Summer work stations

Finally, something new.  I didn't think I was going to finish this one in time for summer but here it is.     It's 1/2 price until the weekend.  Grab it by clicking on any picture.

Vegas {Day 3}

 Are you enjoying Vegas week?  I'm so jealous of all my friends that are there.  If you are in Vegas, make sure you stop at our booth and enter to win an iPad Mini.

If you are not in Vegas, stop by the Freebielicious blog to enter to win one from home.

There is one more thing you can win this week.  It's 28 of our best sellers.  That's right, all 28. It's over $200 worth of products and I'm giving it away here on my blog.  Make sure you enter below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Vegas {Day 1}

It’s finally Vegas week. I’m so sad that I'm not with my friends in Vegas but if you are like me and still at home, there are plenty of opportunities to win things. 

If you are in Vegas, stop by the Freebielicious booth starting tomorrow.  It's #115, let the girls know I sent you.  You can enter our draw to win an iPad mini.  Grab some candy and take some pictures while you are there.

One of our very own authors is presenting today.  Jodi is presenting at the I Teach 1st conference.

Stuck at home like me?  Don't worry.  You still have an opportunity to win an iPad mini from our blog.  Click on the button below to head on over and enter.

Here are a few of the things you can do to join the fun:

#1 Follow FREEBIELICIOUS on FB where we will be sharing about giveaways.

#2 Follow our authors!  Follow their blogs, FB and instagrams!  Click HERE to find a list.  Each author is having different contests over the week.  Don't miss out by not following.

# 3  Use the #hashtags we've coined below this week.  Don't miss out on any of the fun!

Daily 5 Book Study - Chapter 8 and a Freebie

It’s time for the Daily 5 book study again.  If you don’t have your copy of the book, you can click on the link below to grab it.

This week is Chapter 8 and this is a new topic for the Sisters. 

The Math Daily 3.

The three rotations of math are:

Math by myself

Math with someone

Math writing

The past few years I’ve been fairly happy with my literacy block but my math block, not so much.  Last year I did a calendar binder and loved it. 

I think I’ll do that again next year but I haven't been able to coordinate my math centers as well though.

I had planned centers, and the children choose which one to go to but I didn’t have the opportunity to work with small groups and I didn’t have the greatest assessment procedure.  I didn't have a way to focus on those kids that needed extra help.

The Math Daily 3 is the same management system and works the same way as the Daily 5.  It starts with a short focus lesson and then the children go to a rotation.  When the children’s stamina starts to wane, they are brought back together for another focus lesson. This is repeated for the three rounds. 

The math differs in the fact that it uses the gradual release method.  The first focus lesson concentrates on “I do”, the second lesson focuses on “We do” and the third lesson focuses on “You do”. This slowly makes the children more independent while again giving you the opportunity to have the children actively engaged while you are working with a small group of children.  I’m hoping that this will give my math block the “umph” it needs.

The Math 3 also uses the same method of learning; the 10 steps to independence and I-charts; as the Daily 5.

I have made up I-charts for the Math 3 that coordinate with the I-charts for the Daily 5.  You can grab them for free by clicking on the picture below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Daily 5 - Chapter 7

Well school is finally out for the summer.  My husband says it’s time to relax but all I can think about is finally having the time to do all the things I didn’t have time to do during the school year.  Next year will be a different class for me.  They will be more academic and for the first time, I will have a grade one student that is working on the grade one curriculum. 

This will be a challenge for me.  How do I make sure that I can provide a rich grade one curriculum for this child while providing a rich kindergarten program for everyone else?

I’m looking forward to the challenge and I think that The Daily 5 is a perfect way to get in some of the differentiation that I’m going to need to do.

Remember:  If you don’t have the book yet, you can grab it here and catch up.

This week I'm behind again.  I will be doing chapter 7 today and then chapter 8 tomorrow.

Chapter 7 was all about launcing the next Daily 5.  I think that the I-charts are the key to laying the foundation.  If you didn't grab my charts, you can get them for free by clicking on the picture below.

Following the same outline when launching each of the Daily 5 will ease the transition time into each of them.

One of the important parts of this chapter is introducing choice.   The Sisters state how important it is to give children choice and to work on independence.  One of the big focuses in the Kindergarten program in Ontario is self-regulation.  Introducing choice and allowing children to have that responsibility, is a perfect opportunity to work on self-regulation.

This was how we worked our literacy block last year.

The children were divided into 4 ability groups and because we had two teachers, we were able to provide two teacher directed sessions.  The children had a choice of what center they went too but we never did any teaching around what to do, how to take care of material etc.  We just dove in and got started.

As a result, the materials were always in the wrong boxes, or missing.  They were a mess.  There was no process for who was responsible for adding more response sheets so they were often missing too.

Next year I’m hoping to refine this process and follow the Sisters 10 steps for independence.  The children will still have choice but it will focus on the Daily 5 choices.

Do you give the children choices or do you pick for them?

An InLinkz Link-up

Freebie and Sale

Finally, school is out and summer has begun.  Canada Day is almost here and I'm celebrating with a freebie and a sale.  Click on the picture below to grab this alphabet order game.  You could also print off two copies and make a matching game.

Click on the links below to find more Canadian resources.

Daily 5 Book Study - Chapters 5 and 6 - Freebie

Welcome to the next installment of the Daily 5.  Sorry this post is late.  I can’t believe that this is my last week of school.  The countdown has begun and I think I have a million things to do between now and then.

Remember:  If you don't have the book yet, you can grab it here and catch up.

This week is Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.

Now I haven’t really done Daily 5 before so this is a huge chapter for me.  I’m already thinking in my head what the first day will be like (and I haven’t even finished this year yet.)

I really like the idea of foundation lessons and one of the first ones is “3 ways to read” a book.

I think it’s so important that children know that they don’t have to be able to read every word at the beginning.

They can

I’m going to make this into a large chart to hang in the room.  We are going to need a lot of practice in order to build up our stamina for this.

Another important lesson is

One of my favourite things to do is to go to the bookstore and look for that “just right” book. I could spend an hour or more looking at books.  I want my students to have the opportunity to pick those “just right” books without feeling rushed. The sisters use the acronym “I PICK” to help children remember how to pick that perfect book. 

I would like to find some time within the class schedule for the children to do that.  Maybe at the beginning of the day?  I have a ton of books in my class and want to spend the summer organizing them so the children can access them better.  I want them to be able to spend time looking and not feeling rushed.

Chapter 6 includes the foundation lessons for each of the Daily 5 sections.

One of the foundation lessons for Read-to-someone is EEKK!

I can definitely see my students loving this part of the program but I can also see needing a lot of modelling so that the noise level does not get out of control (that’s another lesson).  I’m hoping that this particular round will help with fluency. 

If you want any of the posters found in this post, you can find them by clicking on the pictures below.

Don’t forget to click on the links below to find more posts on Chapters 5 and 6.

An InLinkz Link-up