phonics

Two weeks in a row?! YES ma’ams and sirs! I am on fire!!! Or, I’ve just figured out a routine for myself so I can bring you my visual plans each week. Either way, I am so excited to be linking up again with the one and only DeeDee Wills to give you a peek at my week ahead!

Disclaimer (Again): I have to do extensive lesson plans for my district, so rather than reinvent the wheel and put them in a more standardized format, I’m going to be giving you the “big picture” of what I’m up to. At the end of the post, you can download a PDF version with clickable links. Anything that’s outlined in black is clickable and will take you to that resource, video, or product. I use a mix of free and paid resources, so definitely check it out if you like what you see!

We finally took our unit assessment (the kids did GREAT, wahoo!!!) and so now we’re moving on to our next unit. We did some review last week of money concepts and place value, and now those skills will be put into our centers for independent and guided practice. I like doing that because I don’t have to waste valuable whole-group instruction time, but during guided math students still get to access, practice, and receive feedback on those skills.

This week is ALL about word problems. Two to three times a year I do a week-long “Word Problem Bootcamp” to refresh our word problem strategies. I utilize the 4.5 Step Plan, based on Polya’s problem-solving framework. My kids eat, sleep, and breathe this framework and it helps them TREMENDOUSLY. I can confidently say without it we would not be the effective problem-solvers that we are.

This week we’ll be using our March themed word problems to practice showing what we know at each step of the problem-solving process. (You can grab a freebie St. Patrick’s Day sampler, here.) With the snow days and distance between us and our last “Word Problem Bootcamp” some of my friends have gotten a little lax and it’s beginning to show in their “My Answer” boxes. So! We are going to fix that up by going back to basics, doing a little interactive note-booking, and TONS of practicing. Toward the end of the week we’re going to focus on writing our own word problems (I’ll be posting those resources shortly!).

We took our making predictions assessment (they did fabulously, by the way!) and now we’re ready to head into two weeks of intensive reading instruction before we have Spring Break. We’re continuing to meet for 25 minutes daily in a small group setting with each student. We’re continuing our “Bootcamp” to refresh our centers — pictured above — and really work on those decoding and fluency skills. I’ll be infusing another one of my favorite close reading resources with our series’ reading books too. I’m excited to continue getting to know my students as readers even better than I already do!

We’re also going to continue our group read-aloud of The One and Only Ivan, which has stolen our hearts. Friends, please please please run out and get this book and read it with your class. I have never seen my kiddos more engaged, invested, and just in tune with themselves as little humans. It is unbelievable.

In writing, we’re beginning our persuasive letter-writing unit! I adore this unit because I get to bring out some of my favorite mentor texts, including one that I was read when I did my own letter-writing unit in second grade! We won’t be doing a lot of formal writing this week, but rather we’ll be responding to each text, deconstructing what letters have, etc. I look forward to sharing our anchor charts with you toward the end of the week!

This week we’ll be diving into compound words (with silent letters) in our phonics unit, so I’ll be using two great resources from some TpT friends — Compound Words Task Cards from the awesome Teaching With a Mountain View, and Bloomin’ Compound Words Craftivity from the awesome Applicious Teacher. I’ll also be using my bloggy BFF’s new phonics card games again for review — we love them!

It’s still MATTER time!!! Gosh, I could just teach this unit all year. Really, I could! With me being unexpectedly out of the classroom a few days last week (writing a 21st Century Grant — more on that later this week), we’re still at the beginning of our study. We’ll continue to lead with our visual vocabulary posters, co-creating an anchor chart, having a learning experience using our interactive PPT, and then close with our vocabulary four-square. We’re going to do some experiments toward the end of the week which I’ll be documenting in detail… And we’re going to incorporate some informal assessments (with the exit slips pictured) as well as some interactive flipbooks for them to study at home. {My matter printables will be up on TpT by mid-week.}

If you’d like to download my visual plans and have ALL of the links to click on and refer to, click the button above. 🙂

I am so excited to FINALLY be linking up with the one and only DeeDee Wills to give you a peek at my week! I have always always always wanted to do this, as I absolutely love going through and seeing what everyone else in blogland is up to.

