Word Study FREEBIE

Freebie day number two! 

Over the past year, I have worked very hard to develop lesson plans that are explicit, because in all of my absent and scatter mindedness I have no hope of staying on topic with my kiddos! 

I was so lucky last year when Mrs. A started working at my school, because she and I plan very similarly!! It was wonderful to have someone to help plan throughout the year.

I am giving away one of the Word Study lessons that we created last year, in hopes that it can help some of you other bloggers! There are undoubtedly some typos in this, so please forgive me. This Word Study unit contains daily lesson plans for two weeks.Within the lesson plan is a fluency passage, onset and rime game, three different levels of student word lists, a student journal, and much more!

I would love to know what you think! P.S.--This will only be a FREEBIE until I post again tomorrow! So get it fast and spread the word!

How do you record your lesson plans?

Jillian

Three Ways to Read... a Daily Five FREEBIE

Hey bloggers! How has it been going?

I have been implementing the Daily Five with my class these past two weeks, and wanted to share a little something I made with my kids. On the first day of Read to Self, we talked about the different ways to read a book. One of my super trendy, super sweet little girls suggested that I make a poster that matched the rest of our room, instead of hanging the anchor chart paper!

After laughing at her gumption, I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea! It didn't take too long, and I love that we got to make it as a class.

Any who, if you would like this cute reminder of the three ways to read a book, it yours... FREE!! If you like it, I would love for you to leave a comment and tell a friend about my blog!

Also, check back tomorrow! I am going to post a FREEBIE everyday this week in celebration of the HOGS first home game this weekend! WPS!

Jillian

Surviving the First Week of School

I always forget just how difficult the first week of school is. It seems that no matter how prepared I am, it is still difficult!

This year, I had a unique situation with my class, in that 10 of my students are new to the school. Because of that, I wanted to make sure that I did plenty of "Get to know you" activities, so that my students could both get to know each other, as well as our classroom and school. I wanted to include some of the things I did this week, in case any of you guys wanted to do similar activities with your kids!

• "All About Me" poster--My students and made these the first day of school. I had my students draw a picture of themselves in the middle, but you could also take a picture of your students and paste it in the center. My students really enjoyed getting to share about themselves with their table buddies, and it was a great way for me to get to know my new kiddos. 

• "Beach Ball Madness"--I got a beach ball ($0.75 at Wal-mart!!) and wrote "get to know you questions all around it. We tossed the ball around the room and answered the question that faced us when we caught the ball. I think we had more fun tossing the ball around than we did answering the questions, but it was a great activity for building community. I asked the students to call the name of the student they would be tossing the ball to. 
• "Microphone Mania"--I put my students in pairs and had them make microphones out of black construction paper and aluminum foil. I then had the students interview each other and record their answers. I tried to partner the students up so that they were with students that were not in their class last year--it worked out really well!
• "Classroom Scavenger Hunt"--I created a scavenger hunt of things I wanted my students to find in our classroom and they had to go and find them. I added things to the scavenger hunt like 1.) If Miss Martin asks you to to keep your voice on Level 2, what does that mean? 2.) Find two books from the Historical Fiction basket and you might want to read. 3.) List one example of an expectation from the "Be Respectful" rule, etc. This activity helped me guarantee that my students know where all of our classroom expectations and rules are, as well as other helpful things in our room. 
• "Time Capsule"--I am super excited about this idea! My students and I created a time capsule yesterday, in which they answered questions about themselves, such as their favorite food, color, etc. I put their answers in a box and we put in at the top of our closet. We are going to leave it up there for the entire year and look at it at the end of the year. It will be fun to see how they have changed!

What kind of things do you do with your kids at the beginning of the year?

Jillian

Open House and a New Blog!!

Mr. Whimsical and I returned from our trip to Kansas City yesterday right before my Open House, so needless to say, it has been a busy 24 hours!

At the aquarium

Boulevard Brewery :)

Sporting Kansas City soccer game

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Mr. Whimsical was such a trooper and was so helpful! Even though he drove the entire way back from Kansas City, he was still willing to come to my classroom and help me with finishing touches. He's such a great guy :)

Overall, I would say Open House was a HUGE success! I am so excited about all of my kiddos and parents! Out of 23 students, 10 of my students are new to our school--talk about crazy!

I added a couple of things to my Open House routine for my students, to make them feel welcome and keep them entertained while the parents and I talked.

