Two of the Best Websites on the Internet for Early Elementary Teachers!
http://www.jmeacham.com/
http://teacherweb.com/MI/CentralElementarySchool/MrsBainbridge/apt1.aspx
These websites and others are what inspired me to make my own website. I thought it would be way too much work. It is a lot of work, but I will love having all of my "stuff" at my fingertips when everything is said and done! Thank you to Mrs. Meecham, Mrs. Bainbridge, and all the other fabulous professionals for their wonderful sites and all the terrific ideas!
To Get More Info on the Following Subjects, Scroll Down
Teacher Websites
Writer's Workshop
Spelling
Reading
Books
Math
Science
Social Studies
Homework
The bolded titles mean that subject information is complete. Websites I just added, and I will continue to add to it! Science and Social Studies will be added to during the school year as fun things come up!
Teacher Websites
Visit Kid Safe Sites for more!
Teacher Resources
http://www.teacherprintables.net/index.html Many cool printable awards and graphic organizers. It's all free!
http://www.mrsmcgowan.com/1stgrade/firstsites.html#1 A website full of other first grade class websites!
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/ Many resources for different subjects.
Reading
http://www.sharonmacdonald.com/environmental-print.aspx Many ideas for enviromental print activities for Kinder and developmetally lower First Graders.
http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do If you want to see the level of your books, you can check here on scholastic.
http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/studentCenterActivities.htm If you need help with ideas for teaching the big 5 (Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension)
, they have fabulous centers and ideas to use in your class. FREE!
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/stacker.html Chicken Stacker is a fun game for the kids to play that focuses on medial sounds in CVC words.
Writing
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/bookcover/ Students can make acover for their own book or as a book report for a book they have read!
http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/concord/teacherlinks/sixtraits/sixtraits.html Each of the 6 traits has information, ideas, and printables to use in your classroom.
Math
http://www.mrsmcgowan.com/math/moremath.htm#Center for lots of hands-on ideas to use with math centers.
http://www.mathcats.com/explore/factfamilycards.html for fact family cards to use in math centers. I made a couple sets in different colors so different levels can use the color at their level.
http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/math/ for math worksheets.
http://www.eaieducation.com/530609.html for pattern block stickers (to purchase). Use with the "Shape Sticker" worksheets below. Also checkout their shape stamps!
Theme
http://www.teachersclubhouse.com You need to pay for this one. It has different things to use if you are going with a theme. I downloaded several pirate themed papers to help simplify my life and pull my theme throughout my room! It also has several theme ideas!
Writer's Workshop
Information on Sources
I do not feel like I am an expert in writing. It has been something that I wanted to improve upon so I started searching the internet, and I found very little! Mrs. Meecham's site was the one that I used for a lot of lessons and ideas.
The thought behind connection writing/journal writing came about through what I learned in this book by Katie Wood Ray, What You Know By Heart (see picture below). I first got the idea about keeping a journal from Jade Radcliffe who told me about Katie Wood Ray's books and ideas in her trainings.
What is Writer’s Workshop?What is Writer’s Workshop?
-Mini-Lesson (5-15 minutes). A short lesson focused on a single topic
that students need help with. You don’t need to give a mini-lesson each
day; 2-3 times a week is usually just fine.
-Status of the Class (2-5 minutes). A quick way of finding out what each
student is working on.
-Writing Time (20-45 minutes or more!). They write. You can write and/or
conference with individual students or small groups.
-Sharing (5-15 minutes). Writers read what they have written and seek
feedback from their audience. You can share your writing, too.
