MIA and Whole Group Instruction

Summer is in full swing and going by w--a--y too fast! I mean, 3 weeks already!? Last week I was MIA but for a good reason. I took a girls trip with my mom, grandma, and second cousin on an Alaskan cruise!!! I definitely packed way too warm (did you hear about the heat wave). It was in the high 70's and made it to 80 two of the days we were there. So much for escaping the Texas heat for a week...although the humidity was nice to get away from for a few days! Here's a peek of last week!

 

 

I must admit, getting back to reality...rather quickly with a training this morning, was harder than I thought. I really did miss reading my blogs though (tear). Having a weeks worth of reading to catch up on is rough!

 

I'm starting off the week by linking up with The Applicious Teacher for her weekly summer linky party.

 

 

This week focuses on whole group teaching in your classroom. Here's a peek at how I teach whole group style!
 

 

 

 Calendar/Carpet: Our whole group meeting area is called "The Information Hut" or better known as the carpet. After announcements each morning, we meet in this area (I put duct tape on the floor to enclose this space so they have a "box" to sit in). This is where we do read alouds, shared reading, calendar time, Smartboard interactive lessons, etc. We also do a lot of graphing and making anchor charts in this area to record our learning. We spend the majority of the day in this area when we are learning new concepts.

 

 

Desk Groupings: I teach phonics daily and during this time students remain at their individual desks which stay in groups of 4-6. I like to make this whole group learning interactive.  They each get a sock and marker and we write words on our desks after I introduce our sound pattern for the week. I also call students up to share their work on the Smartboard at this time.

 

 

I also have a document camera (ELMO) that is on my desk and can project what is under it onto the Smartboard. I use this for whole group practice and for checking independent practice, normally with math and grammar worksheets.  They love to come up and see their hand writing...to them it's one of the coolest things!

 

Those are the 2 main places where the students or I am located when we are having whole group instructions.  Make sure to head over to The Applicious Teacher's linky to read about other whole group teaching areas through the eyes of other teacher bloggers...and go ahead, link up too!