Weekly Sight Word Work

I'm currently using a sight word system one of my fellow first grade teachers, Jodi Wuthrich, showed me when I first started teaching at Grand and absolutely love it! Click here for the freebie version this weeks sight word rotation which is a "St. Patrick's" Day Theme! :)

Each morning during our morning meeting we read our weekly poem which teaches the kids 5 sight words a week. I like to choose poems that correlate with the season, month, holiday, or science/social studies topic we're learning at the time. If I can't find or create one that meets the sight words I want to teach, I'll use any poem to make it work. I typically teach 3 - 4 new sight words and review a previous sight word I've noticed they're still misspelling/having difficulty with.

After we read the poem in the morning, we do the chant "Hickety Pickety" reciting that days'  sight word. 

At centers the students rotate between the following 5 activities…

Cut & Sort

Make A Word

Rainbow Write

I used purchased "roll a sight word" from Christine-Besser but have now made my own. 

 Read & Illustrate

*(I swap this out as Sight Word Center and "Fluency/Reading Center")

Her illustration of "March Winds"

Read, Stamp, Write 

I have them keep their center work in a folder and collect and review it at the end of the week. This holds them accountable for completing their work. 

If you like these centers and want more, please check out my sight word system by month on TeachersPayTeachers.

Literacy Centers Revamp

Have you ever had a group of kids that were different from any of your other groups before? Your typical routines, activities, and structures for the classroom just don't seem to work anymore.  Well my group is THAT group this year. 

When the school year started, I kept the things that worked from the year before, and modified, adapted or simply changed the things that didn't previously work. I was confident that this year would be unstoppable. Boy was I wrong. Even with the modifications for the new and improved year, this class gave me a run for my money!

I have boys. Lots of boys. And with boys you get wiggly bodies, talkative mouths, fart noises, and LOTS of running, moving, sliding, stomping, flipping, falling, and rolling. I used to have a literacy center system in place that kept my children working in small groups moving from one center to another as they completed the task, like flow chart. 

Last year this worked GREAT! My kids were focused, on task, and I was able to pull my guided reading groups as needed without a problem. Yes, one or two of my kids needed reminders, or additional support to finish their work, but not like this year. This year, if I'm not standing next to and/or holding about 7 of my kids hands, there work will NEVER get done, not to mention the rolling, crawling, and madness that ensued with the "free roam" of the class. 

My guided reading groups were suffering so I knew my old system just had to go. I talked with a few other teachers and with the help from my AMAZING reading coach, Jenny DaCosta, I was able to think up a new system, with lots of timing and structure.  For most, this is probably seen as a more traditional center rotation, but was a big change for me. It still allows my children to focus on word work, fluency/reading, writing, and sight words every day.

The children's faces stay in the same spot but I swap the pictures out for the new activity for the day. They rotate to each center in a circle and I call the students for guided reading groups as necessary. I do 10 minute intervals for each center (using a timer), 1 minute clean up time (using a timer) then we switch. 

Our new rules for centers: 

1. No moving from your table AT ALL. Use the materials at that table and if you need help ask a buddy from your group only. (This may seem harsh - but it's absolutely necessary for some of my boys).
2. When the timer goes off they hear a bell and must stop what they're doing, and immediately cross their arms to touch their shoulders (also crosses midline which refocuses them). - Once their eyes are on me, I give them clean up instructions.
3. During clean up you only clean up YOUR table and surrounding floor area, once again NO MOVING throughout the room. 
4. When bell goes off again after clean up - do arm cross signal and switch to the next table as a class.

Lastly, for my kids who took 45 minutes to not even finish 1 task, they now have to sit at that center until it's completed without being able to switch with their group…this surprisingly enough motivates them (even though it's the same concept that was in place before).

Regardless, it seems to be working although a few of my children still have trouble staying seated the whole 10 minutes, it's a lot less interruptions and a much more meaningful use of time for both them and me!

