Writing and Reading Goals

After that great teacher moment with writing that I blogged about awhile ago, I decided to make some goal posters.  I found an amazing one from Zeek's Zoo that I needed to tweak for my ELL kiddos.  Here are my end results.

 

As you can see, I only changed a few things from the Zeek's Zoo posters.  They call periods full stops over here, so I had to change that one.  Then I wanted to add a writes left to right goal since in Arabic their writing is right to left and we have been working hard all year to learn that one.  Last, I added the sound it out goal.  This will help me track who needs help with stretching out their sounds to write words.

 

Next I added little post-it flags to the poster with the student names and placed them on the goal I decided they were ready to work on.  You can see two colors (I teach two sets of classes).

 



Grab your copy of my changes here.

Creating the writing goals made me think about reading goals.  The culture here is very competitive so I thought, "Why not use that?"  I created a small reading goal poster for sight words and abc letters/sounds (the most important ones I want mastered before second grade) and stuck that baby up on the wall. When kids pass the goal, we have a mini celebration and their name is written on the poster.  Sadly, I have almost no one on the poster (insert crickets chirping here).  *sigh*



Excuse the poor quality of the pics but you get the idea.

Sums of 10 Activity

Addition is coming up in my class and I wanted to get a jump on creating some useful activities for my students.  I came up with this easy sums of ten math center.

Students will place the missing addend on the number sentence.  They can match the turnaround facts by finding the same picture and/or color.  This will also help allow for easy self-correction.

When they are finished, they can record their work for you to check with the included recording sheet.  This will give them another chance to think about their answers by having to match the pictures to record the number sentences.  I can't wait to see how the kids do with this activity.  Click on the picture below to purchase your own copy.

I plan to also use the sums of 10 rainbow to teach the concept.  I can't wait!  But first, we need to get through measurement.

Proud Teacher Moment

I have been teaching grade one girls in the Middle East since September and the first week of February (this post is a bit delayed) I finally had a proud teacher moment.  Progress!  My girls were finally putting together letters make sounds and these can be used to write words.  Wow.  I had goosebumps.  I ran around the school at the end of the day to show off their work.

First I read an emergent reader called "I Like."  Next, I modeled my own story about what I liked.  (One of the pages in the book but I added a second sentence).  Here is what my model looked like:

In the interest of time, I did not color my example but asked the girls to make sure to color their pictures.

 

Here are my proud teacher papers - the students copied the title (well, some of them) and the words "I like to" then had to complete the rest on their own.  Remember these are ESL kiddos who only started speaking English (and in some cases) going to school this year.  They are Arabic speakers so even their directionity is backwards from English.

I like to color.

I like to jump.

I like flowers.  I love how she sounded out flowers!

I like to color.  So close to perfect!

I like to be kind.  She took this off a rule poster on the wall.  Using environmental print and I never even mentioned it.  Love, love, love!

 

 

What do you do for your little language learners during writing time? I'm frustrated we only have one 45-minute writing block ONCE A WEEK! Do you wonder why there was no real progress until February? I try to squeeze writing in other ways throughout the week. And I thought there was never time in the States. But don't get me started on that topic or I won't stop.





 

Super Sunday Sale!

I'm having a TPT sale - everything is 20% off!  Mention the code "Super" at checkout to get a little extra.  Who doesn't love that?  I might be buying some things I've been eyeing as well - there are so many talented people on TPT.

Here are a few of my favorites that are on sale for today only.

 



Happy shopping!  I hope you find something you love.

Eid Holiday = Happy Teacher Days

Here in the Middle East they have the Eid holiday instead of fall break (probably since we just started in September and it is a Muslim based culture).  Eid is pronounced eed.  There are two Eid holidays in a year and this one was the shorter of the two.  We received Thursday and Sunday off (remember my school week is Sunday through Thursday). 

Pulling up to school on Wednesday last week I noticed how few cars there were.  I checked my watch - we weren't extremely early or late.  My fellow co-workers and I clocked in and then hung out in the hallway and chatted.  Soon enough the bell for school rang and still there were only maybe 5 students in the corridors.  We slowly wandered to our classrooms.  Mine was completely devoid of students so I headed down the hall to my friend's room to discover the same thing in her room.  After about 30 minutes of chatting about teaching plans and what we could be working on, I headed back to my room to finally get those bulletin boards up.

Do you know how frustrating as a primary teacher it has been to have maybe 10 minutes total to clean up after the students, use the restroom, and then catch the bus home each day?  Talk about no prep time!  Over a month into school and I am still staring at blank walls.  On the upside I have finally, FINALLY, FINALLY got my ABC's up.  I cannot tell you how much that was bothering me.  The lack of supplies will be a whole other post...

So with no students I managed to get the ABC's posted and filed some work in the student's portfolios before we were told we were heading home early.  Part of me rejoiced and part of me was seriously dismayed as I looked around my blank, sad walls and finally had the time to do something about it.  But this is the Middle East and no one stays out in the middle of nowhere in the desert at a deserted school so when one goes, we all go.  I guess we are sort of like the 3 Musketeers.  Only the 44 Musketeers instead.

Eid Holiday = Happy Teacher Days because when we returned from break this week I only had 12 students (combined from my 2 classes!).  School was closed early for the students so I was given some more time to work on my room.  I managed to get one bulletin board trimmed out (had to hand roll tape cigars to put it up and it took forever)...

Eid Holiday = Happy Teacher Days because today was not only my birthday but the second day back from Eid.  Between the two classes there were 25 children so class was combined and I had until 10 am free to work in my room and then only needed to teach two 45-minute classes because they had a special the third 45-minute period.  Bliss!  Although the children were a bit roudy today.  But still!  I then managed to finish trimming out all the bulletin boards today (didn't get the pictures yet).  Now I just need to label and start getting my word wall set up.  If I'm lucky I'll have it looking like a used classroom by December.  Oh gosh,  I hope not!  It's sad seeing how little is in my room compared to the States.  I miss being surrounded by all that glorious teacher stuff!  Customs will be finding my returning suitcases strange I'm sure once I hit the old Dollar Tree and raid my teacher supplies in storage...