Five for Friday, Halloween Recap and Switching Gears (and Writing Center Freebies)

It's a full moon, right???  It has seemed like it this week.  My little friends were a little cray-cray.  Especially today because it was early release.  But I'm good now.  So I decided that I would link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a little Five for Friday action.

We had been getting strange letters all week from a mystery someone who was going to come in and read to us on Halloween.  We tried to figure it out all week!

 It was Mr. Wade!  Our old TA!  We miss him so much!

He was dressed as Harry Potter for Halloween.  And we were all ears when he read us "Shake Dem Halloween Bones!"

I bought Lindsey's (from A Year of Many Firsts) Boo to You pack.  These monsters were so stankin' cute!  And were the perfect "keep 'em busy" activity for that Friday!  We also wrote "How to Spook a Monster..."

Halloween is now OVER.  Time to Give Thanks.

And it's time to give Thanksgiving the recognition it deserves!  

On my writing center peg board I kept the candy corn lights.  They still looked like fall.  Then I added a fall garland.

And of course I changed out the word wall words for Thanksgiving.  You can get them HERE for Free!

I also got all new packs of stickers for sticker stories!  Dollar a piece at Micheals!  You can get the paper for sticker stories HERE.

Now that Raleigh is shredded with beautiful colors, it was time to break out the Fall Centers!

For Daily 5, they have a review of Digraphs.  I also have a recording sheet where they have to read the word they have spun and determine whether it is real or nonsense.  I'll put that in next week.

For some reason, they like anything that has a spinner...

I also have a fall sentence scramble.  At the beginning of the year they kinda struggled with this activity in my Apple Centers.  Now, I feel like they are grabbing it more because it's a concept they can figure out.

Ahhh, mystery critters.  My higher students LOVE this activity.

They have to read the short passage and then make a list of clues (key details) about the critter.  Then they draw a picture after they visualize it.

I also have a ton of math center activities that we have not yet gotten to.  One of these days...

I had these really cute bags that I used for all my little cd players and books for listen to reading.  I cannot find ANYTHING for Thanksgiving.  Has anyone seen any for this time of year?  I'll I've seen are ones for Christmas.  I got some canvas bags from Micheals...might slap some paint on them.  I'll let ya know how it goes.

Have a great weekend, friends!

November Currently

Ahhhh...I love Raleigh this time of year.  The weather is cool.  I get cozy in my pjs.  I drink red wine.  I also find more excuses to not go running...

It's been a while so I'm linking up with Farley for Currently.

Listening: My husband is CONSTANTLY switching back and forth from one channel to the next.  Why can't he just make up his mind?!?  ADD?  And it's not fun for me when I just wanna sit and relax.

Loving: North Carolina is SO beautiful right now.  This Florida girl is LOVING it!  I'll be sangin' another tune come winter.

Thinking: My friend and I ran a 5K last month.  It was so much fun.  It was fun enough that I invited myself to run a 10K with her.  I just haven't done any running since the 5K.

I should probably get crackin.

Wanting: Time to slow down.  We've already been married 7 months.  It felt like yesterday.

Needing:  Nothing at all.  I feel very blessed in my life right now.

Reading: I read "Gone Girl" over my fall break.  It was SO good!  And then we went to watch the movie.  Scott was confused the whole movie.  Shoulda read the book...

Happy November, Friends!

Sight Word Interventions and Organizing the Mayhem (and a FREEBIE)

I've recently started creating sight word packs that I've dubbed as my interventions.  Many of the activities I use for my low groups during guided reading and some of the activities I put into Word Work for Daily 5 - it all depends!

I've had many questions from friends that want to know how to do some of the activities and where/how do you organize all the crap???

(My mom teaches Kindergarten and mentioned that she was wondering what to do with all the pieces.)

To start off, I got these flat Tupperware boxes at Dollar General and labeled the front with which boxes hold supplies for which list.

 These boxes are flat but they are PERFECT for holding the games and all the pieces for each sight word set.

Hard/paper copies are placed in a binder.  I used tabs with numbers to identify which list was which... 

 All copies from list 1 go under the number 1 and so on.

Sight Word Scrambles

Some of my students have a difficult time with certain words.  I can usually identify which groups are struggling with which words the first day we introduce a new leveled book.  Then I'll spend the next day practicing that word for a minute or two.  Some days I'll spend doing strategy groups with certain students that need more interventions along with other skills.  Once again, it just depends!

 Before I start groups, I always have the supplies laid out.  That way, if I'm helping a few students get situated, they can already get started.

Below is a quick video showing one of my groups working on the word "came."  If you notice, I have a few words out to sorta guide them.  Once they unscramble it, they write it in a sentence.

After about two minutes, they bag the word back up and hand it over.  I place all the baggies in a larger bag with the focus word on a label.  This way, I can quickly identify what word is scrambled in that bag.

Sight Word Sort

Sometimes this activity will go into Word Work.  I'll put a set of words that I feel like my students need to review.

I use Velcro dots to hold the headers in place and I'll put the rest of the words in a bucket or a bag.

When the activity is completed, I'll put everything in a snack baggie with the "focus" word on the front.

This is a video of how I would use this activity in guided reading.  I might also use this activity in a strategy group if I see a few particular students struggling with just one word.

Spin, Read and Cover

This little game was driving me crazy for a minute.  My friends were trying to play it like Bingo, were one person would spin and ALL of them would cover that word.  If you did that then EVERYBODY would be winning at once!  

What I do is run one copy of the spinner and six copies of the cover page.  Then everybody spins one at a time and covers THEIR board with the word THEY spin.

This is a video of me using this game in a group.

If you like this activity, you can get a copy of one of them from Sight Word List 3 which is not even ready yet!  Just click on the picture.

As you can see, there is NO limit to what you can do with these activities!  And your students will all think it's just fun and games!  Happy teaching y'all!  It's almost Friday!

Peek at my Week Plans!

Having Halloween on a Friday can be a good thing or a bad thing.  The good thing is that it's on a Friday and all the craziness happens on Friday and you can go home and forget about it.  The bad thing is that your little friends KNOW its on a Friday and they talk about it all week and then get more and more excited as the week goes on.  I have an observation tomorrow.  Pray for my soul.

I'm linking up with DeeDee Wills for Peek at My Week.

And these plans are just that - a PEEK.  There is in no way that these plans are limited to what we do in any given school day.  I'm sure y'all will agree.  Now, this is my first rodeo so if I did it right, click on the plans and it will take you to viewer.  Then you can click on the pictures and it will take you straight to the resources.  Someone do me a favor and let me know if I didn't do it right.  Thanks!

Yes, that is Reagan Tunstall's SEPTEMBER math journal pack.  But we tracked out and had a three week fall break so I wanted to finish that pack :)

Have y'all ever read this book??  It is so stankin' cute and it teaches a really good lesson.  This little rabbit goes to a carrot field and steals carrots and then the carrots start to haunt him.  I have it in the listening to reading center for Daily 5 and my friends LOVE it.

Have a great week y'all and Happy Halloween!