Poetry Notebook Fun and FREEBIE

Today was our 8th day of school and we fully ran Daily Five today!!!  I was so proud of my first graders!  

I think this may be the earliest I have ever felt like my kiddos could do it.  We used our Smart Board to make our choices and I had kids reading to self, reading to someone, word work-ing, and listening to reading all at the same time.  I've decided to wait on work on writing because I have so many kiddos that just aren't ready to be independent with that yet.  

Then, in the middle of our Daily Five greatness we had a fire drill!  I was working with a kiddo on his DRA when it went off and the sound of the alarm literally made me jump.  I think I totally scared my little kiddo!  Oops!!

Something else I have already implemented in our classroom are our poetry notebooks.  We had our kiddos bring 3 ring binders this year instead of using folders like I have in the past.  I used my *FREE* Poetry Notebook pack for our binder cover, table of contents page, and poetry log.

I gave my kiddos a cover and wrote their name on it which is covered by the crayon in the picture:

This next picture is the inside and I hate that it's upside down.  I changed it when I saved it to my computer, but when I uploaded it here it went upside down.  :(  If anyone knows how to fix this I would love to know how!!

The purple paper in the front pocket is the parent log.  My kiddos take their poetry notebooks home every Friday and read their poems over the weekend.  I don't require this, but I do highly encourage and reward it.  This encourages reading at home over the weekend without officially assigning homework.  Parents can sign the log one time each weekend.  I don't care if my kiddos read 1 poem or 20 poems.  Once the log is filled up my kiddos get Class Dojo points.  The green paper attached to it is just an explanation for parents.  

The yellow paper is their table of contents page.  We give each poem a page number and then we write the title and page number on the table of contents.  It helps keep us organized.  I gave my kiddos 3 copies of this page on the front and back because we fill up our notebooks with so many poems that I don't want to have to add more pages later.  

Each week I give my kiddos 2 poems (front and back).  The first one is usually a phonics or sight word poem.  The one below is for our -at word family.  I have a notebook full of poems, but this year I decided to retype them so that I could make the font bigger, add an illustration, and add a place for my kiddos to write the page numbers.  I'm loving this idea.  :)

The second poem this week was called My First Day since we just started school.  The second poem is usually about a holiday or content area.  I will be using one on tally marks soon as well as apples as we begin our apple unit.  I typed this one up too and added a place for my kiddos to illustrate a picture.  This kiddo drew her at her desk and me in front of the room.  :)

I love our poetry notebooks.  My kiddos read these all the time during Daily Five and when they finish their work early.  They also enjoy showing their families how well they can read on the weekends.  :)

You can download my *FREE* Poetry Notebook pack here to get started.  I didn't include any poems because I use ones I have in books or have found online.  I'm not creative enough to make my own or I would totally share them with you!!  :)

If you have any other suggestions or ideas for a poetry notebook, I would love to hear them!  I'm always looking for new ideas to help my kiddos read.  :)

To read about what causes rain, follow my Facebook Fan Page and see what one of my kiddos told me this week!  LOVE first graders!!  :)

iPad and Smartboard

I have the greatest thing to tell you about using your iPad and Smart Board! 

I really love my iPad and my Smart Board as I'm sure you do too.  I use my Smart Board and iPad every day for Daily 5 and Daily 4.  Well, recently I told my kiddos that it would be great if I could use my Smart Board from my iPad at my small group table.  

So, I looked in the app store to see if that was possible and of course it was!  I immediately bought and downloaded the Smart Board app.  It was only $6.99.  Now I can use my iPad to control my Smart Board from my small group table in the back of my room!  

I am able to use my Smart Board from my iPad because I have an Apple TV.  I use Airplay to show what's on my iPad up on my Smart Board.  I'm lucky that my school has purchased several Apple TV's and I got one of them!  :)

There are some differences using the Smart Board on the iPad, but I've got it down pretty good now....I think!  

What's even better is that I have taught my kiddos to use my iPad to control my Smart Board!  

Give me a ten finger woohoo!!  :)  (whole brain teaching shout out)

Here are some screenshots from my iPad of Daily 4: 

This is how my kiddos make their choices during our Daily 4 Math time.  This is a Smart Board file opened on my iPad.  It's nothing fancy, but it works for us. I have all of my kiddos listed on the right of the screen.  I took their names off for this and added just 6 names of my friends!  :)

 I use my iPad to drag their names under their choices.  My small group kiddos go into the box on top.  

I have been doing this for awhile and I love it!  However, I was getting annoyed spending so much time dragging their names and helping them decide where to go when I could be working with kids so I decided to teach some of my kiddos how to move everyone into their choices.  It gives me a few more minutes to work with my kiddos and they love getting to be the 'teacher'.  

This is Round 2 of Daily 4.  I change the colors of the background so my kiddos know it's the next round.

Just in case you're wondering the Math by Myself games are in different colored folders so I just put the color on there.  I got those games from Hope King and they are amazing!!  I have every month so they last me all year.  

I also change my Math with Someone games every month.  I rotate through different math games reviewing skills we have learned throughout the year.  Many of the games I use I have shared in one of my Fantabulous Friday Freebie posts.  

Math on the Computer also changes.  We practice math facts and play different math games.  The numbers are on there because I have four computers and they are numbered so that the kiddos know exactly which computer they go to.  

