The key to Literacy Stations

In my kindergarten class I do literacy stations.  I have done literacy stations for the past eight years.  I have tweaked them, tried different methods, and I finally feel like my literacy stations are truly successful!  

The first thing to do when setting up literacy stations is to ask yourself a few important questions?

How many stations will you have?

Will you do your stations in one day?

How will you group your students?  

What will you include in your stations?

How many students will be in each group?

Will you group your students by ability?

What do you hope to accomplish?

How will you manage stations and transitions?

These are all important questions and hopefully I can help you answer them 

by sharing how I do my Literacy Stations.  

How Many Stations?

I do 6 stations.  

3 each day.  15 minutes a station. 

I do the same stations on Monday/Tuesday.

And new stations Wednesday/Thursday.

A little more detail...

I plan six stations for Monday and Tuesday.

We do 1, 2, & 3 on Monday and 4, 5, & 6 on Tuesday.

I plan six different stations for Wednesday & Thursday.  

We do 1, 2, & 3 on Wednesday and 4, 5, & 6 on Thursday.  

I have station cards that I use to help my students rotate through the stations.  

Here is a picture of the front side and the back side of the cards.

                              

I am a very visual person.  So most things in my room are visual and color coordinated.

Above each table is a pom pom that coordinates with the color station.  

     

                      

   

                        

Although my stations change every 2 days, each color station has a specific teaching point.  

Purple - computer

Orange - Teacher Table/Guided Reading 

Blue - Writing activity/monthly theme (classroom assistant)

        Red - iPads (differentiated apps)

Green - Listening station    

Yellow -    Sight words

Breakdown of Stations     

Purple                                

The purple station is the computer station.  At the computer station we either do an alphabet website 

such as StarFall or ABCya or a computer program that we have at school called Compass.  

Regardless of what program we use it is literacy based.  

Orange

The orange station is always the Guided Reading station.  This station is always teacher led.  Students at the orange station are grouped by ability.  I feel that grouping by ability is important for this station because I can focus on the needs of the students.  

My Guided Reading Station follows a similar agenda every day.  

1.  Sight words (review & slap it)

2.  Read a decodable reader

(I use the paper readers from our Reading Series - Scott Foresman Reading Street)

While reading the book we practice one to one correspondence, reading left to right, and practicing our reading strategies by using our reading friends.  

I organize my Guided Reading Group using an AMAZING product by Deanna Jump @MrsJumpsClass

Click here to check it out!


I have recently started using Poetry Journals from Caitlin Clabby @ Kindergarten Smiles.
                                                                                                                                                             

Pictures from my Orange Station:

Blue

The Blue station is ran by my kindergarten assistant.
At this station we focus on our theme or comprehension skill for the week or handwriting.
This station includes some type of writing.

Red

The Red station is always the iPad station.  

I differentiate among my students and the different apps.

Each student has a set of apps that they can choose from.

I base the apps on the needs of each student.  

Green

The Green station is my Listening station.  I used to do a cd listening center.  

One CD and one book or if I was lucky a couple books for the kiddos to share. 

I have since moved from that type of listening center to a listening center where the student have choice.  Once I got my iPads and discovered QR codes I knew there had to be a better way.  I started recording my own stories and connecting the recording to a QR code.  Now I have a bin full of books that my students can choose from.  I pick the books based on our kindergarten themes.  I have a bin for every theme! 

For example during our animal study I fill the bin with both fiction and nonfiction books.

This gives the students a choice to pick the type of story that they would like to read.   

As the year progresses, they listen to a story and then complete a reader's response.

The QR code links to a recording.  The students need to follow along with the book as they listen.  

Yellow

At the Yellow station I focus on sight words.  I try to do a variety of different sight word activities 

to help my students learn their sight words.  We do cut and paste sight word activities, roll the sight word, play doh sight words,  stamp sight words, and building sight words.  

I also like to add my iPads into this station.  We use magnetic alphabet to spell our sight words.  Once we have built a sight word using magnetic alphabet we take a screen shot.  We have a classroom competition to see who can guid the most sight words.  We also use beads to build sight words and take pictures of the words created.

I hope some of this tips were helpful!

Take a Peek into my Kindergarten World: A few tips and a little pick me up!

Wow!  I can't believe we have been in school for 19 days!

