What I’m Reading this Summer and a Fun Linky!

I am usually able to get a TON of reading done this summer, but this summer has already gone so fast!  We are vacationing in Norway right now (visiting in-laws), and I’m finally able to get something read!  The first part of my summer was spent working on curriculum for my district, then it was on to Las Vegas for the Dance Awards, and finally we are now in Norway.  When we come back, I will be working with a new team of teachers to open a BRAND new school! Yes, another move for me, but SO exciting!

 

So, onto the books I’m reading:

I recently finished this one – it will be an ongoing book study with our new staff.  I hope to be able to blog a bit about this one as well!

The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy

I also recently discovered Jennifer Serravallo.  Holy amazing. She knows her stuff!  I’m working on these right now:

 

Finally my niece highly recommended this book to me – I am about 2/3 of the way through it. (Crossing my fingers that the movie will be on the new line up of movies on the plan ride home!)

 

I’m also linking up with Rachel over at The Tattooed Teacher for a fun little survey!

 

Hop on over and link up yourself!

Writing Center in First Grade

A favorite center this year in first grade was our writing center.  My students LOVED to write and they always wanted to sit at this table!

The table fit 2 people, but they always tried to squeeze in more :)

During Daily 5 Time (or center time), the children had the option to work on whatever genre of writing they chose.  They might write in their journals (our first unit of study), or they might choose to write a list, or work on scrambled sentences, or write imaginative stories using prompts.

They had a large selection of different types of paper available to them.

Class writing journals available {HERE}

One of our favorite activities was always scrambled sentences.  They loved unscrambling these sentences!

The first few months of school are available in my store now:

   

 

I always make sure I display the children’s writing! They love picking up the books that they have created either during Writers’ Workshop or during independent center time.

If you would like to try out the list books in your classroom, here are some freebie covers!

And here are the I can Statements that I have hanging up in my writing center:

CVC – Getting to It!

Waaaay back in Feburary 2013, I blogged about a new CVC Intervention Resource that I put together.  Well, it has taken me TWO years to complete this whole set (which is why I don’t do growing bundles!), but all of the sets are finally done! (just a little update on the covers)

I use the activities in this bundle not only for Intervention, but for guided reading activities, center activities, and whole group lessons. 

One of my favorite activities for whole group are using the CVC sliders:

The number of sliders included in each kit varies, but there are more than enough to practice each vowel sound.  The children can’t get enough of these!

I have bundled these sliders in a separate set if you’re only interested in these, but they are included in the CVC kits.

I love playing card games in small groups – learning is so much more natural and fun when we can actually have FUN!  After we have played each game numerous times, I will put it in a center for the children to play with partners.  Each set has practice for hearing the individual phonemes (and blending), independent practice, and fun card games!

 

I have also included some fun board games to practice hearing and blending sounds together.  Again, we play these in our group time and then move it to a center for more practice!

We also practice hearing onsets and rimes with word a different type of slider!  There are sliders included for each word family and a recording sheet for independent practice.

There is also plenty of independent practice!

When I taught Kindergarten, I used these throughout the entire year – in first grade, I use these more at the beginning of the year to make sure there is a solid foundation of CVC words before adding blends and digraphs.  (Next project!)

Another activity we love to do whole group is called CVC Bang! I project it on my IWB and the kids LOVE it!

You can download this game for free {HERE}

If you haven’t purchased the individual sets, you can purchase the bundle {HERE}

Here are a couple more blog posts that I have done about CVC practice.  {HERE} and {HERE}.