Making Connections

Teaching cross curricular in first grade just comes naturally to me. I know I was meant to be a first-grade teacher. Teaching cross curricular is the best way I know how to make better connections with my students. It really makes me proud when my students connect science and math together, or writing and social studies together. They say “Hey this reminds me of when we did this!” or “This reminds me of what we talked about this morning!”

I know teaching this way might sound scary to some, but the more you do it, the better you get at it. It takes some planning and preparing your materials, but once you do, you’ll be set to go. Trust me, if I can do it, you can do it!

The first thing to remember, you have to know your standards and scope and sequence. Once you have that, everything else will fall into place!

In this blog post, I’m going to share my class schedule! Hang on to your hat because this is going to be a long one with TONS of information. You might want to find a comfy chair. LOL

My Class Schedule

7:25- First Bell Rings

First, students sit outside my door and wait to greet me. I’ve trained them to wait because I don’t want them to enter my classroom without me there, or to say “Good Morning” to me. When I’m ready, I greet them one at a time using our choice greetings: Handshake, Hug, Fist Bump, or High Five. When my students come into the classroom, they grab their chairs and hang their backpacks on the back of the chair with both straps down. I do this so their backpack will not fall off their chair.

Then, they get out their reading log for me to check. They exchange their book in my library with a new book every day. I walk around and give bonus bucks if they read the night before and have their reading log signed. After they exchange their books, they check their blue work folder to see if they have to finish any work from the day before. If they are finished, then they can read their new book while they wait for the announcements.

7:35- Second Bell Rings

We watch our announcements on the smartboard. Then I take lunch count.

7:45- Morning Meeting

Everyone puts all their materials away and comes to sit on the carpet in a circle. I sit in the circle too. We sing a good morning song and wave our hands while we sing. Then I say “Good Morning boys and girls” and they say “Good Morning Mrs. Rickman”. Our morning meetings center around our Great 8 Skills: Optimism, Responsibility, Self Awareness, Making Good Decisions, Goal Setting, Building Relationships, Social Awareness, and Self Management. I have mentor texts and activities for each one. They each last for 9 weeks.

My weekly morning meeting schedule:

Monday- Share Good Things from the weekend.

Tuesday- introduce character traits/new rules or procedures.

Wednesday- read or watch a mentor text that goes along with our character trait or rule.

Thursday- complete a template about our character trait for our whole child notebook.

Friday- Glow/Grow or tell something that we’re looking forward to.

7:55- Phonics (95%)

Shortly after morning meeting we stay seated on the carpet for our phonics lesson, but the students go back to the colored square that they’re assigned to. I give them specific squares to sit on so it’s consistent and they don’t argue.

First, we do some Phonograms/Sound Cards with hand motions and then some Haggerty. After that, we complete our lesson for 95% phonics. My students have a phonics drawer next to their table. They keep their magnetic letters, sound chips, and phonics books in the drawers. We use the phonics drawers every single day and they’re responsible for keeping their drawers nice and neat.

8:30- Reader’s Workshop

This is one of my favorite times of the day- when I get to read a story to my students! I try and read a new mentor text every day to reinforce our new skills. I spend the whole week on one skill with the “I DO, WE DO and YOU DO” gradual release of responsibility. Monday and Tuesday is the “I DO” and “YOU DO”,
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are the “WE DO” and “YOU DO”. If you’re interested in my Reader’s Workshop blog post, click here.

For example, if I’m teaching about Text to Self Connection, then I will read The Kissing Hand and then we always complete a Schema Notebook template for comprehension. My schema notebook is my reader’s notebook. Here’s my YouTube video of what my Schema Notebook looks like:

Here is an example of an anchor chart that goes along with the skill. If you’re interested in how I premake my anchor charts and still make them interactive, click here to watch my YouTube video.

9:00-Reading Groups/Focused Instruction

While my students are completing their schema notebook template, I call my reading groups up to my teacher table. I have a peer facilitator that walks around and answers questions so I’m not interrupted. My peer facilitator is my star student. I typically pick someone who is a good role model and can set the stage for the whole year.

Typically I have 4-5 reading groups divided by reading level or skill level. My low babies are in a skill level group that works on phonemic awareness with Haggerty, letters, sounds, sound mapping, writing, reading decodable readers, and sound wall. We use a sound mapping activity with red and yellow chips. The red chips are the vowels and the yellow are the consonants. We map out the word and then write it to the side. This is great practice for short and long vowel words!

My higher reading groups work on Haggerty, fluency, comprehension, and guided writing. We read a leveled book and then the students pick out popsicle sticks with questions on them. They each take turns to read the question and then answer it. Here they are:

Equally, at the same time, I also have Literature Circles going on while I’m having my reading groups. These students are reading above grade level and are amazing readers. They meet independently on the carpet to read Magic Tree House on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They each have a specific job that they have to do each day. I put together a folder for them to respond about the story. If you’re interested in reading about how I do my Literature circles, click here.

During this time, the interventionists come and pull out the students for Gifted and Talented, reading, math, speech or dyslexia. We call it focused instruction time.

9:50- Writer’s Workshop

Overall, this is my absolute FAVORITE time of the day! I LOVE teaching writing and I could teach it ALL DAY LONG! I follow the gradual release of responsibility similar to Reader’s Workshop. I teach my students the writing process and they all have a choice of genre and topic to write about it. My students get so excited about writer’s workshop that they ask to write all day long! I read a new mentor text every day to reinforce our new skill, and then challenge my students to add the new skill to their stories! For example, if I teach about adjectives, then I challenge them to add more adjectives to their story.

