Close Reading Passages

This post may be for older grades, but I wanted to post it here too because I know not all of my readers are 1st grade! :) 

If you follow me on Instagram (msleslieann01) then you know what has pretty much consumed my life for the past few weeks. I've never worked harder on a unit and I can proudly say it's finally done!  I am so excited to finally be writing this post and show y'all what all is included in my newest creation: Closing Reading Passages featuring landmarks.
{Click here to get it on sale thru Thursday!}

Here's a little preview:

Remember! It's on sale thru Thursday! Click here to grab your copy! :)

Product Spotlight: CTP Resource Books

I recently teamed up with Creative Teaching Press to show y'all some of their fabulous products. I've always been a fan of this educational supplier, but I was floored to discover that they had resource books! What?! I had only ever seen accent pieces and bulletin board sets. I absolutely love teacher resource books, so I wanted my first product spotlight to be on these little gems. 

Are your kids ready for spring break?? Mine definitely are and I can tell I'm fighting for their attention at this point. Who can blame them? We all need a break! I decided that after we finished testing Friday that I would let them do some "fun" activities. And while my kids thought they were simply playing games, they were really learning valuable test taking strategies and skills! Win, Win!

We did several activities from these two books and my kids LOVED them. I know I say that a lot of my blog, but seriously y'all, my kids were BEGGING to play another. My last class even opted to stay in from break to finish the last "game". 

We did "Find the Food" and "Hidden Animals" where the kids had to find the hidden foods or animals within the sentence. So fun!

This activity was the most challenging, so we worked in groups with this one. The first group to finish won each round.

This one was probably my favorite. Each clue forced the kids to determine which state needed to be ruled out. Also challenging so this was a partner activity. 

You can find these activities and many more like them here and here.

(I used the fifth grade versions, but there's also K, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th)

Character Task Cards and a Giveaway Winner

First off, Congratulations to Lori Carlson, winner of the Froggy Phonics books! Lori, I'll be contacting you shortly :)

Next, I wanted to share with y'all my newest creation that I'm so happy with. I've been using task cards a ton in my fifth grade classroom this year and it makes me so mad that I never used them in first grade. Task cards are wonderful for reinforcing skills. I use them in centers for independent work. I also use them in small groups when a certain group needs a little extra help with a certain skill. I've even used them in whole group to introduce a skill and give my students practice. They can be used in a number of different ways and I love them.

I decided to create a set of task cards that focus on identifying characters in the piece of text. This unit also comes with some more activities that help check for understanding.

Want to win a copy? Head over to the Facebook page to find out how! :) Click here to get the task cards on SALE until tomorrow!

Classroom Catchup and a Giveaway!

I had big plans to post this yesterday, but then I became glued to the Oscars. I watched all 3 hours just to see Leonardo Dicaprio finally win an oscar and then he didn't win! I was so disappointed, but I loved Ellen's hosting! Can she host every year? Love!

Here's what's happening in our classroom

We used Runde's Room's Paper Bag Character Project as our weekly project. They turned out great!!! I LOVE this project. You can find it here. It worked fabulously with my fifth graders, but it could easily be used with lower grades too!

"Graphic Sources" is our comprehension skill this week, so I made a helper chart for them to refer to.

We're tackling possessive pronouns this week, too. I so wish we had more time to focus on language arts. I would LOVE to just teach this subject! I love teaching parts of speech.

Isn't that light bulb sticky note too cute? Such a great Target find from this summer. I went back to get more and they were all gone!) I'm using my last set sparingly. 

My kids are struggling with vocabulary words, so I decided to display them in several places throughout the classroom in hopes that they click at some point during the week! Here's hoping!

I found this fantastic giant green post it at Office Max this week. It worked great for displaying the word analysis skill using different color post its. 

{GIVEAWAY TIME!}

While going through some of my first grade classroom things this weekend, I came across this set of Froggy Phonics books. This was one of the last things I bought at the end of last year before I officially decided I wanted to move to fifth. So this little gem hasn't been used AT ALL! I decided to give it away so it could be put to good use! There's a set of books for all short vowel sounds, as well as long vowel sounds. They are perfect to use in independent reading centers and would work great in a Jonathan London author study!

Enter Below for a chance to win!

Giveaway ends Friday and I'll announce the winner Saturday :)

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Let's Go Shopping!

Who's ready for a SALE?? I can't tell y'all how excited I am for this TpT sale and I can't wait to share with y'all what's currently hanging out in my cart, just waiting on me to click "purchase". Everything in my shop will be 28% off. Need some phonics packs? Just click the page above that says "phonics fun". It's the perfect time to snag these best sellers (and some of my favs!):

Poetry Month is quickly approaching! I always liked to do a fairy tale study during April.... Check out these resources:

Click here to visit my shop! :) Happy shopping, y'all!

Creating Higher Order Thinking Questions-Tuck Everlasting

Hi friends! This post is primarily for upper grades, but I wanted to share with my first grade friends too. It *could* be modified to fit the needs of lower grades, but it went really well in my classroom today so I thought someone might be able to use the idea.

I feel like one of my weakness is definitely questioning effectively in the classroom. We've had many trainings on this subject, but year after year I struggle with it. I feel like I always ask "right there" questions, but I need to get my students to start digging deeper. I decided to inform my kids about the different types of questioning so that they could be aware of it. I went to good ole Google to find a handout of the Bloom's Taxonomy verbs. Here's the one I use from Teach Thought.

We discussed (and discussed...they had lots of questions!) the verbs under each category and talked about reasons why some verbs required more thinking, preparation, and info. We used this to help us create and develop example questions about the chapters that we read today in Tuck Everlasting. This went perfectly with our weekly comprehension strategy: questioning.

Here's the objective and essential question for today's lesson:

My kids recite both the objective and essential question at the beginning of each lesson. I've started making them take a sticky note and answering the essential question at the end of the lesson. This way, I can see who is still struggling with whatever I'm teaching. It's working really well!

We read Chapters 11-13 today and only worked with the first level in Bloom's Taxonomy: Knowledge. First, as a group, we created 1-2 questions using a verb from level 1. After I felt that they had a firm grasp on how to do this, we worked with a partner. Then we did one on our own. You know- I do, we do, y'all do, you do! They did a great job and this led into the discussion of Thick questions and Thin questions.