Be a Fly on My Wall Linky

Thank you Jodi! I have been working on this post all week! I am so excited to share my day and look forward to reading about other first grade teachers schedules!
Students come in to our classrooms at 8:00.  Some go to breakfast, others work on different morning activities. First they must put away their SAFARI books (Students & Families Are Responsible and Informed),  get their chair and sharpen their pencils.

8:00-8:25

Monday- Magazine Monday Students read from a variety of  magazine such as Zoobooks, National Geographic Kids, Nick Kids etc.

Tuesday- Tune up Tuesday Students make a sight word catcher from Jessica at A Turn to Learn, or practice identifying letters by vowels and consonants.

Wednesday- Word Search Wednesday Students complete a word search based on our spelling skill of the week. I get most of them here- bogglesworldesl

Thursday- Think Outside the Box Students turn an image into something other than what the image may look like. A freebie from First Grade Wow I believe!

Friday- Fidget with it Friday Students are allowed to get out the TOYS!

8:25-8:30
Morning announcements, lunch count and Chicken Fat exercise. 

8:30-8:50
Morning Meeting

calendar activities

146 days of school

(You can see the 100, then the 40 and

the 6 ones are on the wall)

more calendar activities

weekly jobs

 poem of the week

 author studies

Carle and Lobel

morning greeting task
(From ??)

Dr. Jean songs Our morning meeting consists of calendar,  classroom job assignments, special of the day, weekly poem reading, (I use Chicken Soup with Rice by Maurice Sendak for the first week of the month and then the poems correlate with our weekly theme.) author study story ( changes monthly),  morning greeting task and Dr. Jean morning songs. (Days of the Week & Months Macarena)

Students go back to their seats and we get out our poetry binders to practice our poem of the week.  We then take out our  Literacy folders and do SuperSpeed by Whole Brain Teaching or One Breath Boxes.

On Friday we play Cheerios. Get the freebie here!

8:50-9:00
Spelling activity I do a variety of activities here. We watch a short video clip on youtube if I can find one, put them in abc order,  syllables, blending and segmenting, write words that rhyme, and use portions of  Babbling Abby's Word Work packs.

Pretest to see if they get the regular list

or the challenge list for the week

My spelling units come from Hope King at 2nd Grade Shenanigans. I love this! It covers the common core and it is differentiated with a regular & challenge list!

9:00-9:30
Whole class reading We begin with a song from youtube or a  CD that matches the skill we are working on or a song that reviews a skill.

We then do a phonics activity, comprehension strategy and whole class reading activity. I try to center these around fiction and nonfiction pairs such as these and try to align everything to a theme.

I use the Beanie Baby Strategy posters, (which we refer back to all year long!)

the Comprehension poster sets from Live Laugh Love Kindergarten (which we also refer back to all year long!)

an appropriate matching graphic organizer,
     from Jamie Rector or          from Michelle Oakes or
one from a theme mini unit I have created,
               and I have recently purchased these strategy songs from Amanda at One Extra Degree.
Our whole class reading series is Literacy by Design from Rigby. I have cut way down on using this  and supplement a lot because of the  common core and I don't feel this  series meets it totally.

We are studying animals right now so this booklet

fit well with our studies.  It is an oldie but a goodie!

I feel the portion of our day from 8:45ish to 9:30 is JAM PACKED and I struggle with getting everything done.  I feel another half hour during this time would be so beneficial because I don't know what to reduce so we don't feel like we are on a dead run the entire morning! However, the rest of the day is jam packed as well and I can't fit any of it in anywhere else. My vote is to increase the school day by a half hour but it is not a popular idea! 
9:30-10:45
The Daily Five and Guided Reading Groups
(5 rotations, 15 minutes each)
I do Daily Five the way it works for me and my school.  My students alternate Daily Five activities depending on the day of the week. So daily they meet with me, another teacher for fluency practice (this includes Title 1 pull out) and go to 2 of the Daily Five choices + Read to Self.  The next day they go to the other two.
I also have a chart. We HAVE to have a schedule with the pull outs. Not exactly how the D5 is supposed to work, but it is what I have to do and it works well.

Word Work- students use dry erase boards, Aqua Doodles or Magna Doodles to practice our spelling words from Hope King's unit. Students do word work on the floor.

Work on Writing- students write in their monthly  journal.  They can come up with their own topic but usually pick several of these D5 Work on Writing cards. She has at least 7 sets. This set is set #7 fact and opinion. I put out a new set every few months. Students work on writing at their desks.

