If you're a kindergarten teacher who dreams of thematic centers that are BOTH...
Hey there! Today I am reaching out to my First Grade ENDLESS Guided Reading Mega Bundle owners {whoa that was a mouth full..lol!} I have a post up like this one for my K bundle owners, but I think my Firstie bundle owners deserve their own post 🙂 Don’t forget to read through to the end in order to sign up for a chance to win the first grade MEGA! So, here is a thought bundle owners might have had……
So, you made the big jump and purchased the bundle…you know it is going to be awesome, but how will you organize all this “awesomeness?” Below I will show you how I got all of my firstie materials quickly organized! With the help of my dear husband we got this all organized in about 3 hours! That was me printing, him laminating, “us” cutting, and me organizing! I will go through each part of the organizing, but if you still have questions …always feel free to email me! 🙂
Alright, let’s go! I have one green basket now for k materials and one for 1st grade materials. Inside my green basket I now have a binder for lessons/printables and all of my activities rubber-banded together and placed down in the basket.
I like to keep the activity cards/strips in the basket until I need them for that week of instruction. I then can easily switch them out so my guided reading “tub” does’t start to overflow! Below is a look my firstie writing strips, sound cards, sight words, and the Gotcha! cards are not pictured because above stated dear husband was busy cutting those!
Below is a look into my guided reading caddy…this is more k focused, but your can see how I organize my “go-to” resources for the week….then I transfer those back to the green baskets when not using them. I love having the separate baskets so material is easily accessible in case I change my mind mid-lesson…that is acceptable, right!? 🙂
Here are a couple of writing strips bundled! I do go ahead and print all three levels of differentiated strips and bundle them together with a rubber-band!
The write it sound by sound cards are printed and bundled together as well. Right now I have the cards in one big stack, but I will be organizing these by skill focus ie. r controlled, vowel digraphs, etc. I plan to just bundle them separately, but you could also place them into baggies!
I printed off a cover for my binder…bundle owners click HERE for a freebie binder cover! I will also add it to the bundle, but you most likely don’t want to download it for just that! 🙂 Currently, I am using a three inch binder…which has worked for my K lessons as well, but you might want a bigger one or eventually use two?
I then labeled a tab for each week of guided reading! This will help me to be able to access that week’s material quickly!
A closer look at week 13….
At the start of each week’s tab I have placed in a sheet protector the lesson plans, printable books, and word sorts! Now when I teach this lesson I’ll just pull that sheet protector and have everything I need!
I placed the books at the back of the same sheet protector…this way I only need one sheet protector for each week’s material.
With the firstie units you’ll notice you also have two included word sorts per week to organize! I played around with how to organize mine a couple different ways… I first placed them into the front of the sheet protector….
I also hole-punched the baggie and placed it directly after the sheet protector. I actually liked this way the best…and this way they are already in a baggie for when I pull them to use with my groups!
The great thing about getting your binder organized is that once it’s done….it’s done! Next year you will be SET! I also truly believe that the lessons are written well enough that you could easily leave these for your T.A.’s, paras, or substitutes.
Like I mentioned above you’ll get TWO word sorts per week with each step by step lessons. Below is a look at the long a/short a word/picture sort!
Below is a look at what you get with each step by step week ….you’ll want to organize these materials together for the easy access of teaching that week!
If you’d like to try out the step by step packets you can download a FREE entire week by clicking week 13 below!
If you are anything like me you want to SEE what something will actually map out to be…so I put together this detailed listing for each of the 28 weeks of guided reading! You’ll notice I list the nonfiction book title, comprehension focus, phonemic awareness skill, and the phonic skill focus for each week. I didn’t list a specific fiction title…because honestly those ideas come to me on a whim and I don’t want to limit my ideas! 🙂 If the map is hard to read you can download it for free HERE.
Alright, back to the binder! At the back of the binder I also organized my fluency passages!
I printed the skill focus dividers from the packet and placed them into the binder! I am super stingy sometimes and didn’t separate all of the passages with true binder tabs, but I used the sticky “tape” tabs!
Organized fluency passages….
Alright, now to look at the activities found in the firstie bundle! Up first…WRITING STRIPS! I was actually screaming there because I do LOVE writing strips! The kiddos love writing strips too…this is true! The first bundle has lots of writing strips to choose from…this little one is working on CVC/CVCe mixed strips! A true challenge 😉
I’ve mentioned before, but will again hah! When my students are using the independent write strips {the ones on top in the below picture} I like to also give them the guided strips so they can self-check!
You can view the writing strips by clicking the image below!
Also, in the firstie bundle are these sound cards! The cards allow kiddos to practice those tricky skill focuses like r controlled! The great thing about sound boxes is that if the student is not ready to write the sounds you can have them simply push up the sounds using objects like gems/cars/etc…we do this a lot more in K, but you might have some firsties at that level as well.
More sound card work….
You can view the firstie write it sound by sound cards by clicking below!
Now it’s time to test your luck on winning the bundle! If you already own the bundle you can leave a comment on this post and I’ll choose 1 “commentor” to get $20 cash to my store! I will choose the bundle winner on Sunday, March 8th!
Here is some feedback I’ve received on the bundle so far…
“I am so excited to have this! The resources plentiful and well-prepared, and I am so thankful to have such a thorough resource. If you are thinking about buying this, just peruse the comments/questions and you will see what helped me push the purchase button…the amazing reviews and the equally amazing “customer service” Tara provides. It is obvious you will be pleased!”
“This is amazing! You just cut my time spent searching for books and creating lessons. Exactly what I needed. I highly recommend this great resource!”
“OH MY GOODNESS…. This file is amazing! I was a bit reluctant because it is a pretty big purchase, but I took the plunge and I am so glad I did. It is very well and methodically put together. The colors and graphics are amazing, but most importantly the contents are exactly what’s needed for guided reading. I am very excited to start using this file with my firsties and they’re going to love it also!”
You can view the ENDLESS bundle by clicking below! Remember, that the bundle will grow in price as the bundle grows in size!
Have a great week and good luck on the bundle!
