Halloween Literacy Center and a Freebie

I love doing literacy centers, or stations, in my classroom. I count this as my WORD WORK for Daily 5. I will take some pictures and post when I talk about our WORD WORK, but I wanted to find the just right stations for what we are doing in my classroom. I decided to make these centers, and I can't wait to share them with my students! I am also sharing one of the centers that I think is adorable. Click on the picture below and it will take you to my TpT store so you can download it. Click on the other picture and it will take you to the full Halloween Centers!!!! Thanks for looking. Do me a favor- let me know what you think by leaving me a comment.

Click here for the full Haunted Halloween Stations:

Daily 5: Getting Started with Read to Self

I didn't start teaching Daily 5 until the third week of school. We had a rough beginning of the year so I wanted to make sure I had all of my pretesting and routines down before I threw in another one. We started Daily 5 with choosing a good book. I brought in every shoe imaginable and we talked about where and why we would use them. The kids thought this was fantastic! It also gave them time to get to know me a little bit from my different shoes. (Who knew our shoes told who we are?!) We then talked about the I PICK. We came up with actions for each part of it so they would remember. We tried reading different books that were not on our level and talked about that.

That was Day 1.

Day 2 we talked about what Read to Self would look like. They came up with a good T-Table and we wrote it all down. Then we talked about me, what I would be doing. I explained that I get to work with each one of them back at our "Jelly Bean" table, which is our small group table. They were all thrilled about this.

The first day we made it three minutes. We talked about, and made it three minutes again. It's funny because I was sweating bullets trying to get them there. I created graphs so we could keep track of how long we were there. They loved to see them. Every day seemed to get better and by just a little over a week we made it to 15 minutes~ holy cow! I didn't expect their stamina to build so quickly, but it did, and now I am able to meet with a group for that time!

One thing I did as we were building stamina here, is I would go around and tap them on the shoulder. They would then start reading aloud so I could hear them read. I felt that this served two purposes- first, I wanted to hear that they chose a book that they could read, and second, I wanted them to get used to "distractions" so they could learn to ignore when we were at the table.

Notice my Daily 5 board in the back- it has my poster as well as the stamina poster (as well a full shot of my book boxes!)

I have made Daily 5 posters with an I PICK poster, as well as stamina graphs in my TpT store. I have pirates, Ocean Friends, and Monsters. (I haven't gotten around to making graphs yet on the last two) Feel free to check them out. Click on the pic to take you there!

Next post I will talk about what is in their book box, book shopping, and introducing Work on Writing!

Daily 5: Getting Started with Book Boxes

I have tried Daily 5 in the past, and have started out pretty good, but this year I decided that for my classroom to work effectively and me to be a happy teacher, I needed to figure out how to do it ALL! If you don't know about it, you can find the book here. It truly is an amazing way to set up your classroom.

The first task was figuring out book boxes. I searched on pinterest, on on a million blogs, and finally found these cute ice cube boxes at Walmart. They were $2 a piece. I scoured all of the Walmarts around my house and finally found enough for my classroom. Next I made these cute circles to label each one. Finally, I got some wood from Home Depot, cut it, painted it, got some cinderblocks, and tada... a book shelf for my book boxes. I LOVE THIS!!!!  I would love to know what you have done, too!

Johnny Appleseed Day and a Freebie

It sounds a bit funny, but one of my favorite celebrations is Johnny Appleseed day. It seems like such a fun way to celebrate fall, and a great excuse to eat apples!!! We do lots of fun things in our classroom with Johnny Appleseed. We teach about seeds, plants, tall tales, and of course, Johnny Appleseed himself. I decided to put my together what I had made into a unit. I've never made a unit before, but I am excited for how this turned out. We do lots of writing in this unit, and there is writing in each form from the common core- information, narrative, opinion-- this unit includes the graphic organizers also. My kids love coming to school for Johnny Appleseed day because all week we talk about what our day will look like. Sometimes I have parents come in and we do some of the activities in centers, and other times we do them all week long and just do one or two activities. They always come in cut off pants, with a couple of apples and a pot to wear on their head! When we do it this year, I will make sure to post some pics! Click on the link below to take you to my store.

I want you to be able to have some Johnny Appleseed paper I created that is in my packet. If you click the link below you can download it for free. It's in a JPG form.  Make sure to leave a comment so I know you did. I would love it if you followed my blog, too!