What Writer's Workshop Looks like In My Room
The student's get ideas from 2 sources in my room: Journals and Writer's Notebook
Journal:First thing in the morning, after they have put away their communication folder and their backpack on their chair, my students get out their journal. The journal is a "composition book". In the first few weeks of school, they learn the expectations of their daily entry - where the date, picture, and writing goes, no markers, how to move from one page to the next, and how much they should write. Everyone should be working on their journal during journal time. They write about something that is important to them. It could be something that happened to them the day before or that morning. It could be something they are going to do. They use all year long. This is what they do while I check communication folders, take attendance, and put out those morning "fires" that need atttention! :)
Writer's Notebook: Sometimes I will read a book to bring about a connection to the students. I want them to make a connection to self or to text. I choose books that have themes common to the students in my class. Before I read, I let them know that I want them to listen closely to the book for something that reminds them of themselves. They are so egocentric that starting with text-to-self connection is going to be the best. I try to read with my best storyteller voice to really grab their attention. Afterwards, I have everyone sit with their eyes closed and think about their connection to the book. As a large group, I ask if anyone wants to share their connection. We listen to a couple of people. We pair - share (everyone pairs up and shares with a friend). I usually ask if there is anyone who still doesn't have a connection. They stay at the carpet with me while the others go to start writing their connection. I ask the kids on the carpet if they had a connection to anything that the other kids discussed. If they are still without a connection, we go through the book looking at the pictures and pointing out some things that may give them a connection. Everyone keeps writing/drawing their connection until I ask them to stop. I get kids that say,"I'm done." I look at their writing and ask questions that I have as a reader about what they have written or I ask them to draw a picture of something to help them remember their connection later on. I walk around and see how the writing is going. The first couple of times, I try to be up at the front of the room modeling writing quietly during this time. Afterwards I share the process outloud with the class of how I thought about what I wrote, and how I wrote it. These connections go into their "Everyday Folders" that have a "Writer's Workshop" section. Writer's Workshop section has a personal dictionary and "H Brothers" picture after the connection writing.
Prewriting: Our journals and connections act as "story seeds" or brainstorming. Students can browse through both to see what they would like to elaborate upon to start a book. If an exciting event like losing a tooth or the birth of a sibling has occured, I allow for that as well! We use a variety of graphic organizers. Our favorites are word webs and 4 square. I explain that these don't need to have complete sentences - they could even have pictures. I want them to get their ideas on paper.
Rough Draft: They write the story on a piece of paper. During a minilesson, I like to model leaving spaces between the lines. Then I edit and revise so they can see how that extra room allows for that. After they have written it, they need to read it to themselves. How many times do you write something, and when you read it, it sounds all wrong? Kids need to know that we all do this!
Share with a Friend: Part of revising and editing is having another set of ears to hear it. If something doesn't make sense, they will probably ask questions about that part. The students make corrections to conventions or to the story itself based on the help of a friend. We have writing buddies. I choose these buddies based on ability and on personality. I first choose buddies on reading ability. After I get to know the students, I will take personality and writing ability. I want to put students together that work well with each other. I model for them what sharing with a buddy looks like during a minilesson as well as during conferencing. I use positive feedback and then pick something for them to focus on in the story. After they improve their story, they have another reading.
Revising: I talk about "naked stick people" when we discuss drawing. It gets their attention because I say naked, but it starts a conversation about details. "Just like our pictures need details so do our stories..." is something I might say when introducing the idea of details in stories. Revising is done when sharing. It can also come about during conferencing. Hopefully, it begins to happen on the students' own as they start to re-read and listen to what they wrote.
Editing: When editing, we use the pencil editing tool from Mrs. Meacham's website. I introduce it step by step using Mrs. Meacham's minilessons. She has everything needed for the large in class pencil and little pencils for the kids. When they meet with an adult, we mark "C/S/P" on their paper. "C" is for capitals, "S" is for sight words, and "P" is for punctuation. We put the number of errors that we see under the letters. The student goes back to find the errors and make corrections. This year I found fun sunglasses at the dollar store that I am thinking about making them the "magic editing" glasses! Let's face it, editing is the least glamorous part of writing!!
Share With an Adult: We had an aide last year who really helped me with this. I am going to try to get a parent volunteer during this time to train and help. If they are going to rewrite it, I make sure that all the sight words that should be spelled correctly are spelled correctly and all the sounds of the other words are there. I want to help without making it mine!