Conscious Discipline

Many of you have heard of the "Saint" Becky Bailey,  (my personal idol) and her curriculum for teaching social and emotional skills, Conscious Discipline. If you haven't,  I HIGHLY recommend you taking the time to learn about the curriculum. It's not only useful for teaching (especially if you have some children with social and emotional needs - which let's face it, who doesn't). It's also useful for understanding your ability to self regulate, aka not get unbelievably mad at "Johnny" because "Sarah" took his pencil from the table's pencil cup and now they are crying and yelling at each other…It helps with understanding the emotions, reactions, and relationships of friends, family members, and colleagues. 

Although Conscious Discipline is not our school wide behavior plan, the Grand is a BIG believer in Conscious Discipline and about 60% of the teachers use some or most of the elements of the curriculum. This year, our school did an in-house staff development and book study on one of Becky's more recent books, Creating the School Family, Bully-Proofing Classrooms Through Emotional Intelligence. It was a fantastic course that was taught by two of our awesome PreK teachers, Amy Pylant and Tiffany Taylor (who do an absolutely amazing job using Conscious Discpline in their classes).

One of my favorite quotes from this book: 

"If we believe "discipline" means to "punish", we will punish them for lacking self-regulatory skills instead of teaching them how to self-regulate. When we punish them for lacking the ability to self-regulate, we also prevent them from developing the very skill we want to encourage." 

WOW! What a eye opener. I can't tell you how many times I've been frustrated a child for just that. The book does an excellent job explaining why children have difficulty handling, coping, and showing emotions especially coming from impoverished backgrounds and what you can do to help eliminate that lack of coping mechanisms. 

I currently have 4 children who are considered homeless and are living in a hotel/motel although many live with multiple family members and often sleep with 2 or more people in a room or bed. Sometimes I forget that when "Johnny" comes in the classroom 15 minutes late, slamming the door open and throwing his backpack down that he's bringing all of the emotional baggage that he dealt with from home right into my classroom. As frustrating as it may be, Becky and this book reminded me that it's my job to help the child let that all go and feel safe at school so they can learn and grow. 

When my children arrive the immediately give me a greeting at the door (of their choice), then move their face into the circle of friends. After, they move their "stick" into the safe keeper box. 

1. 

 2. 

3. 

After our morning routine is finished, I start the day the "Brain Smart Way". As C.D. (Conscious Discipline) calls it. 

1.   Activity to Unite

• Greetings, Songs, Reciting, Class Activity, or even reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I love using Becky's CD It Starts in the Heart - although you can use any fun or uniting song.

2.    Activity to Disengage Stress

• Deep Breathing/"Calming Technique"

3.    Activity to Connect

• Playful connections that have eye contact, use touch, and have a presence (Nursery Rhyme activities or Chants for older kids).

4.    Activity to Commit 

• Our four daily commitments (most teachers call these rules. C.D. specifically uses the language commitment to have the children understand it's a promise, and not a rule, which is not meant to be broken without a consequence. We recite these aloud, then say our "Commitment Chant".
  
  
  

  
  

I have a number of babies this year that have emotional issues and spend the majority of the day crying or being angry (throwing/kicking/floor fits). The safe place is the perfect place to allow them to "calm" by using the techniques of Becky's self-regulation or being a "STAR" - Smile, Take a Deep Breath, And Relax. 

We've even created some classroom books to help remind the children (especially the ones who have breakdowns frequently) how to calm. 

Our Safe Place - We used Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses to help teach the children to look on the "bright side" of things. They use this as one calming activity after breathing. Also inside is a stress-ball, "calming clapper", and stuffed animals.  

We have a "Safe Spot Counselor" as a job who helps the child in the safe spot self regulate if needed. This makes it easy for me to stay active in my teaching roll, while the children develop amazing social and emotional skills. Our class jobs have a purpose and add meaning and a sense of belonging to our classroom family. I tried to create titles to jobs that we're real careers like Zoo Keeper, Botanist, and Bellman. 

Not only is her classroom routines amazing, but the language she teaches in her book is unlike any other. This is probably the most challenging area of reforming your current form discipline because you have to be CONSCIOUSLY aware of your words, body language, and actions. I am constantly working at this area of her curriculum and can promise you I am not always "consciously" self-regulating myself or my discipline choices or following the curriculum as I should, but I am aware of my actions, good or bad, which is the first step in changing them. 

