Reading Goals

5 days to go until the end of the year! I absolutely can't wait! Sure I'll miss my kids, but boy am I exhausted! Sorry for the lack of posting in recent weeks but I've been coming home and collapsing!

Here is something I've been doing the last term with my class. At my school, we are required to set individual reading goals for each of our students every five weeks. Thank you CAFE and conferencing for making this easy to do! (The time consuming part is having the beginning data and ending data in order to show growth, or lack thereof, every five weeks to show the powers that be before amending the goals/setting new ones). This is how I've displayed my goals for each student (another requirement).

It's on a window so you can see the blu-tac sticking the construction paper to the window! I don't have that much wall space - two sides of my room are completely covered in windows and one more has one of those concertina doors across the whole length of it so it can't be used for anything :( It's actually a shame to cover them up because when you look out my windows you see our local forest less than 20m away! It's a great view!

So anyway, each of my kiddos have a leaf with their reading goal on it (e.g. summarising texts without retelling, using a particular decoding strategy, finding the main idea etc).

I then end up grouping kids together that have similiar goals and meeting with them (even though they might be at different reading levels) during the time I usually do guided reading. I LOVE it! I end up planning a series of lessons that focus on the goal  and meeting with just the kids that have that goal. I set aside two days a week to meet with Goal Groups rather than levelled groups. I've found this really beneficial and the kids have come a long way.


I'm looking at changing it for next year... perhaps a Pot of Goals! and each of the goals are written on a gold coin... not feeling it. Does anyone have any other ideas??

Also, are you looking for some great Christmas activities? Amy at The Land of Second Grade is having a giveaway of two of her Christmas products. Be sure to head on over! It's being drawn Sunday.

Christmas Fry's Sight Words games

I've finished uploading the second and third game in my Christmas themed Fry's sight word phrases board games! They use Fry's sight word phrases Level 1, 2 and 3 (the first 300).

Each game has 4 sets of cards, with 25 cards in each set (100 cards, using 100 sight word phrases). You only need one set per game, so just swap over the cards and you have a new game or print out a game board and a different set of cards for different groups of kids! You can use the cards in their sets or mix and match according to the needs of your students. Easy to differentiate! I like keeping the same board, and just change the cards, so that it looks like everyone is playing the same game, even if they are at a different level. 

The first game, Pack the Sleigh, I've already written about here. In this game, students are trying to be the first player to get from Santa's Workshop to the Sleigh - the first to get there (pack the sleigh) wins! This game uses Fry's 1s 100 sight word phrases.

For the second game, Here Comes Santa, Santa is trying to find his way to the home, filling stockings along the way! This game uses the 2nd 100 phrases.

The third game, Night Before Christmas, has Santa making his way from the chimney to the Christmas tree. It uses the 3rd 100 sight word phrases.

With the 3 games, there are 12 sets of 25 sight word phrases for your kiddos to practise!

BONUS: Each game also comes with cards to use for BANG! type games.

I'm having a 20% off sale running for a couple of days so there's no better time to pick up these games. Don't forget you can also save an extra 10% using code CMS28 on Cyber Monday! If you're like me, you'll be stacking up your shopping cart so it's ready to be put through on Monday!

The games use the awesome graphics from Scrappin Doodles. 

Freebie: 12 Days to Holidays Count Down

I saw this idea on someones blog and absolutely had to do it with my kiddos this year! I've made up these cards - one for each day of school remaining before we are finished for the year! Seriously, I CAN. NOT. WAIT. for this year to be over! I am buggered!

So, I've put one of these cards into one of 12 numbered balloons. Each afternoon, we pop the next balloon to see what our special treat or activity is for the next day. I started it today, and the kids just LOVE it!

If I had my kiddos again AFTER Christmas, I would pin up each days card with a photo of us doing the activity. It would make a really cute display! But since I'm in the middle of packing up my class for the year, that is just NOT going to happen!

 

 

I think I'm counting down more than the kids! To download, just click on the pics!

NOTE: 3 days to go. The 'special surprise' is a big, long bubble wand that I get from Big W for $1 each. Day 3 is also our 'party day' when I give out presents to the kids (since most don't come to school during the last 2 days of school for clean up) so the bubble wand forms part of their present. I also give them a new book or two each, pencils, bookmarks and a 2012 calendar that has a poem and pictures of our year together on it (printed and laminated).  

