Monday Motivation - Managing Centres

Hey there, I'm a little late to the party, but I'm back again this week for Teacher by the Beach's link up: Monday Motivation! This week is tips and ideas on how I manage centers in my classroom.

I have two different times of day for centers: guided reading and guided math. I do a variation of Daily 5 for each. This is how I ran each of them last year and I'll talk a bit about what I plan to keep/change for next year. Again, set up will be a bit different because I'll be heading to a new classroom. :)

Guided Reading

Here is my pocket chart for organizing my guided reading centres. This was my first year implementing full-choice for which centres students went to and I absolutely LOVED it! I will definitely be doing this again next year (and doing it for math as well). I had three small tubs with the cards for first rotation, second rotation, and third rotation. Each student's picture/name card was down the side. The Guided Reading Cenre Cards are in my TpT store. I'm going to be updating them to be editable soon.

First I would put my "Read with Teacher" cards in the spots that I wanted to read with my groups (or sometimes individuals for running records). Then I would call table groups up to choose their centres. They would choose one centre from each basket. They had four choices to choose from: read to self, word work, writing, or listen to reading. I only had four iPods, so there were only four listening cards in each rotation basket. If they had a "Read with Teacher" card, they only picked two centres. If they didn't read with me that day, they got to pick three. Each day I chose a different table to pick first. 

Next year I will continue the three rotations and full choice, but I might have them just choose their centres in the morning after they have done all their unpacking and getting ready. I will also continue to have my iPods for listening, but I have five new classroom iPads, so I might make a fifth choice be iPad Word Work. 

For read to self, students took their book box and found a comfy spot around the room to read. Inside their book box they are allowed to have a max of five books from the classroom library (free choice, not levelled, based on interest) and can change these books at any time. They also have their poetry folder they can read and previous guided reading books we have done in group (at their level). I don't do "read to someone" separately, so if they would prefer to read with someone or by themselves, it doesn't matter to me. Sometimes if I have an EA or parent volunteer, I'll have them read with students too during this time.

For word work tubs, I had five different tubs with a variety of games/hands-on activities. The skills changed throughout the year: alphabet, letter sounds, CVC words, sight words, sentence writing, etc. I just changed them up when I noticed something wasn't getting chosen as much. They could choose any centre and they could switch centres when they finished one. I didn't have a lot of rules or requirements, as long as they were working and practicing their literacy skills.

For writing centres I used this tall plastic drawer unit. In the bottom drawer was their writing folder. The other drawers had different writing centres. Their folders had a "still working" pocket and "finished work" pocket, so they had to finish up their "still working" writing before they could choose a new centres. Some of the drawers stayed the same and some I changed up. I usually had sticker stories, regular story writing books, and letter templates available all year. Some other ideas I have used: doodle stories, Would You Rather? (by First and Kinder Blue Skies), comics, lists, book reviews, write the room, etc.

For listen to reading, I have a bucket of books they can choose from (I have almost 100 now... ekk! #teacherhoarder #scholasticmakesiteasy). Each book has a number on it. When I load the songs onto the iPods, I change the track title to the number and change the artist to the book title. So students grab a basket with the iPod and headphones, grab a book, and find a place to listen to their story! They just have to find the correct number track. Easy peasey! You can read more about my set up {here}. If they finished early, they just switched books. Each iPod has all of the songs on it, so anybody can listen to it. I've never had any writing/response activities with this centre; not sure if I will add this aspect in or just leave it the way it is.

I use my horseshoe table for guided reading groups. I used the rainbow drawer unit to store each group's materials. I had my Guided Reading Toolbox on top with all the tools I need for lessons. Each student brought their book box with them when we met, so they could read quietly while they waited for me to get to the table.

Guided Math

Last year I did not have students choose their math centres, I just grouped them and told them where to go. Next year I will use choice like my reading centres. Each group had a coloured shape and went to two centres a day. We only had four centres: math tubs, math work, iPod math, and work with teacher. The Guided Math Centre Cards are available in my TpT store. They will also be getting a mini update soon.

Kind of like my word work tubs, I had nine dish tubs on the cubby shelf that house different activities. Most of these were games we had played or hands-on activities with lots of manipulatives. They could choose any tub and switch at any time. 

Each student had a duotang with math work inside. I started the year off using Miss Kindergarten's Number Practice Printables, then moved on to other number work, addition/subtraction practice, etc. I really just used a bunch of different worksheets I had saved up. They worked at their own pace. Some students went through booklet after booklet, while others just did a few. I added some coloured washi tape at the top of the folder that matched each group's shape, so students could easily find their folder.

