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Where the Wild Things Learn

A Day Our Way- A schedule linky!

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A day in the life of a teacher is definitely a crazy one, and I know you all can relate! This eCard totally cracks me up and is so true!
Due to all of our crazy schedules, the demands of standards, data tracking, and constantly trying to make fun and innovative lessons, it can be hard to make a daily schedule that works. 
So I want to share with all of you what works for me, and learn what works for you, too! I invite you all to link up and share with us what A Day in Your Way is for your classroom. We can all share and learn from each other!

Feel free to use these images to link up!

Here’s a glimpse at my daily schedule:

I teach ELA and Social Studies to (2) groups of kiddos. Each group is around 30 students, so I see 60 students each day. We have a “homeroom” class in the morning, and then our two groups are similar ability levels.

Morning Work:
Each morning our students come in and start on their morning work. We give them a packet each Monday morning with a paper for each day that has combined Math and ELA skills. I purchased this at pack from Tick Tock Curriculum a few months ago and I absolutely LOVE it! Even though we are departmentalized, it is so nice to have my students do Reading AND Math in the morning. The pack is aligned to CCS for Reading Literature, Informational Text, Writing, Foundational Skills, Language, and all of the Math Standards. Simply put, it is PERFECT for morning work! They turn this in at the end of the week. When they are done with morning work, announcements come over the loud speaker (so jealous of all of you with Smartboard video announcements!)

Then, we do 10 minutes of “movement” each day. We like to get our kiddos up out of their seats and moving every morning for a little bit of fitness time! Sometimes this is corny workout videos like Paul Eugene, and a lot of times it is dancing along to songs like the Sid Shuffle, or the Cha Cha Slide, Koo Koo Kangaroo, or Just Dance songs. It is a great start to our day!

Spelling and Word Building:
We spend about 20 minutes each day on these skills. Every Monday I introduce our 10 root words for the week, and our 20 spelling words that go with them (2 for each root.) If you’ve read in my previous posts, I use Reading Olympians for our root words. My students LOVE this program. We record them in our planners, practice saying them, and discuss their meanings. Throughout the week we go over word boxes (define the root, give examples of words with that root, use it in a sentence, and draw a picture), play SPARKLE, play Smartboard review games, and go over vocabulary activities.

Reading Focus Mini-Lesson:
Most of our mini-lessons consist of an activity out of Erin Cobb’s Interactive Notebooks. We work on a foldable for whatever our skill focus is (theme, characterization, plot, etc), then throughout the week we add onto this and reference it for reinforcement. It is a great time to introduce new concepts, or review and practice previous ones. *Our district does have a adopted reading program, Rigby. They decided to go with this program about 8 years ago. I do use it for lessons, ideas, pacing, and some stories, but I supplement A LOT. Mainly through Erin’s Interactive Notebooks! My mini lessons usually look like this:

  • Whole group introduction and definition of the concept with modeled examples in a Smartboard lesson or Powerpoint.
  • Students cut and glue an interactive foldable into their Interactive Notebooks and we color code it, and watch Youtube videos or listen to songs with examples in it. Students then have to identify those examples independently and share them out.
  • I usually wrap it up with a pair share or a quick review by students using their mini whiteboard circles!

Social Studies AND/OR Writer’s Workshop:
I alternate Social Studies and Writer’s Workshop each day. During Social Studies, we usually complete an Interactive Notebook activity, and color coded notes. We also read from our weekly newspapers from the Social Studies Weekly program for our state, which is AMAZING! I also use this time to integrate it with Language Arts by reading books on our topics.

Our Writer’s Workshop usually consists of a quick mini-lesson on a skill. These mini-lessons are standards based, and come from a variety of sources. Lately, I am loving Erin’s mini writing lessons in her new Writing Interactive Notebook, and my students love them, too! Then, we spend 15 minutes of workshop time actually writing and applying the skill in our legal pads. So many of my students love this time to just write! This focus board keeps them remembering what they are supposed to be doing, and helps them keep track of time.

Daily 5 Rotations:
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I don’t do a true Daily 5 rotation. My students rotate through 3 stations on a given day.

  • 1 Station is always doing something technology related. This is usually Study Island, working through the 4th grade ELA standards. Sometimes it is RAZ kids, BookFlix or TruFlix, or a mini-project they are working on. 

  • The second station varies with the day. Most of the time, it is an activity out of my monthly centers, (Jump Start January for this month) or it is a grammar review sheet.

