Guided Reading Organization

Guided Reading Organization




A few people have asked how I use journals during guided reading so I decided to make a post on it and also share how I organize my groups!  I use Daily 5 in my classroom while I pull small groups.  I have 5 different groups and 4 rounds of Daily 5 so I meet with my lows every day and my highs every other day.  

So if you didn't notice from the picture... I'm a little bit obsessed with color coding. Each of my reading groups is a different color.*  I use cardboard magazine boxes (from Ikea) and colored sentence strips to keep all of my materials for the week.  Books, journals, word work- anything that I plan on using goes in the box.  I also keep my guided plans color coded and in the box.  I realized I'm much more likely to follow my plans when it's brightly colored and right there in front of me!  

*I've heard a lot of people tell me that they don't use colors for groups because students realize who the low/high ones are.  Also, some students may be used to seeing "red" as bad on a behavior chart so being in the "red" group may make some students feel like they are low/bad at reading.  In my classroom, we do not use a clip chart or anything related to colors for that matter.  My students have never been exposed to red = bad, so they actually do fine with the colored groups.  It all depends on your class!


There are a lot of fun things that go inside the boxes! I use my guided reading journals DAILY- even on the days that we only have 2-3 minutes to complete some word work! Here are a few things we use in our journals.














If you're looking for a place to start, these interactive guided journal activities can be found here:



Here is what I use to plan each lesson! I just fill out one per book and write in everything I am going to do with the book. This way I can jump ahead or slow down depending on the students needs. 

Click the picture below to grab it from my TPT store for free


Below the shelf with my boxes, I have a few tubs of guided reading "supplies".  I use at least one thing from these tubs each day!  Dry erase markers, boards, picture cards, alphabet cards, etc.  A couple of favorites are the witch fingers and magic wands. :)  

Witch fingers are AMAZING to use as pointers and to practice one-to-one matching.  My kids also use wands when they are searching for sight words! After they find a certain sight word in their book they rainbow write them in their journals. 







Interactive Journal LOVE

Interactive Journal LOVE

So if anyone has seen my TPT store before, it is obvious that I have an obsession with interactive journals.  So of course when I was thinking of ways to make word work during guided reading more effective, interactive journals came to mind! So far they have been a hit in my classroom.  My students cannot wait to come to "teacher table" during Daily 5 just so they can work in their guided reading journals. You can see a few other posts on these journals here and here.
Part 3 of my GR interactive journals focus on CVC/word families and can be found here.
I can't get over how cute "wag" is...



All of my journals are designed for the smallest amount of cutting possible.  I like to cut around the journals pieces ahead of time so students only need to make 3-4 cuts and the best part- will have NO SCRAPS to throw away! Woohoo!



You can use these to supplement a specific word family lesson or mix them up as a review or assessment. 



Click the image below to see the full preview in my TPT store! :)


Two posts in one day?!

Two posts in one day?!

I've felt so productive on this beautiful Monday off work. Second blog post today! Figured this would be a good time to post all of the crafty things I've been up to this summer.


The first thing I made was the sign that my new babies held on the first day on school.  Love how it turned out.  I got everything at Michaels to make it- basically just mod lodge and scrapbook paper!


#BTS2014 FREEBIES!

#BTS2014 FREEBIES!

Freebie Fridays

Where did the past two weeks go? I feel like I haven't eaten a real meal or slept in days.. -_- Incase your are feeling the same way I am- which I know you are- here are a few laughs to get you through.






But really.... lol 

So I can barely keep my eyes open but I am determined to finish this post.  Over the past couple months I have made many new teacher friends and I am so thankful for that.  To show my appreciation, I've decided to make a blog post with all of my new freebies.  My hope is that you can cross something else off your death to-do list... ;)

Here is a handwriting freebie that you can download from my TPT store.  Just print and laminate- binding is optional but it keeps everything together perfectly!  I use a ProClick machine and bind the book across the top so it becomes a flip book.  Students trace with dry erase markers or their fingers, use wiki sticks, or play dough!


If you haven't started journaling in math then I highly suggest you try it out with my Interactive Math Journaling freebie!  This pack meets the K.CC.3 common core standard, but would work well in first grade as well!




