Mom Life, Teacher Life

*Forgive me for a minute as I talk to Blogger: Wow. So we meet again. I feel that I've neglected you, and even just logging into you, I feel I forgot how to make a post. We were once best friends you and I. I would come home from work and sit down and write my post with new ideas, products or freebies. It's been a year since we have worked together. I hope we can become better friends again because I have some things I would like to share with our followers. I just know that I quit using you so that I could have more family time and take care of me.  Now it's time to go back to what I once enjoyed! Thank you for waiting around.*

A lot has happened in the past year. My kids are growing up. My daughter is now a junior, driving, and could graduate early. She is continuing taking her college classes. She has a job. She's being a responsible adult and I'm wondering how I was ever so lucky to be blessed with her. I have a hard time thinking she will be leaving our nest soon---her hope is to go into the biomedical field, I believe.

My son, is now in 7th grade. He keeps us on our toes that's for sure. We try to keep him involved in sports, but if Fortnite were a sport, I think he'd be going PRO. I DESPISE FORTNITE!

As for me, I am still plugging away at the mom life, teacher life gig. Still holding out for that bakery someday---and I roped the hubby into helping as well! :)

 As for the teacher life, I am still currently in the Title position. We have a brand new building. This year, instead of working with 1-3 in reading/math, I am only serving 2nd grade reading.

I started the school year doing DRAs on about 200 2nd graders. It was cumbersome, but I enjoyed it and feel that I know a little bit about all the students. It was also a great way for me to learn names.

When my groups started, I had several in that level 2 DRA. Scary, right?  I struggle trying to figure out how to help them when I know what the state mandates at their level. My groups are only 20 minutes long, so I try to do as much as I can in a short period of time. Fact of the matter is, I just want them to read and enjoy it.  I came across these quotes the other night and it truly hit home for me.

Within 4 weeks of group starting, my lowest reading group (exception of 2 students) is now at a level 6. While I know that is still far away from where they should be, I am seeing growth. They enjoy their group time. That is a win for me!

I do have a few students who are still working on CvC words for skill. They were still struggling with vowel sounds. I have taught them other strategies to use for decoding purposes while reading, but I wanted to hone back in on the short vowel sounds today as a review.  We used this as a quick little warm-up activity.

I had the students sort these by vowel sound. I actually just turned the backs of the game boards (shown below) over, and wrote a vowel on each page with a dry erase marker.  I turned all the pumpkin cards over and had the students choose 1 at a time and determine the vowel sound, then place it on the proper board.  Then they worked together to do the CvC game word sort.

other sounds are in the download

I liked this activity because I can also share it with the Intervention Specialist and it can be used in a variety of ways. Students can choose a pumpkin and write the word. Students can work on just one vowel sound at a time. Students can use all the boards together. There is a variety of ways to differentiate this to meet the needs of our groups.

I am still using our Fry Fluency Books. I truly believe these have helped my students. I even had a parent tell me that her child's fluency and confidence soared after taking one of these booklets home!

And sometimes my groups are so small that if teachers are assessing, students are absent, or their is a classroom activity going on, I'm not able to always get my students. On those days, we improvise. Today was one of those days! Thank goodness for Hot Dots! :)

If you are interested in any of the school related items above, you can click the following images to find more information.


Clip art for the CVC Pumpkin Activity was provided by the following awesome ladies! Click the bold link to download.

Fry Booklets

Hot Dots

Oh and it's almost Friday! :)  Thanks for sticking around!