first grade teacher blog

A lot of people have asked what my daily schedule looks like, so here's a little peek at how things run in my class. I'm starting by explaining how I do Daily 5 since that program gives my day its main structure.

Ideas for each of the daily five rotations

If you’ve read my blog before, you probably know that I use a Daily 5 structure to organize our reading time. I love the freedom, choice, and time spent reading/writing it offers my students. One of the most common questions/comments is “My students can’t handle choice. I’m doing Daily 5 just without the choice. My...

When I started at my new school last year, I came into a new reading program. I was used to doing almost all of my reading instruction WHOLE CLASS, but my school uses a guided reading model all the way up to 5th grade. I definitely had to rethink my reading block! I had done centers in the past, but wanted a really clear way to maximize the time and make the transitions clear for the students. Here's how I do my guided reading block! ROTATIONS We have Guided Reading/Centers Monday-Thursday…

In my school, we use daily 5 for reading instruction. I set up daily 5 a little bit different. I teach third grade and there is just so much to fit in! When I was trying to fit in all daily 5 rotations a day I was not getting to the important stuff and I was not having enough time with my students. So, I do one rotation a day for 20-30 minutes. The students do each rotations for daily 5 once a week and they meet with me once a week.

Do you reinvent the wheel every single week when it comes to centers, word work, stations.....whatever you happen to call them? Yeah, me too! I know better, I swear I do but it just never fails. I am here today to tell you that there IS A BETTER WAY! Let me begin by saying I am a big fan of Daily 5. I run my room about as closely to the Daily 5 model as possible but this is one area I just never could give in on. The sisters suggest having out materials for students to build words, write…

Word work activities for ANY words! Word work is an essential part of language learning in the primary grades. Make word work FUN while LEARNING takes place! There are seventeen different word work activities included in this pack. They can be used for absolutely ANY word learning! Perfect for literacy centers or sub plans. A must have for Kindergarten- Third Grade! #wordwork #wordworkactivities #spelling #1stgrade #2ndgrade #kindergarten

Activities that boost fluency all year long…and that you only have to prep once!