Library book labels..

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful day at work or  your home away from home. Today I want to share some library book labels I created for my own library. They are in English(blue letters) and Spanish(red letters). I created them based on the type of books that I had last year. The labels make it easier for my students to find what they want to read. In the pictures below you can see some clips of the book baskets. As students get books from the baskets they clip their clip on it to know where the book should be returned. Each file as 3 labels, so click on all to get all 15 labels. Hope you can use them in your classroom.

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I Teach Dual Language: Speaking in Tongues Linky Party

¿El idioma de hoy es Español?  

Today's language is English?

I have joined my first Linky Party with I teach Dual Language. :) The linky party is to share how different and unique each DL classroom is.
    Each district implements the DL program of their choice and some school modify it to 'better fit' them. In the district and school that I work at we follow the Gomez and Gomez DL model. We try our best to stay consistent and follow the model to the best of our ability.
Language of the day: (LOD) We had always followed the M,W,F Spanish and T,Th English. But this year 2nd semester we have changed it to M,W,F English and T,Th Spanish.

Below are some simple highlights of the program:
K-1:  All Math is done in English, Reading/Writing in native language, Science in Spanish, SS in native language. Students participate in DL centers for a minimum of 20 minutes.
2nd grade: Things change in the ELA/SLA language percentage. We start doing 50-50, which meanings 50% percent in Spanish and 50% in English. Students participate in DL centers for a minimum of 20 minutes.

How this look in my classroom: One week I teach all Reading mini lessons in Spanish, Word Work in English and Writing in English. The following week it switches, Reading mini lessons are in English, Word Work in Spanish and Writing in Spanish. This works out when we calculate minutes allocated for each subject/component.

Here is my Lovely schedule: 

(I always seem to run out of time to do it all. Does this happen to anyone else? :)  )

8:00-8:20: DL centers
8:20-8:30 Morning Word- may include reading, reviews: grammar, passage
8:30-9:00: Word Work, Focused poem(great for fluency and practicing reading concepts)
9:00-9:20: Reader's Workshop Mini lesson/SS( This is when we use the yellow section from the students Reading Response journal)
9:20-10:20: Reader's Workshop- During this time students practice the skill covered during mini lesson, read independently, teacher pulls Guided Reading groups.
10:25-11:20: Specials
11:30-12:00: Lunch
12:00-12:30: Recess/RR break
12:30-1:00 Writing
1:00 : Switch with my partner
1:00-3:15-The above schedule starts all over, with the exception of DL centers and some of the 'morning' work. My afternoon class does these things with their home room teacher. Oh, by  the way the afternoon class falls short on time therefor they return to me in the morning.(Kind of weird but it works out)

I will post pictures of my DL center signs, student self generated alphabet, word wall, class labeling etc.I would LOVE to see how other DL teachers do their interactive word wall. :)

If you have any questions, please let me know and I am more than happy to share MORE! :)

Visit the other great DL blogs that are participating in the linky party:

I Teach Dual Language: Speaking in Tongues Linky Party

Integrating reading and writing

I wanted to share a project that I did in my class a while back that turned out wonderful. During this time we were researching during reading and starting expository writing, it was easy to integrate them. :)
After deciding between researching polar bears or penguins students worked with their bilingual pairs to generate questions for their research. They learned how to find their answers using key words in the table of content and book titles. At the end of their research they compiled everything into a small book. The little book included a table of content, animal diagram, questions and answers cards, fun facts and a KWL chart. The idea of the book is not entirely my idea, I can't remember the site where I found it. After finishing and sharing their research they wrote about the animal they researched. The tricky part was that they researched in both English and Spanish(depending on the resource available) then had to write entirely in English. At the end I was impressed with how well they did. Even though it took some students a very long time. :)

Reading Response Journals

Hello everyone! At my campus we are focused on Reader's Workshop. For this reason all students from k up should have a reading response journal. This year I decided to create some documents to make the content in the journal easy to find. All my students received a journal and 4 dividers(colored sheets of paper) Each section serves a different purpose. The sections are: Reading Log, Reading Strategies, Reading Response, and Letters for the teacher. In the reading log students will fill out logs and glue them in this section. Any time they had to take notes about strategies or had to do a written response in whole group they used the Reading Strategies section. The Reading Response section was just for students practice. In this section they applied what we had just discussed in mini lesson or response for their independently reading. In the last section, Letters for the Teacher, they could write letters to me about a book they liked or something they learned. This section helped them use their sequencing skills, retelling, and simple using DETAILS. I would say "I have never read your book before so you need to teach me about it.". Obviously after each letter they wrote I wrote them back.(This was complicated. I made it clear to say, "Mrs. G is one person so make sure you don't write letters to me everyday." We really enjoyed how they worked this year and plan on using them again next school year. I attached the English and Spanish version and a mini view of how they look. Hope you can implement them in your class. ENJOY!! (pictures are not cooperating, so some are side ways)

 Grab the English Dividers

Grab the Spanish Dividers 

 

Grammar Game

Just wanted to share a simple grammar review game I created for my 1st graders last year. Students placed the cards face down on the game board and took turns answering the questions. I put the answers on a separate card for them to check themselves. Click on the link to grab it. Hope you can use it in your classroom. :)  I will add the game board that I provided them with later. :)

Grammar Game Cards

Share...Share

As my first official 'sharing' post I would like to give you a sneak peek of my 2nd grade classroom. Since several of my current students have been with my for the past 2 years I wanted to change my class decor and theme. I went with a jungle theme and so far my kids have enjoyed it very much. :)

My lovely tree!! It is located right in the center on the back wall.

Below is my behavior chart. Students get to move down for bad behavior and up for 'golden' choices/good behavior.

I was inpired by Pinterest to make this pencil as a visual to see where students are in their writing.

My wonderful sister gave me this welcome poster. I have it by my teacher/ guided reading area.

Here a sign a created to let others know where my kiddos and I are.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of my library, whole group meeting area and small group area. :)

Hello

I am very excited to have finally started my own blog. I have been extremely inspired by a great team member, Mrs. Shepherd at My Second Grade Journal. She was the person that introduced me to the amazing world of blogs and I have been hooked ever since. I hope I am able to share good ideas that you can implement in your classrooms. Specially to my dear Dual Language or Bilingual teachers. Please spread  the word and follow me. YEAH!!! :)