I have to tell you I LOVE my job!  My kinders have stolen my heart!

So here are a few randoms:

Organization:

How do you plan and organize for the week?

Two years ago we had the chance to try out an online plan book.  

I tried Planbook Edu

I love it!

https://planbookedu.com/pages/about-us

My Administration pays for the program, but if they didn't it would

be worth the annual fee!

With our new evaluation process we have to have our standards posted in our weekly plans. 

With this program you get to pick out the specific standards you need for your grade and state. 

When including standards you don't have to type in the entire standard.
You just type in a few keywords and it does

 the searching for you.  Once you find the standard you can add it to your plans. 

There is also a standard section that has all of the standards.  It shows you how many time you have used each specific standard and what standards that you have yet to use.  

You can personalize your plans.  Not only do you choose your standards, you can choose how many periods in your day, pick the rotation (can be weekly,  A/B days,  or many other options).  You can add attachments and share your plans electronically with administrators or colleagues.

Once I have made plans the new age way using technology
I work on organization the old school way.
This is simple but effective.  

I have two of these stackable drawer sets.  I stay late Friday night getting everything ready for the following week.  I make all of my copies and organize them by day.  At the beginning of every day I pull out the correct drawer and everything I need is right there.  If you are a "to do" list maker this would be perfect for you.  There is nothing better than finishing the day when you have succeeded and the drawer is empty! 

SUCCESS!

My lonely car in the parking lot on a Friday night!

Kindergarten Teacher Tip:

Have parents send in 2 binders for their child. 

They can be 1/2 - 1 inch. 

Label each binder with the students name.  Keep a collection of their work throughout the year.

Give it to parents at the end of the year celebration.  Parents will love seeing the progression that 

their child has made.

What I include in the first binder:

Weekly poems 

(I send home weekly poems for weekly reading assignments.)

The students return them once they can "read" them. 

I keep a collection of those.  

Classroom Work

including:

Reader's Responses

Daily work

Writing pages

I also include these monthly pages

I found them on TPT

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/This-is-Me-Writing-Freebie-278991

Giving a shout out to 

I use the 2nd Binder for my Writer's Workshop!

I will post more about that soon!

So now for the Pick Me Up!

The principal at my school has filled all of our staff bathrooms (we have 6) 

with Bath & Body Works Soaps!

Although it's something little it make a big difference!  

It's the little things!

So if you want to make life a little brighter for your staff try a specialty hand soap!

Another fun little bathroom pick me up...

A thought on the pot!

Seems kind of funny, but it really did make my day!

In September we learn about apples.  Keep an eye out for my post on apple activities!

Remind

This year I am trying something new in my class and I LOVE it!  

It is easy and useful and better yet...it's free!

It is the Remind app.  

If you haven't used it you should, and if you already use it you know haw AMAZING it is!!!

This app is a great app that lets you remind parents of different events, 

homework, or share pictures through texts.  

You can text your entire class at once.  You don't need to know cell phone numbers and

they don't know yours.  

I don't know about you... but there have been nights at home that I realize that I forget to tell the class something or that I forgot to send a reminder home.  

Time to get up and write an email.  Lets face it...sometimes you are all cozy and comfy in your warm bed and you don't want to get up.  

No problem...

grab your phone click on the app, find your class, and send out the reminder.  

Example:  Picture day is tomorrow.  

No fuss...done!

The best part is how user friendly this app is.  

Download the app, sign up (free), pick a class name and voila!

Once you do that you will get a form that looks like this.  

You can print it and give to parents or send it to your parents digitally.

All they have to do is enter this number (81010) as a text message

and then text the message that appears and that's it.  

Did I say that I LOVE this!

Super easy!

 It literally takes no time to set up and when I need to send something it 

takes as long as it takes to send a text!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

A Few Beginning of the Year Pointers

Next week is the second week of school.

I must admit I forgot how exhausting the first week of school is. 

I planned lots of activities but managed to get to a very few of them.  

That is fine, typical of the first week of kindergarten!
I focused a lot on procedures and rules.

Here are a few pointers for classroom organization and classroom management.

Tip #1

When I first started teaching kindergarten I had classroom jobs.  Lots of classroom jobs.
If it needed to be done it became a classroom job!
Well...that was a mess!?!?!?!?
I had so many other things to do I couldn't keep up!
Classroom jobs became a job in itself!  HAHA!