I have the same routine for Daily 5 too.  

I love our Daily 4 time too though.  Working with my small groups has really helped my kiddos improve their math skills.  I get more time to work with my struggling students and my kiddos love playing the games which helps them practice their skills.  

I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready for the weekend.  Happy Friday tomorrow!!  :)

Reason #467 Why I *HEART* Daily Five and a Labor Day Freebie

I have to share a story with you that happened this week with one of my kiddos and Daily Five.  This is my third year implementing D5 and I LOVE it!  It works fabulously when it's all up and running.  

Right now, since we just finished the second week of school, we are still building stamina.  We worked on Read to Self and Read to Someone a lot this week.  The kiddos got to shop for their own books yesterday and they really loved that!  It was so quiet during Read to Self you could have heard a pin drop....with 26 first graders in the room.  

I have a kiddo this year that has some real needs which require the help of an aide.  Well on Thursday during Read to Someone I asked this kiddo (we'll call him Jimmy) to read with another kiddo.  Jimmy doesn't like change or uncomfortable situations so he didn't want to.  He aide is wonderful and she stepped in and helped mediate the shared reading.  The little girl that read with him was great about it all.  

Then, yesterday I told the kiddos to get their D5 bags and we went over their job during Read to Someone and then I told them to choose a partner and read.  Jimmy got up ALL ON HIS OWN and found the little girl he had read with the day before, asked her to be his partner, and sat down and read for 15 minutes straight making NO noises, throwing NO tantrums, with NO arguing.  They were truly reading together.  

Knowing this little boy and his needs and how he had become comfortable enough to do that on his own completely touched my heart. His aide and I were just shocked that he did it on his own.  I was so proud of him I was bursting.  Of course, I had to share this with my principal who knows this little boy very well.  

To top that off, at the end of the day he actually RAISED HIS HAND AND VOLUNTEERED to help another student with an end of the day job.  That was another shocker!!  

Needless to say, yesterday was a GREAT day in Mrs. Seymour's class.  I was so happy for Jimmy.  I think he's going to have a great year!  And, I HIGHLY recommend D5 to everyone.  It's a great framework for your kiddos to be able to move and feel comfortable, while you can differentiate instruction in your small groups.  

I have a little girl reading above a first grade level so this year I am going to challenge her through small group.  If I don't, she's going to be bored all year and that would be a waste of time!  

I just had to share my D5 story with other teachers.  We all have difficult students in our rooms and when they do well and make good choices it is the biggest blessing!

For reading my LONG story, I am going to share a Labor Day freebie with you!  I revamped my Patriotic Pack and added a lot more pages.  It went from 16 to 45!  

You can use these supplemental materials for Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Election Day (with a ballot to vote with), President's Day, Memorial Day, and July 4th.  There are also other patriotic pages that can be used anytime throughout the year!  

Happy Labor Day my friends!  :)

Wonderful Aide, Freebie Reading Journal, and Daily Five Ideas!

BIG thanks to Christina over at Second Grade Sugar and Spice for sharing my new blog with her wonderful followers!  I felt so loved yesterday!  :)  Thank you to everyone who started following me and left a comment.  Warms a girl's heart....

I was asked a few questions about my Poetry Covers/Table of Contents and Literature Pack, so I'll try to explain.  My kiddos just have a regular 3 prong folder this year for their Poetry Notebook.  They are now able to put in each poem on their own.  That does take quite a bit of modeling and help at the beginning of the year.  Now, they got it though!  :)  Next year, I will look for a more sturdier folder/notebook to use that will hold up better.  Some of my kiddos' notebooks are in really bad shape at this point in the year.  :(  As many of you know, first graders can be tough on things!  

My Literature Pack is for sale at my TpT store!  You can purchase the chapter book and the picture book pack individually or you can buy the combination of both for a discount!  My AMAZING aide at school, Mrs. Justice (I asked her permission before giving her this shout out!) helped me put my Lit Pack goodies together!  I've posted a couple of 'orangey' pictures because I'm not a photographer as much as I would like to think I am pictures below of my posters, bookmarks, and guided reading sticks.  Mrs. Justice glued the goodies to matching colored construction paper, laminated them, and then cut them out for me.  This is what they look like when I show them to my kiddos!  The first thing they wanted to know was if they would all get a bookmark....so easily pleased!!  

I'm also posting my current Reading Homework Journal that goes along with my Lit Packs.  I'm posting this for free, but please follow my blog, grab my button, follow me on TpT, or leave a comment for me if you use it!   :)  I don't give homework on Wednesdays which is why there is no Wednesday on this copy.  I will be creating another Homework Journal for Monday-Thursday soon.  My kiddos will take a book home, read it, and then do the job of the day.  Right now Monday night's homework job is Retelling Rhonda, Tuesday night's job is Connecting Charlie, and Thursday night's homework is Wordy Wyatt.  

One last thing before I go....I'm finding some absolutely wonderful blogs to admire and follow and I found this great idea from Ali at An Education Lasts a Lifetime and wanted to share it!  We are BIG fans of Daily Five at my school (my kiddos LOVE it) so I'm always looking for new ideas.  Ali shares that during Work on Writing her kiddos get to choose 5 stickers to start a picture.  Then, they add more details and write a story to match their stickers!  I think that is such a clever idea- love it!  

Okay, I'm off to work on homework....