Pink Ink and Polka Dots: A Day in the Life: Schedule Linky

It is a beautiful day here in Miami and I am too exhausted to go outside and enjoy all of God's goodness. So the next best thing is to catch up on perusing my bloggy buddies and their newest posts while watching some of my guilty pleasures (Ravenswood and PLL....).

While ~~stalking~~ looking for good ideas, I found a great linky party that is going on around town and thought I would join in. Amelia over at Where the Wild Things Learn is hosting this journey, so either click the link or the pic at the bottom so you can come along with us!

Here is what my school day looks like:

Reading/Language Arts: Our ELA block consists of comprehension, phonemic or phonological awareness, phonics, word work, and grammar/mechanics. Our district uses the Wonders series from McGraw Hill and it is pretty comprehensive. With Common Core on our heels, this series provides enough "close reads" for our students, which is what I spend most of my time on during the bulk of this block. I don't always use the stories provided (the plus side of teaching gifted students) so I can use my favorite trade books and novels without losing sight of the skills and strategies for the week. I have made the mini focus walls for Smart Start and Units 1-3, which you can find in my TpT store. They are my life's work so far, so check them out!

McGraw Hill First Grade Mini Focus Walls Smart Start

Daily Five/Center Rotations: This is actually part of my ELA block, but I separated it so I can talk about what I do during this half hour. Since I only have 3o minutes, my students don't move around during this time, they stay at one center for the entire time. I also had to alter the choice part of Daily Five, so they get to go to all the centers each week, so I have a guided rotation schedule posted. The students get to choose the books they use at Read to Self and Read to Someone from their book boxes, so all choice isn't removed. Students who go to the computer have to work on Successmaker, which is mandated by our district. They complete one session of reading and one session of math each day. Each student has a notebook to keep all of their center work together and I check it at the end of each day.
I also work with a few students each day at the Teacher Led Center. I pull students from each group depending on what they need help with at any given moment, which is based on data from testing.

Enrichment/Intervention: If students are in need of intervention, they are pulled during this time by our interventionists. Students who go to Spanish are also pulled during this time. Students who do not score low enough to be pulled for intervention, but still need lots of help, stay with me and I work as the interventionist. This is an extension of the Teacher Led Center, but very detailed and intense. We try to make it fun with games and other things I gather up from my blogging buddies! This year I don't have many students who need intervention, so my block is basically an enrichment block. I integrate a lot of technology during this time and like to use Scholastic News to intertwine content and reading.

Writing: Our district uses only a few of the writing components from McGraw Hill and the rest of the writing block is composed of whatever they tell us to do to. Since we have 4 quarters, we usually go through the 4 main genres of writing: research, narrative, opinion, poetry. There are friendly letters and different forms of each genre thrown in, so we do cover quite a few writing techniques for our students. I like to use mentor texts to help with teaching writing since this really makes the connection for first graders and keeps it fun! This is my bible (click the title if you want to read more about this fabulous book):

The Common Core Writing Book, K-5: Lessons for a Range of Tasks, Purposes, and Audiences

PE: Can you say Adventure to Fitness and playground?

Math: With only an hour for math, it is sometimes difficult to get through it all, especially since the powers that be want us to teach a concept a day. I break up my hour like this: 10 minutes to engage students, 20 minutes whole group, 20 minutes group rotations including teacher led, 10 minutes to wrap up the lesson. We use the Go Math series, which I love at this point in the game and have learned how to use it with fidelity to fit the needs of my students. I have a free PowerPoint in my Tpt store to help those of you who need guidance with Go Math.

$Making Sense of Go Math$

Science/SS: I teach science on Mon-Wed and SS Th-Fri. The time really breaks down to 30 minutes, so I have to get it all in during a short time. This is my favorite time because I ~~don't stick to our textbooks~~ use our textbooks as a resource when needed, but get to go off the grid to integrate the fun stuff from all of you! Discovery Education is my go to internet resource for my content teaching and it covers everything from A-Z! If your district doesn't use Discovery Education, beg and plead now!