My answer...
 I still have classroom jobs but only 2.
1 boy and 1 girl.
Whatever is needed to be done they get to do it.
They are line leaders, they get to lead the calendar songs, they get to collect stations cards,
they get to help me with anything I need.

I change the names every day at calendar time.  I just flip the card and viola!

Tip #2

Calling on students.  

I remember my first year teaching my principal observed my class and 

asked how I decided who to call on.  At the time I had not really thought about it.

I called on the students who were raising their hands.
I tried to call on a girl and then a boy to make sure I was keeping that even.  

Since then I have a new plan.  

I use popsicle sticks.  

I write each students name on a popsicle stick and put the sticks in the "pick me" bucket.

During calendar time I pull out a stick and have that student do the task at hand.  

That way every child gets a chance.  

I put the stick in the "done" bucket until everyone has a chance and then I start over.  

Another great way to pick your students is with this great app.

Stick Pick

This is like a virtual popsicle stick "picker"!

But it does SO much more:

Differentiated Instruction

Track Formative Assessment Data

Support Common Core Standards

Actively use Blooms Taxonomy in your classroom

(Great for those Teacher Evaluations)

Check out this app here!

  

Tip #3

Mystery Students are great for Classroom Management. 

I use mystery students throughout the day.
During whole class teaching, calendar, lunch, and when we have special visitors.

I write each students name on a popsicle stick.
I draw out one popsicle stick before whatever activity we are doing.
I don't tell the students who the mystery student is.  Depending on the activity I wait until the activity is completed.  For instance, during calendar time I will pick a mystery student before we start.
Once calendar time is over I reveal the mystery student.
If that particular student made good choices then I will let the class know who it was.
That student will receive a gold star (school wide incentive) or possibly a behavior buck.
If the mystery student was not making good choices I don't tell the class who it was and let them know that they will have a chance when everyone's stick has been drawn.

As I draw a mystery student I put the stick in the done bucket even if the student didn't make good choices.  Once all the names are in the done bucket I start over.

Tip #4

Popcorn words (sight words)

I can't say I came up with this because I didn't.

 I had an AMAZING student teacher who used this little song when introducing popcorn words.  

I am not sure where it cam from so if you created this song please let me know.

I took the song and typed it out and we do this for every popcorn word.  

We sing and clap, tap (knees), clap, tap, clap , tap...

The kiddos LOVE it!

At the beginning of the next week we take the previous words and hang them on the word wall.  

We look at the first letter and hang it where it should go. 

Tip #5

My Bravo Board
This is a group incentive that focuses on positive behavior.
I have four student tables yellow, green, blue, and red.

As the tables work to gather as a group they earn bravo points.
(Work quietly, work as a team, line up quietly, work hard, etc..)

Once they reach 10 tallies they earn a behavior buck and then we start over.

Tip #6

Lunch Choices

At our school we have lots of lunch options.  

For kindergarteners, that can make choosing lunch a challenge.

They can choose from a sandwich, salad, yogurt entree, hot lunch, PBJ, or they can bring their lunch. 

I am a very visual person so I made these little lunch card buckets.  

The kiddos pick what they want for lunch and put their card in the corresponding bucket.  

                              

                                                  

Tip #7

Terrific Work

In my classroom I have a terrific work board.  I put student work on this board throughout the week.

At the end of the week the students gets their name called and gets a special sticker.

This is great for encouraging students to do their best. 

The level of terrific work is different for each student.  It is their personal best.

What is terrific for one student may not be considered terrific for another.  

I always tell my students, "It doesn't have to be perfect...you just have to do your best!"

I hope you can use some of these pointers in you classroom.  

TGIF!

Yeah right!  I am a teacher...an exhausted teacher.

It is more like this.

I did it!  I finished the first week of kindergarten!

I have been contemplating if it is TOO early to go to sleep (since 6:30) haha!

So tonight I am going to share a few ideas from my classroom.  

I bought these cute baskets at the Target Dollar Days for $1.  I added a binder clip and labeled 

them.  Voila!  Instant organization.

      

I have them for:

to do, collect, grade, return.

For back to school night I print off a page with QR codes for 

my classroom twitter page, my school website, and my email. 

