Currently we use the Journeys Alphafriends for our alphabet frieze and word wall. We are going to switch to a different alphabet frieze next year (2014-2015), as we’ve noted some confusing sounds for our kiddos (/e/ elephant). Below you’ll seen…
What is on your walls the first day of school? Click here, to find out why my walls are BARE the first day of school. I’ve tried several approaches to creating anchor color and number word anchor charts. These are from…
My thoughts/feelings/philosophy about this is that the room should be an empty canvas. As we learn throughout the year, we fill our room with evidence of our learning. I prefer student created things on the wall. None of the things on…
Following along the framework of a balanced literacy, students should be exposed to word work activities at the (1) Modeled, (2) Shared, (3) Guided, and (4) Independent levels. My class’ [independent] WORD WORK activities are stored in pull out drawers. …
Below you will find several High Interest Word Sheets. Students use these during Writer’s Workshop. Sometimes I’ll make a class set for special holidays or events. I’ve included both the PDF and WORD versions. Feel free to adapt. There’s also a…
Whole Class or Workshop Approach? I vacillate between the two. To be honest, the best set up for my teaching style (and most of the classes I’ve taught) is a combination approach. September is a great time of year to remain in whole-class-mode…
It seems like every summer I buy more books to read. They are worth the investment! Each one seems to give me more motivation and new ideas. You can check out my “bookshelf” via Pinterest:
When I taught Kindergarten, we began to learn about letter names and sounds right away! We accomplished this by beginning to learn about our classmates’ names. Every day we played the Name Game. We started with “round one” of the…
Students use mini offices throughout the day. We make them as a class. Each student assembles their own office. Students personalize them (special words are added throughout the year). I no longer laminate them, as done in the past. Items…
Units of Study Lesson Plan: The Units of Study lessons are organized by unit. The following units are included: They are in PDF format, and follow the format you see in the picture below. Files to Support Reading Units: Click…