If this was your idea that I stole, thanks for sharing! And also let me know so I can provide a link back to your blog and give credit!

Sight Word Phrases - Christmas Theme

I've just uploaded a new item to TpT and Teachers Notebook. It's called Pack the Sleigh. It is a game for students to practice and consolidate sight words using Fry's sight word phrases level 1, groups 1-4. 

There are 4 sets of cards, with 25 cards in each set. You only need one set per game, so just swap over the cards and you have a new game or print out a game board and a different set of cards for different groups of kids! You can use the cards in their sets or mix and match according to the needs of your students. Easy to differentiate! I like keeping the same board, and just change the cards, so that it looks like everyone is playing the same game, even if they are at a different level.

This game is played the same way as my Crow Crisis game for r-controlled vowels and my FREE Planet Hop board game for the oi/oy sound. I like using the same format so I'm not wasting time teaching my kiddos how to play new games all the time. I can also use the same board, and just swap the cards out, to play games for other concepts in math, for example.

In this game, students are trying to be the first player to get from Santa's Workshop to the Sleigh - the first to get there (pack the sleigh) wins! But don't stop to pat the reindeer, or you'll have to go back! Land on the 'Carried extra gifts' space and you get to move ahead!

I've also included 'Lost a gift! Return your cards to the pile' cards so you can play BANG! with the phrase cards!

Later this week, I'll also have games for Level 2 and Level 3 sight word phrases. If your interested, you can grab it from TpT or Teachers Notebook.

Freebie: What's My Share? division concept activity

Here's another sharing/division freebie for you! This one is called What's My Share? This freebie is an independent activity perfect for your kiddos to practise the division concept during math tubs /centers or Daily 5 Math time.

 To play, you'll need a small container of counters (or some goodies!), a medicine or other small cup (I use the baby-cino cups from coffee shops), and a die. 

Students roll a die and take this many sea creature cards. They use the medicine cup to scoop up some counters or small goodies and then share them between the sea creatures one at a time.

Students record the total number of counters/goodies, how many sea creatures they shared them between, how many each creature got and how many left overs they had on the recording sheet.

I have included 2 record sheets - one to record how many counters and one for how many goodies were shared!

You can download it from my TPT and Teachers Notebook stores. If you download, please vote for my blog at Circle of Moms!

Freebie- The Sharing Game (division concept)

I have a couple of kids with special needs in my class and I created this game earlier this year to help them with the division concept. It would also suit K and 1 students. It is perfect for math tubs, centers and Daily 5 Math as students play in pairs. 

To play, you'll need 20 counters, blocks or pattern blocks and 1 die.

 Students take turns to flip over a card and take that many counters from the pile. They roll the die and share the counters into that many groups. If they can share the counters equally, they get 2 points and 1 point if there are any left overs.

The game comes with an instruction card, cards numbered 6-20 and a recording table for players to record their points in tally marks.  

 

You can download it from my TPT and Teachers Notebook stores. If you download, please vote for my blog at Circle of Moms!

Science - Materials and Schema Freebie

Recently, we have been learning about different materials and how they react when left in water over time. 

We made a class journal (thanks to my student teacher for illustrating it) to document our observations of wood, metal, paper,styrofoam and fabric. 

One of the things we have recorded is what we predict will happen to the material once we put it in water. Students journal their observations in their science journal after 1, 3 and 5 days. We are studying each material for 1-2 weeks.

I  stole this idea from somewhere, and have made a chart and schema files for each material as we start to study them. If the chart and schema file is yours, let me know so I can give you credit - I basically copied it! 

Here is an example of one students schema on wood. After learning about wood, each student will fill in another sheet that says 'My learning about wood is....' and add to the file folder below.

Again, this file folder cover and sheet above was 'borrowed' from one I saw on the net (i.e. copied), so if it's yours let me know so I can give you credit. 

I'm hooking up with Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes science and social studies anchor charts (although, mine aren't really science anchor charts....) linky party. Be sure to link up with your fantastic charts!

You can download the 5 file folder covers (left) - one for each material - here. 

If you want the My wood schema is... sheet (in word so you can modify to your needs), download it here.

Remember to vote for me at Circle of Moms. I know it's for the Top 25, but my goal is to make it into the top 30. Please help! You can vote once each day!