Earth Day Fun

Wanted to share some Earth Day Fun that we've been having in April...

Some bloggy buddies and I have some freebies for you, so make sure you read all the way through to grab a link to more freebies!


I have two freebies for you...one is a sample of a printable from ELA Common Core Crunch - May! Click the pic to download and then head down for your other freebie.

For another freebie I have a little craftivity...the pic with Earth is not my original idea...I KNOW I saw it somewhere and have spent serious time trying to figure out where I saw it...shoulda pinned it when I saw it so I could cite the source easily. If you know, can ya please tell me? I'll update and give credit. I'm sort of obsessed with giving credit...

Teacher directions are included in the Google Doc download which you can access by clicking here.

Here's a modification I did this year using full sized (8.5x11) astrobrights....the kids arranged their pieces and included 3 pledges in the open space.

For Earth Day, we're using Katie Knight's Easy Ecology pack and it is fab-boo!!! I love Katie's interactive booklets and her fluency passages! She is one of my bloggy besties and I just love that girl!



We've also used Lyndsey Kuster's wonderful "You've Got the Whole World In Your Hands" pack...could that girl be any more talented?


And, I just won Cara Carroll's It's a Wonderful World pack on her facebook giveaway!!! So, I'll be using some of that fabulousness, next week! Lucky, lucky me!


Don't forget to head over to THIS POST of Katie's so you can get easy access to some great freebies!
What have YOU been up to for Earth Day?

Finding Proof

Hiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!

I PROMise I have not been under a rock!!!

And, I have MISSED you!!! Well, I love your sweet emails...you guys make me feel loved. BEST followers EVAH!!!

I have missed blogging! Wanna know what I've been up to?

Outside of....

teaching...

momming...

wife-ing...

and...

house/life-managing...

I've been hunkered down deeeeeeep...

(after the kids and hubby go to bed)

creaaaaaaaaaaating...

THIS....

Common Core has me freakishly wanting to get my kids to be more automatic and intentional in finding proof and citing evidence for their thinking.

 This pack is a Reading Workshop companion pack to...

And...

I have also created a pack to teach readers to self-monitor to look right, sound right & make sense. 

K...back to Finding Proof...

So, in the ideal world, our readers will be enthusiastically expanding their critical thinking skills by citing evidence from the text left and right to support their answers to questions...

All in their own instructional and independent texts.

But...I teach in the real world.

And that's why I made this pack.

It's my goal for them to find proof in their own texts, BUT in my experience, they need scaffolding, guidance and repetition with something a bit more laid out.

Finding Proof has four parts in a progression of skills, each with five different practice pages, so it's fabulous for scaffolding and gradual release of responsibility.

Each page comes with an answer key.

This week I have begun teaching the mini-text passages...I began with #1 in Whole Group, working together to find evidence. I'll use #2 in Small Group, providing feedback and coaching. Some groups will also have #3 in Small Group. I'll try #4 as homework and then give #5 independently is a mini-assessment...

I'll follow a similar plan with the other sections and I'm hoping this will majorly bump my kids up on their final MAP test in a few weeks since they'll be so attentive to the text! (crosssssssing fingers!)

If you use it, I'd sooooo love to hear from you on how it's going! I'm always, always, always open to feedback and suggestions. Feel free to shoot me an email at growingfirsties@gmail.com with your questions & suggestions!

Morning Jobs & Book Club Routines

Howdy!

Today I have a big long post about how I make my mornings smoother...semi-decent pics and all...

These morning routines help my first graders build independence and organizational skills (hopefully)...

which ultimately leaves time for me toscramble to take care of the things I've forgotten to get done connect with each kiddo as they arrive.

Gotta love visuals, so I'm packing in some pictures here...

(please pardon the flash-on-laminate-sheen...it's just easiest to use my iPhone for the pics since it's the fewest steps to get the photos postable...)

I originally snapped these photos so I didn't have to get too wordy on my sub plans. 


Pictures DO speak a 1000 words!!!

This is what the Morning Job board currently looks like. (Though we're now in unit 8 for math, not unit 4...)

We start at the very beginning of the year with the first 3 items...we build muscle memory for those jobs with step by step practice & choral reading on a daily basis. 

Golden Tickets (thank you Teeny Tiny Teacher) are handed out to students for doing all the jobs.

If you want to learn more about Golden Tickets (as opposed to a clip chart), check out Teeny's first & second posts about how she uses them. 

My grade level all wants to be just like Teeny Tiny, so we use them the way she does!

Once they're pretty solid on those three (and once guided reading and Everyday Math Homelinks begin), we add jobs 4-6 and repeat the process of building muscle memory in similar ways as at the beginning of the year. More about job 4 in a minute...

