Classroom Happenings...5 Weeks In

Next week I will begin my sixth week back to school. It has been a roller coaster ride for sure. My class is amazing and school has been going pretty well. However, life at home has been a major adjustment. I do feel like I am finally starting to adjust to this whole working mom thing. The Mr. is still have some difficulties.

 

 

A look back at our week from the family side of things...

 

 

This past week was my little man's second week at the babysitter. This has been the most difficult thing to adjust to. So, as I walk in on Monday the sitter tells me that lice is going around. What! Seriously! You have got to be.....! was my reaction on the inside. Lice is like my biggest fear. Luckily the little man doesn't have a lot of hair yet. I think I was more worried about myself. So that was family issue number one!

 

 

Family issue number two... the Mr.'s car has been giving us some trouble and finally broke down on his way home from work. Have I mentioned he works an hour away from our hometown. So, he had to borrow his friend's car to get home that night.

 

 

Now here is where things really start to get bad. Family issue number 3...The next day the Mr. and his dad drive an hour to the "big city" to tow our car back home. While on his way down a semi (YES, A SEMI!) sandwiches my Mr. into a concrete barrier. Luckily, he walked away with only some scrapes on his hands. But the car is another story. Now, remember he was driving his friends car. So now our car is a goner and his friend's car is a goner!

 

 

So needless to say this has been our toughest week as a family of three so far. I was a mess, the Mr. was a mess, our house was a mess. Everything was a mess. Oh wait, I forgot to mention before all the car trouble our t.v. died a couple days earlier. They say bad things come in threes. Hopefully these are our FOUR things because I don't know if I can take anything else.

 

 

So, yesterday we went car shopping and got the Mr. a new car, dropped the little man off at the grandparents, and had a night to relax with friends (the same friends who no longer have a car too. :/)

 

Hopefully things start to get better for us.

 

 

Ok, enough of the family issues. Let's take a look back at week 5 in the classroom...

 

 

Luckily, school is going smoothly. I have an amazing class minus the usual couple of little ones that take all of your energy. But they really aren't that bad. Things could be worse. My class this year has some of the most polite little ones I have ever had.

 

Kid, "Mrs. Eddleblute, I'm so sorry. I am just trying really hard to stretch out my words but I am stuck. I apologize, but could you please help me out?" Seriously, this kid melts my heart. He talks like this all day. AND it is rubbing off on the other kids. I LOVE IT!

 

 

Daily 5 is in full swing. I did decided to hold off on Read to Someone this year. I just didn't like the way it went this year and I didn't want to implement it until I had a better plan. I believe this group could really handle it. I plan on introducing Read to Someone late October or early November.

 

Here is what our Daily 5 board looks like. (Sorry for the glare, I'm still exploring my new camera.)

 

 

 I did mention before that I am not doing Listen to Reading. I just don't have the space and the materials I need to implement it effectively. So instead I threw in Read with Teacher as the fifth option.

 

Here are our I Can charts for Daily 5. (I forgot to snap a picture of our Work on Writing chart.) We spent the first 4 weeks really reviewing and practicing Read to Self, Word Work, and Work on Writing. The practice has really paid off. My little ones are very independent.

 

 

 

 

The little ones in my class are definitely strong writers. Their weak point is math, but they love writing and they are really coming up with some great pieces.

 

This is the beginnings of our writing menu for Work on Writing. I have introduced how to make a list and how to write a story. Of course the stories are very basic since it is the beginning of first grade. But they have surprised me. Many of my little ones are starting their stories with once upon a time and ending them with a happily ever after.

 

Their lists are also surprising me. They always add a title, are using the paper in their writing folders that gives them ideas on what to make a list of, and even coming up with some ideas of their own. It really is impressive.

 

During week 6, I am hoping to add another choice to the menu. I haven't decided which one and I haven't finished my lesson plans yet.

 

This pink crate is where they will find all the papers to correlate to the writing menu. So far it is working fine. Of course there are always better ways of doing things but on my budget this will do for now.

 

I also started guided reading groups this week. So, since introducing how to write a list, we have also been using list writing in reading groups. This was our first focus on how to write about reading. Two of my reading groups read fictional stories that had a water theme. My lowest group made a list of toys that you could play with in a pool, and my low-average group made a list of places you could find water.

 

 

Since these lists were completed in reading group and looked a little more "complete" than a list they would complete independently, I stamped the paper with a stamp that said "completed together in class." Many of the things we do in reading groups at the beginning of the year is done through modeling so I like to stamp the papers so that their parents know that some things going home are completed together as a class.

Of course we did many other things this week. But once the family issues started to begin I forgot to take pictures of everything else. Next week our class is going to be wrapping up our apple unit by doing some apple taste testing and we may just have to make some applesauce. But, we will have to see about that.

