First Grade Reading Street Unit 5 Literacy Activities

My last year in the classroom I began creating activities to supplement all of the Reading Street stories.  With it being the end of the year I assume most teachers that are using Reading Street are teaching from unit 5.  You can find activities for Dot and Jabber, Tippytoe Chick, Mole and Baby Bird, Simple Machines, Alexander Graham Bell and The Stone Garden in my TPT store!  Here are the links:

Dot and Jabber

Tippy Toe Chick

Mole and Baby Bird

Simple Machines

Alexander Graham Bell

The Stone Garden

Bundle of All Stories in Unit 5

Spring Fun and Free Facebook Hop

Come visit the Facebook pages of some great teacher authors!! I've joined some fabulous friends and we have created a Facebook Hop!  You'll find lots of fantastic freebies!!  

My freebie is 2 of my Reading Anchor Charts.  They can only be downloaded through the Facebook Hop. When you go to the Learning With Firsties Facebook page you will need to click the Spring Fun and Free Hop Tab at the top of the page.  

If you haven't liked my FB page then a picture like this will appear.  You have a choice to like the Learning With Firsties page or you can skip and continue on to the next picture.

When you see the picture below make sure you click on the picture under "Grab my Freebie!"  It will take you to the google doc link or it may automatically download for you... my settings allow the document to download from here. Once you've downloaded the freebie click on "Click Here to Find More!"  A new Facebook page will open and you will find more freebies!!! So much fun!!!

Here is a map of the entire hop.  You can click on the pictures to go to each FB page!

Book Study

Started reading Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites by Marcia L. Tate!!! My favorite quote from Chapter 1: Brainstorming and Discussion

"They can't talk in class. They can't talk in the hall. They can't talk in the cafeteria. They can't talk at all!"

Mmmmm....WOW! We have to let our kiddos talk, collaborate, brainstorm, discuss, etc. This made me stop and think about my own work. How many times do we "bounce" ideas off of one another? Some of my greatest ideas have come from discussions with colleagues. I learn so much from those around me! Our students are wired the same way!! They learn from one another. If they can't spend time talking with peers then they are missing out! I would love to hear your ideas, thoughts, examples, etc. Please comment below.

Challenge this week: Incorporate brainstorming/discussion in just one lesson. A suggested strategy from the book: "Prior to reading a story or starting a unit of study have them peruse pictures, captions, graphs, etc, and brainstorm questions to be answered as they read." Such a simple task to implement but so engaging for the kiddos. Let me know how it goes!!!

Lots of great strategies in this first chapter! Order the book today and read along with me!!! I would love your input!! Email me at learningwithfirsties123@gmail.com if you would like to write a guest post!!!

Keep Teaching,

Steal of a Deal Sunday

This week I am offering Become a Research Tourist for 1/2 off! That means you can get this engaging Social Studies unit for just a $1.50.  It truly was one of my firsties' favorite units! They work cooperatively to research tourist attractions in a city of their choice. Then the students complete the graphic organizer included with the craftivity. Once the research and graphic organizer is finished they move on to the fun stuff...the tourist!

Become A Research Tourist

Reflecting on Reading Instruction

Recently I've done a lot of reflecting on reading instruction.  Lots of PD on formative assessment, feedback, writer's workshop and readers workshop has me very reflective of how I taught reading in my classroom.  Common core is not for the weak hearted! We have to change our practices so that our students are successful. We need to start asking ourselves, "What is the effect of my teaching on their learning?"  With that being said I FINALLY understand just how important it is to teach our students to be readers and writers.  This doesn't mean following a script or a program. It means a lot of hard work for both teachers and students.  We have to put the time into planning those book clubs, close reading lessons, lessons on writing and reading strategies and giving them the time to read and write during class.  Our kiddos need 30 minutes of independent reading time in class. They need 30 minutes of independent writing time in class.  It makes sense for your ELA block to look like this:  10 minutes of Word Work, 30 minutes of DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time with reading response, 30 minutes of Small Group Guided Reading, 45 minutes of Readers Workshop, 45 minutes of Writers Workshop.  I see now how your Writers Workshop focuses on informational writing while your Readers Workshop focuses on informational text.  It makes sense!!  No longer do we need to teach standards in isolation.  We need a "power" standard that drives the lesson but with that standard we also teach other related standards. Close reading has to become something good readers do naturally but we have to make it a focus in our classrooms.  If we start in the first grade can you imagine the readers we would have by the time those students enter 3rd grade.  Standardized tests are geared towards close reading and if our students have always been close readers then those tests no longer become daunting.  We aren't teaching to the tests. We are only equipping our students to be successful when they take the test. :0) 

I've bundled some of my reading anchor charts together that might be helpful to your kiddos in anchoring reading strategies.  You can print them poster size to put in the classroom or print them on an 8x11 sheet for a notebook that your students can refer to during their independent reading and responding.   You can get it HERE.

   

Movie Clip Monday ... When Two Vowels Go Walking

                                              Techie Turtle Teacher

Sharing another fun video you can use in the classroom. My firsties loved this video, When Two Vowels Go Walking! In my district we are 1:1 digitally so all of our firsties have their own iPad.  If you are fortunate enough to have iPads in the classroom I have a great tip on how to manage all of these videos.  You can post the links on padlet walls at https://padlet.com/.  Once you create the padlet wall you can go to the url address of the padlet wall and put the shortcut onto the homescreen of the iPad so your firsties can easily access it.

                                                                        

An InLinkz Link-up

Ruby Bridges Unit Update

I just added one more piece to my Ruby Bridges unit. My first grade teachers asked me to add a fact and opinion graphic organizer to the unit.  They will be using it instead of "How Ruby Changed History" with the craftivity. If you have purchased the unit or are thinking about purchasing and want something added just send an email to learningwithfirsties123@gmail.com.

RUBY BRIDGES ON TPT

RUBY BRIDGES ON TEACHERS NOTEBOOK