A Peek at Guided Reading & a FREEBIE!!

So I've realized I'm a super lazy blogger and I feel bad because I put a lot of time into starting a blog and finding someone to make it beautiful. I had goals. Serious goals y'all. You know...  "I'm going to blog 3 times a week" goals. Then life happened and life said "Nice try." So.. that's that. 

Well, I figured if I had an actual topic to discuss and one that I could plan out a blog post for, then I would be motivated to write more. So here we are! I have decided to give you all a peek into my guided reading block and share one of my weekly outlines for a guided reading group this week. 

I currently have 25 students in my class and 5 differentiated guided reading groups. These groups range from reading below a level A all the way to a reading level N. I have to meet with these groups every day. However, it is just impossible for me to meet with 5 different groups every single day within 60 minutes, so I meet with my two highest groups every other day on an A-Day, B-Day schedule. When they aren't meeting with me they are completing independent work at their seat. 

This is how my rotations look throughout the week. I keep labels in a pocket chart in the back of my room for my students to see. You can see a post of how they look in the pocket chart from the beginning of the year (when I had 4 groups) by clicking here. I keep the B-Day labels behind the A-Day labels for easy switching. 

When I really get into my planning groove, I like to get all fancy with my documents and really plan out my week.

Just kidding. Not fancy at all. Sometimes I enjoy the simplicity of a sheet of paper and a pen/pencil. This is weekly outline one of my on-level groups and this week we are reading a biography on Michael Jordan. It's amazing that not one of them knows who Michael Jordan is! This organizer is a freebie in my TPT store and you can find it here or clicking on the picture below. 

So if your wondering, Monday is crossed out because every other week I have to spend small group time teaching spelling patterns to my differentiated spelling groups. 

These pink storage baskets are how I keep my guided reading books that I am using organized. The construction paper in between the sets of books just lets me know which group the books are intended for. With 5 groups things can get pretty confusing. I'm sure there's a prettier way to house this, but it works for me. Underneath the organized books I keep books I plan to use that I haven't planned out yet. 

So there is this weeks peek into my guided reading block. I'll be back next week with a peek into a different group and what they are working on. Don't forget to grab your FREE organizer for your guided reading block!

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First Week is Over! ((FREEBIE))

Okay before I get into my first week, can we all just take a minute to check out my new blog design?! *Moment of silence to look around and click things* It's beautiful and I love it! It's so me: colorful and pretty, yet simple. The wonderful Yukari designed my blog and she was fabulous to work with. Her pricing is amazing and she was even able to start my design a week early. You should definitely check out her blog if your looking for a new design. 

Now to talk about my first week. I promise will try to make this short and sweet! 

I have 22 little first graders and I completely forgot just how small they would be! Seeing them so tiny and fresh faced brought me back to reality that summer is over lol. 

This week we spent a lot of time going over routines and procedures, getting to know each other and trying to introduce the new curriculum (which I will need to dedicate a whole post for). For some reason I like to take most of my pictures during math so you'll see a few pictures of math last week. 

I introduced a few games the kids will be playing during math centers and during Structure Discourse & Play. They learned to play "Domino Addition War" - you know, I Declare War with addition. As well as the traditional I Declare War. And let me tell you, they love this simple game. 

I also introduced a simple partner game to review number sequencing called Start & Stop. The kids work with a partner, pick a card, write the number on the card in the left box and write down the next 5 numbers. Then their partner checks their work using a 120 chart. 

Book Nook was introduced to my class on Wednesday. We have a lot of work ahead of us but I'm confident my littles will get there. I mean, it was only the 1st week of school. 

During social studies we held a lot of discussions on how they have grown and changed since kindergarten. We ended the week talking about classroom/school responsibilities. We came up with this list of things the students are responsible for when they are at school (love that one kid said keep your mouth to yourself!) and everyone signed their name. This is like their "responsibility contract" and they will be held accountable for them. 

The whole week we reviewed writing complete sentences. Our curriculum wants us to jump straight into Lucy Calkins, BUT let's be real, first graders need a review on sentence structure...and Lucy doesn't really cover that.

Other random parts of the week that I didn't get pictures of include teaching my students how to play Jenga & Connect 4 for Structured Discourse & Play, as well as a lot of counting games and read alouds.

Okay so maybe this wasn't short and sweet like I said but I appreciate you sticking around to read about my first week. And for that, I am going to provide you with a totally random, unrelated to this post, FREEBIE. 

I have black chevron set of storage box labels in my TPT store that you can find here. I wanted to make a polka dot set to match the other decor in my room so I quickly made these one week. You can click here to grab this freebie. 

Thanks for stopping by!

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