Huge Birthday Giveaway

Let's face it. We're teachers. We love a good deal.  We love a good sale.  We love to shop.  We love free stuff.  Well yesterday was Laura at Love to Teach's birthday.  She is throwing a huge birthday celebration and giveaway over at her blog until Friday night.  And I mean HUGE!

To start off she's giving away a $30 TPT gift card along with some pre-selected packs and some winner's choice selections from 19 bloggers!!   My Suncatchers {The Bundle} is one of the products that you can win as part of her large pack of TPT giveaway items.  There are tons of great products from those 19 bloggers.

But that's not it. She's also giving away away a $75 gift card to Target AND another $75 gift card to Amazon!!! HOLY. SMOKES. BATMAN! Who wouldn't want to win this giveaway?! I know I do.

You can earn up to 50 entries between now and Friday so be sure to click here to head over to her blog.

I've been in a groove lately and have been able to get quite a few "creations" for TPT checked off of my To Do list.  Here are some new products that have been added to my store lately that I haven't had a chance to blog about yet. I'm hoping to do so posts on each one here soon.  

First up, Autograph Bookmarks.  I created these to hold my firsties more accountable for their independent and buddy reading time during Daily 5.   I have them write the book titles that they've read on the front or I just have them record who they've been reading to during Read to Someone time on both sides.  There 5 different color versions and those versions are also in black and white.  I have one template of lines if you want to make the bookmarks two-sided to last longer.  

I just finished this baby last night.  I LOVE this pack! I love the displays that you can create with the variety of printables in it, but more importantly I love the meaning behind it all. Gives me chills just thinking about it.  I know it's a little late to do this pack this year, but it's still 48 hours new so it's still 50% off for the next day.  Get ready for next year for only $2.00.

There are honor bricks that you can send home with your kiddos about a week before Veteran's Day.  They can fill these out with their families at home for the veterans that they know.  You can send home a general "brick" or a specific brick for each branch of service, with or without a picture. Once the kids bring them back in you can hang them in the hallway as a display or mount on butcher paper to make a large poster.  There are picture cards to graph how many veterans from each branch that your class knows, as well as posters and information sheets for each branch.  If you want to give some fun facts about each branch of service there is a poster and fun fact sheet to share with the kids. Finally, the kids can color their own American Flag, USA, and Thank You sheets that again can be mounted to butcher paper and/or staggered on the wall to make a "quilt-like" display.

These Rainbow Cart Labels have made it so much easier for my firsties to find their Daily 5 choices.  

I have also added a monthly spelling pretest and test packet for 10 spelling words.  I copy the pretest on the back of the test to save on paper and just keep them in a special place until week take the test the following week.

Finally, I think it's safe to say that we all love Mo Willems and that ornery little pigeon.  I made a little craftivity pack for my firsties to make the pigeon, a "Don't Let the Pigeon ____" class book, as well as a labeling and graphing activity.

Sorry for the overload, but it's been awhile since I actually sat down and dedicated some time to a blog post.  Until next time...

I {HEART} Spelling! This is How We Do It...

Are you singing along with Montell and I?  Great song.  Even better? Spelling. I LOVE spelling. I have loved it since I was a kid.  It was my favorite subject, besides reading of course.  So naturally when I became a teacher it was one aspect that I loved to teach and wanted to make it special for my firsties so that they would love it as much as I did/do.

I am a firm believer in individualized spelling lists. I think it's important that each child is working on those important skill words that we learn about each week, but also important that they are not spending the week practicing words that they already know.  To many, this can sound like a daunting, time-consuming task.  However, it doesn't have to be.  My setup for spelling has evolved over the years and I must say that I am completely happy with it right now and I don't think it takes too much longer to put together and grade than a traditional spelling test.  But then again, this is how I've always done it so I don't really know any different.  So let's get on with it.

Obviously the first week that we do spelling for the school year the kids only take a pretest.  I give every student the first 10 words of the spelling list.  Every weekly list has 20 words total, but each student only gets 10 words to learn for the week.  The first 10 words of the list consist of 8 skill words and 2 vocabulary words for the first week.  Every week after that words 1-6 are skill words, 7-8 are review skill words from the week before, and 9-10 are vocabulary words for that week.

That first week, once they are done with their pretest, they turn it in.  I will then "grade" each child's pretest to see which words they got right and which words they got wrong.  I circle missed words on the pretest.  Any words missed are the first of their ten words that they will learn for the next week.  Then for however many more words the student needs to get to ten words, is how many words from the second 10 words on the list that I include.  I write the numbers of the words on the back side of their pretest, which also serves as their test page.  For example, if Charlie gets #1 & #7 wrong, I will write #1 and #7 first on their test side, and then begin at #11 from the main list and go until that student has ten words.

Grading Pretests

Graded Pretest & Words Circled on Individual Lists

Individual numbers for their individual spelling words are recorded on test side.

Final look at spelling test and two individual lists-one to go home that day, one to keep at school

If a student gets all of their 10 pretest words correct, the will get the second ten words on the list.  Words #11-18 are harder skill words, #19-20 are two "challenge words".  These words are usually seasonal words, the current month, monthly holidays, etc. 