Listen to Reading- students choose from a book on tape, CD or a Leapfrog TAG. I change the books on tape and CD monthly, but the TAG books are always the same. Students take these out in the hallway.

Read to Someone- students read to each other from a good fit book, their poetry binders or some other special reading.  Right now we are practicing for our Peter Rabbit Operetta so they read each other their lines. 

Read to Self- students take their book boxes around the room and read good fit books.

A few of the products I use during groups:

Reading Strategy Beanie Baby Posters

Monthly Fluency Packets  by Jodi from Fun In First

Roll and Read

10:45-10:50
We complete one side of Word Wizard  or Math Magic from Denise at Sunny Days. Friday is correction day.
            

10:50-11:15
Lunch- We eat with the students in the lunchroom.
11:15-11:30
Handwriting or a Daily Sentence Editing sheet  from Mrs. Wheeler at Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade.

11:30-11:50
Recess (no duty) & restrooms but often have students in for incomplete work.

12:00-1:00
Math I supplement a lot with our math series. We begin math with a song from youtube or a CD that matches the skill we are working on or even a review. We then do a monthly math journal prompt from First Grade Fanatics We read a math story, if I have one,  (fiction & nonfiction if possible!)  go over our lesson, do a hands-on activity and have a seat work assignment, either out of the book or something I have purchased from TpT.

After their seat work, they may go to centers. I am really struggling with the flow of these. I really want to meet with math groups while they rotate through centers, but for some reason, can't get it to work for me. So basically, right now, they go to any basket of centers after their work is complete and I check papers, work with struggling students, and monitor games.  
My centers have come from several TpT sellers. I am just starting to make monthly themed centers as I have put it off due to wanting centers that were more generic.  Never having really found any, I decided to try the themed centers out again.  I used to do themed centers for literacy and math, but with the Daily Five, got away from the making of "stuff" and changing it out weekly. Here are the links to a couple of them.

Reagan Katie
1:00-1:30
Language and writing I try to tie it to my theme of the week. I also try to do at least one opinion, procedural and narrative writing every month.

We are working on procedural right now!
I have so many products from TpT sellers that I use when teaching language.  Too many to highlight!  I just search for the skill and look until I find what I need and occasionally make my own.
Some of the products I use for writing are the writing craftivities by Christie at First Grade Fever by Christie.
I  use Anna Brantley's common core writing packets occasionally.
I started writing this year with this product from Kelley at the Teacher Idea Factory.

I also make my own to fit a theme if I can't  buy what I am looking for!

fiction and nonfiction pair & a song

story souvenir- Frog

Click here for the Leap Back Home to Me FREEBIE!
1:30-1:50
Recess (duty twice a week) & restrooms
2:00-2:30
Specials or Science/social studies/ art project or craft on Mondays/ snack & milk
Specials: Monday- Music Tuesday- Guidance & Computers Wednesday- Music Thursday- Library Friday- PE
I try to have a science experiment at least once a week.

During our mini unit on milk, we did this experiment! We did it 8 times total!
Pour milk into a pie pan. Drop in one drop of each of four colors, red, yellow, green,blue. Squeeze one drop of Dawn dish soap into the middle and watch the magic!
2:30-3:00
Specials or science/social studies/ snack & milk 

I try to have a fiction/nonfiction pair for lessons.  We try to have a short video on a topic once or twice a week as well as an experiment.
3:00-3:20
Get ready for home Read from a chapter book (Magic Tree House or Junie B. Jones usually!) Take to buses **************
Behavior
Whole Brain Teaching
Love & Logic

A few of our Whole Brain posters

Our behavior clip chart

My new favorite from 

Teacher Tipster!

The kiddos were

lovin' it!

The Fries Prize

I thought of the fries idea!

He used a Kleenex to hide the prize

but I thought the fries added to it!

Hint: If you do this, don't cut the 

box off of the paper fries so it will fit

in the fries box! I also laminated the fries.

I found it on google images.

Hide a small prize inside.

I have used a fruit by the foot,

a small star notepad and a "smelly"

so far. A smelly is flavored chapstick.

Award to a student following

a specific direction.

We are having a hard time 

keeping our hands and eyes on me.

Whole Brain:

"Classity Class"

"Yessity Yes"

"Hands & eyes!"

(This is where they clasp their hands

and focus their eyes on you...

immediately!)

They do, rather well...

However, keeping them on me

 is a struggle right now!

So...

The fries prize for hands & eyes!

Thanks for stopping by!