Monday Motivation: Daily Schedule

Hey friends, I'm back again to link up with Teacher by the Beach's Monday Motivation link up. I missed last weeks about word walls, but I'm back today to talk about daily schedule.

Here's a look at my timetable for next year. We run on a 6-day cycle instead of a day of the week cycle (so we don't miss specials due to Mondays or Fridays off). So the first day of school is Day 1, the next days is Day 2, etc.

I like to always have a visual display of or schedule on the whiteboard. I have magnets on the back of the cards so I can just switch them out daily. Students check this to see what we have going on for the day! You can find my Chalkboard & Brights Editable Schedule Cards {here} or the less ink version {here}.

No matter the day of the cycle, our morning routine remains the same. The bell rings at 8:45am for students to enter. They hang up their jackets and backpacks (last year I had hooks in the hallway; this year I have cubbies in my new room), change into their indoor shoes, some students go to morning reading (students who need extra practice read with an EA), they hand in their agendas, they change their home reading book, they answer the question of the day, and then they choose a STEAM bin and a place to work (last year I had them silent read; next year I am trying out STEAM bins!). You can read more about last year's morning routine {here}.

Here's a look at my odd day schedule:

My students have music class right after O'Canada, so I have a prep first thing. I'm sure this will have it's benefits and drawbacks.

I am currently reading The Morning Meeting Book right now, so I think I will begin my day with morning meeting. On odd days, morning meeting will be right after music class. We will do a greeting, sharing/news, a quick version of calendar, and then an activity (which will focus on character education, health topics, or STEAM activities). I don't plan to do morning message, because I will do some interactive writing later on. 

I'm planning on changing up how I do my ELA block. I'm going to break up my guided reading rounds with mini lessons in between, more like Daily 5 style. Each mini lesson will be about 10-15 minutes and the guided reading round will be about 15-20 minutes long. I will do a reading/author study mini lesson and our first guided reading round. Then I will do a phonics/sight words mini lesson and our second round. Last I will do a writing mini lesson and our third round. I haven't decided if my third round will be a regular round or if it will be a writer's workshop type round. I'm still debating this. 

Guided math will take a similar format. I will start off with a mini lesson. I talked about math stretches before {here} and will use some of the same activities next year. I will use math picture books, patterning activities, graphing activities, Number of the Day, but also want to add in some Number Talks. I bought this awesome pack Talking Numbers from The Brown Bag Teacher that I want to incorporate. After the first mini lesson/activity, we will do a round of guided math. Then we'll clean up and meet together for a problem solving mini lesson. Then go to our second round of guided math. 

For theme next year I am planning on doing a more inquiry-based type of learning. We are going to start the year with a more teacher-led inquiry based on our science unit of "The Characteristics of Objects and Materials" and talk about how things are made and do some making ourselves in our new classroom MakerSpace! We will be doing a lot of exploring, creating, and . My inquiry units will take the shape of Provoke, Explore, Reflect. I created a unit plan for my last Post Bacc course to organize some of my ideas for this inquiry unit. You can read more about it {here} if you wish. 

Some days we might have library or computer class during our theme time. I will try and use them to connect to our inquiry studies as well. 

Then end of the day, we will write in our agenda books any notes or something we did that day. Then we will do classroom clean up. I want my students to feel ownership and responsibility for our classroom, so I want them to help with stacking the chairs, wiping tables, sweeping the floors, etc. Then it's home time! :)

The only difference between odd and even days is that instead of music first thing, we begin our day in the classroom with morning meeting and two rounds of guided reading. After recess, they have gym (and I have a prep) and then we end the morning with a third round of guided reading. The afternoon is exactly the same as even days. Usually on Fridays we will have buddy reading right after lunch instead of our first round of guided math.

That's my schedule in a nutshell! We'll see how it goes next year! ;) Let me know if you have any questions!

Daily Schedule - Author Study

Each month I focus on a different author and read lots of books by them. I try to expose my students to authors they might not know or gravitate towards. I find that after our author study, students look for those authors at the library or fill their book boxes with books we have read in class. Here is my general yearly plan for which authors I like to study:

I try to pick my author of the month for February based on the theme for "I Love to Read Month". For example, this year our focus was on oral reading, so I chose to do Robert Munsch for February seeing as he is an amazing oral storyteller. You can hear him read most of his stories on his website. I invited parents to come in to read their favourite Robert Munsch story to the class. It's fun for them to hear other adults read out loud! Then I'll just fill in June this year with someone different--maybe Laura Numeroff.

