Holiday Word Work and Pick 3 Skill Practice

If you're like me, this time of year with the loads of holidays and celebrations are loads of fun for both kids and you!

I have recently added several Holiday Word Work Centers to TpT and wanted to walk through how I use them in class to hopefully give you some ideas over the next few months for your own classroom.

Here are the recently added centers:

Happy Hanukkah Word Work

Winter World Holidays (Diwali, St. Lucia, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas, Christmas & Hanukkah) Word Work

Merry Christmas Word Work

The Polar Express Word Work (vocabulary based on the book)

Ring In The New Year Work Work

Chinese New Year Word Work

Winter Olympics Word Work

Each packet contains:

• Making Words with recording sheets
• 36 vocabulary word cards specific to that holiday/theme/festival/etc.
• A student sheet with the words for the activities if they want to cut & paste or use them for reference
• ABC Order 
• Syllable Sort
• Parts of Speech (noun, verb & adjective) Sort
• Publishing Paper

How do I use these packets in class?

I always print off student word sheets in a different color so kids can use them throughout the lesson. They are stored in the back of their Reader's Workshop Folder in a tiny folder for easy reference throughout the unit.

Depending on time, skill-level and how I am incorporating them, I can either have kids work with all 36 words in every center or I can split up the words into three groups and have them use twelve different words at each of the ABC Order, Syllable Sort and Parts of Speech Sort.

I have also assigned them to work independently, in partnerships, and even in table groups for a sub (read more about that HERE).

The nice thing about these packets is that they are similar enough that they don't require complex directions, can be adjusted depending on how you run your class and Word Work time, and the different needs and levels of your students.

Plus, if you're like me, it gets harder and harder to incorporate decent vocabulary lessons outside of content areas throughout the year even with Word of the Day and Vocabulary Journals, so the exposure and interaction with these rich terms has been invaluable in building up my students' lexicon.

Do I only use these four activities?

No! And that's what I am most excited about sharing!

If you've purchased my Seasonal Word Work Packets (Autumn, Winter, Spring & Summer), you have already seen these activities. If you haven't, I am excited to tell you all about Pick 3!

One set of Pick 3 Cards are in each of the four seasonal packets, but I have recently put them into their own bundle in case you just need these guys :)

Click above to be taken to my TpT Store.

Pick 3 is a fun way to utilize these Word Work word cards (or even my Math & ELA cards, or any vocab cards for that matter!) in purposeful, engaging, and meaningful ways.... and did I mention they are also CCSS-aligned?

They cover a wide range of strategies and Common Core State Standards. Be sure to head to the product page and download the preview to get a full list of the CCSS addressed.

The first direction on each card is to "Pick 3" and I will often have kids pick from the current Word Work packet we are working on. They will then use the coordinating recording sheet to use these word cards in a variety of ways.

Most of the "Pick 3" activities have four tasks, so kids will be able to practice 12 different words as they make their way through. I have found this to be a powerful differentiation tool, since I can have all kids working on the same skill, but using words at their level. I also try to put words with varying degrees of difficulty in my packets, so all kids can be challenged and learn something new :)

What I also love is that it cuts my prep time *way* down, since I can keep these cards in rotation along with the seasonal word cards and not have to reinvent the wheel throughout the course of the year. There is enough variety and challenge that these can be made once and used over and over again. I can mix-and-match the sets of cards throughout the year and my kids will always get great skill practice while practicing new and interesting words-- Yippee!

I hope this gave you a helpful idea of how I mix skill practice and Word Work in my classroom. Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope these Holiday Word Work activities can help you and your students celebrate this festive time of year!

I'm Not Telling You It's Going To Be Easy...I'm Telling You It's Going To Be Worth It.

That is one of my new favorite quotes and has been a guiding force in my recent decision, which has also been one of the most challenging and difficult decisions I have ever had to make.

I used to live and die by My Plan. It was a useful plan and always got me to great places and has given me the ability to do amazing things. My Plan consisted of:

• working your tail off
• doing it all
• spinning lots of plates in the air
• not saying no
• and on and on....

I'm sure many of you also follow this plan and to be honest, it worked for me for a long time.... or so I thought.

Two and a half years ago, a delightful little wrench was thrown into My Plan: our beautiful, bouncy and personality-filled daughter. Suddenly, I found myself muscling through my tried & true plan and starting to lose myself more and more. My spinning plates started crashing to the ground, but I continued going, going, going under the false assumption that if I just kept doing what I'd always done, things would improve.