 

Yours in Teaching, 



The Beginnings of a Great Year? and Daily 5 Praise Necklaces {Freebie}

Holy Moly! Today I just finished day 5. The last 5 days have been a mix of emotions. Sad that I have to leave my little man for the first time since April, but extremely excited to start this year long adventure with my new 25 little ones.

 

 

I have been M.I.A. since the beginning of school because I have been trying to adjust to my new busy life. I was so used to coming home from school to just crash on the couch, eat dinner, do some school things, and head to bed whenever I felt. Ummmm not so much anymore. I have definitely had to become more efficient with my spare time. The good news is that I feel like I'm also getting more things done during the school day. I am getting way better at managing my time.

 

 

I am still working on finding time to take pictures of the things we are doing in the land of first grade. That is a goal that I am working on. I have taken a few but nothing really worth sharing.

 

 

I did want to share some milestones that my little ones and I have reached in the 5 days that we have been together. I was so proud of them this morning. Yesterday, we began our first day of Daily 5. We started with Read to Self. We began by creating an I-Chart and then we began working on our stamina right away. My little ones made it 3 minutes on the first try. We only practiced once the first day. I wanted to keep it positive and as short as possible so that they didn't get burned out on the first day.

 

 

But today! Holy Moly! We practiced building our stamina twice. The first time they made it 5 minutes and the second time they made it 7 minutes. The only reason we had to stop was because someone came into the room and it threw them off task.

 

 

I think what really helped today was my introduction of my Daily 5 Praise necklaces. Today, I showed them by Stamina King and Queen necklaces. Actually, one little girl noticed them hanging on the board and asked what they were for. I had completely forgotten about them. So, I introduced them, gave it a whirl, and BAM, we built our stamina to 7 minutes!

 

 

I was so proud of them and I think they were more proud of themselves than I was. Some of the first graders did Daily 5 in kindergarten and I can see a huge difference in my little ones this year compared to last year.

 

 

Here is the link to my Daily 5 praise necklaces. Check out this FREEBIE!

 

 

I am so excited for this group of little ones. I can already tell that they are strong readers and writers. Here's to the beginnings of a great year! Yippy Skippy!

Word Work Menu {Freebie}

Today I would like to talk about Daily 5. More specifically my Word Work station. 

Daily 5 was my littles favorite part of the day. It was also mine too. I liked how little planning it took but yet it was so effective. My littles especially like Word Work.

My Word Work station started off a little shaky last year. First, I was used to the ability levels of second graders. It was definitely an experience adjusting to beginning of the year first graders. I had very little Word Work center activities that were developmentally appropriate.

By November everything was starting to fall into place. I had great hands on activities and my littles were really enjoying the Word Work.

December was even better. My littles were really aware of my expectations and they were completing the work with reasonable speed and accuracy.

Now, January and on things started to go backwards but I blame myself. The activities got boring for them and I didn't not do my part in changing them out often.

So, here's my solution. (Of course Pinterest inspired)....

I created my version of a first grade Word Work Menu. The menu consists of all the Word Work activities that will be available all year long. {Each month I will put out other activities coordinated to the current month.}

Each little will get a Word Work Menu to keep in their green work folder. They will color in each box as they complete each activity. This will keep my littles from doing the same activity every day.

The menu is pretty self explanatory. Check it out and tell me what you think.

The Silly Sentences is a sentence building activity that I created for my Word Work station. Click on the link to get your copy. The littles really enjoy creating silly sentences. The Read It, Write It, Stamp It! is an activity that I purchased on TpT last year but never really used.

 

I did create some recording sheets to go with my Word Work Menu. I'm not too sure if I really like them or not. They don't exactly meet my "cuteness" standards.

 

My Word Work Menu is a freebie in my TpT store. Make sure you get your own copy so that your Word Work station gets started on the right foot.

 

 

I love to hear your feedback.

 

Yours in Teaching,

ThrowBack Thursday...My Most Popular Post (Daily 5: Where to Begin)

I have debated all day whether or not to link up in the Throwback Thursday Linky. I wasn't sure I should since I pretty much took 10 months off from blogging. But I figured I would and I'm going to start with my most popular post.

My most popular post is my Daily 5 and CAFE: Where to Begin. I thought now is the perfect time to reflect on this.

Here is my original post from August 2012.

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Some of my colleagues and I met at school today to discuss Daily 5 and CAFE. No one at our school has implemented the management system before and several of us are going to try this coming year.

We met in my room so that everyone could see how I had set up my Daily 5 and CAFE boards. Even though I have been at the school for 2 years, this is going to be my first year as a permanent resident!!! Yay! I love that I got to share all the research and items I had found and made with everyone!

I thought since it went well at school today and I hopefully helped everyone understand it better, that I should do a post about it for other newbie Daily 5 and CAFE users.