There are other authors that I love that I might do instead--it all depends on the year and my mood! I also like: Laura Numeroff, Curious George, Franklin, Splat the Cat, Doreen Cronin, Leo Lionni, Fancy Nancy, etc. I have a bulletin board in my classroom library that I switch up each month with our author:

Some days I just read and discuss a book by the author, and other days we might do a writing activity or craft. Here are some of my author study packs I use:

     

     

Don't forget to check out the other parts of my Daily Schedule posts. Just click on any part of the picture below to check out how I structure my day:

Daily Schedule - Theme

I teach my science, social studies, and health in blocks. I try to make sure I cover one unit from each subject each term (Sept-Nov, Dec-Mar, Apr-June). Here's a little monthly break down of how I split up the different curriculums: 

I usually have about an hour for theme (some days a half-hour), so I usually break my time into three parts: the lesson, interactive journals, and explore tubs.

I tend to read a lot of books to introduce topics and ideas. Then we might do an activity, such as these below, to reinforce the concept.

Bucket filling/bucket dipping sort in pocket chart.

Thinking of questions or wonderings we had about weather or seasons.

Rules/laws sort on the SMARTboard. 

Watch a music video about a topic such as plants. 

(Harry Kindergarten has lots of great science videos!)

Make a graph about our class eye colours.

Then we usually do a page in our interactive journals. My students have two journals--one for science and a combined one for social studies/health. I use these packs for our journals:

      

Here's an example of a design project we did. Students made their plans in their notebook, then got to build a device to protect one of their senses!

Then when they are done their journal (because some are often faster than others!), they get to choose from one of six explore tubs. Right now I only have them for science, but I'm planning how to incorporate these in social studies and health as well!!

You can read more about my explore tubs here:

What Are Explore Tubs?

Weather & Seasons Explore Tubs

Five Senses Explore Tubs

Objects & Materials Explore Tubs

Living Things Explore Tubs

Exploring shadows.

Seasons puzzles and sort.

Dress the weather kid.

Check out the rest of my daily schedule posts by clicking the picture below.

Daily Schedule - Morning Routine and Pack & Stack

Here is just a quick peek into how I structure the beginning and end of my school day. I keep my morning routine posted on the wall for all to see. By this point in the year, everything is pretty automatic, but it does take a lot of modeling at the beginning of the year to get the routine down pat. I don't introduce the "Question of the Day" for the first few days and home reading doesn't usually start until the second or third week of school.

The bell rings at 8:45am and students come in. Our hooks are in the hallway for this year (juniour high science labs don't have coat hooks in the room... go figure!) but it actually works out great. Less clutter in the room and I can make sure that nothing is leftover at the end of the day. The only downside is we are using plastic Command hooks and they break ALL. THE. TIME! Anywho, students take off their outside shoes/boots and leave them on the floor. They take out their agenda, home reading, and lunch kit from their backpack. Then they hang up their backpacks and jackets and come in the room.

First they hand in their agendas to this blue basket on my front counter. I check the agendas for any notes while the students are reading quietly.

Then they change their home reading book (from the colourful book boxes on the shelf) and place their home reading bag and lunch kit in their cubby (white dish tubs on the shelves). Their indoor shoes are in the cubby, so they put those on as well.

Then they go answer the "Question of the Day". I keep each month's questions on binder rings so that each day I just have to flip it to a new question! You can find my "Question of the Day" bundle {here}! The oil pan is from Amazon {here}.

Then they go grab their book boxes and read quietly at their table. I have a few students who go to morning reading as soon as they are finished getting ready (they go read leveled books with an EA). At 9:00am students who have signed up go down to the gym for a bible story and the Lord's Prayer. I supervise the rest of the students in my classroom.

When they come back, we listen to the announcements on the intercom system and then stand and sing O'Canada. Once I am ready to begin, students put their book boxes away and we meet at the carpet for calendar.

At the end of the day (about 3:25-3:30pm) we clean up whatever we were working on and go back to our tables to write in our agendas. I try to have them write something everyday, such as when book orders are due or something special thing that happened. If there is a lot of information to send home, I will just stick a label into their agenda instead. But for the most part I will write a sentence on the whiteboard and they will copy it into their agenda. Parents are expected to check the agendas everyday.

When they are done writing, they stack their chairs, come check their mailbox for any mail (that's where I leave work or notes to go home), and pack up. They get their lunch kit and home reading from their cubby, then leave their indoor shoes in the cubby for the next morning.

Then everybody goes into the hallway to get ready. My EA stays in the classroom and reads a story to the walking students that are ready (they are dismissed last) and I supervise the students getting ready in the hallway. My bus students are dismissed first, so they line up in the hallway when they are ready. The bell rings at 3:43pm for the bus students to leave. Then after the buses are all gone, by walking students get to go.