  • The 3rd station is always meeting in their group, usually with me. We usually are reinforcing our Reading skill for the week, having a literature circle, close reading, or working on basic fluency or comprehension skills. I love this time because I really get to interact with my students and get to know their reading abilities. I love being able to work with groups on their level! 🙂 Wearing my crown is my favorite part of D5 time. My students know not to interrupt when I’m wearing that crown, and it truly gives me meaningful time with my small groups without interruptions!

Grammar Mini Lesson:
My grammar lessons align perfectly with Jivey’s Mentor Texts! I usually make a grammar foldable to match whatever our focus for the week is in our Mentor Text. Once we’ve learned about this skill (verbs, adjectives, nouns, types of sentences, etc.), we complete the daily task for the Mentor Text. This is my first year using Mentor Texts, and my students LOVE it and are learning so much. In fact, today, they were able to label and tell me the part of speech of EVERY single word in our mentor sentence!! I even had one student who flipped to the beginning of our notebook to find our first week and tell me how shocked she was because she could only tell me the nouns the first week! Such a proud teacher moment 🙂

We also work in Read Aloud time, and DEAR time with extra time left over. We usually have about 10 minutes of this each day! 
Lunch/recess:
After doing this all in the morning, we head to lunch and recess. This is a duty free time (I can’t believe some of you have to eat with your kiddos every day!) I can honestly say I work with an entire staff that is AMAZING. We really have no “bad eggs” that are negative and not here for the right reasons. I always go down to the lounge to each with my teachy friends and we have a blast during this time! It is such a great “break” and refresher during the day! (Previously, in different schools I taught at I did not go to the lounge because of the negativity. I LOVE not having that now!)
It begins again!:
After lunch and recess I start my morning schedule all over again with a different group of 30 kiddos! We alternate which group we have in the morning, and which we have in the afternoon every day. We’ve found that sometimes we just get better at teaching it the second time around, so it’s nice for each group to have that time. 
Specials:
Our specials rotate between Red, White, Grizzly, and Bear days. Which basically means we have a rotation of Library, Gym, Music, and Art. So they have 3 specials once a week, and 1 twice a week. No computers yet 🙁 We don’t even have 4 working computers in our classroom, let alone a computer lab 🙁 hopefully soon!
Dismissal:
Our bussers pack up about 10 mins before everyone else so this makes dismissal time hard. Usually I read aloud to the whole group for a few minutes (right now we’re reading The Lightning Thief) but I stop reading when bussers leave so they don’t miss any of the book. Then we play “24” a math game (I know, I don’t teach math but my partner and I both integrate each other’s subjects as much as possible; she reads aloud to her kiddos, too!) Then the rest of us pack up and walk down to their parents. Teachers are contracted until 3:40 and our day is over (of course I’m usually there until 5.)

Although some days can still be crazy, I am loving my schedule right now.

But, I am always looking for ways to make it better! Link up and share what your day looks like! I can’t wait to read and learn from all of you! 🙂

Reader Interactions

Comments

  6. What a great linky – I am loving reading about other people's day. I can't believe how early some people start and how little breaks. Makes me appreciate my schedule – but then again I guess I can see why others get so much more in!! Thanks for giving so much detail on what you do in each block you rock : )

    Reply

  20. I wear a crown for small groups too! It really helps to remind the kids that I need to work with others. (And I'm a total princess!) I love your great ideas and will be back to jot down some new ones to try as this is also my second year teaching fourth grade! Thanks for the link up opportunity, I'm a new blogger and love finding blogs to connect with! 🙂

    Reply

  23. Love this linky! I always wonder how people have time to do certain activities, or in some cases, don't have time for certain things. I think everyone has built in recess except for us! 🙁 I love that you wear a tiara Amelia! I do too!!!! We are sisters! I have a silver sequined one and a light up one-they know we're serious when we wear them right??!! Thanks for including all your pics-I'm a visual person! Your day looks fun!
    Joanne
    Head Over Heels For Teaching

    Reply

  26. شركة تنظيف خزانات المياه بالرياض
    شركة عزل خزانات بالرياض
    شركة عزل اسطح بالرياض
    شركة عوازل
    شركة عزل مائي
    شركة كشف تسربات المياه بالرياض
    شركة تسليك مجارى بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف بيارات بالرياض
    شركة نقل عفش بالرياض
    شركات نقل أثاث بالرياض
    نقل اثاث رخيص في الرياض
    شركة تخزين اثاث في الرياض
    شركات كشف تسربات المياه بالرياض
    شركة عزل خزانات بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف خزانات بالرياض