The last thing that I do is to prepare two lists for my firsties with their words circled.  One list is for them to take home with them that day so that they can practice at home.  The second list I will hold onto until Monday and give to them to use for their morning work spelling practice that we do or for their Word Work station during Daily 5.  I keep their pretest/test papers in a designated spot in my room until we need them the following Friday.  You can check out my Independent Morning Work Spelling Activities here.

This little back table from IKEA is where I set everyone's new spelling list for the week on Mondays. They know that first thing in the morning on Monday they need to go find their list and keep it in their To Do folder.

You may notice that there is a dictation sentence spot at the bottom of the test.  This is a test that we did just a week or two ago.  I don't give a dictation sentence on the test until the kids have gotten used to the format and routine of spelling tests in our classroom.  I wait until about week 6 or 7 to give a dictation sentence.

Now I know a lot of you may be wondering how the actual test taking process goes and what it looks like.  I won't lie. The first couple of weeks can be a challenge for my firsties, but if you go through it all slowly and are walking around monitoring the kids while you give the words they catch on really quick.  Obviously the pretest is pretty smooth sailing because everyone has the first ten words.  It's when you get to the test when everyone has different words where it gets tricky.  Honestly, it's just a matter of the kids making sure that they're listening for their numbers and following along.  During the actual test all of the kids are given their test paper and I read through all twenty words, one at a time.  It is their job to follow along and if I say a number that is written on their test, then they need to write that word down on the matching line.  If that number isn't written on their test, then they don't write it down.  Many parents are apprehensive at first when I'm describing this at parent night, but I just reassure them and tell them to have faith.  Kids are very adaptive and they catch on quickly. By week 3 almost, if not all, of my firsties have got it!

The last thing that I wanted to add was that when I'm grading the tests, I use my Cookie Spellers pack as an added incentive for my firsties to do well on their spelling test.  You can check that pack out here.  I highly recommend it. It's another one of my favorites!

Spelling Activities {Morning Work}

I'm a firm believer that my firsties should be practicing their spelling words on a daily basis. While I would like to think that they are doing their required nightly homework of practicing their 10 words, I think we all know that that doesn't always happen despite the best of intentions.

For me, the easiest way to guarantee that every firstie in my classroom is getting in daily practice of their spelling words, I give them an activity to do for morning work. There are a couple of activities that are "weekly musts" for me.  For example, every Monday is 3x each throughout the whole year. I think that the repetitiveness of writing the words is beneficial for anyone.  I usually rotate all of the other activities on the other days of the week.  I don't give them any spelling morning work on Fridays because that is when we take our pretests and tests.  Occasionally after the first nine weeks are over and the kiddos are finally getting into our routine, I will have them do the Bingo boards on Friday mornings and we will play a few quick games before our test as a fun review.  They MUST include their 10 spelling words on their board. Once those ten words on there, they may pick other skill words or vocabulary words that are on the list to finish filling in their board.  If they run out of words to use and still have spaces left to fill, they may choose words that are on the word wall that we have already learned.

I have bundled all of the different spelling activities that I have my kids do as morning work throughout the year into a pack.  It has quite a variety of activities that are typically quick and fun for the kids to do.  There are definitely some activities that are better if you wait after the first 9 weeks or longer to do, but you can also base this off their overall abilities of your kiddos.  For example, I don't give my firsties spelling sentences until the second semester.  I don't give them scrabble spelling until we've finished all three of our math topics on addition.

I typically give ABC order, consonants and vowels, rainbow writing, ladders, and smelly and colorful spelling at the beginning of the year.

This pack will be marked 50% off for the first 48 hours. Head on over to my TPT store to check it out!

On top of that, I would love to give a copy away. See the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win a copy!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Weekly Spelling Lists for Nat Geo

Hey friends!

Just popping in for a quick update on a new product in my TPT store tonight.  As I said before, this year is our first year of adoption for National Geographic's Reach for Reading program.  I have created a couple of other useful tools if you are using this program also, but tonight's deal focuses strictly on spelling.

Hot off the press you can get a packet of spelling lists for all 32 weeks of the program, based specifically on the spelling skills and vocabulary words for each week.  The first 10 words of the list are skill words for the week and are directly from the teacher's manual.  The second ten words include all of the weekly vocabulary words for each week, and some of the academic social studies vocabulary for each week.

Now you may be wondering why I have a list of 20 spelling words for my firsties?  Do I really give them all 20 words?! And the answer is goodness, NO!  Each of my firsties only gets 10 words. I'll be back more to explain how I do spelling in my classroom tomorrow. I need to take some pictures to help it all make sense for you all. So stay tuned! It's one of my favorite things that I do in my classroom and I can't wait to share with you!

In the meantime, head on over to my TPT store and check out the weekly lists. I'll fill in the blanks for you tomorrow!

P.S. Don't forget to follow me through Google or BlogLovin'! I'm considering a giveaway of any item in my store once I hit 15 followers!