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Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts

How I Use Rooted in Reading Units in my Classroom with How to Catch Santa

Have you heard about {Amy Lemons'} and {Katie King's} {Rooted in Reading} packs!? They are AMAZING!!
Our school has the Journeys Reading Series, which is fine but the activities in the Rooted in Reading packs are just more engaging! Amy and Katie provide so many activities for grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. There are many options for each story so you can pick and choose what will work for you and your class! I don't feel so bogged down with all the worksheets and just junk that we have to do for Journeys. 

This week we read {How to Catch Santa}. I had never read this book before, but it is a great read aloud for kids and perfect for this season! 
Vocabulary:
Each vocabulary word has a page for you to dig deeper into the word. I tried to work my dog Willy into each of my sentences and illustrations and the kids just loved it! Coming up with antonyms for some of the words was difficult... thank God for Google! 
We trimmed around the edges and glued them into our notebooks. I think next time, I would like to make a vocabulary book! There is a challenging vocabulary quiz that will help you assess too. 
Writing: 
This story had a sequence that went along with it. We worked on those transition words and I just loved how we practiced with random things then did the actual graded writing part(or the part I was grading anyways!) The random activities were making s'mores and making a PBJ. 
Students had to cut and glue the pictures in the right order. Then they had to use the transition words to write about what happened. They did SUCH a great job knowing when to use the words since they had a visual of what they were doing. My whole writing block wasn't full of groans or whines. It was just fun and made us hungry! After some practice, we started to get down to business.
Making a plan on how students would catch Santa was so much fun! They had some wild ideas. Santa just happened to actually be visiting our preschool that day. One of the teachers came in to tell the kids who was in the building...They FREAKED out! OMG MY PLAN IS OUT!! There was lots of rushing around to finish and put away plans. It was hilarious! 
Comprehension/Guided Reading:
Not only did we learn how to catch Santa, (BTW there is a comprehension quiz included too!) we also compared Christmas to Hanukkah! Katie and Amy put together an amazing informational text about both holidays. 
The kids loved learning about Hanukkah traditions. In our small town, there is not much diversity. It was nice to step outside of small town Indiana and show the students how others celebrate. 
Rooted in Reading comes with several interactive notebook activities. I have to confess, I rolled my eyes when I first saw this because I have NEVER been able to figure out how to incorporate these into my lessons...with Journeys anyway. They fit in so perfectly, we weren't rushed, they didn't even take long when we were rushing, and the kiddos loved doing them! 
We made connections between our own traditions at home and Hanukkah traditions. I really enjoy the weeks we skip a basil reading story and do a Rooted in Reading pack. If you are on the edge about spending the money, just DO IT! It is so worth it, for you and the kids. 
Not enough books:
Yeah, okay, I understand you can't afford to get a book for each student. I bought a teacher copy and used it on the projector. Cassondra typed up the words from the story so students could echo read the story and read at home. We didn't buddy read this story because it really isn't fun to read without the pictures. This story has amazing illustrations. Whether you decide to purchase the unit or not, you should FOR SURE purchase the book! Your students will LOVE it!!
Both gals blog about using Rooted in Reading in their own classrooms too, make sure to check out their posts(by clicking their names at the top of this post) and Amy's {FAQ about Rooted in Reading}!


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Boost the Writing Process in Primary Grades

Hey guys!  I want to tell you about my favorite writing product that is my lifesaver...basically every week! When I teach writing, I like to have a routine. This pack follows the writing process perfectly!
First, I like to have students practice stretching out sentences. This is a great exercise to help students create more detailed sentences. 
We do several together before I give them the little sentence and they stretch it themselves. My kiddos love seeing how many words they can get in their sentence. 
After brainstorming, which this pack has two webs to choose from for brainstorming, we move onto our rough draft. Students have to have a topic sentence, three details, and a closing sentences. These are labeled in the rough draft section. 
I also have an editing checklist that includes my sentence rules. We practice editing our pages with a colored pencil so they can see the changes that need to be made. Students can also make notes about their mistakes. 
I love his ciduve=kind of! Sometimes I like to grade their editing instead of the final piece. This helps me know if they are really taking the time to fix mistakes or just rushing through this part. 
These are available in my {TPT Store}!


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Welcome to my Classroom 2015

Well it's that time of year again...

We go back MONDAY. Yes, you read that right, Monday, this Monday, the one after tomorrow. That Monday. Usually I'm more than ready, but this year, I am one big procrastination! It's coming, whether I am ready or not! I better get prepared! I have been in my classroom working all week. Here is what I have so far! 
I added balloons to my classwork clips....One has already deflated, see the green one!? It must have had a hole in it. The desks are all set up with the name tags, books, and folders. If you look across the room, I still need to get my stability balls blown up! Our PE teacher is usually pretty helpful with that! I only have 16 kiddos this year, so far! I haven't had this small of a class in a couple years. It will be a nice change!
I also start the year out with Play-Doh. It makes dealing with supplies and incoming students so much easier. It's probably one of my favorite {Pinterest} ideas!
I'm doing my homework plan a little differently this year. When they turn their homework in to the tray(which is right below the last magnet strip), they will take their number and put it on the Homework Hero board. This will help me to take a quick check of who has or hasn't brought their homework. 
The Hero board is a pizza pan from The Dollar Tree that I spray painted gold last year. This will be my first year trying this, I'll keep you updated if it works!
I have a new "cool down" area in my room. I already know I have a few kiddos with strong emotions. I'm so excited that I was able to find a place for them to cool off when they need a break. The rug and pillow are from Ikea. 
Inside the tote are:
-{One of Those Days} by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
- 2 journals(for the 2 kids that may utilize the space most)
- crayons
- pencil
- eraser
- 3 minute sand timer
- two stuffed animals to comfort and squeeze
{Number of the Day} is a freebie in my store! 
I'm very proud of my subject areas that I have started this year. I tried last year, but I just couldn't make it work. This year, I nailed it! I am even letting them use one of MY(that was bought for them in the first place!) pointers! That is a big deal! 
This is my writing board. I think in the blank area I want to put what "Writer's Eyes" do, but I'm still looking for ideas. We have our "Fancy Words" at the bottom instead of taking up a whole board(even though it was super cute) like last year. Students can also keep track of which part of the writing process they are on. I am very excited to work this into our lessons!
This is about the same as my board last year, but I needed to add more prefixes and suffixes! I love {Melonheadz} clipart! My room is full of it! The pencil was made by one of my students who I was fortunate enough to loop with a couple years ago! He did wayyyy better than I would have! Oh! and see that princess light!? It is from the Dollar Tree too! When the light is on, students cannot talk to me, unless they are bleeding, barfing, or not breathing. This works amazingly during small group time! I just love it! 
So that's what I'm working with so far this year! There are a lot of changes from {last year}, and I believe they will better the flow of my classroom and the learning environment for my students. 


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Online Communication:Blogging in the Classroom

If you have followed me for a while, you know I am crazy about kids blogging in the classroom. I cringe with I see Facebook posts or other online articles written with poor grammar. I think blogging will help students learn the proper way to communicate online and help with their writing skills while doing it!
I have went on and on and on about the site {KidBlog}. I have blogged about in my summer {Techy Tuesday} posts, if you missed it, be sure to check it out! I have a great freebie about how to get started in your own classroom. 
We have finally begun our own paper blog in class!
I tried to make their paper blog look like the actual blog post page. The white sheets are their blog papers, the post its are the comments! Students must use a complete sentence in their initial post. Then the comments need to be more than one word. 
Some of my favorite comments:
Love the invented spelling!
They were so positive and loved making comments.
O.M.G i Love it. -what more can I say! 
If you want to start your own paper blog, draw it up on poster board. Then use my {free blog post paper} and gather up some Post-its! We began the week before Halloween and after Thanksgiving break will be going online, live! This kids and I can't wait!!


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Five for Friday! I'm Back!

Well after being computer free for a week, I am finally back! I don't know why it took me soooo long to figure out that I could just upload my photos to Facebook in a private album and save them to my husband's computer. I guess getting the time to do that was part of the trouble too! If you didn't know already, I spilled water on my computer and lost EVERYTHING! It's driving me crazy! But I finally am back on the blogging scene and linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for my Five for Friday!! Woo Hoo!
Click here to check out all the posts!

We typed our first writing assignment this week! I showed the students one time how to get into Microsoft Word, and that was all that they needed! They were totally ready to get started! I love how eager they were to type their papers. Our topic was from Amy Lemons. It was "  Things That Bug Me." This class was known for bullying and not getting along, so I thought a great get to know you activity was to find out what actually pushes their buttons. They loved getting their complaints on paper. Along with the writing they made little bugs! It was funny to see that most of the bugs ended up being bumble bees.

We began using our BUILD groups this week! Luckily I had emailed myself my BUILD notebook file so I had a copy of it at school. I will be telling you all about BUILD math groups as soon as I get a replacement computer. It is always more comfortable working on your own computer rather than someone elses, even my husbands!
I had to do some last minute tweaking so I quickly came up with my BUILD menu. I cannot wait to share how our groups work!
We started our science lessons this week. Cassondra and I are planning on doing STEM/Science with our students each Friday afternoon. We talked about phases of the moon, watched the Brainpop Jr. Moon video, and then we YouTubed the moon landing. The kids LOVED it. Their assignment was to make moon observations each night for a week. We practiced observing by going outside and just observing the front of our school. Not much was happening, but the kids came up with some really good stuff! They had to write a couple sentences and draw a picture of their observation. 
Unfortunately, Indiana has had some rainy, cloudy humid evenings. The kids only saw the moon maybe two times this week! BOO! We had to scrap the whole thing and we will try again another time. 
Our house is coming right along! The basement floors should get poured next week! I am so excited I cannot even contain myself!!!!!
Keep water away from your computers...
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Bring Online Communication into the Classroom with Kidblog


Let's face it. We all love blogging! It is addicting, fascinating, and just plain fun to do!Why not let our students blog!? I found a site through working on my Action Research project for my classes that is just AMAZING! (If you don't feel like reading it all, their is a YouTube video at the bottom that I have made!)

Kidblog is a safe, secure site where students, teachers, and parents can blog. Everyone has their own individual password and the teacher is the one who sets everything up. Kidblog also gives your blog a unique URL so you can make it easily accessible. (You could just have it as a QR code!  It is a very similar set up to Blogger. When you make your account, you can add your students and print off parent codes. The teacher also controls what kind of access each person has. You can also control the comments that can be viewed. 

When each person logs in,they choose from a list which name they want to log in as. This was something I wasn't all too sure about because younger students are not as careful when choosing and the mouse tends to slip too. Usually on the sites we use, the students have an individual user name, but all the passwords are the same. Since they do not have to remember a username, I thought about using the generic password we often use at my school along with their mailbox number. This way if they do slip and accidentally hit the wrong name, they won't be able to log in because the mailbox number will still be different!
Once  you are logged in, the screen will show a list of all the posts available. The ones that are new are marked, I just don't have any new right now! A post I wanted to add to this list( and will add when I begin
to use it in my classroom) is a Help post. This would explain what to do when students are not
sure or they forget which button to push. The posts are actually student blogs of their own! Each student can also make comments on each others blogs. This is a great way to get students to talk about their story with more than one word answers, and everyone has the chance to get a say!
When students make their posts, the page is very plain. There are not a lot of distractions and absolutely no ads that will get them off the topic! I really like that the publish button is the only colored one. This way students will easily remember which one they will finish with! Before the post goes live, the teacher has the ability to approve it. This is a great way to make sure students are staying on topic. When I begin in my room, I am going to not approve posts that are not on topic. This way students will want to stick to the main idea so they get posted!


The teacher can add media files for students to use in their posts! They have three options when adding media: computer file, URL, or media library. Everyone can access the media library. This is a super fun way to get students introduced to adding pictures or videos to their work.
There are also several different themes you can you to make your blog a little cuter! KidBlog does not allow you to insert your own theme, you have to use the ones they have created, unless you wanted to upgrade to the paying version.

So why would you want your students to blog?
I was hoping you would ask! ( I have been working really hard on my AR project!) Blogging will not only create a meaningful learning experience for your students, but they will also be super engaged in the task! Students always want to get on Facebook like their older siblings or parents to talk to their friends. This gives them a safe way to do so! Students will want to do well on their blog posts because their friends will be seeing them. They will increase their writing skills, vocabulary, and get more familiar with using a computer keyboard. 
*Gonna get professional for a sec!*
Let's face it, technology is not going away. Students are going to have to know how to communicate properly online. They will have to be able to e-mail their boss, fill out resumes, and prove that they can be professional. I want to start forming those good communication habits early. When students are posting that they have graduated, their post should NOT look like this...

Does that make you cringe as much as it does me!?!
I have created a letter explaining blogging to parents! All you have to do is stick your name at the bottom! 
Want to know how to get started?! Well, I have that ready for you too! I'm super into this blogging in the classroom:)




Click here for the parent letter!!
I also had to make a video about blogging for my class, so here it is! It was my first one ever, so I was pretty excited about it!




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