Guided Reading Dilema!

Hi Everyone! I read a great post from Mrs. Patton yesterday about how she is loving doing reading conferences as opposed to typical guided reading. Two years ago, after I read the CAFE book for the first time, I implemented reading conferences in addition to guided reading groups. I remember thinking they were so efficient and effective - got right to what each student needed and I could move through a conference much quicker than a guided reading group. Since then, I have gone back to doing regular guided reading groups, which after what I said about my reading conferences, you may be thinking, why? I don't really know. I think part of me thinks guided reading is "best practice" so I should stick to that - and part of me thinks the conferences worked so well because I did them the year I looped up to 2nd with my old 1st graders. 

Anyway, I would love some advice/ suggestions/ to hear what works for all of you. This year I am feeling like my kids are making normal progress, but I'm not totally satisfied with my guided reading groups. With my lower couple groups, I feel like I'm not getting to all the different components of the lesson because reading the book is taking so long. Does that mean I'm choosing the wrong books? Just letting them read for too long? Or would they be better off meeting with me individually? And for my highest couple of groups, I feel like - what are they really getting out of a guided reading group? I find it so difficult to teach comprehension strategies during a 15-20 minute guided reading session. How do you gals do it? I have done book clubs/ lit circles in the past, but they are just not taking off this year so far. Maybe I need to keep trying...Sometimes it just feels like I try to cram way too much in from 9:15-11:00 (our literacy block) - and the kids just can't do it all and get enough out of ALL of it.  

Right now, I am thinking about leaving one round of Daily 5 a day open to conference with students who are reading to self. During that time, I hope to reach my higher students. What do you think?!

I'm really looking forward to reading what works for all of you! Your suggestions and thoughts are sooo appreciated! 

Hope you're all having a great week!

Biographies!

Hi Friends! Hope you all have had a great weekend - mine flew by! February is an exciting month for us because it means we are going to study African American history and other important Americans through the lens of the biography! I just added a biography writing/ cross-curricular packet to my TPT store. You can get it for just $3.50 here. 

I will be posting pics of how we are using it in the next few weeks! Sorry this post is so short - I just have so much to do today! Anyone watching the season finale of Kim and Kourtney Take NY tonight? Thoughts????

Predictions and Snowmen

Hi friends! Here are the rest of the pics I promised you yesterday. We have really been working on using text evidence to support our predictions and then changing them as we get new evidence. Here is a look at a couple DRTAs kids did while I read The Mitten. It was great because no one had read the story before! There job was to make a prediction, write the evidence (then I read a little and stopped a few pages later), write either confirmed evidence or the story outcome. Then they wrote their new prediction on the next row down, along with their evidence from the text...I love DRTAs!

The next day we filled out this mitten, which is an idea I stole from Cara over at The First Grade Parade (amazing). Mine is not nearly as cute or legible as hers, but my kids loved the giant mitten nonetheless. Today we actually came back to the lovely mitten to fill in blanks I wrote in the "events" section for the verbs Jan Bret used to tell how the animals got inside the mitten. They loved acting out "lumbered" and "wriggled" and "nosed" (and pretty much all of them). We will revisit this mitten next week when we talk about using the 5 finger retell during "read to someone." 

Last week, my kids practiced making and changing their predictions based on text evidence using 3-4 post-its during read to self with a self-selected book they had never read before. They turned out great!

Here is our latest how-to writing. I used this adorable craft I saw somewhere on pinterest and/or someone's blog to teach more about how-to writing. We really honed in on word choice and being exact with our directions. 

I tried to get some close-ups, but it still looks pretty hard to read....sorry about that!

That's all for now. Hope you all are having a great Monday. I'm off to the gym :)

What We've Been Up To! Pics and new units

 This week was filled with how-to writing, more matter, and making predictions. I forgot to take pics of the predictions activities...so I'll have to post them tomorrow. But for now here's what we have been doing in science and writing!

As you know we are studying matter in science. Last week we investigated the properties of solids by building a tower of solids and then writing about how they were able to use the solids in different ways to build the tallest tower possible. We had a great discussion about how certain properties led us to use solids for different parts of the tower. (the cups are able to balance because of flat sides, the rubber band could hold two things together because it is stretchy...) 