I'm really struggling with this centre next year. I want to move past using worksheets, so I might try and incorporate something with math books and writing. Or maybe use interactive notebooks. Not quite sure yet; stay posted while I work through this idea in my head. Haha!

I had some math games loaded onto my iPods, so they could play these games during iPod time. I let them use my iPad too, which had some fancier games on it ;) so that's why there is a little iPad card at the top of the pocket chart. If their group was on iPod math, the student with the iPad card got to use my iPad that day. Next year I have five iPads, so this won't be a problem.

And my horseshoe table again. I used the other drawers in the rainbow unit for my math groups. I would usually have something at the table for students to do while they waited for me to get there and begin. Some warm ideas: ten frame cards to play with, writing numbers in a blank 100 chart, Math Writing Strips (by Tara West), etc.

Well that's how things ran last year! I'm still thinking about what tweaks I'm going to do for next year. I think I'd like to have a bit more choice for math centres and less worksheets. I'll keep you posted! ;) Go check out Teacher by the Beach's link up for more ways to organize your centres. Everybody does it differently and that's ok! Find what works for you!

Daily Schedule - Guided Reading {What is the Rest of the Class Doing?}

I have done several posts so far about what I do with my guided reading groups and how I schedule that time. You can read those posts {here}, {here}, or {here}. Today I am going to share what the rest of the class is doing while I am working with a reading group. Here's a look at my daily schedule. Each group goes to to rotations a day (about 15 minutes each). I pull a different reading group during each rotation. At the end of the day I just move the station cards down to the next group. You can find my Guided Reading cards {here}.

I do my own version of Daily 5. I have four stations: Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. I don't do Read to Someone because we do this during Buddy Reading. I do allow students to read with each other during Read to Self time though. Some students enjoy this; others would prefer to read by themselves. I let them choose. I split up my students into four groups of mixed abilities. I write these groups on the group cards. I only change these groups a few times a year (unless there are personality conflicts with some students).

Because I see each of my reading groups a different number of times per week, I don't put myself as a rotation. I put my card at the bottom and use my animal group labels (get those at the bottom of this post) to show which groups I will be pulling that day. If I don't want to pull a group and just want to do some individual running records, I won't put anything that day! This makes it very easy to be flexible with my time. So the students that I pull for reading groups will miss their activity that rotation, but they'll get to do that one again in two days so it's not usually a big deal.

Here are a few ideas of what the students are doing during each of these rotations. The following pictures are a mixture from my last three years in first grade--three different classrooms, three different schools, but similar set ups. Once I get my new Science Lab room set up, I'll show you how each of these areas will be set up this year.

Each of my students gets a book bin. In their book bin they keep about 3-4 guided reading books from our guided reading time. These books are on level and have been previously read with me. I switch these books out as we read more in our groups. They also keep up to 5 books from the classroom library. These are purely interest books. Even though I do have the level on each book in my classroom library, students are not required to pick books at their own level. I also let my students switch their books out anytime they are on Read to Self. I don't seem to have any problems with students wasting their whole time picking books--they are usually pretty quick to pick their books and get reading!

Another station is work on writing. In the past I have done this mostly as free choice writing in their journals. This year my plan is to focus on printing practice the first month or two of school. Students will have a printing book they will work on; then there will be some fun letter formation activities to do when they are done a page or two (such as car tracing letters, dry erase pages/books, Wikki Stiks, etc.). Then once students are more familiar with the routines, I will start to introduce journals and some other writing options (such as letters to classmates, lists, stories, etc.). 

I plan to keep word work the same as in the past. I have about 8 or 9 activities available at a time and students can choose whichever activity they would like to do for that rotation. They must complete the activity and clean it up before moving to a new activity. I will use my shelving unit below to house the different options. I fill these tubs with a variety of games and centres that focus on letter names/sounds, sight words, or other phonics skills. You can find a variety of word work activities in my store {here}. I change the centres out whenever I feel an activity is not getting picked or I want students to work on a different skill.

This is Dot the Letters from my Back 2 School Word Work Centres.

Letter formation with play-dough is always a popular activity.

Zingo! is a fun word recognition game.

You can read in more detail about how I set up my listening station {here} or {here}. But the main idea is that I have 6 mp3 players and about 80 different books. I put all the books on all the mp3 players, so students choose a book to listen to, grab an mp3 player, find the numbered track, and listen to the story. If they finish the story? Get a new story and listen to that one. I don't do response sheets or anything. The listening part is the valuable lesson and it would probably take most of them the whole 15 minutes to complete a response! I keep each mp3 player and headphones in a separate basket and all the books in one basket.