I use this behavior chart/parent communication daily and my students keep them in a take home folder.  I keep one week in at a time and use a sheet protector so I don't have to open and close the fodder prongs each time.  My students get a sticker/stamp or a note home.  If you use a color chart, you can record the color here as well. Click here for this freebie.


More free fonts!

More free fonts!

All of these fonts are free for personal use! You can download them from the bottom of this post.  If you would like to use them commercially, please purchase a font license from my TPT store, here. Or purchase a lifetime font license, here, which allows you to use any/all of my fonts personally or commercially.
Introducing KE fonts!

Introducing KE fonts!

So excited to finally share these cute little fonts that I've been working on.  They are free!!
Interactive Guided Reading Journaling

Interactive Guided Reading Journaling


Interactive journaling is becoming more and more popular in primary classrooms.  If you haven't tried them yet, then I really suggest you do!  They are really simple to start- no need to wait until the beginning of the year- they can be implemented at any time.  Interactive journals provide students with the opportunity to creatively learn.  Students have the ability to use the journal as a year long reference and engages them into more critical thinking.  I decided to try out interactive journals in guided reading.  I found myself losing track of student work completed during GR and also felt like I was re-creating things over and over.  I would be able to cover more concepts if my students had something to refer to at anytime (instead of me shuffling through phonics bins to find something that I will only reference for 30 seconds).  I also wanted something that would supplement any lesson or focus I was working on in GR.  One thing I kept in mind while creating this was keep it simple.  There are so many great, hidden resources out there that are packed with so much information and steps that it's almost impossible for the teacher to figure out.  How do I expect a 5 year old to manage a notebook if I can't keep up with it?  My goal was to make sure there was enough challenge, yet a simple, routine format used.  So with all of this in mind, I created an interactive guided reading journal aimed for beginning readers. Realizing how much there was to cover, I decided to chunk the journal into parts which I will continue to work on throughout the school year. 

Here is part 1! You can find Part 2 here!


Great Student Resources

Great Student Resources

Just made lots of updates and changes to my healthy food blog so I'm going to make this post a quick one!  Just wanted to share a few things that have been working so well in my classroom this year.


I made this resource to help my ELL students with their number sense.  They are loving it and it really is working!  I have one copy at the math center and when a student needs it they use it.  (I only have two students that use it so there's never an issue of it not being available.) If you have lots and lots of extra time like all teachers do, you can make multiple copies for each student to keep at their desk ;) *summer project*




The flip book has numbers 1-40 in English and Spanish and has a ten frame for each number. You can get it here from my TPT store!
Playing catch up! Lot's to talk about!

Playing catch up! Lot's to talk about!


Spring break is over already?! How did it go by so fast.... I really did nothing- which was so refreshing.  Waking up when I want to, grabbing lunch in the cafeteria at an actual restaurant.  I had so much time to work on some new TPT products and do lots of things that I haven't been able to finish in awhile.  The not so fun part was that our break was SO early this year.... Is it too early to start counting the days left of school? Nah.... It's 58!!

I sent my students home with green bean seeds over spring break in these really cute greenhouse pockets that are from Lakeshore. (I had them donated to me through Donors Choose earlier this year!) I thought it would be so much fun to compare the heights of the sprouts when they got back to school... I should have known...




I had about 5-6 students completely squish the seed...

Four of them didn't return with it...  Although I did take a big risk sending them home for a WEEK.  God only knows where some of them ended up.. I'll be making some phone calls soon.

But, I also had a handful of kiddos come back with healthy little sprouts.  They were so proud. 





I've recently added two new units to my TPT.



Each unit has common core worksheets that can be used for homework or classwork!  
Click the pictures to check them out! 


Check back soon for a new math interactive journal that I will be adding to TPT.  I'm finishing up testing it out on my kiddos and will post it as soon as I can!  It will be similar to my Interactive Reading Journal, but all math based.  My students LOVE them!  They are also coming in great use while we are reviewing for the very stressful Stanford Achievement Test.. womp womp... Here's a link to the reading journal if you haven't tried it out yet! 



I hope every has/had a great spring break! Thanks for stopping by my little ol' blog.


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