Next, we talked about how to measure solids. We compared solids by measuring length and mass using rulers and balances. It was great when they found 2 solids that had the same length but different masses! It was also great measurement practice too as we measured to the nearest inch and centimeter! 

 As the week wrapped up we started our conversation about liquids and the many different properties of liquids by doing my "mystery liquids" activity. I put 6 different liquids into 6 containers and my students rotated through the liquids to investigate properties of liquids. I chose milk, hand soap, juice, water, coke, and dishwashing soap. These activities and more are included in my matter unit on my TPT store if you want to download them :) 

We have been working on how-to writing in writer's workshop. Last week we went outside to make snow angels....they had a blast!! Then we came back inside, talked about how we made the snow angels, reviewed the structure of a paragraph, and wrote a paragraph teaching how to make a snow angel. I think they turned out so cute! We also made a little craft to go with it - glue mixed with shaving cream and a sprinkle of glitter :)

This writing activity can be found in my newest addition to my TPT store! I also added a blends center activity and a Guide to Guided Reading Packet!

Please let me know what you think - I hope you like them!! :)

Love to Joplin

Could there be a better idea for a linky party? Mrs. Wills is having a linky party to send teachers in Joplin, MO products from out TPT stores. Teachers are so generous! I have seen this heart nonstop for the past few days, and finally made it over to Mrs. Wills blog today...only to find out almost 100 teachers have linked up! I just sent a couple of my packets to help out. Join the fun!

A Day in the Life

It's been so fun to read about everyone's daily schedules! So I thought I would link up with Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher to tell you what my typical day looks like :)

6:00 - Alarm goes off! I am not pleased how dark it is outside (you'd think I'd be used to it by now), but reluctantly get out of bed and head to the shower.

6:15ish: Get dressed...and everything else

6:40ish- Out the door and in my car.

7:00ish- Daily stop at Starbucks - I love my coffee!

7:15-7:30- Arrive at school, unlock my door, and take out my list of things to do

7:30 - 8:50 - make copies, get guided reading plans organized, change math work stations cards, get any manipulatives out and organized for math/ science, find read alouds/ prepare materials for mini-lessons, sharpen pencils, re-tape things to the walls that fell (does anyone else have walls that nothing sticks to??)...

8:55- bell rings, pick up kids from cafeteria

9:00-9:15 - kids eat breakfast in the classroom, turn in homework, choose new take home book, work on the math message, make their daily 5 choices, put backpacks and coats away...while I take attendance, check-in homework, do the breakfast and lunch count, and solve any mini-crises that come up before 9:15 :)

9:20: Phonics Dance chant

9:25 - 9:40 - First mini-lesson (usually comprehension)

9:40-10:00- First Round of Daily 5/ Guided Reading Group

10:00-10:10 - Second Mini-lesson (rotates between vocab, word wall, decoding/ accuracy strategy, fluency strategy, and learning new routines/ activities to be placed at a D5 station 

10:10-10:30 - Second Round of Daily 5/ Guided Reading Group

10:30-10:40 - 3rd mini-lesson (usually phonics dance)

10:40-11:00 - Third Round of Daily 5/ Guided Reading Group

11:00 - Lunch!

11:20 - Science

11:45 (or on Wed. 12:20)- Math 

12:43 - Specials

1:21: Word Study

1:45 - Writer's Workshop

2:30 - Get ready to go home

2:45 - Dismissal

Wow, I get tired just thinking about it! 

2:45-3:00 - Sit/ Breathe :)

3:00- 4:00 (sometimes later) - get ready for the next day!

So thankful for MLK day tomorrow! Enjoy the 3 day weekend!!!

100th Day Packet

Hi Bloggie Friends! I don't know why, but I'm in a great mood for some reason! It's definitely not the weather - it's freezing here in Chicago!! Maybe it's the yoga class I did this morning... Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know I just posted my 100th Day Packet on TPT. I think it's really cute, but for whatever reason, the thumbnails look like the formatting is all off - so I had to choose the best ones, which maybe aren't the ones I would have normally chosen. Has anyone else had that problem? Anyway, if you check it out, let me know what you think of the packet! I think it's useful because most of the activities can be used on any other day of the year as well :) Hope you're all having a great weekend! Is anyone excited for the Denver Tebow/Patriots game later?