This year was the tipping point. It occurred to me during a late night of grading, school emails, and planning that when it came to the life of my daughter, I as her mother am the person who sees her the least. She's all we have and two years have gone by with me spending less time with her than I had spent with many of the kids in my classroom.

Have you ever had to choose between two passions?

I made that choice and, after many tears, of course my daughter came out leaps and bounds ahead.

Today is my last day in the classroom. I am choosing to take a leave of absence for the remainder of this year to be a mom. To be there for milestones, potty training, playdates, and all of the hundreds of things I have missed out on up to this point.

I have no idea where this path will lead. I am definitely nervous and I pray and hope every day that I am making the right choice.

{source}

It's My New Plan and I know it will be worth it. I will also continue my passion of blogging and sharing what has worked for me over these past ten years, so stay tuned for new posts and ideas of what I have loved doing. Sharing and connecting with you all has kept me going through so many tough times, you probably don't even realize, so I hope you will continue to indulge me by stopping by to read more of my ramblings :)

Thank you to each and every one of you.

♥

Writing Groups: Teacher Time & Writing Bin

I'm excited today to tell you about how I teach my minilessons in writing using small group instruction in Writing Groups.

If you haven't read my previous posts, check them out here:

• Writing Groups Overview
• Independent Writing & Partner Writing

Teacher Time

This is where the main teaching in writing happens and why I am completely in *love* with Writing Groups! I use Teacher Time in both reading and math, so the format is similar for my students to recognize.

Each group is divided into about 6-8 kids and this has allowed me to gain the most insight into their writing and challenge them where they need it.

Having such a small group allows me to see their writing, give instant feedback, allow kids to share in a small, similarly-leveled group (so I can give recommendations that will help all kids in the group) and extend or reteach when necessary. For example, for our recent Halloween Onomatopoeia pieces, I worked with my lower group on the elements of story and ensuring their conventions were okay. With my high group, we worked on adding in additional onomatopoeia and delving into additional figurative language.... It was great!

What's Inside My Teacher Time Writing Bin?

I have a Teacher Time Writing Bin (similar to my Reading Bin) that I bring with me to the meeting area when I meet with my small groups that helps. Inside, you will find the following:

• Hamburger coasters, toy, and mini-anchor chart (to help with Hamburger Paragraphs)
• Don't Tell. Show! Anchor Chart & Clap Board (from Amazon HERE)
• Full-size and smaller-sized Anchor Charts from my Plan Your Writing Packets & Types of Sentences
• ELA Vocabulary cards (when we explain some of the elements in their writing)
• Introduction & Conclusion cards on a binder ring
• A fun 6-Traits dice I found at Really Good Stuff years ago
• A few more random goodies that represent helpful writing tips that I definitely need to share :)
• A personal white board & dry erase marker to model good/bad writing

Here's what's inside of the smaller basket:

The links are for teaching transition sentences {future blog post}, the hamburger coasters came from Target, and the toy came from Amazon.

I *love* using hands-on reminders for teaching writing whenever I can (evidently!) ;)

I keep the laminated anchor charts in here to remind kids of previous lessons as the year goes on.

What do I teach for minilessons?

When it comes to the minilessons themselves, I pull from all over. We use the Being a Writer curriculum, but there are many times I want to reinforce something or provide some additional practice with hands-on activities, so I diverge from the scripted lessons pretty frequently.

I am a *big* fan of Ralph Fletcher and his Teaching the Quality of Writing packet. I've had this packet for years and think it's the perfect go-to resource for quick, purposeful and engaging minilessons. Plus, he writes tons about boy writers, so I have found his lessons do the perfect job of hooking even my most reluctant writers.

I have a few packs in my TpT Store that also help to teach some of the more challenging and common writing lessons. You can find them HERE. These usually pair with my hands-on materials and I always kee a copy of the anchor charts in my Writing Bin.

When do kids do writing?

As we talk through the lesson, I have kids sitting in a semi-circle around me, so I can give them quick assignments and check their progress as they write in Teacher Time.

After Teacher Time, the next rotation is always Independent Writing (read more about that HERE) and I always send kids off from Teacher Time with a writing task to complete. For example, we recently planned our Calendar Descriptive Writing Pieces in Teacher Time and we worked on introductory sentences. Now, students are responsible for drafting the paragraph during Independent Writing and we will talk about some revising strategies in the next Teacher Time.

Click to download the PDF of this schedule HERE.

