Tiered in First

As a thank you for being a follower I am giving you frequent freebies and looks into my work.  Here is something that I have worked very hard on and have posted on before. Second Grade Dolch Sight Words List 1 These are interactive and fun activities for your students to practice a set of 5 sight words.  I also have sets already posted for pre-primer through First grade.  The Second grade set is almost finished!  You can either by the entire bundle with all the sets or each individual set.  PLUS....if you buy the bundle there are some surprise activities in there!  Please if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave a message or email me at any time.

Let me start off by stating that I am influenced by many people when I write and create!  So if any of this sounds familiar, its because I have done a lot of research and stalking of many, many, many people to get ideas and suggestions from.  I think most good teachers should do that!  Of course we have our original ideas too but many things most teacher do are similar in nature or what I like to call best practices.  So, that being said let me describe some important parts and procedures I have in place for my math block. First, I start every unit with a pre-assessment.  I usually give the pre-assessment a week or so before the end the unit we are on so I have time to plan my next unit. Here is a example of a few questions from a pre-assessment I have given. Here I gave the same question in three different levels to see what type of numbers the students need to be working on.  Then I take the scores and levels of the students and create some...

The following set has been up loaded to TPT this week and is like my apple set PLUS MORE! Two differentiated books on the life cycle of a pumpkin Three differentiated sheets for a life cycle activity Choice of two writing activities  **choice is differentiation too Differentiated would you rather activity   These sheets are included as well as well as a senses page and senses poem too! The following is a peak at some pages from a giveaway I am having for my first 5 followers on my new Facebook page! It is not even on TPT yet!  

I know I promised to start blogging about all the changes in my new classroom but things just got away from me this summer personally and professionally.  My classroom turned out amazing (there will be pictures) and the year started out great!  I even reached my goal for my Donors Choose items super early!  I am so so so excited to have the items I needed for my class, especially since we lost out computer lab! Now, I may need to go back and try again for a few more things to have some more technology in the classroom instead. But anyway, I have been busy creating some tiered activities for apples and pumpkins and even working on my sight word pack too! Since I can not upload any pictures from my computer to my blog I have a new surprise...I started a Facebook page! Yup, another thing to do:) Something fun at least! So I will post some pictures there and offer the first five friends/comments my NEW pumpkin math (not even on TPT yet) set.  So come on over...

So... I never ask for anything, I usually, like most teachers spend their paychecks on items for their classroom but I figured why not try this great site because I am running out of money fast this summer. AND, this week they are matching dollar for dollar with the promo code INSPIRE when you donate to my classrooms new rug. Now why me, why do I deserve a new rug? First of all it is not for me and would you like to sit on the linoleum? Last year my room or most of it was carpeted so I didn't mind not having a fancy colorful rug but this year most of the room is not carpeted.                                       Also, since I do not give assigned seat and I am going to try and let the students work where they want to this year it would be nice to have them sit on a rug. Now, I already bought the clipboards, some lap trays, bean bag chairs, and a bench so all I really need is the...

Today I attempted to go back in to do something with my classroom! Because it's the summer and I haven't blogged in a while I think maybe I will try something new...blog about my journey moving into a new classroom, getting a new teammate, my adventures with Donor's Choose and keeping up with some TPT products. Oh ya and I can't forget about differentiation! I am teaching a class this summer and into the fall so I'll be sure to mention my great adventure into teaching adults for the first time! I'll start you off with some pictures of my new, tiny, jam packed classroom! I still have two more bookshelves, another table, and a chair that needs to be put together! Also, my stuff from home needs to make it in too! So today what I accomplished was unpacking three boxes just to uses the boxes to pack up the piles and piles of stuff left over from the teacher before me. Then, I moved around a few chairs. Friends, I have NO IDEA where I am going with this! I s...

It's been a while but big have I been busy! I have been getting ready for the end of the school year and trying to figure out a way to differentiate my sight words next year. For starters I am making a portable word wall for each student! This is available in my TPT store. I am also making several activites for each set of five dolch words preprimer through second grade.   These and other activities are also for sale in my TPT store as well as a pack.   Now I need to make an assessment for the dolch words.  I am going to dictate sentences to the students and see what words in context they need to practice. I have found that many students can write the words out of context but struggle using them. I have also played with the idea of incorporating my phonics assessment in with theses assessments as well, not sure how this will work yet. Last, for the tricky part making groups and organizing them. I already had five phonics groups going this year, with differen...

