Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Literacy Work Stations

Here are some photos of our work stations.  Students go to 2 work stations a day for about 10-15 minutes per station.  For the first couple of weeks of school, we did the station activities together as a group and discussed what can be done in each station.  We made "I Can" lists, from Debbie Diller, which I posted near each station so that students can consult them if they don't know what they can do next.  

Students go to stations in pairs.  I try to pair them up by ability level, but I also sometimes group students together based on who will need a helper and who needs someone to focus their behavior in independent work.  I update some of the station activities once a week so that students have different tasks to do, but some stations stay the same all year.  If some stations get boring for the students, or if they are not being productive, I will have to switch them out with something new and challenging.

This photo shows students working on versatiles.  They have to read the instructions to complete the puzzle.  They can check using a picture and must correct their mistakes before going on to a new puzzle.  This station is great for practicing sounds and spelling patterns.  

This is the library station where books are sorted by genre and reading level.  Students can read independently or to their partner.  I encourage them to read A.R. books so that they can take tests and earn points when they have free time during the day.  They enjoy sitting on the bean bags!

This is the listening station.  I switch out the story each week.  They listen to the story a few times and then read it to themselves.  They also have phonic phones in this station so that they can listen to their fluency.  

This is the sight word station, where students are practicing identifying and spelling sight word and vocabulary words.  This activity came from Lakeshore, and will have to be replaced with another activity when we run through all of the cards. 

This is the word study station where students are making words using onsets and rimes.  They can also add words to each word family and write sentences with the words they make.  This is another activity from Lakeshore which will need to be eventually replaced.  

This is the pocket chart poem.  Each Friday we choral read a poem that reinforces the spelling pattern we studied that week.  The next week it is in this station so that students get continued practice to reinforce a spelling pattern even after we have moved on to another one. Choral reading the poem several times in various voices and tones helps the students to identify the words automatically so that they can read it themselves when they get to the station.  I write the poem on sentence strips but I also give them a copy of the original, so that they have to sequence it when putting it back together.  

This is the GeoSafari station.  Students play against their partner to practice identifying sounds and vocabulary words.  It is a very popular station.  

This is the writing station.  During the first weeks of school, we have a handwriting packet that we are working on in this station.  Next we will introduce sticker stories, friendly letters, and book reviews.

This is the computer station.  Students go to the literacy work station page on my class website, sites.google.com/site/mrsfeinmansclass and have various reading and language arts games to choose from to help them practice skills.  They also have the option to take A.R. tests at computer station.  In addition, each child has a blog on kidblog.org which they love to use to practice writing!

This is the magnet letter station where students use magnets on the Eno Board to spell out words and write sentences.  They are encouraged to practice making their sight words and spelling words for extra practice.  

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Addition Math Activity

This is an activity we did that I found in Kathy Richardson's book.  The kids took turns working with their partner to make addition number sentences.  The materials were number cubes, ten frames, and unifix cubes.  One partner rolls a number and putting their cubes on the ten frame.  Their partner fills in the rest of the ten frame and they list the different combinations of 10 that they made.  We will play several versions of this game in the coming weeks and add them to math tubs which I hope to get going in the near future!

Homework Collection

Collecting and checking homework has always been tedious for me.  I used to have the students bring me their homework one table at a time during morning work and I would check it and return it to them on the spot.  This was not really time effective.  I have also had the students turn their homework into an "inbox" for me to check later, but I was not always able to check daily and then could not address problems when students did not turn their homework in on time.  


I came across this idea while browsing on pinterest.  I have a bin out in the classroom where students can deposit their homework each morning.  There is a sign on the front that reminds them to check that their name is on their work and that they have completed all the problems.  It also reminds them to move their name clothespin to the other side when they have dropped off their homework so that I will know I have theirs.  
This has been very effective for me.  If a student's pin is not moved, I can speak to them and discuss a consequence.  I still do not always check the homework in time to return it the same day, but I can easily keep up with checking and returning homework, by simply moving the clothespins back to the next side for the next day.