1. My third graders from the 2011-2012 school year made crayons for the new students. I found a super cute cake mold from Target similar to the one below. We used my students leftover crayons for the year, and ended up having a lot of fun making these cute little presents! 
2. I also created a Classroom Scavenger Hunt to help my students become more familiar with our room and with the students in our room. I'm adding the scavenger hunt I used in my room as a Freebie. If nothing else, you will be able to use it as a reference for your own scavenger hunt! My kids really enjoyed doing this last night, and my students really got to know each other. SO exciting!

If you get a chance, I would love for you to check out my very best teacher friend's blog Sensational Seconds. I am very excited that she decided to start her own blog, and know that you will love it!! It's so hard starting a new blog (as I am still doing), so please stop by and show her some love!!

Hopefully I will find time to blog again soon, so I can share some fun lesson freebies. 

What do you have planned for open house? What fun activities do you do at the beginning of the year with your students?

Jillian

Class Schedule Quickie

Hopping on for a quick minute to post my class schedule!

I am so, so, SO excited with how our schedule turned out this year, though I have spoken to some other grade level teachers at my school and they are not as excited about their schedule...

	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY
8:00	ARRIVAL	ARRIVAL	ARRIVAL	ARRIVAL	ARRIVAL
8:00-8:10	FAMILIAR READING	FAMILIAR READING	FAMILIAR READING	FAMILIAR READING	FAMILIAR READING
8:10-8:30	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON ONE	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON ONE	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON ONE	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON ONE	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON ONE
8:30-8:55	DAILY FIVE ROTATION ONE	DAILY FIVE ROTATION ONE	DAILY FIVE ROTATION ONE	DAILY FIVE ROTATION ONE	DAILY FIVE ROTATION ONE
8:55-9:05	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON TWO	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON TWO	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON TWO	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON TWO	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON TWO
9:05-9:30	DAILY FIVE ROTATION TWO	DAILY FIVE ROTATION TWO	DAILY FIVE ROTATION TWO	DAILY FIVE ROTATION TWO	DAILY FIVE ROTATION TWO
9:30	COMPUTER LAB	LIBRARY	P.E.	ART	MUSIC
10:10-10:25	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON THREE	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON THREE	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON THREE	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON THREE	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON THREE
10:25-10:50	DAILY FIVE ROTATION THREE	DAILY FIVE ROTATION THREE	DAILY FIVE ROTATION THREE	DAILY FIVE ROTATION THREE	DAILY FIVE ROTATION THREE
10:50-11:05	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON FOUR	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON FOUR	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON FOUR	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON FOUR	DAILY FIVE MINI-LESSON FOUR
11:05-11:30	DAILY FIVE ROTATION FOUR	DAILY FIVE ROTATION FOUR	DAILY FIVE ROTATION FOUR	DAILY FIVE ROTATION FOUR	DAILY FIVE ROTATION FOUR
11:30-12:00	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH	LUNCH
12:00-1:00	SCIENCE	SCIENCE	SCIENCE	P.E. 12:10-12:50	SCIENCE
1:00-1:30	RECESS	RECESS	RECESS	RECESS	RECESS
1:30-1:40	NUMBER TALK	NUMBER TALK	NUMBER TALK	NUMBER TALK	NUMBER TALK
1:40-2:00	MATH MINI-LESSON AND CGI PROBLEM	MATH MINI-LESSON AND CGI PROBLEM	MATH MINI-LESSON AND CGI PROBLEM	MATH MINI-LESSON AND CGI PROBLEM	MATH MINI-LESSON AND CGI PROBLEM
2:00-3:00	MATH CENTERS	MATH CENTERS	MATH CENTERS	MATH CENTERS	MATH CENTERS
3:00-3:20	GRAMMAR	GRAMMAR	GRAMMAR	GRAMMAR	GRAMMAR
3:20	Pack-up	Pack-up	Pack-up	Pack-up	Pack-up

Sorry it's so HUGE!!! I don't know how to make it smaller! 

I am thinking for my D5 rotations will go like this: 

1. Mini-Lesson One--Reading
2. Mini-Lesson Two--Fluency
3. Mini-Lesson Three--Word Study
4. Mini-Lesson Four--Writing

I may change it up and do writing first, then word study, then reading, then fluency... that way I can ask students to work on a specific concept for writing that day and call students to conference throughout the D5 rotations. 

What do you think? What do you class schedules look like??

Jillian