Literacy Station Rotation

We both adopted this fantastic literacy station rotation about 3 years ago. And once we started we couldn't believe how we survived without it. We pair the students heterogeneously so the lower students learn from the higher students. The pairs really cut down on the noise level and it's easier for them to stay on task. We each do it a little different to fit our classrooms.

We have rotations of 3 to 4 stations a day. During one of their stations they meet with us which may leave a student alone in their center but this works out fine. In Kindergarten I set a timer for 10 minutes at the beginning of the year and slowly work the stamina per station to 15 minutes. In First grade Katie sets a timer for 20 minutes per rotation. During each rotation we meet with a guided reading group while students work in their stations. In Kindergarten I start the year with 2 rotations per day and then work our stamina up to 4. When the students hear the timer go off they clean up and wait for the bell to change to their next center. Each week in Kindergarten I would mix up the centers so students were not missing the same centers when meeting with me for guided reading. Here's a picture of our center boards at the end of last year.

I got the station cards at School Box and laminated them. I bought two sets and and put the other icon on the box to go with that center. Katie made her own cards.
For noise control and staying on task check out The Lesson Plan Diva's Center Patrol Idea.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Freebie: October Journal BINGO

TADA! Here is October Journal BINGO. Hope your kids are loving them as much as ours;) If you download leave a note or rating. We appreciate it! Click HERE to download.

You can check out the September Journal BINGO too by clicking on the picture below.

Lowercase I have...Who has...

My kindergarten class this year is loving the I have....Who has games I have been making! Here's another one with lowercase letters. To grab your own just click on the picture below! If you download leave a comment! Thanks!

BINGO!

A literacy center we both use in our classrooms is journaling. We were finding that students were drawing and writing the same stories over and over again. To solve this problem Journal BINGO was created.

There is one for each month and students glue it to the front of their journal .Students can either do 5 across, diagonal, down or you can have them fill the board. Each time they "won" and we checked to make sure they wrote enough to fulfill the assignment they would get something out of the treasure chest and then they could continue playing on the same board.

 Each month students would get a new board and they absolutely LOVED it and we got some really great writing out of our students. To download your own copy click on the picture below.

Story Elements - Accountability Piece

Here's an accountability piece to go with the story element cards. Click Here to get to the post with the cards. To download the accountability sheet click on the picture below!

And don't forget to participate in the giveaway! Click HERE to find out details! Just two days left!!!! Good luck!

Story Element Cards

Comprehension is big and it is something students need to continuously need to work on. Here are 12 cards that are kid friendly with picture cues. There are many different ways they could be used. Here are a few we thought about:
1)  During Guided Reading you could fan them out and hold them out face down. Have each student pick a card and then answer the question.
2) Put the cards in a bucket and have students pick at random.
3) Give each student a set to use during literacy centers.
4) Have a few class sets for the students to grab while at buddy reading, independent reading or the library. 
5) Keep a set of the cards at your circle time spot and pull one  or two each time you read a story to the class.

To download your own set click here! 
ALSO: There's still time for the Scrabble Pack Giveaway! Click here to find out how to qualify! It ends Monday July 4th! And thank you as always for your support!

Lifesaver!

I LOVE these sight word videos. I got mine from the Schoolbox but you can order them through scholastic. They are awesome for helping students learn those all important sight words. I usually have my students get white boards and practice writing the words as they appear.  Students can also write a sentence using some of the sight words from the video.

Confessions of a Bookaholic

I love books. I might have a scholastic problem;) So because of that I had to figure out a way to manage all those awesome books and make them accessible for my students. I am planning to extend the libary with even more boxes this upcoming year to accomodate my growing collection.  To contain my books I invested in clear shoe boxes and made labels for my categories.

I printed and taped the labels to the side of the shoe boxes and stacked them on the shelves with the labels facing out. For some boxes I put two labels on them to consolidate.  

To help my students keep the books organized I used paint sticks. I went to Home Depot and told them it was for my class and they gladly gave me some. I wrote each of their names on a stick and kept them in a bucket near the library and had several mini lessons on how to use them. They did so great that half way through the year I took away the sticks and they continued to put the books back in the correct tub. Success!;)

To download  your own set of book labels click here!

Be sure to check out our friend 3rd Grade Gridiron for her story about the children's book obsession!

Would love to hear your comments!

Letter and Number recognition

Here is a letter and number recognition color sheet that might help students determine the differences. I know in Kindergarten this is BIG;) Click here to download!

Graphic Organizer-Persuasive Writing

Here's a couple graphic organizers to go along with the interactive writing. To download  all three just click here!

Persuasive Writing

 This was an interactive writing activity I did with my Kindergartners during our Writer's Workshop about persuasive writing. It really helped them catch on and expand their writing instead of just saying "I want it". Typical right?;) This way they knew they needed to write at least three REASONS. It also kept them on topic. After doing this activity my students started really embracing the concept and doing some really great persuasive writing. So if you'd like to give it a try hopefully you will have great results too!

Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

To download click on the picture!

Getting Back to Basics

There's nothing like doing Kindercamp at my school to remind me to get back to the basics...like learning the alphabet. It's a helpful reminder of just what they need to learn at the beginning of the school year. They leave knowing so much that it's easy to forget what helped mold them into the great readers and writers they are. Here is an ABC match game that may be helpful in the beginning of year while they learn their ABCs. To download just click here!