I let all of my students choose where they want to work during this time--tables, floors, classroom library. Where ever they are comfortable. Someone reading to self can sit beside someone doing word work, as long as they are both doing their job! This system has been working for me for a couple of years now and I can't wait to get it up and running again next time!

I'll be back with Guided Math time next! :) See you soon.

How to Make the Most of Your Guided Reading Lessons

So a little while back I shared my guided reading toolbox with you. If you missed that post, click {here} or the picture below. It talks about some of the goodies I keep on hand to use during my guided reading lessons!

Then a few weeks ago I was guest blogging over at the Hameray Publishing blog, where I shared a few more ideas about how I use some of my favourite tools. I also shared a freebie guided reading notebook cover that you can download. Go check it out {here} or by clicking the picture below.

Today I am going to share with you how I set up my guided reading lessons. Here's a peek at my guided reading plan book. I keep my reading and math group plans in the same planner. I just keep a sticky note on the current weekly pages.

I split my kiddos into five groups based on reading level, but these groups are fluid and change throughout the year. My groups are colour-coded and each group has an animal--the blue dogs, green frogs, yellow ducks, pink cats, and purple fish. In my guided reading planner, I have a laminated page for my groups. I can write the names in dry erase marker, but I prefer to use little post-it flags. I can move them around easily as the groups change. Plus the colours match. Love it!

I keep each group's books and lesson materials in a matching tub. Of course the tubs are buried in a box somewhere, but I use these tubs from Really Good Stuff with these cute labels.

I only have about 40 minutes a day for my guided reading time, so I see two groups a day for 20 minutes each. I usually try to see my lowest group three times a week, my middle groups twice a week, and my highest group once a week.

I have to make the most of that 20 minutes, so I break my lesson into 4 mini parts:

{1.} Reread/Fluency - 2 minutes

{2.} New Read - 8 minutes

{3.} Comprehension - 3 minutes

{4.} Word Work/Writing - 7 minutes

Here's a close up of how I plan my lessons. It doesn't take a whole lot of planning. Just a few minutes to jot down the name of the group, the title and level of the new book we will be reading, some tricky words that I want to address, check off the reading strategy we will focus on, a comprehension activity, and a word work or writing activity.

Here is a break down of the four parts of the lesson:

The group that is working with me grabs their book box, sits at the horseshoe table, and picks a previous guided reading book from their book box to start reading while they wait for me. This gives me a chance to make sure that everyone else is at their correct station and there are no problems before I settle in for (hopefully) 20 minutes of uninterrupted guided reading time! In their book boxes, students keep about 2-4 guided reading books from our previous lessons and four books of their choosing from the class library. 

Once we're all ready to go, I introduce a new book to group. We usually do a quick book walk, look at some tricky words we might come across, and make some predictions. We might also review the reading strategy we are focusing on before we read the book.

Then I give each student in the group a copy of the book and have them whisper read the book to themselves. Sometimes they just read normally and sometimes I let them use the whisper phones (made out of PVC pipe and duct tape). And if anyone is struggling with one-to-one matching, we might use some of my favourite tools such as glow-in-the-dark fingers, mini laser pointers, googly eye rings, or highlighter strips. 

I take turns listening to a few or all the students reading, making notes about who used what strategies and who struggled with what skills. If someone finishes their book before the others, I make them go back and reread! Fluency, fleuncy, fluency!

After everyone has finished the book once, we do a quick and simple comprehension activity. It might just be orally answering questions from a spinner, beach ball, or task card. We might do a story map together, practice sequencing the events of the story, or make connections to the story. 

Guided Reading Beach Balls from Carson Dellosa

Guided Reading Dice from Amazon

Guided Reading Spinners from Amazon

Various spinners and cards from TpT sellers

Then the last thing to do is a word work or writing activity in our guided reading notebooks. It usually has to do with the book we just read, a phonics skill we are working on, or some sight word practice!

You can now download ALL of my guided reading and math pages (planner cover, group organization page, group labels, group schedule, and weekly lesson plans) by checking out TpT:

         

A Peak Into My Guided Reading Toolbox

Reading is probably one of my favourite things to teach in first grade. It is amazing the progress that these little first graders make over the course of a school year. Even if they don't make it to the end of Grade One goal (for us it is Level I/16), the lowest of readers can still make some sort of progress. It could be learning to track words or recognizing a few simple sight words or just making it to the next reading level! I always celebrate every little and big read achievement because I want my students to feel success in reading. My favourite moment in the journey of a reader happens at about Level 5/D. It seems like they gain confidence as a reader and just start to take off from there! Of course, every student is different, but it's always a joy to see them feel proud of their accomplishments.