Since there is a day in between Teacher Times (there are Monday/Wednesday groups and Tuesday/Thursday groups), if they don't finish during the Independent Work times, they can work on it more during Catch-Up & Pickle Time (click HERE for details). I have found, though, that kids typically finish in the allotted time and still have time to free write.

I hope this helped explain Writing Groups more and if you're interested in Chevron Writing Groups signs, they are available in my TpT Store HERE.

Let me know if you have any questions and have a wonderful weekend!

Sub Plans with Word Work Rotations

It has been over a week and I still cannot kick this sickness! It is more than a hassle and today had me coughing all over and sounding scratchier and scratchier as the day went on.

Since tomorrow is Friday, I was fortunate enough to get a trusted substitute to come in and I left my new Honoring Veterans Word Work Pack for her to use with the kids in a Word Work Rotation activity.

We read all about Veterans Day today during Teacher Time in Reader's Workshop, so the kids are familiar with what the day is all about and ways we can honor our veterans. There are so many rich vocabulary words associated with this holiday, I am anxious for them to go deeper tomorrow.

I set these activities up to be used in a small group rotation setting. There are four activities in this packet and we have four tables in class, so voila!

Here's how it's set up:

Most of the time, kids work on Word Work independently, so tomorrow will be a great opportunity to work as a mixed-group in their tables to get through these activities in a cooperative setting.

Each student will have their own packet of recording sheets and at each table will be a copy of the Veterans Day vocabulary words. They will work together to put these in ABC order, sort by number of syllables, sort by nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and make words from the letters in "Honoring Veterans" (there are six baggies, one for each student at the table).

I am allotting about fifteen to twenty minutes for each station, having kids start at the activity at their own table and then rotating around to the next table until they have visited them all. My substitute will be milling about helping kids with definitions or placement if needed, but the groupwork aspect will hopefully keep the kids using each other as resources, since my table groups are by heterogeneous skill levels.

If some of my kids do get done early, the publishing paper is available for them to write a thank you note to a veteran, which was an idea suggested by today's reading:

I am including the printed set of word cards for this activity since I want them to use the words in their writing. They will also have their packet for reference, too.

Of course, our Word of the Day is "veteran" to keep the day unified :)

The underlined words are words found in the vocabulary cards in the packet.

I hope this gave you some new ideas and possibilities for how to use groupwork and word work centers for yourself or a sub :)

If you're interested in this Veteran's Day packet, it's available in my TpT Store HERE or by clicking the picture below:

Have a great weekend and a deep and heartfelt *thank you* to all of the veterans and active-military families for your service to our country~ Happy Veterans Day!

Cause & Effect + Giving Thanks Word Work Centers

How do you all celebrate this Thanksgiving season in class?

I know there are multiple ways to approach the holiday, from both historical and present-day viewpoints, or even a mixture of both. My favorite way to celebrate Thanksgiving is always from a gratitude perspective. We will talk a bit about the history, but I have always loved celebrating current-day traditions, families, food (of course!) and all of the many reasons we can be thankful this time of year.

source

I have started extending my Word Work Centers into more holiday themes and the first one up is Thanksgiving:

If you've used any of my centers in the past, you will notice a similar set-up, which I have found to be so beneficial for my kids throughout the entire year. This packet includes 36 Thanksgiving-themed words that are a great way to learn and review familiar (and not-so-familiar) terms associated with this time of year.

Students can either use the word cards (pictured on the right) or the individual sheet with all words to cut up and glue or just to use as reference throughout the packet.

They will use these words to:

• sort alphabetically
• sort by parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective)
• sort by syllables
• include in a written piece with the included publishing page

Teacher Tip: 36 words can be a *lot* of words, so for some of my strugglers, I will cut that number way down.

Also included in this packet is a Making Words Center with the letters spelling "Thanksgiving Time". There are three recording sheets, so you can differentiate with the finished product here as well:

Last, there is a Cause & Effect Activity with header cards and a helpful anchor chart in case they need an extra example:

Do you have a subscription to BrainPOP or BrainPOP, Jr? I'm lucky that our district has a license, so I can (and do!) access it for just about everything! There is a *great* Cause & Effect video on BrainPop, Jr. that is a quick and effective way to launch this center if this is new to your group.

I hope these can help in your own classroom as you celebrate this season of thanks and gratitude! If you're interested, they are now in my TpT Store HERE.

Thanks so much and have a wonderful week up ahead :)