Publishing: At the beginning of the year, this is done by rewriting, NEATLY, on papers bound into a book. They sometimes draw the picutres first. It is their book. In the front or back cover, they place a paper that they fill out about themselves that I attach their picture. Second semester, we work on how to use word in computer lab so that we can use the computer for writing stories. If they are typing it on the computer, I see what they need to be successful typing. They learn that the red line underneath a word means it is misspelled so they will fix it. They cut the words off the paper and glue them onto pages with pictures. They make cover pages and title pages in addition to their story. A parent or I bind these on the machine.
Sharing: Give them a chance to share their work with their peers. I have had a flashlight hanging from the ceiling in the past to let them have the "Author's Spotlight". Afterwards we give "snaps" to the author to show that we liked it. It is just a fun and different way to respond. The author can ask 3 questions from the audience. The audience also gets to ask 3 questions.
Conferencing (Status of the Class): This is something I am working on this year. I created the worksheet (taking the concept from Jennifer Jones) to keep track of what the student has demonstrated, what they are working on, and when I met with them. This goes in their green writer's workshop folder (a file folder) that they keep in their Everyday Folder. They also have a copy of our writing poster steps that I have listed above. They bring this with them when we are conferencing. I will have 5-6 at a time come to my table. I will pull them over with me while the others work quietly. I will have them read their work to me. I will praise them for something I see done well, and then I will give them something to focus their attention. The focus could be penmanship, conventions, ideas, organization, or anything that needs some work. I note the postive giving it a grade of 1-4, and I also make a note of the area on which to work. I will have 24 students this year and we will have writer's workshop 4 times a week. On the 5th day, we go to the computer lab which is part of writing most of the time.
Resources
A great website for the kids to use to remember the writing process is in the Kids' Safe Sites section.
The www.Jmeacham.com website has the pencil editing tool, many great minilessons, and the mini-office.
http://www.mandygregory.com/StartingWritersWorkshop.htm has some great ideas on Writer's Workshop with lessons!
Files that I use for Writer's Workshop can be found below. I will add to this as I get back in school!
The punctuation file below is a lesson plan on "stop dots" using Mrs. Meacham's pencil editing tool and a couple of her lessons as well as some additions from me. I used it for my formal observation this year. The whole school is focusing on writing.
I will add some pictures as soon as I take some! :)
| conferencing_worksheet.doc |
| punctuation_-_observation.doc |
Spelling
Information on Sources
A couple of years ago, a friend and co-worker, Laurie Decker introduced me to Words Their Way. I encouraged my team to support it. After seeing what a cool assessment (the spelling inventory in the back) it had as well as what was best for students, we presented our case to the administration. Our principal supported our decision as it was research based and seemed like a logical way of teaching spelling.
What Spelling Looks Like In My Classroom
We use Words Their Way for our spelling program. You only need to purchase the one book to start the program. There are other books in the series that support teaching the different stages, but those can be purchased later.
The program looks at each child's developmental stage in spelling. The students work on just the area where they are "using and confusing". The homework and class work consists of sorts and spelling rule recognition. Students need to learn how to use a rule so they can spell many words rather than learning how to spell one word or 10 as the case may be sometimes. It takes some training of administration and parents on NOT having spelling lists.
My first grade team works together on spelling. We all start with giving the assessment that is located in the back of the book. The assessments range in age appropriateness from kindergarten to high school. We get together and look at all of the assessments. We start with the lowest scores and work our way up. Last year, we had 5 classes so we could split into 5 groups. This year we have 4 classes so we will split the groups 4 ways. We try to keep the lowest group the smallest. This helps us to differentiate while only having to focus on one spelling rule per group!
We meet 2 days a week for 1/2 hour each time. We also give spelling homework to all the kids in our own spelling groups. During spelling, we have mini lessons, and we play Sparkle, Swat It, Racecar, or other spelling games as a whole group. We also try to give a spelling test using the rules that we are focusing on during the quarter to see if review is necessary or if the group is ready to move on. At the end of the quarter, we assess again. Before the next quarter, we make new groups.