I don't know about you but before we go to the zoo we research, study and learn about those animals! But have you ever looked at those books in the library from a first graders point of view? Now, the computer research is fun, pebble go, enchanted learning, our zoo web site and national geographic all have great information but we can't forget to show children how to use books too! A Page From National Geographic Kids Here is a flip book you can use to gather information for each animal. So I made some differentiated books for each animal we will research books for two levels in my class ( my one group can read the books). I also made a note taking flip book and matching writing paper for each animal. I am so excited to start this research in a couple if weeks I couldn't help share what I had planned! Below I will share one of my book sets on elephants just for my followers! Please if there is interest for more leave me some feedback and I will out them up i...

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Need a differentiated way to reinforce coin values, coin names, or coin attributes? I just uploaded for only a $1.50 Spin a Coin! It has many uses and ways to differentiate with in your class.  Below is what you will get in the pack: The pack comes with two spinners and four game boards. I have even included the fronts and backs of the coins as a choice! Just print, laminate and play.

Need help planning out your dinosaur unit? I have included all the first grade common coreinformational reading standards, plus a few more, in a month long guided plan. (The last few days will be completed with in the week) NOT ALL RESOURCES ARE NOT PROVIDED FOR in ELA PLANS! A list of books and places to go are included. I have included some dinosaur themed materials for the unit plan. Such as: Vocabulary page Text Feature Cover and Page Writing Paper Question Parking Lot Fact Recording Sheet- In Preview! Vocabulary Cards with Definitions Main Idea Worksheet I have also created several math dinosaur themed stations to go along with your dinosaur unit. The topics include: Word problem matching Differentiated true false sort (2 sorts) Differentiated Place value sort (2 sorts) Missing Addends game Fractions (2 activities) Here are the two fraction activities that are included: Please ask any questions as well, I am happy to provide you with any i...

If you class is anything like mine one activity just won't do.  This week I have been teaching missing addends.  Many students were at different levels and after giving a pre assessment I found and made several stations that were tiered for missing addends. Here is a picture of three stations.  The fourth was a word problem station not pictured here. There is also a guided station with me as well as a fifth station. Students go to two stations in one day and two the next.  I decide which stations they go to based on their pre assessments and what skills they need to work on and how well they are doing with missing addends.  The stations came from the following places: Group 1 and 2: The Printable Princess-Let's March Into Spring! Group 3: Jessica Williams's March Interactive Math Notebook How do you differentiate your math? 

I thought tonight I would share a little bit about my day.  Here is a copy of what my lesson plans look like! Here is the link to a downloadable version as well! Lesson Plans Hopefully I will get a photo version of my day up as well soon! We have a fun filled day packed into a short amount of time.  Have questions? Feel free to ask! For now I have to run, I just got a new student and I have so much to do to make her feel welcomed.  Have a great night and I hope to be back very soon!

One of my favorite ways to tier or differentiate my mini lessons is to tier my activity after my mini lesson. Now, yes it is A LOT of work but well worth it and it is a meaningful task. Later, I will get more into more detail about tiered instruction but I wanted to share an activity I just created with my followers to show everyone how much fun it is.  Also, it is a winter activity so if you want to use it you may need to hurry up or save it for next year! So... The idea came from another blogger that I love and I started with her ideas and my class just needed some more differentiation so if what I made doesn't fit your class check out Fabulous In First  and her pack on TPT for more ideas for The Snowy Day . After we read the book a few times we were ready to discuss setting. We had talked about what setting was and I had given my students a pre assessment on a previous lesson the week before so I knew who needs what task. I usually design my tasks based on how the s...

First of all if you don't have Jan Richardson's Next Steps in Guided Reading (see below) quickly go out and get it! Then read on... If you have done guided reading for awhile or new at it, either way, its an AWESOME book.  It is so easy to read and understand.  I have read it three or four times now. Jan Richardson also has a free website with a lot of material and information for you as well.  The link is: http://www.janrichardsonguidedreading.com/home One of the fist things I did was take her level A-C sight word lists and make a pre assessment for my students. Then, I made some sight word books to help my students learn and internalize sight words. We all know that it is not enough for students to see the sight words, they need to use them in context as well, over and over again. In my teachers pay teachers store I have all the level A books completed and either sold separately or bundled. I am currently working on level B books. Not only do stud...

Freebies to come for followers!

First, let me warn you I stink at spelling and even with spell check I make mistakes!  Finding a site to start a blog on took me a while so I googled free blogs and most of them were NOT free. Then I found google had a great one that was free and pretty easy to navigate.  They had a lot of choices and even an easy to use help section.  Then, I had to come up with a name. My first choice...Teacher Now and Forever, I used it for a few hours but it was a little long for me so I had to change it. So here I am writing my first blog.  Any suggestions are welcome for this newbie! Next, I am going to write about my favorite topic Jan Richardson's Guided Reading.