Each student has a writer’s workshop folder to keep all of their stories and dictionary in. I always keep their folders in separate tub near my author’s chair. I tell them that author’s keep their writing folders in a safe place so they won’t get messed up. If you’re interested in how I do my Writer’s Workshop, click here.

Here is the process writing poster where my students move their popsicle sticks down to publish. The steps I include are Brainstorming, First Draft, Student Conference, Proofreading, Teacher Conference, Editing/Revision, Final Draft, and Publishing. Here is a video of how I do my status of the class.

If you’re interested in seeing how I do my author’s chair, watch this video.

10:30-11:35: Recess/Lunch

11:40-12:15: Math Workshop

The first thing we do when we come in from lunch is put away our lunchboxes and come sit on the carpet. I always do a countdown from 10. Whoever is first on the carpet with their thumb up, gets a bonus bucks. I leave the lights off and I read a chapter of Magic Tree House. My students LOVE Magic Tree House! This is another way I teach cross-curricular! If I’m teaching about Presidents, then I will read Revolutionary War on Wednesday! It’s perfect!

After that, we turn to the calendar and spend about 10 minutes for a recursive review. Some skills that we go over daily are days of the week, tallies, counting coins, number of days, place value, expanded form, weather poems, 50 Nifty States song, continents song, and reckenrek counting. If you’d like to watch a video of me teaching calendar, click here.

After calendar, we go into our math lesson using whiteboards, math literature, and anchor charts. The students get their whiteboards, tissue, and expo marker and come back to the carpet. Again, I have a countdown to see who can quietly come to the carpet. I always have a question on the board for them to answer to hook them into our lesson for the day.

Then, I read them a math story and they touch their schema and say “Why is the story about math”? They have to listen to the story and then make an inference why the story was about math. With each new skill I teach them, I encourage them to write that on their whiteboard. I always try really hard to make sure the math story goes along with our skill for the week.

Another way I teach cross-curricular is we write A LOT in math. I love to teach my students how to write story problems! We practice using sentence starters for our story problems. Here’s a quick video of my students writing story problems.

12:15-1:05: CAMP

1:05-2:15- Math Workshop continued

Following CAMP, now is the time when I have my math rotations. I have teacher table, math journal, independent practice, math tubs, and technology. I love using Seesaw for independent practice! We practice at the beginning of the year how to have smooth and quiet transitions between each rotation. Here’s a quick video of how my class does their transitions using a doorbell. Here are some pictures of some of my rotations:

Meanwhile, each rotation is about 10 minutes long so I teach my students how to use their time wisely and get started quickly. The math journal is probably the hardest to finish- so I only give them one thing to cut out and glue into their journal at the beginning. As the year goes on, they get faster and finish before the timer goes off. If you’re interested in reading more about my Math Workshop block, check out my blog post here.

Afterward at the end of the math block- I always try and have an Exit Ticket. I ask the students a question about something we learned that day and they write it on a post-it note. This helps me observe who got the lesson today or who needs a reteach at my teacher table. Of course, they write their name on the Post-it note so I know who’s who!

2:15-2:50: Science/Social Studies

Teaching cross curricular means alternating between science and social studies. I do two weeks of one and then flip-flop to the other. I spend two-three weeks on each. I feel like the students get a better grasp on the skills they need to learn and I can take more time to introduce and practice them. I always try to read a mentor text every day to introduce the new skill. I also have anchor charts and interactive notebooks to go along with each skill. Again, I do the “I DO, WE DO, and YOU DO” of the gradual release of responsibility.

On Fridays, we have Fahrenheit Friday where we do a science experiment or investigation. My students have lab coats that they wear. If you’re interested in reading more about how I do Fahrenheit Friday, click here.

I love doing writing craftivities with Science and Social Studies using word banks. I make academic vocabulary words and put them on my pocket chart for my students to use in their story. Here’s a word bank and writing craftivity that we did about the Battle of the Alamo. Each time we write a new story during this time, I challenge my students to use more vocabulary words each time to earn bonus bucks! This is also an easy way to teach cross curricular by adding writing to each subject!

2:50-3:00: Pack ‘n Stack

Last, we have a race between teams to see who can clean up, stack chairs, exchange pencils, and sweep the floor the fastest for bonus bucks. Each table has a table captain, floor sweeper, chair stacker, and pencil trader. They follow this poster for their jobs and each week it changes, so everyone has a chance to be in each job. Whoever has their backpacks on and thumbs up will win bonus bucks.

This race is so important when you are in a time crunch and are needing the students to be speedy. So many times, teachers take way too long to get to dismissal because their students take way to long to clean up. So, I do pack n’ stack- it really helps me save time!

3:00 Dismissal

We line up by transportation or sometimes I might say line up according to your eye color, hair color, shirt color, types of shoes, or pants. I have a graph on my door that shows how each student goes home which we make on the first week of school. This is extremely helpful for a substitute so they know how my students go home.

Finally, we sing “Tomorrow” from Annie as we leave and I give everyone a hug.

And there you have it! We made it through a whole day teaching cross curricular in first grade! Whew! That’s a TON of information all in one day! That’s why they say time flies when you’re having fun! My students will frequently say “It’s time to go home already?” That is so great to hear because I know they had a great day and don’t want to go home. The day goes by SUPER FAST for me as well. Just think how many decisions a teacher has to make in one day! No wonder we’re mentally and physically tired!

I hope you enjoyed my blog post of my daily schedule! Until next time…