Once my parents scan the QR code they can save the link 

and they will have all of my classroom info.

The QR Codes are covered with erasers but you get the point.  

I give one of these to each parent and have a copy hanging outside of my door.  

I use Kaywa Qr code creator.

https://qrcode.kaywa.com

You can create QR codes for free.  All you need is a web address.  Just sign up and start creating.  

You can create as many static QR codes as you want for free.  

The main difference between static and dynamic  (that I can find) is that the website will

note save your static QR codes.  In order to save your static QR codes 

you can just copy and paste the code into a word document.  

I am hoping not be so exhausted next week!  

The First Day...Did that really happen?

 Is it just me or am I the only teacher that forgot what the first day of kindergarten is like?!?!?!

You teach for 180 days have a summer break and your mind is instantly erased!

You walk in the first day with "kindergarten teacher amnesia"!  You have lesson plans.

Day 1 plans:

(no particular order)

morning work stations

talk about morning procedures

practice morning procedures

talk about rules

do rule booklet

practice lunch 

recess rules

recess

go to lunch

calendar

math workbook page

Introduce the letter A

Allie Alligator

Do Allie Alligator Zoo Friends book

Color first day of school page   

Take first day of school picture

Read David Goes to School

School Rules anchor chart 

Share special stuffed animal

Day 1 plans:

(reality)

Morning work

talk about morning procedures

practice morning procedures

practice lunch

recess rules

recess

lunch 

Read David Goes to School

School Rules anchor chart

Share special stuffed animal

Lesson Plans!?!?!??!!?  

What was I thinking!!!

I knew I would be tired NOT EXHAUSTED!

I couldn't keep my eyes open!

Don't get me wrong I LOVE kindergarten!

I just always forget the challenge of the first day!

Teaching kindergarten on the first day is like herding cats.  

(Believe it or not it gets better!)

I would't trade it for the world!  

A little Humor for you:

What we think the first day of kindergarten will be like:

What they (society) thinks the first day of kindergarten is like:

What the first day of kindergarten is really like:

Okay so it really isn't that bad!  HAHA!

Okay so I didn't get much done the first day but I got more done today!  I know tomorrow will be even better!  I still haven't taken my first day of school pictures so I guess they will now officially be the first week of school pictures.  

Teaching Tip:

Here is a little something that I use for my 1st Day of School pictures.

(Or the first week of school pictures!  HAHA!)

I took a wooden letter "K" that I bought at a craft store and

decorated it with scrapbook paper and stickers.  

I have the students pose with the letter "K" at the beginning of the school year 

and at the end of the school year.  

I put these pictures in the students scrapbook at the end of the year so parents 

can see how much they have grown.

Don't forget to check out the 180 day of flair tab!

Welcome to the FuN committee!

While at a meeting this summer my principal mentioned a "fun" committee.  

Apparently their areother schools in our corporation who have similar committees!!!

Who new?!?!

A committee focused on one thing...

FUN!

She asked if anyone wold be interested in starting one of these so called fun committees!?!?!

"UH-YEAH!

SIGN ME UP!"

And that folks is where our fun committee started!

So I sent out this email...

(Principal name, colleague name,  and school name have been changed for privacy reasons.  

We don't want anyone to know that we have fun at work!  HAHA!  JK!)

Rock Star suggested that Amazing, Rockin' Elementary  has a "fun" committee.  There are other schools in the corporation who have similar committees and the entire focus is fun!  I naturally jumped on board along with a fellow rock star, Rockin' Rita.  Who doesn't like fun!?!?!  Don't worry no one is going to force you to have fun at work  .  This is entirely voluntary.  If you would like to be part of this committee just let Rockin' Rita or myself know.  Throughout the year we are hoping to bring fun to the staff at Amazing, Rockin' Elementary.  (You don't have to be on the committee to join in on the fun.)  You also don't have to participate in the activities but if something seems like fun feel free to participate.  

So for August I was thinking of a way to bring a smile to the staff at Amazing, Rockin' Elementary and I thought of getting "Schooled".  Keep an eye out on your door.  You never know when you will get "Schooled."  If you get "Schooled" pick a teacher or a staff member (or a few), copy the I've been schooled sign, and secretly place it on their door with a little surprise.  (Something small - candy, a soda, coffee, anything to bring a little back to school joy!)

