Nouns and Verbs

My 1st grade ELs have been learning about nouns and verbs. For nouns, we just read the book Bugs, Bugs, Bugs! by Bob Barner.  Then we made a chart listing all of the nouns we could see inside.  We also did a noun sort with pictures and they worked in pairs to complete a magazine noun hunt.

Here is the book.  It is a cute little book and it's full of nouns.  You can purchase it through Amazon but I think I got mine through Scholastic.

 

 

Then, verbs came along.  Verbs can be scary things but luckily 1st graders like action!  I introduced verbs by having them to jump. hop, skip, run, clap, tap, spin, etc.  When we finished that I told them those were actions and the fancy school word for actions is VERB! 

We read Silly Sally by Audrey Wood.  The kids LOVED it.  They thought Sally was so silly and they began helping me read as it repeated itself a lot.

You can purchase Silly Sally here. Amazon

 

 Next we looked back through all of the pages and we made this anchor chart with her silly verbs on it.  It hangs in the room to help them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, before we started adjectives, we worked in groups to cut out nouns.  We made a chart for those. This part was easy.  Next, we made a chart for verbs.  I was concerned they wouldn't understand but after I gave them a few examples, they were able to cut out a picture and tell me a verb that went with it. 

 





Guided Reading

My world is a little different this year, in that I only have my students for a small percentage of the day.  I LOVE guided reading and try to have 15 minute groups a day.  Hard when you only see them for 60 minutes.

This is how I have chosen to organize my groups this year.

This is my pre-reading group.  They are new to the country so we just work on concepts about print and tracking words, etc.  If you don't know Dr. Jan Richardson's work, PLEASE visit this site.  She has a plethora of information and documents to help all level of readers.

Here is a link to her site. This is where the lesson plan templates came from.  They are very scripted and fool proof!  I need this since I am teaching these newcomers.   Guided Reading with Dr. Jan Richardson

More of Dr. Richardson's templates for Early readers. 

Word Work

With my new job, I only see kids for 1 hour at a time.  So, I don't have time for Daily 5 and full blown centers.  My district has purchased Imagine Learning (here is the link if you're interested)  http://www.imaginelearning.com

It is an amazing computer program for all students but especially for ELs, preproduction and beginners.  They have to be on it for 30 minutes a day.  I just don't have time, so I have decided they will do computer for 15 and word work for about 15 minutes every other day.

Here is my word work station.  I have taken many ideas from others and will link them in and give full credit.

My students LOVE, LOVE, LOVE centers.  They don't care if they're on the computer or it they're working with magnets.  They just don't realize they are learning.

My word work station

 Build that word station.  I have mostly first grade so we are really working on CVC words right now.  I made these word work pages.  The students use magnets to build the words.  The original idea came from Caitlin at Kindergarten Smiles  I modified it a bit so my ELs are just copying the words.  Eventually, I will just have the pictures as Caitlin does.  

This is my ZAP game.  I got this idea from the card game Zap It.   I modified it to popsicle sticks.  I have seen this a lot on Pinterest so it's nothing new.  Not my original idea.
The kids take turns drawing out a stick.  If she can read the stick, she keeps it, if not, it goes back in.  If she draws "zap", she has to put all of her words back in and start again.

I put the new word lists in a bucket every week.  I leave the old ones and add too these every week.

Hidden Words...this is not my original idea.  It came from First Grade Adventures.  Here is the link to here blog and this post.  She has her hidden word worksheets for free at her TPT store.

Check her out!

First Grade Adventures

Again, play dough words aren't anything new but Marisa, over at First Grade Glitter and Giggles made this recording sheet and she has it free at her TPT store.  Thanks Marisa!

Stamp IT worksheet.  The kids get to stamp their words of the week.  They LOVE this one.  I made this recording sheet.  You can get it at my TPT Store.  

My preproduction and beginner 1st graders NEED practice with their letters.  So this one is simple.  Laminate and trace with EXPO marker. (These were given to me by a teacher 10 years ago, I do not know where they came from).

Then, what do I do when I'm finished????  

I used the I can spell cards from Caitlin, over at Kindergarten Smiles  

So that's it for centers this year.  Short and easy to monitor!

I'm BACK!!!! (with classroom setup pictures)

I can't believe how I have neglected my blog.  Boy does life get in the way.

Well, I have gotten married since my last post, it's been almost a year, gotten pregnant and miscarried our precious little one, and put a contract on a house, just to realize it had a lot of repairs to be done (so we are still house hunting while we wait to see if sellers are going to repair).  I also have a new position at work so I'm trying to fire the blog back up.  I am the 1st-3rd grade EL teacher.  I pull the ELs out in smaller groups and work with them everyday.  I LOVE my job this year!!!!!

My Classroom

This is how my classroom looked when I walked in.  Talk about a lot of work.  It was navy and yellow (YUCK!) and it was quite dirty (I mean, look at that floor-no fault of the teacher before me).  So, $45 dollars and hours of hard labor later, we (meaning me and my wonderful hubby) completed the painting and cleaning.

It's beginning.... and it already looks so much better! 

So once the painting was done, I began to decorate!!!!!

This is my data wall.  I got the cute border from Parent Teacher, the buckets from Target, and the polka dot paper from Hobby Lobby (it's scrapbook paper).

This is the view of the front of my room.

This is the shelf smack in the middle of every school built in the ancient times.  LOL

I turned it into a word wall because 95% of my teaching is done from my reading table. $2 table cloth and cute letters from Parent Teacher.

This is the bulletin board where I display their work.  $1 table cloth and clothes pins that my room mom made me last year.

 

This is the view of the room from the door.

Thinking Maps, one of my favorite things! ($2 table cloth)  Also, really cute table for centers and green stools from Ikea.

I LOVE my desk!!!! I got a $2 table cloth and taped it on.  Then I got $5 letter "s", painted it the same as my shelves, and this is what I got!!!

Super cute curtain made by a fellow teacher.   

That's all for this post.  The next post is coming and will be about centers.