploaded a revised version - go snag your updated version if you've bought it! I've actually been updating a lot of packs lately - you've seen the Thunderstorm pack and my Bear Snores On pack that I've recently updated. Next on my list to do some major updating are some of my first packs.... Don't forget - tomorrow is the big TpT Super Bowl Sale! (the extra percentage is only on the 3rd - but my store will still be on sale for the 4th) Make sure when you check out you put in "super" as the code to get the extra 10% off my sale prices! Here are few of my favorite things :)