Anyways, onto the meat of this post. I have been seeing some AH-MAZ-ING guided reading toolkits on Pinterest and other blogs, and I was inspired to put together my own! When I saw Mel D's (from Seusstastic Classroom Inspiration) pink Craftsman toolbox that she uses to hold all of her small group goodies {see hers here}, I knew I needed to get one of those toolboxes! {Now for the silly part of the story... I found that they sold those toolboxes at Kmart, BUT we don't have any Kmarts left here in Manitoba, Canada! So when my parents went on a weekend trip to the States this past summer, I asked my mom very nicely to stop at a Kmart and pick me up one. And she did! Isn't she the best??} Anywho, I put together my toolbox with all the goodies that I use during small group time, so they are all in one place! Take a peak into my toolbox...

A. Dry Erase Markers (with pom poms hot glued to lids as erasers... genius! no need for dirty socks, kleenex, or erasers!) -- we use these on mini whiteboards and laminated work pages {I'm thinking about putting some dry erase circles on my horseshoe table too... as seen in this pin}

B. Pencils and Erasers (so students don't need to waste time going back to their table for a pencil) -- we use these to write in our Guided Reading journals

C. Highlighters -- for highlighting words/sound chunks in our Guided Reading journals or for use on sight word/phonics worksheets

D. Glue Sticks -- for working in our Guided Reading journals (cut and paste/mixed up sight words or sentences)

E. Letter Boxes -- double-sided (3 letter boxes on one side, 4 letter boxes on the other), laminated cards for practicing writing CVC or CCVC/CVCC words, could also be used as phoneme boxes (use counters to push sounds)

F. Blank Index Cards -- for writing notes, cutting and mixing up sight words, etc.

G. Alphabet Charts -- half-page alphabet charts for students who need to practice to letter sounds; the reverse side has common long vowel sounds

H. Tiara -- again, I totally stole Mel D's idea of using a tiara as her "Don't Interrupt Me!" signal! I used to tell my students that I was wearing my invisible hat when I was working with a group... but a tiara is so much more fun than an invisible hat! Check out my cutie modelling it for me. Can you believe this little munchkin is almost 8 months old? Where has the time gone! She is now crawling and standing on furniture and on the verge of standing on her own! Slow down, bébé!

I. Scissors -- always important and always hard to find a pair when you need them

J. Stickers -- for rewarding hardworking students or celebrating mini successes

K. Mini Magnifying Glasses (found at a party supply store in the goodie bag toy aisle) -- use these for finding certain sight words or word endings or punctuation

L. Dice -- use with games such as "Roll A Sight Word" (awesome editable freebie from Learning With Mrs. Parker)

 
 M. Sight Word Cards -- three different sets of sight word cards to practice and play games with (Dolch Pre-primer, Primer, and First Grade). Love the idea of sticking labels onto bright coloured cardstock {idea from Maria at Kinder Craze}

N. Glow-in-the-Dark Pointer Fingers -- novelty toy to help students track writing... love these glow-in-the-dark ones (less witchy than the green ones!)

O. Toy Cars -- can also be used to help track or to practice stretching out sounds in words {I also have these awesome sight word roads from Kristen Smith's (from A Day in First Grade) Guided Reading Made Easy For Kinders pack that kiddos can drive the car down the road and read the words it passes}

P. Reading Strategy Bookmarks -- these are the strategies we use... I love the songs from Teacher Tipster... and I have all the beanie babies to go with them. Sometimes the beanie babies sit with a student who demonstrated the strategy during the lesson.

Q. Stamps & Post-Its -- reward self-inking stamps for "marking" Guided Reading journals and post-its for... a million different things!

R. Googly Eye Rings (see photo above) -- another print tracking tool

S. Laser Finger Pointers (see photo above) -- another print tracking tool

T. Mini Slinkies (see photo above) -- perfect for s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out sounds in words

U. Task Cards -- three sets of cards from Rachelle Smith's (from What the Teacher Wants) Guided Reading Mini-Lessons pack... fiction story questions, non-fiction story questions, and fluency practice cards

V. Writing Strips -- these awesome writing strips make for an excellent warm-up activity... they are from Tara West at Little Minds at Work {I got the Writing Strips Bundled... it covers CVC words, blends, digraphs, vowel teams, and she has some free alphabet ones!}

Well that's it for me tonight! I hope this post has inspired you to make the most of your guided reading group time! Is there anything missing from my toolbox that you would suggest? I do have some highlighter finger pointers and some sand timers for fluency that I have to dig out of a box somewhere to stick in here too! :) Until next time!!