There is about 10 million more things I could write about Conscious Discipline in in my classroom but for now, I'll leave you with this. As always, leave any questions for me below. More to come soon :)

Welcome Back...

Coming back from a holiday break is always semi stressful. If you're like me, I take my holiday breaks as that, a break. Meaning I get everything ready for my return before the holiday begins so I can be "school" free and enjoy my time off doing as I wish. Absolutely no plans and no grading. So this Thanksgiving I arrived to school early to ease my "stress" and give me time to review plans, get C.J. the fish back in his tank, and make a few last minute copies. Little to my surprise that was the LEAST of my worries.

Surprise surprise, I was welcomed back with the wonderful sound of running water escaping from every possible area of my portable. Oh Joy! The water fountain in my portable burst over the break and had been continuously filling and flooding my room leaving 1-2 inches of standing water for about three or four days. Needless to say, I FREAKED out! 

Anything that was remotely touching the floor was ruined; pillows, rugs, big books, a lot of our new Houghton Mifflin Curriculum, and even the bookshelves! Not only did it ruin anything it came in contact with, but it's humidity caused the majority of my books, posters, and hanging curriculum to bend and cockle (look wavy) or even better…grow mold!

After the initial shock sunk in, I frantically split my class for the day while I threw away my hard earned, soaking, money into the trash can and slowly but surely transferred the "necessities" into my temporary classroom. Luckily, our school has an extra portable used for an after school parent/child participation & involvement program, "Great Endings". They graciously lent me the room for the expected 2-3 weeks it was going to take to repair my portable. (Thank heavens for that…I've heard some horror stories when floods happened to other teachers in prior years.)

2 weeks roll by, no room. 

Christmas break comes and goes, no room. 

The month of January has long past, no room.

FINALLY…2 Months later,  I was able to get back into my room with wonderful new carpet, laminate flooring, baseboards, bookshelves, and rugs/pillows/decorations. I cannot tell you how big of a relief this was! As nice as it was to have another classroom to go to,  it was FILLED with fun toys, blocks, dolls, play areas, and crafts for the parents and children who typically reside in the room. Let's just say my 6 and 7 years had a bit of difficulty staying focused and where they were supposed to be while we were there. Also our routines and class size (this room was MUCH smaller) completely changed, not something this group handled well.

Anyways, as delighted as I was, it was a bit messy…

After two days of organizing, cleaning, decorating, organizing then cleaning some more, I finally got my room back in working order. With all of the additional hassle, stress, and cost this flood created, I could only look on the positive because the situation wasn't going to change no matter what my mood was, (although I might have slightly turned toward the end). I decided to look on the bright side and did my "summer classroom makeover" a little bit sooner than planned. :)

So here it is, my NEW and improved room! 
Please ignore any mess or clutter, it is being lovingly used by 15 crazy children! :)

View from Front Door

View From Back Door

This is my favorite part of my class and I think and the best activity of the year! At the very beginning of the school year, all of the children make self portraits and share their picture with the class talking about who they are. It adds such warmth to the class and is SO telling about the children's personalities and current developmental stage. 

Front of the Room/Whole Group Area

My Teaching Corner

Bulletin Board near Front Door/ This is where we do our greetings, Conscious Discipline Morning Routines, Recite our Classroom Commitments & Pledge! 

My Wonderful Promethean Board (RIP currently, the interactive pen isn't so interactive) but the projector works so I'll take it! P.S. I use this for just about everything, morning meeting, calendar math, I just love it!

Library

Writing Area

My Guided Reading Table

Listening Center and Safe Spot

More Safe Spot/Safe Place

I know it's weird to have my bathroom, but my kids just love it. I had the stickers since I started, but with the new flooring they just LOVE it. They call it the ocean bathroom!

Math Materials/Centers, Science Display, C.J. the Fish's Home, and Word Work (chalkboard door) area. Let's just say it's a multi use area. :)

View from my Office

 I hope ya'll enjoyed my room! If you have any questions about anything please feel free to leave a comment!