It's been awhile...FIVE FOR FRIDAY

Wow my sincere apologies folks.  I've kind of backed off the blogging world for a bit to focus on my family.  My little boys have become quite demanding of mommy's attention.  With that said, I have still been working on things!  Not as much as I'd like but they're there!  Thank you to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this linky party!

  

My little booger turned 1!  Okay so it was last week but still!  Check out this AWESOME and EASY jungle cake!  I'm totally serious when I tell you how easy this was.  Easier than the Minnie  Mouse cake I made and DEFINITELY easier than that Thomas cake!  I found it on Pinterest.  I'm trying to post the link here but it's just the photo on Pinterest and no one to credit for it!

 

Our school participated in "One School, One Book" and read "The World According to Humphrey."  We had a "Humphrey" donated to us by a local pet store.  Humphrey came home with me Memorial Day weekend.  My son loved it!  Today, Humphrey headed to his forever home with a nice Kindergarten boy who did all his Humphrey work and will provide him with a safe and loving home.  Is it weird that saying goodbye to the little guy was sad? 

 

My 4th graders did a fun syllable sort with some tricky words today.  They loved it!  I then had them each pick a word to place in our word house.  Another thing they can't get enough of!  It was called "Exploring Multisyllable Words" and you can find it here from TPT.

My Kindergarten friends have been hard at work with Magic "e".  I made these simple Magic "e" wands that they loved using to turn CVC words into CVCe words.  I love being able to just pull out a whiteboard and the wands and be ready to go!  Easy set up and clean up!

Happy birthday to my amazing mommy!  Without her my life would be insane and wouldn't be as wonderful as it is today.  Thank you for always supporting me and loving me!

Five for Friday!

TGIF folks...TGIF.  I don't know about you but I don't know how we're going to handle four more days of school next week before spring break!  Thanks again to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this linky party!

 

Lately, we have been struggling with getting our students to either use ONLY what's important in a summary or to even find what's important.  A colleague found this (not sure where) and it has helped.  I added the "Why" and "How" because they needed it.  It helped my students realize the important pieces of information, especially for the non-fiction text about the Seven New Wonders.  They were struggling with how to put all seven into one summary.  This helped them think of what was important for each New Wonder and create two sentences for each.  I'm excited!  I want them to get to the point where they just automatically think of these questions in their heads!

 

My first graders really enjoyed their /PH/ book! It's the perfect activity for Wednesday when we only see each other for about 10/15 minutes.  Next week, we will be doing our /CK/ book on a Wednesday too!  Click here to get your own!

 

Omg love this!  I've done it with my second and first graders and it turned out great!  My first graders need to finish theirs but I was so proud that they could fill it in by themselves!  I love that it really got them thinking.  Pick one up here.

Another peek at what my first graders wrapped up this week.  This is from my new consonant digraph packet that I haven't been able to post yet but I will soon!  It was good to see them really use their decoding skills to figure out those tricky words.  I was proud!

Wrapped up Bossy R with my third and second graders this week. They both really enjoyed playing this jeopardy game.  It was a great way to end the unit!

Well folks I hope you enjoy your weekend!  I'm off to put the final touches on my consonant digraph unit and hopefully post tonight!

My 3rd Grade Intervention Group

Here's a peek at a typical day with my 3rd graders.  Some of it will sound the same as my 4th graders.

3rd Grade
As with 4th grade, we start our 40 minutes off with our weekly story/practice sheet from Lakeshore's Daily Comprehension Common Core Practice Journal Gr. 3-4.  They read a story on Monday and complete a quick activity for each day of the week based on that story.  Some of the things they must do is vocabulary, fact/opinion, true/false, comprehension question, etc.  This group is struggling with this.  For example, today it took them 20 minutes to answer 5 True/False questions.  That was WITH me telling them there were 3 false and 2 true.  I still had students giving me the wrong number of each let alone give me the correct answers.  I've been trying very hard to show them how to go back in the text, look for key words from the question in the story, underline where they find it, etc.

  
This group has an "everything" focus.  They need phonics, fluency, comprehension, and summary work.  So much to do in such a short time!  Since they do have a specific need for phonics and fluency, I base what we will work on off of their Nonsense Word Assessment results.  This means, I don't always use Everyday Phonics Intervention Activities from Newmark Learning like I do with 4th.  If it has something that goes with what we're working on then great.  If not, I compile various worksheets/activities into a packet.  We will do a page a day after the above mentioned work.  Again, it's quick and just to reinforce what we are doing.

After both of those things, we move on to our story of the week(s) or more detailed phonics work.  As I mentioned before we use Fountas & Pinnell's Leveled Literacy Intervention Kits (LLI).  I am using the red kit with this group as well.  I focus on DRA type questions and summaries as our comprehension work.  Once in awhile, we work on a Reading A-Z text.  We are doing that now.  It's called "What the Boys Found."

As for the extra phonics work, we have been focusing on the great (tooting my own horn) units I created!  The past few weeks, we have been spending time on "Bossy R" using my "R-Controlled Vowels 'Bossy R' Activities Packet."   They really respond to the activities in it!

And that's a peek at my 3rd graders!  Hopefully I can figure some strategies to get them to go back to the text for evidence!  Any thoughts?

My 4th Grade Intervention Group

Hi friends!  I haven't had a non Five for Friday post in awhile!  Despite my failed attempts to blog, I am working on a lot of fun things!  I want to give you a peek into some of the things that I do with my groups.  I see K-5 daily so I will be telling you about one group, each day, for the next few days.

4th Grade
 We start our quick 40 minutes off with our weekly story/practice sheet from Lakeshore's Daily Comprehension Common Core Practice Journal Gr. 3-4.  They read a story on Monday and complete a quick activity for each day of the week based on that story.  Some of the things they must do is vocabulary, fact/opinion, true/false, comprehension question, etc.

  
Then we do our weekly phonics lesson based on another great intervention book.  This one is Everyday Phonics Intervention Activities from Newmark Learning.  My group really has a comprehension focus, but I do notice that they still have some phonics areas that need addressing.  This is a great way to slip this in for reinforcement.  Since I don't have a particular focus like some of my other groups (for example; Bossy R, Magic E, Vowel Digraphs) I am simply following it by week.  We will even put some of the given words into our Word House.  I've picked up some fun multisyllable activities from TPT that I look forward to sneaking in.

After both of those things, we move on to our story of the week(s).  We use Fountas & Pinnell's Leveled Literacy Intervention Kits (LLI).  We only own up to the red kit which they call the 3rd grade kit.  This kit goes up to DRA 40, so the texts work for all the students we service.  Right now, we really use the kit for the texts.  The phonics lessons in them don't go with the story nor do they usually address what our students need at the time of reading that story.  We also don't prefer the comprehension aspect either.  Our students are in our room based on AIMS Web testing and DRA scores.  We use the DRA rubrics for retell, summary, and questioning for our groups.  My 4th graders just finished up summarizing "Girl With a Vision" using the DRA 40 summary sheet and responding to similar interpretation and reflection questions.

My 4th graders work very hard on their summaries.  Our problem lately is wanting to say EVERYTHING in the summary.  We've been trying to focus on only what's important which is so hard for them!

Before we know it, our time is up and I file their work away in the next day's folder. Our LLI stories take a week.  Once in awhile, we break away and use a Reading A-Z text like we are currently doing now.  I use the text the same way I use the LLI text.  Reading A-Z texts tend to take all my groups a lot longer than an LLI text.  I find the text more challenging and has a lot more to it hence the amount of time we spend on it!  

NOT 4th GRADE RELATED
I completed all of my Short Vowel Decodable Text & Activities packets AND bundled them together!  I also bundled together the Consonant Digraph books.  Click HERE to pick up my Short Vowel Decodable Text & Activities bundle and HERE to pick up my Consonant Digraph Book Bundle.  Keep your eye out for a FANTASTIC consonant digraph unit I'm working on.  It's a combination of things that I do in my Short Vowel Decodable Text & Activities and with my Bossy R, Talkers, & Whiners packets.  You can thank stupid jury duty for me being able to plan out the unit!  Hey, I wasn't going to sit there for hours and do nothing! :)


Check back tomorrow for a peek into my 3rd grade group!

Five for Friday

At least I got it on a Friday this time?  Haha.  I know I've been slacking in the blogging departmenet but I've been trying to at least do this!  Thanks again to Doodle Bugs Teaching!

 

Hi my name is TROUBLE!  I caught the little stinker trying to CLIMB to get his brother's water bottle.  The other day he threw a hardcore hold his breath and turned purple tantrum over his brother's CHICKEN NUGGET.  No joke lol.  Food is serious business to this kid!

 

We are plugging along with short "u" in Kindergarten this week.  We do the same types of activities for each short vowel so by now they've got this down.  That makes it easier to get through everything because they already know the directions!  Yay!  Here's a peek at one of my friend's short u book I created.  They come out real cute I must say ;)  Get yours here if you are interested!

 

Heading on to /WH/ this week with my first graders!  They always love seeing which kid is coming up next!  They're also getting much better at this highlighting business. This came from Cara Carroll's Consonant Digraph unit.  Click here to pick it up for yourself!

I know I already mentioned short u but I forgot I took a pic of this!  I was so proud she remembered that duck needed /ck/ at the end...even if she did lose her letter /k/ and had to write it.  She did have a /b/ at the end of tub but I think it got stuck to the paper on top!  Not in my TPT store yet because I want to created one more story for that packet but keep your eye out!

I found this on pinterest.  I'd love to get creative for the little one's baptism.  However, I think I'm too lazy.  Scratch that.  Too TIRED!

Five for Friday! On a Sunday...whoops!

Ah!! I'm late!  I know!  But I actually took photos this week so I wanted to do it anyways!  Thank you Doodle Bugs Teaching!

 

As a final, quick, reinforcement of "Short O" for my Kindergarteners I did this fun sort from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!  I believe I got this for free when she was celebrating a milestone on TPT.  There a TON of activities for all the short vowels.  I wish I had time for more!  My kids enjoyed it AND one of my little friends had her thinking cap on that day and knew that "robot" should go in the middle!

 

I introduced Bossy R to my 2nd graders.  To my surprise, 1st, 3rd, and I believe 4th were all jealous and want to do it too!  We started off our unit with my Bossy R sort.  I put the headings in my pocket chart and introduce the sounds.  Then, I hand them each a picture, one at a time.  They say what is is and I ask them what they hear.  They USUALLY get AR/OR right away and can place those.  The other three are harder.  That's when they have to think of how it might be spelled. They make their choice then turn the card over to see how the word is spelled and if they are correct.  I guess I will be doing this with my other groups soon!

 

 Wrapped up CH/SH this week with a great sorting activity.  This came from Cara Carroll's Consonant Digraph unit.  We are really enjoying the stories and activities in it as I mentioned last week.  Click here to pick it up for yourself!

We had fun celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a word find using magnifying glasses!  This St. Patrick's Day Search and Find Little Words is from Kinderkay.  My kindergarteners loved it!  I'm excited to do even more with them!

Finally, one of my very good friends has created some amazing things for my little one's baptism!  She made our invites, cupcake toppers, and a banner!  I have also recruited her to make special "thank you" cards for his godparents.  I can't wait to see what she does for his birthday!  Check out her store and other products here!