After a few weeks of deepening all six routines, we add #7. 

For our Daily Warm Up activities, the main things we use are printables from my Common Core Crunch (a monthly ELA series) 

If you want to 'try before you buy' go ahead and download the Preview file, since it contains 3 freebie sheets. Just click the picture above to get to it in my store.

and from Kelley Dolling's Good Morning Work - Math (she's the brilliance behind Teacher Idea Factory!).

Commercial over...

Another routine that helps keep me organized with Guided Reading is this handy dandy tub...

I began this routine part way through the year last year and modified it a little bit this year, too.

Each Book Club Group (guided reading) is assigned a color....red, orange, yellow, green, blue...

Each group has a section in the tub, in front of the fancy dancy divider. 

To make the dividers I trimmed 12x12 cardstock to the width of old, icky white board (cuz they're hard), folded the cardstock in half and adhered it to the whiteboard using clear packing tape.

More functional than classy, but oh well.  

One side of the divider says Put in Book Box, the other says Keep in Envelope...that's because we almost always focus on a guided reading book for two days...(I'll post more on that another time.)

So I flip those signs accordingly...

Each night when I'm doing a variety of little tasks to get ready for the next day, I have a little white helper card in my calendar that I CAN'T move until I've addressed those two jobs!...

This little helper has helped me keep track of whether I've done the two jobs of arranging the divider signs AND if I've rotated Literacy Stations. Not pretty...but works SO well to keep me on track!

There are just too gol-durn jobs to keep track of in a day that I just don't always remember if I've done something or not.

We won't talk about how sometimes I forget to rinse the conditioner out of my hair or shampoo a second time in case I hadn't done it the first time.

Anywhooooo...

Each student has a poly envelope (ordered online for the whole grade level in August from the cheapest vendor) - they each get 1 poly envelope per year.

We charge them $2 if they lose it.

If it becomes damaged but can still hold the materials, we keep using it.

Each student's envelope gets a folded piece of duct tape on their envelope to help them remember to put their envelope in the correct section.

Envelopes #3 & 4 are hiding between #2 & 5!
This also helps me visually see that all have put their envelope in the right spot.

K...the next steps are a little picky-pants, but it really HAS helped me be more efficient during Book Clubs...

Each student is assigned a table spot at the book club table (kidney shaped table) and then I put a number on their duct tape according to their assigned seat (going from left to right at the table).

The duct tape DOES come off relatively easily when we switch groups around! At least it has for me all year long so far.

Groups have different numbers of students so I don't actually label the actual chair or table spot...just the way they sit from left to right.

This helps me keep it flexible so I can skip a chair between some particular students.

 And, yes, students DO put their envelopes in their section in number order...that was the whole point of numbering them in the first place...so that I could easily hand out envelopes when the kids need them.

I hope this long post helps you out! It's nice to learn from one another, so I'd love to hear from you! 

This post was originally a guest post on the lovely Kyp of Mrs. McLaren's Little Super Heroes...Click the pic to head over and check her out...

Friendly Giveaway & Shout Out Linky!

SoOoOoOoOo excited to be having another Life Is Better With Friends Giveaway!!! (Couldn't ya just cry at how cute the logo is? Katie is a gen.i.us.)

Announcement...this will now be a MONTHLY giveaway! Woot Woot!

Check out the amaaaaazzzzingness we have in store for a lucky winner from EACH of our blogs!!!

Please stop by each of their blogs to say hellooo! Just click the pic to head to that blog...

'copter at the bottom...I wanna make sure that you see who I'm giving some lub to first! Yep...ulterior motive...

AND it's time for April Shout Outs....

Have you seen Sarah Paul's amaaaazing blog? 

She's the brilliance behind Sarah's First Grade Snippets and it's one of my "go-to" blogs when I need ideas! 

She is kind, thoughtful, creative and just plain fabulous! 

You mUsT check. her. out!

I also need to give some love to Julie Marciniak...the cutie-patootie behind First Grade Critter Cafe. 

She is the current president of the Toledo chapter of the International Reading Association (though she is not self-important AT ALL). 

She's one of the kindest people out here in blogland!!! I. love. her!!! 

When you check her out, make sure you click her "About Me" tab at the top of her blog. You'll fall in love with her, too!

Wanna link up with a Shout Out Post? Please keep this in mind...Shout Out two bloggers - one with more followers, one with less...link to the specific blog post with the shout outs (not just to your regular blog address)...Here's the inlinkz:


And, finally, here's the 'copter...I hope you win, friend!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway