Guided Reading Plans

I am not a fan of writing lesson plans.  I love teaching and thinking of ideas but actually writing plans down is not something I do well.  I keep changing my plan format because I need something easy to fill in but comprehensive.  I decided to search in my new favorite search engine {pinterest} and found this format:

(Click the picture to be taken to the product)

I like it for a lot of reasons.  First, it is so easy for a sub to follow which is important! Second, it is pretty much a checklist so it's easy to fill in but I have room to write in discussion questions, vocab words, and my own teaching points.  I will also add an assessment and objective to the plan.  Third, the format follows the guided reading routine that I use in my room which is nice :) Finally, I needed a plan format that isn't super "cookie cutter" like many checklist formats.  This one changes for each reading level (I'm assuming she used Fountas and Pinnell's contiuum of literacy to make this) so it is customized for each students level.  

The pack also includes a sheet for observing behaviors at each level so it's easy to track progress.

I bought the A-N pack for $5 and am very happy but in my search, I also pinned a bunch of plan formats so head over to my pinterest boards to check them out if you're interested!  

Candy land

Did you go black Friday shopping?  I did but I didn't go early this year because I didn't really want much.  One thing I did get was Candy Land which I turned into letters and letter sounds candy land :) 

I simply wrote letters on all of the cards - capital and lower case.  I also labeled all the pieces and box with the number 1 because I may make different games too.  

To play, students will have to identify the letter before moving.  You could also have them identify the letter and letter sound or a word that begins/ends with that sound. 

I bought four candy lands (I figured I'd come up with a ton of ideas if I only bought one).  I'm thinking about writing sight words on one set AND making a place value one.  Students could round the numbers or write them in expanded or word form.  You could also do math facts and whoever answers first can move to that color.  The possibilities are endless!  Please comment with your ideas!!  

Update: Mel from Seusstastic  has a bunch of Candy Land ideas!  Thanks Jennifer for letting me know!

I'm Thankful For

I am thankful for all of my followers and all of the teacher bloggers out there who are sharing wonderful materials and ideas.  I feel like I say this a lot here but your blogs and products have been a life saver to me! It is not easy to keep up with a blog while teaching so thank you for your time and dedication.  If you are like me and you sitting online looking for some fun filler ideas for this short week, I have a freebie for you!  

Click on the picture to download the writing paper.  There is a black and white version too.

Have a great short week everyone! 

Pumpkin Book Reports

This week my littles worked on their pumpkin book reports.  I used this amazing file from Hope King for all the materials.  My students LOVE to read.  Just as a reminder, I have 7 second and third graders who are reading between non readers and level F.  I let them choose whatever book they wanted but I did pull some easier readers out for students who wanted a smaller selection to choose from.   I did book talks for the books I pulled out.

Once the books were chosen, the students read them with me or an aide - several times.  Not all at once, but throughout the two weeks.  I wanted to make sure they knew the story extremely well.

Then we had hurricane days so instead of spreading this project out over a few days, we did it all on Halloween.  Here is our hall display:

I have more pictures but they all have my students in them. 

Every.Single.Teacher stopped in to say how adorable these pumpkins were.  If you haven't done this project, you should!  

Book sale

Every year, my area has a giant book sale. They open a huge warehouse filled with books. Anything $10 or less becomes $1. $13 -$10 is $2 and so on...my point is everything is super cheap! Look at what I got for $36:

  

That is 13 hardcover Patricia Polacco books! I was freaking out everytime I saw more and throwing them gently placing them in my bags.  Here are the other books I bought as well:

And finally, I bought 2 baby books.  2 of my 3 siblings are having babies this year (one was just born :D) so I grabbed these adorable baby books for them.  I actually bought the same one for myself the last time I went to the book sale haha.  

Tomorrow, I will post the super cute pumpkin book reports we made during our fall party!  

Calendar Time

Calendar time has changed a lot in my room this year, as I expected it would (as well as everything else!).  I think I keep changing things because I want everything to run as smoothly as possible.  I don't want to change my calendar every day and update all the little calendar journal pieces. Until I figure out my dream set up, things will change!  It may change again but here is what I am doing currently: 

This is the interactive calendar from Starfall.com .  My students used this in their K-1 room so I thought, why not continue to use it!  It doesn't cover everything I wanted  needed it to but it is a set calendar routine that I don't have to do anything for.  The students can run calendar time because they already learned the routine from the previous teacher.  

Here is how I'm supplementing the calendar: 

This is a calendar journal that I got for FREE at Eberhart's Explorers.  Click on the picture to be taken to her post & freebie.  My lower level students will use this journal.  It is fairly simple, doesn't require a lot of writing, and it provides repetitive practice of the basics.  

For my higher students, I just purchased this: 

I wanted my higher kids to work with addition, subtraction, time, and money daily as well. Click on the picture to go to the item on TPT ($1.50 - and it came with larger sheets to make a calendar wall).

I'm always looking for different calendar journal/number of the day sheets.  What do you use?