Disclaimer: I have to do extensive lesson plans for my district, so rather than reinvent the wheel and put them in a more standardized format, I’m going to be giving you the “big picture” of what I’m up to. At the end of the post, you can download a PDF version with clickable links. Anything that’s outlined in black is clickable and will take you to that resource, video, or product. I use a mix of free and paid resources, so definitely check it out if you like what you see!

We’re catching up from an INSANE number of snow days since we returned from winter break — we’ve been so behind, so this week we’re taking our unit test on patterns {number patterns, repeating patterns, growing patterns, and even/odd} and then review some key concepts before we dive into regrouping.

One of the things I’m relying heavily on this week are the anchor charts we’ve made together, our interactive notebooks {where our vocabulary pages pictured above live!}, and my money strategies pack. My kids did really well with our money unit test, but we’re increasing the amount they must be able to count {up to $2.00 mixed coins and bills} and they definitely need a refresher after our snow days. We’ll also be playing Prince Padania’s Race to $1.00 which is one of my favorite quick, low-prep games!

In reading we’re going to be taking our unit test on making predictions at the beginning of the week and then buckling down. It has been so difficult these past two months with snow days to consistently do guided reading groups! Between required assessments, once-a-year ESOL testing, and mid-year testing, we haven’t done guided reading in WEEKS.

So this week and next we’re forgoing the mini-lessons and doing extended groups! I’ll get to meet for 25 minutes daily in a small group setting with each student. We’re going to do a “Bootcamp” to refresh our centers — pictured above — and really work on those decoding and fluency skills. I’ll be infusing some of my favorite close reading resources with our series’ reading books too. I am SO READY for this change of pace with my kiddos and to give them a strong foundation for our big push toward on-grade level at the end of the year.

In writing we’re going to work on finishing up our research unit. Boy, you want to talk about difficult? Try doing a research unit with snow days all over the place! Luckily my kids have been able to keep up with things, and I really attribute that to the simple research resources pack I made with them in mind. We do a 5-10 minute mini-lesson on the carpet where I model things using a famous American (Rosa Parks) that none of them are studying — then they break into their research groups and work! I get to meet with each group as-needed, and they can continue working on it beyond the writing block because of the scaffolded supports.

We’ll also be working on getting back on track with our phonics focus, as well as reviewing those pesky skills that somehow they always seem to forget! I’ll be using my bloggy BFF’s new phonics card games for review, and one of my favorite suffixes resources from Ladybug’s Teacher Files to work on our weekly skill.

In social studies we’re doing a quick review of vocabulary {look at that FULL vocabulary reference wall — finally!} before we take our big end-of-unit test on Tuesday. I don’t know what I would’ve done without this visual vocabulary pack I made… my ELL kiddos have just soaked up this vocabulary as you can see from the anchor chart I dictated for them (and they illustrated). Fingers crossed that as we review our vocabulary four-squares and make our vocabulary word posters they are ready to go on Tuesday!

Y’all, I’m so excited. It’s MATTER time!!! This is hands-down one of my favorite science units, and this year we’re doin’ it up big with some brand new resources. I am kicking myself for not having made these resources sooner, but I’m jazzed to have them for this group of kiddos! We’ll be doing the same thing we did with economics as far as vocab — leading with the visual vocabulary posters, co-creating an anchor chart, having a learning experience (experiment or our interactive PPT — which will be posted this week on TpT), and then closing with our vocabulary four-square.

I am so ready for them to rock this, and I am so ready to get in there and be a mad scientist with them! Woohoo for science!!!

If you’d like to download my visual plans and have ALL of the links to click on and refer to, click the button above. 🙂

One thing not pictured in my visual plans is a last-minute but always present addition — our Word Problems for Success. We do these a few mornings a week and then we do two at the end of the month to take as data that we track to make sure our problem-solving skills are where they need to be. I’m excited about some of the complexity of the problems this month, as I know it’s going to lead to a great discussion amongst the kiddos.

Speaking of that — would you look at the mathematical thinking that’s going on?! I am so stinkin’ proud of my kids.

Grab your free sample on TpT just in time for St. Patrick’s Day!