1,000 Follower Giveaway!

I'm joining up with Jamie Sears of "Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher" for her 1,000 Follower Giveaway. Contest begins Monday, July 21. Good luck!



Head on over to her blog to enter  

You Oughta Know About...Writer's Workshop

Writing is my favorite subject to teach, and writing workshop is my favorite program. I have 2 books I use to get me started each year. They're my "bibles" of writing workshop for early elementary grades.

I always begin by watching Eric Carle read The Very Hungry Caterpillar on his website, then watch his interview about using big, bold colors in his books. We look at pictures of his studio, and link that to our classroom tools we can all use to be authors, just like Eric Carle. My kiddos love the fact that he began writing when he was 5! I've taught this lesson with 1st-5th graders, and they all love it! Different age groups take something different away from the videos, so they're well worth the effort, no matter what age you work with.

I make anchor charts with the procedures, tips from authors, and other ideas found in one of my "bibles". 

 I also make anchor charts with spelling strategies. We add to all the charts throughout the year.

The whole idea of writing workshop is for students to work as authors, making books, sharing their books, and using their classmates' books in the class library. At the beginning of the year, I make the books. As the year progresses, students begin to put books together themselves. These are some examples from my first grade class.

Some students need a little help coming up with ideas, so I leave out a menu choice for them. To celebrate this blog hop, I'll offer my Writing Menu as a freebie for a week.

An InLinkz Link-up

New Author

My little sister just published her first YA novel: Malicious. I am so proud, I've been sharing all over the place, facebook, twitter, pinterest, and now  in my teacher blog. Help support a young author with the first of a whole series of books. It's only $2.99 as an e-book. Enjoy a little summer reading!
  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/449174

Independence Day

4th of July is right around the corner (literally)! There is a beautiful little reservoir and a park less than a mile from our house. Every year we celebrate with family and lots of barbecued ribs! As soon as it gets dark we sit in the backyard and watch the fireworks coming from the park. They literally explode right over our heads, and we don't have to fight the traffic and crowds!

This year I'm also having a sale on 2 of my Americana items at TpT: American Hero Research Project and Patriotic Clipart.

Have a happy 4th of July!!!

An Oldie, but a Goodie

Making Words...it's an oldie, but a goodie! One of my favorite activities for building word skills, it self-differentiates based on your kiddos' readiness. I always begin with 2-letter words, then move on up to the mystery word at the end. Some kids need to stick to the CVC words; others are ready for consonant blends, silent e,  and vowel digraphs; still others can put multisyllable words together. There's always at least one kid that figures out the mystery word before the activity's over. I've used the same word lists with both 1st graders and 3rd graders, and they all love it! My daughter likes to play with it at home as well. This edition has 12 different lists with corresponding letter cards. It's been one of my best sellers, so far. Click on the link to see my Making Words product at TpT with word lists, letter cards to cut out, and complete implementation instructions.

Comprehension Graphic Organizers

Our school focused on the CCSS informational text standards this year. First graders naturally love nonfiction--they are absolutely fascinated by the world around them! They always have questions, and as a teacher I love telling them to look for the answers in a book. So, I created a set of graphic organizers for both literary and informational comprehension. I designed them to meet the rigor that common core requires without stifling their love of reading. These can be used whole class, in guided reading groups, or for center practice. You can find them on my Teachers pay Teachers account by clicking on the pictures below.

   

Here are some examples of what you'll find in the packets. Enjoy!
         

Cloze Vocabulary Introduction

After reading the book Word Nerds by Brenda J. Overturf, Leslie H. Montgomery, and Margot Holmes Smith, I thought I'd try one of the strategies they mentioned. I began introducing all my vocabulary units with a cloze activity in the pocket chart. My kids loved it! I started by writing the vocabulary words on colored sentence strips, then asking them to show me what they know with hand signals: hands on head if you know all about the word, hands on ears if you've heard the word, hands on your lap if it's a brand new word. That little formative assessment gives me so much information to guide vocabulary instruction! We have a brief discussion of each word based on the signals they show me. Then I read the sentences written on white sentences strips with a blank where the vocabulary words should go. Together we talk through putting the words in the correct blanks. We complete a lot of other games and activities during the unit, but I began each unit the same way this year. I saw a lot of improvement in my firsties vocabulary compared to previous years. Here is an example of the cloze chart and 2 other activities from my Thanksgiving unit: