The Week Before Thanksgiving

Whew. What a week this has been! Last week we had a Grade Prep day on Tuesday and then Friday off for Veteran's day, so I had a really hard time coming back for a full 5 day week, but somehow we made it. Next week we only have two days of school! Woohoo!

Anyways, I thought I would share a bunch of different things that we have been doing since I haven't written in a while and I'll try to link everything I talk about in case you like what you see!

Math

In math this week we have been working on word problems.

If you have been following me for a while, you know that I LOVE Math Workshop. The only thing I don't absolutely love about math workshop is that it takes a LOT of time to create, print, and prep activities and you need a LOT of activities (at least, I think you do). I was struggling this week because Superteacherworksheets, my usual go-to, didn't have many activities for word problems that didn't involve multiplication and division. I ended up making some of my own and you can grab those for free here.

I also found this FABULOUS website and grabbed several of their sample activities for free. I'm considering investing in their grade level math centers because these were so nicely aligned with the standards and they were easy to prep and use! I just printed some of their easier task cards and worked with my kids who needed some review on different strategies for solving word problems.

Science

In Science this week we wrapped up our study of Plants and Animals. After completing all of the Science Fusion lessons, I had students go back and review everything we learned from the book by filling out this booklet, which was also a nice way of introducing/reviewing nonfiction text features.

I sent home the booklets and a study guide for students to prep for the test. I also created my own test because the Science Fusion one didn't really match up with our 3rd Grade Science Standards. Click on the links above or picture below to grab these resources for free!

Reading

In reading we are focusing on nonfiction/informational text this quarter. I used to find this difficult to teach because I personally prefer to read fiction, but so far I have been having a lot of fun with it this year! I did an intro lesson on how to preview nonfiction text and then gave students nonfiction texts at their levels to preview and read with their reading partners.

Next we worked on identifying the main idea and details and every day students met with their reading partners to practice this skill, met with me in guided reading groups, and/or completed a practice activity independently during our reading rotations.

In my guided reading groups I used the Comprehension Skill Packs from Reading A-Z for Main Idea and Details and just used different grade level packs to differentiate for my leveled groups.

I had my kids complete practice passages and questions from Readworks for independent practice and as a informal assessment. I differentiated this activity by pulling passages from different grade levels on the site. (This is a free site, by the way, and it has so many passages that you can search by topic, grade level, or even reading skill or strategy. I just went on and looked up Main Idea & Details passages and printed out 4 different grade levels to match the levels of my reading groups). 

Writing

In writing, we are also working on informational text. We use Lucy Calkins for writing and, while I  really like a lot of her minilessons and find the rubrics very helpful for planning what to teach, I am not the biggest fan of following along with her plans step-by-step.

SO, I decided to try something different this quarter and I created my own writing unit that I thought would work best for my students. I believe that it meets all of the same standards that Lucy does, it just breaks them down into a more strategic, kid-friendly approach.

Each day we completed one of the lessons in my unit. Every lesson consisted of me explaining our goal for the day, modeling how I used the graphic organizer to reach that goal, and then giving students time to talk to partners or groups and then use the graphic organizer themselves.

Here's an example: The first thing we did was choose a topic, so I modeled how I brainstormed a list of topics that I am an "expert" on and then I thought aloud about which one would be the best choice. Once I chose my topic I modeled coming up with subtopics (like chapters in a nonfiction text). Finally I modeled how to teach a group about my topic and use their feedback and questions to jot down notes for myself. Then I gave kids time do choose their topics, list subtopics, and teach their groups.

I also met with small groups to see how they were doing towards the end of the week and to work on writing leads (see below).

I will do a more in depth post on this writing unit soon, but if you are interested in checking it out, you can find it in my store by clicking here.

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SIGHT WORDS

Hi there!

Today I want to share with you the way that I have been teaching Sight Words in Kindergarten for the past few years.

So far in my teaching career I have worked with two different reading programs - Open Court and Journey's Common Core. Both of these programs only require Kindergartners to learn about 40 words by the end of the year which I quickly realized is not enough to help them become fluent readers! So, I took the Journey's word list and combined it with some of the star words that our First Grade teacher uses and created my own sight word curriculum for the year.

By the end of the year I expect students to be able to read 95 words by sight (no sounding out, no guessing, they just have to have them memorized). You may be thinking that this is too much for such little learners, but trust me it is not! My kids get so excited each time they pass a color set that they beg their parents to practice with them and they speed right through the words. This year more than half of my class had the entire word list memorized by February and they have all started working on the first few sets of words that our First Grade teacher uses. (Three of my boys had them done by Christmas and are reading at a second grade level now!!!!)

Of course, there are a few students who still have a set or two to work on and I tell them and their parents that that is OK - everyone learns at a different pace, and as long as they have the rainbow done by the end of the year they will have mastered all of the Kindergarten words and the first few sets of First Grade words. Plus they have all summer to review :)

At back to school night I explain this whole thing to parents and give them the first set of words to start working on and a letter that explains how to get started.

A few weeks later I start the first round of testing and anyone who passes takes home their orange set of words and gets to color in the red line of their rainbow that I display in the classroom.

From then on I do scheduled testing once a month and they don't just test on their new set - they have to be able to read all of the sets that they already passed and the new one. I keep track on a progress monitoring sheet that I keep in my reading binder, and if they miss any old words I send home a note that looks like this:

When they pass all of their rainbow words I make a huge deal out of it because, well, it is a big deal! (And it doesn't hurt that the other kids get jealous and want to do the same!) I got permission from my principal to give them a free dress day, they get their face on a rainbow up on my sight word superstar board, and I give them the first page of First Grade words to get started on.

If you like what you see and want to try out my Rainbow Sight Words in your classroom then head on over to my TPT store and pick up your own copy by clicking on the picture below!

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PALS

I recently earned a Master's degree in Reading Instruction which has been so, incredibly useful for me as a Kindergarten teacher! In one of my classes, we were introduced to a strategy called PALS that I want to share with you today.

PALS = Peer Assisted Learning Strategies - a.k.a. students helping each other to learn.

I never thought that I would allow Kindergartners to play teacher and help each other learn before I learned about and tried out PALS, but now it is one of my favorite ways to work on reading skills. 

Before giving my students an activity to work on together, I model how PALS is going to work. I ask a volunteer to be my partner and I have him or her read aloud to me (they could be reading letters of the alphabet, simple sentences containing sight words, or more advanced text depending on grade level and reading ability of the students). While he or she is reading I say "great job!" at the end of each sentence. If he or she makes a mistake I say "Stop! Try Again". Then, I ask the student volunteer to listen while I read and give me feedback. He or she tells me that I am doing a great job and corrects my mistakes by telling me to stop and try again (which they all find hilarious for some reason). After modeling the voice level (WHISPER) that I would like them to use, I assign pals and pass out the reading passage for the day. 

Today we did a fun Halloween reading passage that began with very simple sentences such as, "P is for Pirate". Once they showed me that they could handle that, I let them do the next page with passages that were a bit longer and said things like, "P is for Pumpkin. I see 5 pumpkins". They spent about ten minutes taking turns reading these to their pals and all really enjoyed not only getting to read, but also having the chance to correct and give feedback to their partners. 

I got today's reading passages from this awesome Freebie made by Common Core Connection.

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