Here it is....

First, I shared my set up of the Daily 5 board. I posted earlier that I purchased the headers from Kylie at Down Under Teacher.

Up at the top I have the choice Read to Self, Read to Someone, and Word Work. Down below I have Listen to Reading, Read with Teacher, and Work on Writing. The Read with Teacher choice is not an original choice in the Daily 5 book by the"The Sisters". However, down below you will see why I think it is important to include that choice.

This is a close up of how I'm going to have the rotation work in my classroom. I only have enough time for three rotations. Each little will have a clip with their name on it for each chain. Sorry I haven't done that yet. I will post a picture later that shows exactly what I mean.

When my littles walk into the classroom each morning, one of their morning procedures will be to make their Daily 5 choices. However, one choice will possibly be chosen for them. If I plan on meeting with a guided reading group or a strategy group, their clip will already by on the Read with Teacher. So that little will really only have two other choices to make.

I am also going to require that each little picks Read to Self once per day. So really some littles might have just one choice to make for that day.


Here is my CAFE board...

I haven't had a chance to put up the goal papers for the post-it notes yet, but they will be up. This board is behind my reading table so that it can be referred to during guided and strategy groups.

Here is a close up (Sorry for the glare.) ...

Ok, now here is the best part and what my colleagues all wanted copies of. I have spent hours and hours and hours thinking and planning, thinking again and planning again on how to begin the Daily 5 and CAFE process. I'm not going to lie, I have shed some tears trying to figure this out. At one point I felt like giving up, but I didn't and I am soooooooooo glad that I didn't!

First, using the Daily 5 and CAFE book, I planned out a possible schedule as to what it would look like in my classroom. I wanted to still use guided reading groups because it is part of the reading program in my district so I had to think of a way to use guided reading and strategy groups.

Everyday of the week I will give three mini lesson each day. But the instruction I give to my small groups will look different daily.

On Mondays and Fridays, I plan on having strategy groups and student conferences.

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday, I plan on have guided reading groups.

Some of my littles might get small group instruction more days than others because I might have a little in a guided reading group and a strategy group. Remember, strategy groups are to used to provide instruction to littles that need extra coaching on a specific goal and strategy. During a strategy group, each little will be reading their own "just right" book. Whereas, my guided reading groups every little will be reading the same book and at their "just right" or instructional level. Whew, hopefully that makes sense. :/

Click here to get a copy of my general Daily 5 and CAFE schedule.

The next item that I created and shared today was my Where to Begin Mini Lessons. For me, the hardest part was trying to figure out how I was going to start the process in my classroom. (This is where I shed the tears :(.) I have created a general plan of my first series of mini lessons. Once I get into the classroom I may find that this is not going to work. But it is a STARTING PLACE, and I love having something in front of me to look at and know that I always have a back up.

Click here for the Where to Begin Mini Lessons.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Jessica Meacham for sharing her frontloading mini lessons. They have greatly helped me develop my own plans.

I would love for you to follow me and leave me a comment if you use anything that I created. I love knowing that I have helped others!

These items are unofficial adaptations of the Daily 5 and CAFE Strategies management system by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser. This freebie is not endorsed by the 2 Sisters. Visit http://www.thedailycafe.com for official resources.

 

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Now to reflect on this...

 

I made 3 major changes over the course of the year.

 

I successfully completed my first year of Daily 5...by my standards at least. I definitely had to change some things to meet the needs of my students and my self.

 

First off, the first 6 weeks of introduction were a success. My littles loved Daily 5 and even went back to their kindergarten teachers and told them all about what they were doing in first grade. It made my day!

 

However, over time I did change some things. Eventually I weeded out Listen to Reading. I just didn't have the resources available to make this as meaningful as it should be. I definitely recommend having more that one CD player.

 

I also stopped the strategy lessons after the first month. It just didn't fit into my plans and I couldn't keep up with everything. So this was a fail on my part. Next year I am just going to stick with guided reading groups.

 

Another change I made was to make the Daily 5 choice for my students. They didn't mind a bit and actually like the excitement or wondering what choice they get to go to next. Next year I am going to start off the year with making the choices for my students.

 

I'm still by no means perfect at implementing the Daily 5 but I do what is best for myself and my littles, and I think that is what makes a great teacher. FLEXIBILITY and flexible I am!

Daily 5 & CAFE: Where to Begin

Some of my colleagues and I met at school today to discuss Daily 5 and CAFE. No one at our school has implemented the management system before and several of us are going to try this coming year.

We met in my room so that everyone could see how I had set up my Daily 5 and CAFE boards. Even though I have been at the school for 2 years, this is going to be my first year as a permanent resident!!! Yay! I love that I got to share all the research and items I had found and made with everyone!

