Work Stations Wednesday

Happy Wednesday Friends!

Today I am starting a new blog series where I share with you what my students do during Literacy Work Station time in my classroom. AND ( the best part) I will be sharing a freebie ( or two or three) with you for each post.

I tried starting this series last April when I shared how I rotate my students through stations. However, I took a class that suddenly took up all my time and I never stuck with it. To see how I rotate my students through stations and read my back story on how I " discovered" LWS click HERE.

I <3 this book!

You can purchase it through Amazon HERE.

Today I am sharing how I have my Reading Corner/ Independent Reading Station set up and organized. Stick around to the end because I have a freebie to share with you.

So this is what my reading corner looks like:

Let's be honest here. It's not a large space. But neither is my room. But like all spaces in my room it is well organized. I have my books organized into bins. All of the bins have a label. I got the labels from the ocean theme classroom set that I purchased HERE. I just used the generic labels and typed in my own categories. This way students can easily put their books back where they belong. 

My kiddo's rotate through stations once a week. Our station time lasts from 9:30- 10:15 each day. That gives us enough time to do 2 station rotations everyday.  Everyone goes to reading corner at least once throughout the week. 

There are three different stations where they read ( or listen to) books: Reading Corner, Listening Station, and Buddy Reading. On the reading log they use it has a space for them to mark which one they are at. This helps to hold them accountable and gives them a focus when they get to those stations. 

Once they fill out their reading log, they spend the rest of their time reading! ( Kind of a giveaway by the name of the station.) Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control my kiddo's only get about 15- 20 minutes of schedule independent reading time per day so that is why I have everybody go to reading station at least once a week.

When I introduce stations this is the first station that I introduce because to me it is the simplest one to understand. There are only two steps to remember: Fill out the log and Read! I keep it fresh by allowing them to read with stuffed animals only at this station. I also read out loud to them at least once a day and many times I pull a "special" book from my book shelf for read aloud. I leave that book out for them to read during reading station. If they have any issues with words they can whisper/ ask someone at the station with them, but otherwise they are independently reading the whole time. 

SO! Now the promised freebie.
I have included both the reading log I use with my kiddo's and a more generic log. Plus two different response sheets ( the same questions but one has a boy and one has a girl). 

Click HERE to get your freebie!

So that is how I run my reading station. Check back next Wednesday for a peek at my word work station and ( of course!) a freebie!

Do you use Literacy Work Stations in your room? I would love to hear how you run yours. 
~Jean~

Happy, Happy Friday!

Well, this was our first 5 day week after break ( and even before break) and I felt every minute of it! So, I am thankful for the weekend and some time to relax! ( Although not too much relaxing for me, we have plans for the next 3 weekends. Geesh, it makes me tired just thinking about it!)

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the Five for Friday linky party AND Teaching Maddeness for The Friday Flashback. And look at me! Actually getting to it ON a Friday! :)

1. Tuesday we had our Christmas party after having to reschedule it three times. It felt very anti-climactic to me ,but the kid's had a good time. At Christmas time I like to stick with lights and gingerbread men as I feel they are very uncontroversial. I mean who doesn't love a good gingerbread man. :) I found these foam gingerbread men at the dollar store in October and bought them and some foam stickers to decorate with. I thought they would be a fun craft to do at our party as the kiddos could be creative and independent. We did a turkey glyph at our fall party that required WAY too much direction from me. 

 Aside from all the little paper backs to the foam stickers it also fulfilled another party requirement of mine...little mess! :)

 Aaaaannnnnd then I broke that requirement by frosting and sprinkling cookies. The kids had fun ,but our poor janitor! :)

2. I recently purchased Swimming Into 2nd Grade's Winter Wonderland Literacy Centers for use during station time. You can check it out HERE AT TPT. This is one of my peanuts at our pocket chart station matching up synonyms.  

 3. Speaking of station time, one of my Literacy Work Stations is the computer station. Our school has purchased a subscription to Reading A to Z for the second year in a row. I really love using it for my guided reading groups. One of my teaching partners started using the Raz Kids portion of it this year and then showed me how to set my kids up on it. Let me tell you, they are OBSESSED! I will admit it's pretty cool. They listen to and then practice reading leveled stories. Then they take quizzes on them. For each listen, read through, and quiz taken they earn points which can be used to " purchase" things for their spaceship. 

This is one of my peanuts listening to her story. I thought I had gotten a good picture of the spaceship to share and I did. However, I got her name ( first and last) in it and didn't want to be posting that! So I'll add that to next week's Friday post. :) 

4. Today we finished the last of our Christmas-y festivities. When they came in this morning they each had a present to open at their seat. I always get my kiddo's books for Christmas. I order from Scholastic so it's a double win for us. They get an awesome book and I get bonus points to get more awesome books for our room!

Isn't this wrapping paper ADORABLE! I used it last year too and I think I have enough to use it again next year too! :)

Then this afternoon we combined the 3 classes and gave them a choice of watching The Polar Express, Finding Nemo, or comfy reading. We usually do this on the Friday before break but the darn snow days kept us from it. It is always so magical to be in the library, with the twinkling lights on and the kiddo's in their jammies, watching The Polar Express on the last day before break. Watching it today was still fun but lacking some of its magic. I really feel like I should be going on Christmas break again! 

5.  This is what I am working on this weekend. I got a bunch of picture frames for Christmas and have a HUGE pile of pictures I want to frame. My goal is to turn my dining room table back into a place for eating and get all of those pictures framed AND hung. 

PS: If you are wondering why there is a knife on my table it is for opening and closing the little backing tabs on the picture frames. :)

There are my 5. Link up HERE and HERE and have a GREAT week!