I would love to hear from someone who makes this work on their own in their classroom! I like the team effort, but I would like to offer another idea for those who don't have a supportive team. We can also support this because we have block times for Language Arts. We also have specials at the same time so we can plan together, too!
Reading
Reading in my class happens throughout the day in many different ways. I read aloud for lessons and for fun (modeling fluency). The students read during guided reading with me. They listen to books on tape and read along. DEAR is after lunch.
Last year, we had "DEAR" - drop everything and read. The students could read whatever they had in their book boxes or their backpacks for 20 - 30 minutes. They needed to read in whisper voices at their desks. If they were following directions, I would call their name and tell them to pick a place to sit. This meant that they could sit in the boat or in the big comfy chair or wherever they may feel comfortable. This quiet reading time provides the students to try out their reading skills. They need this uninterrupted to focus on reading and thinking. This year I might change the name, but I don't know what to change it to. If you have a fun name for it, let me know! This year I am going to conference with about 4 students during this quiet reading time everyday. They will read a page or a portion of a page to me, and, like confencing with writing, I will have positives about their reading as well as a skill on which to focus. I will also have them log their reading to help with accountability.
Book boxes are magazine files. We purchase ours from IKEA. They sell white cardboard files 5 for $2.99. The students get them a few weeks before school when we do beginning of the year assessements. The letter I give them explains how to decorate it. Their leveled readers that they read with their reading group as well as leveled readers they pick out of my leveled library go into the book box. I also allow any books that they have written to be in there as well. Books from home and AR books are kept in their backpacks so they have them at home and at school. We use the boxes throughout the year. I have only needed to repair a few at the end of the year.
Books
Classroom libraries are important to a teacher. The students need books that are interesting to them to encourage their reading!
Where they are in my class: This picture shows my classroom library. I have labels for the baskets that they go in as well as on the books themselves. I also have some books that don't belong to a theme that stand together on the shelf. There are a couple of files below that can be used on large mailing labels that you can add your own icons for your own library. I cut up the smaller ones for the books. The baskets were purchased at dollar tree 2 years ago. I just found some at Target in the dollar section (Jan 09). Keep your eyes open!
Once school gets back in session, I will add pictures of the two other areas I keep my books.
Where to get books: Scholastic book clubs is the best for easy access to current new books. You can use your points from the students book orders to get books for the classroom as well as resources.
At our school we have "coyote trees" that PTO sponsors before Christmas. The teachers get laminated paper Christmas trees outside our classroom doors that we cover in little paper coyotes (our school mascot) with gift ideas for parents. It may seem weird, but think of it as registering for gifts. This way parents know what we want. I always put a couple of books from the top of my wishlist. I usually get them for the end of the year because it takes them awhile to find them!
Amazon and Ebay are good for hard to get or used books, but be careful. Sometimes their prices + shipping and handling is too expense! I usually can justify paying a little more for a book I really want but have a hard time finding. My current book that is in that catagory is Hungry Thing. It is very pricey because it is out of print. I am still hoping to find it somewhere else!
I try to keep running lists of books that I would like for research, lessons, or fun! Fortunately, my husband has a love of books too so we scour some of these places to find our books together!
Garage sales have a lot to look through. If you don't normally garage sale, eliminate a lot of looking by asking specifically for what want - children's books in general, Dr. Suess, etc. If you limit it to children's books, even though you are looking for just one type of book, you still may surprise yourself with a fun find that you weren't expecting!
Bookman's is a large used book store in Arizona. We go through books that we don't want anymore, well my husband does. They will also take computer parts and old video games as well as DVDS and CDs. We take our stuff to the counter when we first go in. They don't usually take everything we have. They are looking for certain stuff. We go look around. The teacher resource books are on the other side of the children's department. I always look at my list of books before I go so I know what I want. Once we have our books we go back to see how much trade we have. It is fun! I have a family this year whose professor grandpa gave me his $100 in trade! We have one in Mesa. Check the following website to find out more: http://www.bookmans.com/253.0.html. Not in Arizona? They are trying online shopping,but it takes you to Amazon. Ask around for something like this in your area!