I thought since it went well at school today and I hopefully helped everyone understand it better, that I should do a post about it for other newbie Daily 5 and CAFE users.

Here it is....

First, I shared my set up of the Daily 5 board. I posted earlier that I purchased the headers from Kylie at Down Under Teacher.

Up at the top I have the choice Read to Self, Read to Someone, and Word Work. Down below I have Listen to Reading, Read with Teacher, and Work on Writing. The Read with Teacher choice is not an original choice in the Daily 5 book by the"The Sisters". However, down below you will see why I think it is important to include that choice.

This is a close up of how I'm going to have the rotation work in my classroom. I only have enough time for three rotations. Each little will have a clip with their name on it for each chain. Sorry I haven't done that yet. I will post a picture later that shows exactly what I mean.

When my littles walk into the classroom each morning, one of their morning procedures will be to make their Daily 5 choices. However, one choice will possibly be chosen for them. If I plan on meeting with a guided reading group or a strategy group, their clip will already by on the Read with Teacher. So that little will really only have two other choices to make.

I am also going to require that each little picks Read to Self once per day. So really some littles might have just one choice to make for that day.


Here is my CAFE board...

I haven't had a chance to put up the goal papers for the post-it notes yet, but they will be up. This board is behind my reading table so that it can be referred to during guided and strategy groups.

Here is a close up (Sorry for the glare.) ...

Ok, now here is the best part and what my colleagues all wanted copies of. I have spent hours and hours and hours thinking and planning, thinking again and planning again on how to begin the Daily 5 and CAFE process. I'm not going to lie, I have shed some tears trying to figure this out. At one point I felt like giving up, but I didn't and I am soooooooooo glad that I didn't!

First, using the Daily 5 and CAFE book, I planned out a possible schedule as to what it would look like in my classroom. I wanted to still use guided reading groups because it is part of the reading program in my district so I had to think of a way to use guided reading and strategy groups.

Everyday of the week I will give three mini lesson each day. But the instruction I give to my small groups will look different daily.

On Mondays and Fridays, I plan on having strategy groups and student conferences.

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursday, I plan on have guided reading groups.

Some of my littles might get small group instruction more days than others because I might have a little in a guided reading group and a strategy group. Remember, strategy groups are to used to provide instruction to littles that need extra coaching on a specific goal and strategy. During a strategy group, each little will be reading their own "just right" book. Whereas, my guided reading groups every little will be reading the same book and at their "just right" or instructional level. Whew, hopefully that makes sense. :/

Click here to get a copy of my general Daily 5 and CAFE schedule.

The next item that I created and shared today was my Where to Begin Mini Lessons. For me, the hardest part was trying to figure out how I was going to start the process in my classroom. (This is where I shed the tears :(.) I have created a general plan of my first series of mini lessons. Once I get into the classroom I may find that this is not going to work. But it is a STARTING PLACE, and I love having something in front of me to look at and know that I always have a back up.

Click here for the Where to Begin Mini Lessons.

I'd like to give a shout-out to Jessica Meacham for sharing her frontloading mini lessons. They have greatly helped me develop my own plans.

I would love for you to follow me and leave me a comment if you use anything that I created. I love knowing that I have helped others!

These items are unofficial adaptations of the Daily 5 and CAFE Strategies management system by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser. This freebie is not endorsed by the 2 Sisters. Visit http://www.thedailycafe.com for official resources.

P.S.--- I'd like to host a linky party and I have no idea how to. If someone would like to help, it would be greatly appreciated. Email me at kelli.eddleblute@gmail.com. Thanks!

Yay for Summer Projects!

I have been working on many projects the last couple of weeks and the one I am most proud about is the Daily 5 Check for Understanding check marks. I did however have some assistance from my Mr..

I got this inspiration straight out of the Daily 5 book by the "Sisters". I can not express enough how easy of a read it is! If you haven't already it is def. a must read!



The Mr. and I were driving around town one day and I asked him if he could make me some wooden check marks for school, and he said yes without any hesitation. I was VERY surprised that he said yes and drove right to the store to pick up the wood! Another SURPRISE is that is was only $10 for this hugefied (spelling?) slab of wood and we didn't even use half of it!!!

Sorry I don't have any pictures of him cutting the check marks out.

 Anywho, then my old lady (my teacher friend from school...and yes, she knows I call her that :). She's not really old, just older than me) came over and we painted 52 check marks total!!

And finally today I added the finishing touches!!!

Loving all the colors!

I just painted 2 coats of acrylic paint on each check mark and used a paint pen to write the wording.

The check marks are placed upside down in a large tin bucket and I am going to add a label later.

Yippy Skippy! My first summer project is finished!!!

P.S. If I get enough requests I will post the template for the check mark as a freebie!!!