    Reply

  27. شركة تسليك مجاري بالرياض
    شركة رش مبيدات بالرياض
    شركة مكافحة الحشرات بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف موكيت بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف فلل بالرياض
    شركة نظيف منازل بالرياض
    شركة نقل اثاث بالرياض
    تخزين اثاث
    شركة رش مبيدات بالرياض
    شركة مكافحة حشرات بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف خزانات بالرياض
    شركة عزل خزانات بالرياض
    كشف تسربات المياه
    شركة تنظيف فلل بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف مجالس بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف موكيت بالرياض

    Reply

  28. شركة تنظيف شقق بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف منازل بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف بيارات بالرياض
    شركة عزل اسطح بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف مسابح بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف كنب بالرياض
    شركة جلى بلاط بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف خزانات بالمدينة
    شركة تنظيف خزانات بالدمام
    نقل أثاث بجدة
    شركة تسليك مجاري بالدمام
    شركة عزل خزانات بالدمام
    نقل أثاث بالمدينة
    شركة عزل خزانات بالرياض
    شركة تنظيف خزانات بجده
    شركة تنظيف خزانات بالخرج

    Reply

  29. شركة عزل خزانات بالدمام
    نقل أثاث بالدمام
    افضل شركة تنظيف بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف شقق بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف فلل بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف منازل بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف مجالس بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف موكيت بالخرج
    شركة تنظيف خزانات بالخرج
    شركة مكافحة حشرات بالخرج
    شركة رش مبيدات بالخرج
    شركة عزل اسطح بالخرج
    شركة مكافحة حشرات بالخبر
    شركة عزل خزانات بالخبر
    شركة تنظيف موكيت بالخبر
    شركة تنظيف فلل بالخبر

    Reply

  30. شركة تنظيف بالخبر
    شركة عزل اسطح بالخبر
    شركة نقل اثاث بالخبر
    شركة تنظيف بالرياض 0545450104
    شركة تنظيف شقق بالرياض 0545450104
    شركة تنظيف منازل بالرياض 0545450104
    احسن شركة تنظيف بالرياض 0545450104
    شركة تنظيف موكيت بالرياض 0545450104
    شركة شفط بيارات الرياض 0545450104
    تركيب خزانات مياه بولى إيثيلين بالرياض 0545450104
    شركة كشف تسربات المياه بالرياض 0544211320
    شركة عزل خزانات بالرياض 0544211320
    شركات تنظيف خزانات بالرياض 0544211320
    شركة تنظيف خزانات بالرياض 0544211320
    افضل شركة تنظيف خزانات بالرياض 0544211320
    شركات عزل مائي 0544211320

    Reply

  32. Hello: I just found this post and am super excited. I have always been a departmentalized teacher and this year is my first year with a self-contained classroom. We have a schedule that is working for us at the moment, but I struggle getting everything in I need to. This is very helpful to me in finding ideas for next year. Thanks bunches!

    I also noticed in one of the pictures a social studies resouce. I too am an Ohio teacher and it is difficult finding valuable social studies resources when you do not have access to technology. I loved what I saw in the picture. Could you direct me to that resource? Thanks!

    Reply

  33. صيانة غسالات فيليبس
    صيانة سيمنس موقع
    صيانة سخانات سيمنس
    صيانة غسالات كريازي
    صيانة سيمنس
    صيانة غسالات هيتاشى
    صيانة هيتاشى
    مبيعات يونيون اير
    تكييف يونيون اير
    صيانة اوليمبيك
    صيانة زانوسي
    صيانة سامسونج
    صيانة توشيبا
    صيانة غسالات زانوسي
    صيانة غسالات سامسونج
    صيانة ثلاجات كريازي
    صيانة ثلاجات توشيبا
    صيانة سخانات اوليمبيك موقع

    صيانة ثلاجات زانوسي موقع
    صيانة سامسونج موقع
    صيانة توشيبا شركة
    صيانة غسالات توشيبا موقع
    صيانة ثلاجات توشيبا موقع
    صيانة كريازي موقع
    صيانة فيليبس
    اسعار تكييف يونيون اير موقع

    Reply

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