As we come up with new ideas we will share them with you!  Feel free to share your ideas too! 

So what exactly is a fun committee?!?!?

It is anything you want it to be as long as it is fun.

I also think it is important for it to be strictly voluntary.  

I am one of those people who LOVE team building activities. 

(Okay, you can groan at the thought of team building if you need to.)

I love team building activities, games, putting myself out there, and being silly.  

But for some people the thought of team building activities makes them shudder.

With that being said when people are forced to "have fun" the fun is taken away.

Apparently one of the other schools had a staff nerf battle in the gym. 

Although some people would be all in because nerf battles are fun, 

others might think other wise. 

So make sure your fun committee has a variety of fun ideas.  

So you can touch on everyone's idea of fun.  

Here is the "You've Been Schooled" page.  

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Youve-Been-Schooled-1997361

Feel free to copy it and use it if you would like. 

As the Amazing, Rockin'  Elementary School fun committee comes up with new ideas
 I will share them with you.  If you have a fun committee I would LOVE to hear your ideas!

  

I can... (evaluation tips for all grades)

I don't know about you but one of my biggest STRESSES is the teacher evaluation process.  

This is so true!  Especially during my first year of the evaluation process.  It was the first year of the new evaluation process and a new administrator!  Normally I would consider myself a confident teacher - confident in my teaching style, my methods, and my classroom management skills but the minute my administrator walked in the door all that confidence flew out the window!  

I FROZE!

I have to admit it wasn't just my new administrator it happened with the last one too!  I just get nervous.  It takes me a while to get a feel for the process.  No matter how confident I am or how highly I have been evaluated in the past - I get nervous!!!!

 I am constantly work on improving and want to continue to grow professionally.  

So the battle with he evaluation is my own.  It is me against myself!  My battle to always do better - to improve every year.  

Fast forward 3 years later...

I am me, kindergarten teacher, what you see is what you get.  When my administrator walks in I just keep on doing what I am doing!  Whether that is singing a song, zipping coats, dealing with a melt down, pop see ko-ing (made up word), or engaging 100% percent of my students authentically!  

(see what I did there!?!?!)  

It may not always be the best timing but it is kindergarten.  Lots of things happen in kindergarten - some things planned some things not so much!

So I thought I would blog about a few things that you can do to make the process go a little smoother!  

I am sure that most of you have to have your standards posted!

I find that very important especially for kindergarten since they can't read!  :)

 RIGHT!?!?!  

But it isn't really worth complaining about and should be looked at as an easy point to get!  

Just post them and voila!  One point for you!

That is practically the easiest part of the process!

Here is a link to the updated version of the Indiana State Standards for kindergarten. 

Just print and post and you have already received your first point!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Indiana-Kindergarten-State-Standards-College-and-Career-Ready-1825911

Now although these are written in "I can" statements and should to be posted this way the average kindergartener can't repeat what the standard is.  

For example, 

I know that words are put together to form sentences. 

                                                                            K.RF.2.3 (Print Concepts)

This is an "I can" statement but if a student is asked what they are doing at a particular station 

will they be able to recite this standard?  Probably not!

Here is your answer... I can statements to go along with your standards!

Here is how I do it in my classroom.  I pick all the State Standards that I am going to use for the week for Language Arts and Math.  (This is a more general explanation of my week) 

I post those under my Standard headings on my front board. 

(These are included in my TPT product above)

I also have "I can" pages.

Since I do Literacy Stations every week, I have made an "I can" page for each color station.  I have also included one for math and writer's workshop.  I then write a more specific statement for each station that goes along with my weekly standards.  This is more like the reason for why the students are doing this particular activity.  I go over each of these when giving instructions.  

For the above standard K.RF.2.3, I would have the standard posted on the board with all of the other standards for the week.  Since we are writing sentences at the blue Literacy station I would write:

These are free!  Click on the link.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/I-Can-Posters-1937586

Put these "I can" pages in picture frames or in wet erase sleeves.  

(I prefer wet erase sleeves)

Like these

Hang them on the front board with I can pages inside.

Although I leave my general standards the same all week I change my "I can" 

pages throughout the week.  Just erase and rewrite!

Voila! Much easier!

I hope you can use these!