My all time favorite used book sale - VNSA sponsors an awesome used book sale the second weekend in February here in Phoenix at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. All types of books are for sale. With the children's books, up against the wall, they have teacher resources. Their claim is to have more 600,000 books for sale. I could definately believe it! My mom, husband, and kids go at 3-4 am in the morning. We drink hot chocolate and tea, and we talk until they open the doors at 8am. Yes, it has rained one year, but we have golf umbrellas to stand under! There are always people ahead of us, but we usually get in at the first wave. Teacher carts are best for putting books into because they don't take up that much room. They have shopping carts there. If you are lucky enough to get one, as I was one year, they are hard to get down the aisles! For more information about it check this website: http://www.vnsabooksale.org/. Not in the area? This one is worth coming to Arizona! :) Shipping from the sale is available! My friend, Ann, who refers to herself as "thrifty", goes the next day when things are picked over, but the books are HALF off! I always tell parents about this event just to give them a heads up on quality books for reasonable prices, and one year, a parent gave me money to spend at the sale!
My Daughter at the VNSA Book Sale
| 5_little_monkeys.doc |
| froggy.doc |
Math
I have always been frustrated with doing whole group lessons for math. I felt bad for the kids who were very capable and desperately wanted to move forward. They get bored! I felt bad for the kids who seemed to struggle with an idea because I couldn't slow down. I needed to keep the pace moving! I wanted something more. I wanted to do math centers. I tried last year, but I didn't like the way I did them.
This year, our district didn't purchase our math workbooks. This made us all rethink how we do math. Then we discovered that we had online acess to the math workbooks. Since I only have 4 computers in my class, not all the students could work on this at the same time. I thought this is the perfect time to start centers. I came up with a plan for math time that is easy to implement.
I have 25 kids in my class so I decided on 7 groups. That keeps them in small groups of 3 to 4. I have them rotate through 7 centers. I use a timer which I don't do for guided reading groups, but it is necessary for these centers. Some of the centers are playing greater and less than on the 100's chart, Swat It with math facts, War with playing cards. All of those take little to no prep. All of those can be changed a little each week for a different twist on the same games. Manipulatives can be used differently depending on what the students are learning. Centers that I have for every rotation are: computers, math journal, mountain math, and Meeting With Mrs. B. It takes two days to go through a rotation because of the time. I am working on a chart that will show the flow for the kids. When I have it made, I will take a picture and display it here. They are at each center for 10 minutes. (The center chart pictures are below.)
Our assistant principal, Mr. Berkshire (not a close relation), introduced us to "Backward Design" at our last PD day. I thought since my team choose to work on math this year as our focus, we could use the backward design in our planning. What it entails is starting with what you want your end result to be. I looked at our chapter 2 test. I gave my class a pretest using the end of chapter test. Our math program has pretests, but they don't cover everything on the chapter. I decided to use the multiple choice test since it would be easier to grade, but we soon discovered that some kids are good guessers! :) This next chapter, the pretest will show the work and their answers. Once we have the results from the pretest, we look at what each student knows and in which area they need to be taught. I made a excel spreadsheet to show the results. I had some students that only missed one problem on the pretest. I went over the one area, and then they took the test. I put them in groups according to what they missed on the test. I geared their practice worksheet packets based on those results as well. We are still trying to figure out the computer worksheets and tests.
When they come to "Working With Mrs. B.", they have their math packet that they are completing. I go over the lesson with the whole group, we do a few problems together on the worksheet, and then they finish on their own. I have them there for 10 minutes. The faster students can fly through the worksheets with little help. I am able to give the one on one that the struggling students need so much! I really like it and so do the students!
I will put more information up here as I refine things. I have only done this for 2 weeks. It is a work in progress. The kids are telling me that they love math centers!
