Literacy Week and MLK

Last week we celebrated Literacy week!

On Monday we chose The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss as our class book.  We also happened to be checking out different types of communication such as signs, invitations, announcements, and reading maps.  During our work time students created announcements about our class book!

The announcement I modeled for the class.

NH's announcement, so colorful!

Our book of the month happens to be Martin's Big Words.  As we were reading and discussing The Sneetches I noticed my students making incredible connections between both stories.

"It don't matter what skin color you are." 

"At the end of both stories the sneetches and the people both learned that it doesn't matter how you look, what matters is you are nice."

I loved that they were pulling the main idea out of The Sneetches and connecting it to the non-fiction events in Martin's Big Words.  They dug really deep this week and I'm one proud teacher.

Click here to get the Sneetches and MLK responding sheet for free!

Finally, at the beginning of the month I used Peace and Dreams {A Martin Luther King Jr. Literacy Unit} created by Gladys over at Teaching in High Heels to introduce Martin's Big Words!  Her writing activities were really helpful in kicking off report writing!  I love it!

"Time" for Fishing: Games and Worksheets

Finished just in the nick of time!

I started this unit last summer and was only able to find the motivation to finish it when I actually needed some fresh activities to help my students grasp telling time.

Click here to check out "Time" for Fishing: Games and Worksheets in my TpT store!

All games and worksheets are black line masters and there are 6 colorful posters to display to help students with measures of time vocabulary.  In this pack you will find:

-3 Fishing games
-3 "I have, Who has?" games
-3 Time bingo games
-1 Make your own clock printable
-1 Can you find the time game
-6 Worksheets
-6 Colorful time posters

All activities and games include separate sets for time to the hour, half-hour, and every 5 minutes.

As always, magnetic fishing poles are available in my Etsy Shop!

In the "Download Preview" you will find these 2 FREEBIES:

It's "time" for fishing so check it out today!

MTSS (RTI) Monday

It's been a minute since I've posted about MTSS (formerly RTI) Monday because of the holiday break. I hope you all had a wonderful one!  We went back to school last Wednesday so my students have started a new round of activities for MTSS (Multi-Tier System of Supports).

Tonight I've got a few pictures that I hope will convey how I set up my MTSS activities.  Essentially, I run them as tiered centers.  For almost all activities in my classroom I prefer to have mixed skill levels working together.  MTSS is a great opportunity for my students to work on activities with other students who are operating on similar skill levels.

This is the chart I use to communicate with students what activities they will be working on for the day/week (students names are blurred).  I like to use index cards because I try to keep the groups very fluid and every week or two I'm moving someone to a different group to work on a different skill.  The stars match the bucket they will be using.  I could make it cuter but what-ev!

This is an example of an activity card I use to help them understand what they will be doing.

Below the MTSS chart is this book shelf where the tiered activities are stored.  In the folders there are fluency lists, sight word songs, and books for early finishers to read.

In my first MTSS Monday post I explained that I have 3 groups at this time.  A Tier 2 (REMEDIATION) group, an (ON TARGET) Tier 1 group, and another Tier 1 (ENRICHMENT) group for students working above grade level.  For some reason it's easier for me to think of them as a remediation, on target, and enrichment group instead of which tier they are working on.

I've also got a few pictures and a GREAT resource to share with you tonight that I like to use with my enrichment group.

The first 2 pictures are of the enrichment activity that my students are currently working on.  They chose a story, read it, then draw the characters, setting, problem, and solution.  This isn't a very high order activity but I was trying to ease them into their independent work after two and a half weeks off.  I try to be nice....sometimes :).

I usually prepare a lot of activities at once, paper clip them and then store them in ziplock bags with all of my other activities.

Here are a few activities I have prepared.  I'm looking forward to breaking out the book report and forming questions activities with them over the next month or so!

I got all of these wonderful activities from The Teacher Wife's Reading Comprehension pack!  It's A-MAZING!  There are several games and she provides opportunities for students to predict, summarize, compare, write about the plot and other story elements.  Check it out!