A Call to Care...and Word Work, day 1

I'm sure most of you have heard about Alisha's, the Bubbly Blonde Teacher, friend with stage 3 cancer.
This young woman, Tiffany, has a young daughter, and Alisha has graciously set up a fundraiser to help with Tiffany's medical and life expenses.
If, for some reason, you haven't heard about this amazing opportunity to help out (and get some great TpT packets in return), click on the pic below to go to Alisha's blog.

Hurry!
Once she's collected $10, 000, she has to stop collecting donations as required by PayPal.
She's asking for a minimum donation of $20, but the HUGE packet you get is worth 10 times that, so if you can donate more, the option is yours.


And on a school note, my kiddos will be starting to build stamina with Word Work and Listening to Reading tomorrow.
With limited space and resources, I was a little concerned about how all my firsties were going to practice at the same time.
I know this practice isn't stated in The Sister's book, but we are going to split the class up this week and have some students Reading to Someone, some students doing Word Work, and some students Listening to Reading for 15 minutes all at once.
I have about 5 spaces for students to Listen to Reading, 8 spaces for Read to Someone, and several spaces for Word Work...if some students want to do it at their desks.
But if students want to use the word wall or pocket chart, that leaves about 4 spaces.

So, that means we have 5 groups, 5 days, 4 stations...oh, whoops!
Good thing we just got a brand-new cart full of iPads in our primary hall!
The last group can work on iPads:) That works, right?

Tomorrow, we are just going to talk about materials that are available for Word Work & Listen to Reading.
Eventually, I want to incorporate some math with Word Work, because I just got these magnetic Scrabble tiles for my birthday.

yes, those are Halloween decorations in the background.
If the stores are ready, so am I! I just l-o-v-e my Halloween decorations:)

Won't they be perfect for Word Work??!

My kiddos aren't quite ready for this yet, but I will introduce it soon, as there a few almost ready to add more than 2 numbers.
I created this recording sheet to go along with them.

Feel free to click on the pic and download, if you think you can use it!

It also has some Rainbow Writing recording sheets, so students can practice patterning...whether or not patterning is stated directly in Common Core, it's an important skill for mathematical practice!

Thanks for the many emails of Happy Birthday wishes:)

 I had a great day...even though I was recouping from the icky sick-bugs on Friday...boo:(

You all are the best!