Making Inferences

I saw this idea on The Inspired Apple and thought it was great.  We have been talking about drawing conclusions this week and practicing inferring during our group reading of the BFG by Roald Dahl.  

The kids were fascinated as I pulled things out of my purse and did a great job on their own papers making inferences about other items that we did not put on the anchor chart list.  

Pilgrims Compare Contrast

We have been learning to compare and contrast in our reading lessons this week.  I saw some great things on other first grade blogs and decided to do a Venn Diagram comparing Pilgrim life to life today.

After watching several videos on united streaming and brain pop jr. and reading a few books, we discussed what we have in common with the Pilgrims and how we are different.  I wrote several of those ideas down, printed them and cut them out.  I passed them out to the students and they pasted them in our big Venn diagram.  It was a great formative assessment!

Next we labeled the diagram and started a writing activity.  More on that soon!

Retelling with Pictures

I learned this strategy recently in the Neuhaus training.  This week we focused on sequence in the stories we read, so it was a great time to try out this activity.  As we read a story, a quickly drew some very bad pictures of what was happening.  Afterwards we put them up on the board and used them as a trigger to retell the story.  We added in sequence transition words such as first, next, then, last etc.  The students really enjoyed getting up in front of the class to speak.  This activity was successful because it got the students to summarize, use transition words and speak in complete sentences to tell a story.  We will definitely do this again and try to tie it to a writing activity soon.  

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.