Well hello! It has been three weeks since my last blog post. Three weeks? Really? Wow. Where did that time go? My class has kept me really busy and really tired! They are so cute, I mean really cute. Innocent and just full of love... but oh my. It's so opposite from last years class that it's really unbelievable. Last year's bunch was.....precocious! This year.... b a b i e s! Sometimes they want their mommy so much it makes me want my mommy! I am happy to report however, that we are beginning a love affair. You know the look, when you are teaching and they give you that face that tells you they approve of you and they know that you "get them". Uh huh, that one. Priceless. Now if I can get a little more English going and a lot more independence, then we'll be doing great! My "To blog list is a mile long! So this will be a little hodge lodge of projects and goings on! Goldilocks and the Three Bears... so far! I recently added to and revised my Goldilocks and the Three Bears unit to include a Close Reading passage with writing extensions... the kids have been loving it! (Bears) The kids have really loved it, and they did so great with the writing extension, which was us doing completely together, but they did reference the text! I have a new smart board and laptop, and I wasn't able to access the writing tools as usual from the Adobe (PDF) so I captured the pages and pasted them on a Smart board Notebook, it actually worked out great and I loved the crayon writing tool! We used the writing prompt that asked them to draw, write, or dictate two facts from the text. As I said we completely worked together on this and the facts that we chose were that the cub stays close to his mom and that he leaves the den when he is two years old (hence the speech bubble stating his age), how cute was that idea? The hearts were added when one little guys said they are living bears, not pretend so they have hearts, so we all went back and added hearts to our bears :o) Their cuteness shines through in these work samples, and so do their varying ability levels! Next week we'll do our Story Sticks retell and the writing extension where we compare The Three Bears to Real Bears. Can't wait to see what they come up with! Writing around the room with Goldilocks and the Three Bears has been fun too! Love to see how they learn to handle holding the clipboard and pencil as they walk around, so many things going on all at once using so many different large and small muscles. Those tongues come in so handy sticking out sideways and helping us get our jobs done! Goldilocks & The Three Bears Oral Language, Literacy Centers & Activities Plus BEARS Close Reading! Here’s a little freebie from the unit, it really helps the little ones who have trouble finding the words to be successful at re-telling! Goldilocks and the Three Bears FREEBIE I have several new projects I am working on right now and finally was able to get a couple up and going. Listen Up! First Sound Fluency Practice and Intervention Tool became a priority because I need it yesterday for this little group! It's been quite awhile in the making and is finally done! It will be really helpful for our instructional assistants to do some interventions for us. I think it will make a great small group too. The teacher directions on each page are really specific so that whoever is teaching them will already have the directions and specific language they need to facilitate an impactful intervention group.That is always a problem with handing a small group over to someone who hasn't been trained up in the same way and we never have enough time to talk. I think this will help a lot! This is a really comprehensive resource. It has: • LEVEL 1 (CCSS:ELA-Literacy.RF.K2D) Hear it – Say it – Circle it Interactive Oral Language Phonemic Awareness (26 pages strictly phonemic awareness). Each page is labeled with the target phoneme (sound). Students listen for the first sound in words, circle the pictures of the target sound, cross off the pictures that have a different sound. Very specific scripted teacher directions are provided on every page to support instructional assistants or volunteers in intervention groups. ANCHOR CHART for hearing the sound and saying it. Key word cards for each page. •LEVEL 2 (CCSS:ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3) Hear it – Say it – Write it (Phonemic Awareness plus writing initial sounds) 26 pages Students listen for the first sound in words, circle the pictures of the target sound, cross off the pictures that have a different sound AND write the initial sound for every picture. This can be used in a variety of ways: -As differentiated practice for the more proficient student -As follow up to the first 26 pages -As intervention for students becoming proficient but needing more practice ANCHOR CHART for hearing the sound, saying it and writing it. Key word cards for each page. Listen Up! First Sound Fluency Practice and Intervention Tool ***Update!*** Here's a video to provide some insight about how to us Listen Up! Listen Up! Instructional Video on Vimeo Sorry for such a long post! I hope your school year is going great so far!