I am thinking about using a lot of this next year, but in a workshop format...hmmm?! I need to think about it.
| math_time.doc |
| math_chapt_2_pre_test_no_names.xls |
Centers
The picture above is turned to the left. The blank squares on the left are where the students' names are written with a dry erase marker as groups change often. The center labels are on the right. They have magnets on the back and move when the bell rings. Below are the two files that I made on print shop for the center chart.
| math_centers.pds |
| math_centers2.pds |
| ten_frame.doc |
Geometry
My kids always love learning about Geometry! They know their shapes, now they learn an important name for them as well as solid shapes and line of symmentry.
Below are the worksheets to use with pattern blocks. The students learn how different shapes can make other shapes. They can draw the shapes on or they can be used with pattern block stickers (see websites above for information on purchasing).
For one of my centers, I use the papers below. The students put the pattern blocks on first. They remove a shape and replace it with a sticker. Once all the stickers are on they tally up how many they used of each. I try to have each student in the group working on a different paper so they don't copy off of each other. Once the whole class has gone through the center, we look at the ones that are the same page and compare. For example, I would put all the form 1 pages up for the students to compare and contrast. I would repeat with the other forms.
| shape_sticker_form1.pdf |
| shape_sticker_form2.pdf |
| shape_sticker_form3.pdf |
| shape_sticker_form4.pdf |
Science
More info soon to appear!
The "lab coats" in the picture are white pillow cases. A neck and 2 arm holes are cut out with the pillow case opening by the legs. Lapels and pockets are drawn on. This year, Mrs. Knight, one of my awesome mom helpers cut and machine stitched the openings. They look soooooooo nice! I will put pictures on here of the ones she made as soon as I take some pictures.
Social Studies
More info to come!
Homework
I don't like homework packets for several reasons. First, a lot of trees have to die needlessly to get all that paper! :) Seriously, it does take a lot of paper. Our school gives us one box of paper at the beginning of the year and one box after Christmas. I get donations from our parents, but we all try to make wise choices with what we are going to copy. I also talk alot about being "green" so I need to walk the walk! The second reason for not liking homework packets is either "one size fits all" or it's a lot of work differentiating! My third reason is because when a student misplaces or ruins their packet, another packet is needed thus more paper is wasted! Sometimes part of the packet is missing. Finally, I want something that is going to reinforce skills that the students really need!
I have done the calendars before, and I like them, but for kindergarten. I feel that first grade needs to take it up a notch! This is especially true in our neighborhood that expects their kids to be doing more.
This is what works for me: I assign homework quarterly based on what I see the students need. I send home one sheet of paper with their homework notebook (a spiral, one-subject notebook). Parents can split it into three sections or do all weekly assignments together. The homework gets turned in on Friday. I correct them over the weekend. I return the notebooks to them on Monday. Below is an example of the first quarter homework. (See parent page for current homework.)
| first_qtr.doc |
These are skills that students need to have "drilled" into them to get it! This is the perfect activity for the parents to do at home. This allows for differentiation. I test the kids on sight words at the beginning of the year so that I know how many of the first 75 sight words they already know. I send home a copy of the assessment so the parents know what they still need to know. We do timed math tests called "Math Blasters" that the kids love! I really think it is the name. Their corrected test that comes home shows the folks where the focus needs to be. When they get 100% on a math blaster, it goes home with a blank copy of the next test attatched to it so they know what is next.
Journal writing helps with so many things - writing, reading, spelling, and creative expression to name a few! Notice that on the 1st quarter, I have 3 different levels. I had special needs students last year that couldn't put together a sentence at the beginning of the year so I started them at their level, labeling. Other students were able to write more. This year, I may not need that first level. I will post it in the parents page!
| 2nd_qtr.doc |
On the kids safe sites, I have some math sites for practicing math facts that students can use at home. The students love being on the computer in a game setting to practice math facts. The ones that love a challange can see how fast they can do the problems, and it is a competition with themselves!
This year I will also add Aunty Math to homework, also on the kids safe sites. The students will start this 2nd quarter after we have tried a couple in class!
| 3rd_qtr.doc |
I will get the fourth quarter homework from school and post it here to show how it changes because I notice that my students need more work on the writing process. I think I will start this in the 2nd quarter this year!