Hello all!  Isn't the beginning of the school year just crazy?!  Has it always been this crazy?!  This post is going to be a little long, because I feel like I have so much to catch up on!  And I am using way too many exclamation points!!!  Anyway..... Common Core really emphasizes digging deeper into the text.  It's very hard to motivate students to do just that.  It's a lot of work!  This year, I decided to really push the fact that they have to be reading detectives.   I thought this little book was great for teaching what detectives do in a fun and relatable way for them.  We brainstormed what detectives do after reading the story. I knew they had to have something that made them feel like a detective.  Last year, I made little badges for the different skills, but I found these super cute hat templates online for free!  I just cut out the hat image and attached it to a sentence strip.  You can find them {HERE} .  Such a cute little resource and the kids...
{Thanks to the 3am teacher for this super cute graphic!} The Back to School sale on TPT is in full swing!  I just wanted to drop in and let you know my store is 28% off.  Make sure to use the promo code BTS13 when you check out.  Here are some of my favorites in my store to use in my classroom.               Head on over to TPT and check out everyone's sales!  Have a great week! ...
I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' today!  I love this time of the year in the blog world.  It's so fun to see everyone else's classrooms.  I forgot to post yesterday, so here I am today.  I have already blogged about my classroom so you can click the pics below to be taken to the two part classroom tour. Part I Part II Thanks for stopping by!  Head on over to Blog Hoppin' to tour everyone else's beautiful rooms! ...
Shew!  It's been a whirlwind of a week.  We are back in full swing!  Last week was a four day week with students, so this upcoming week is our first official full week.  Our district adopted the new Journeys Common Core reading series and I plan on starting the first lesson this week.  I plan on doing my best to use both the reading series with the Daily 5 setup.  I decided to make supplemental units to go along with each lesson to use during whole group, small group, and Daily 5.   I wanted to dedicate a couple of blog posts to showing how I plan on breaking up my reading block and how to use these supplemental materials.  Starting a new reading series can be very overwhelming, so I wanted to create a pack that would contain supplemental materials that were easy to print, implement, and set up. Each component is organized separate from the others.  The comprehension component goes along with whatever the target skill for the week is.  It includes mini posters, a b...
I have used components of the Daily 5 for a couple of years now, but I have never gone full on Daily 5.  That's my big goal for this year, along with guided math groups.  I knew I had to revamp my writer's workstation to meet the common core standards and get these littles ready for third grade.  I decided to create a Common Core Writing Workstation .  The pack has all of the printables you will need to start your very own, along with other ideas to incorporate into the station.  I thought I would dedicate a post to explain the major components of it. I am keeping the tools very simple right now.  Until they get comfortable with what is in the workstation, I won't add new components or tools.  I included a list of tools to use in the station in the packet.  I will teach them as a whole group for a while how the workstation will work until they are comfortable with it and can perform the task independently.  I have started with only having two kinds of paper, high...