Then I usually make sure everything is tidied up, close the blinds, change my guided math/reading rotations, plug in the iPods, change the question of the day and the leader/caboose, change the daily schedule, turn off my computer, and go get Zoe from daycare! I try not to stay too late. Some days I am gone by just after 4:00pm, but others I might work for a bit. :) It's all about balance, right? I'll try to be back with the last few posts about my daily schedule this week: Theme, Author Study, and Problem Solving! In the meantime, click the picture below to check out the other posts in my daily schedule series!

Daily Schedule - Guided Math {What is the Rest of the Class Doing?}

I did a {post} a few weeks ago about how I teach my small groups in math, but what are the other students doing while I am working with that group?? Today I am going to share with you what the rest of the class is doing while I am working with a math group. Here's a look at my daily schedule. Each group goes to two rotations a day (about 15 minutes each). At the end of the day I just move the station cards down to the next group. You can find my Guided Math cards {here} and the shape cards for free at the bottom of {this post}.

I have five stations for Guided Math: Work with Teacher, Math By Myself, Math with Someone, Math Work, and Math with Technology. I split up my students into five groups based on similar abilities. I write these groups on the group cards. I change these groups frequently because abilities can change based on the math concept we are learning. I count myself as one of the rotations this time. This is different than how I set up my Guided Reading because I see my math groups the same amount of time each week. I see each math group twice during the week (unless it's a short week).

Here are a few ideas of what the students are doing during each of these rotations. The following pictures are a mixture from my last three years in first grade. Once I get into my new Science Lab room set up, I'll show you how each of these areas will be set up this year.

These are collection of hands-on math centres that students can complete on their own. At the beginning of the year I use some of these math stations that I shared {here} four years ago--it is still one of my most popular posts to date! Lots of these ideas come from my Math Centre Packs or freebies I find on other blogs. I give students a handful of options to choose from. I have about 8-10 activities available at a time and students can choose whichever activity they would like to do for that rotation. They must complete the activity and clean it up before moving to a new activity. I like giving many options because I don't have to change them out as frequently and this avoids having to have "early finisher" activities. If they finish one activity, they can just choose another one until time is up.

Play-Do Math Mats are always a big hit at the beginning of the year!

These activities are usually games that can be played with a partner. I set it up the same way as Math By Myself--there are usually about 4 options for students to choose from. They work in pairs (or a group of three if there is an odd number) and complete one game before choosing another. I start the year off by teaching simple games such as BUMP and Ten Frame War. They are easy to learn and fun for the students!

Math Work is another independent station. Students will each have their own math work book to work on. I like to start the year with a number book, such as this Number Practice from Miss Kindergarten. It has great number skills to practice and the page style stays the same, so students can complete the pages independently and don't need. I can also differentiate this centre easily for some students by providing them with simpler or more challenging tasks.

Sometimes I might have students complete a math art or writing activity such as this shape picture we did last year:

I don't have any student computers in my classroom, so I've been collecting old iPods to use as my technology station. There will only be a max of four students in each group, so I have two old iPods, an old iPhone, and an iPad that I will load up with math apps for students to use during this time. I will just put four games that they can choose from at the bottom on the home menu. I made cute chalkboard/brights numbered backgrounds for the devices. That way I can keep of track of which student is on which device so they all get a chance to try each one.

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I just got into my new room on Monday and spent two days moving everything from my old classroom to the Science Lab. I am still super busy getting everything put away and organized. I haven't even started covering bulletin boards or putting anything up on walls yet. Ugh. So much to do! Here's what it looked like before I moved in:

This is my old classroom. See you next year! 

Here's my new room--the Science Lab! There are rows of counters and glass displays along both sides of the room. The glass displays were filled with all sorts of dead animal displays--awesome for teaching Science; not so awesome for first graders. 

Here's my front counter, whiteboards, eyewash station, and SmartBoard. Every first grade classroom needs an eyewash station, dontcha think? If this counter wasn't in the way of the projector and whiteboard I could be almost be 95% happy with this new room. But we will make it work just fine, because that's what we do! ;)

These big tables were removed and my furniture was moved in. It's already starting to look like a first grade classroom. I can't wait to show you the finished product!

I'm going to post about my Morning Routine and Pack & Stack closer to back to school (students start on Sept. 9th) because I'm not sure exactly how these routines will look like in my new Science Lab classroom just yet. I will be back to touch on Problem Solving, Author Study, and Theme soon though. Stay tuned!