Journeys' “Blue Button”

Hi-ya, peeps! How are ya?

We’ve had a great week in our neck of the woods. It’s been a busy one and I’m getting ready to comb through data to prepare for our first week of small group/guided reading. {Pray for me!} Ha! I love looking over it all because it’ll provide me with my starting line for instruction. And admittedly, I get a little worked up before I calm down and begin planning. Standing at the starting line can be a tad overwhelming looking at how far you have to go. Will we get to the finish line? Yes sir’ee, we sure will! We’ll have fun, work our little hineys off and press forward toward the goal of leaving first grade as independent thinkers, readers, and writers.

As we begin our journey, one of the tools that we use is an online component of our reading program. Our routines for Daily 5 are all in place. We’ve built our stamina up to a good place to begin pulling small groups. Now you’d think this post would be about small group, but it ISN’T. Stick with me….my mind wanders {but usually to good places}.

IF you use Journey’s reading series, you’re one lucky duck! It’s one of the fantastic resources we use that is full of great pieces for the {balanced literacy} classroom. One of the components of the series is an amazing website that provides supplemental materials that include the online version of the student books.

  www-k6.thinkcentral.com

See that little button? I don’t know what its official name is so I call it the “blue button”. Well, if you click on it, it’ll take you to a few hidden treasures! Did YOU know they were there? Well, our team didn’t, but we sure were happy to have found it. Now we have another tool to throw in the toolbox for our mini-lessons…(before getting down to the nitty gritty in small group).
 


When you click it, it brings up a choice of grammar, phonics or comprehension skills practice in a attention grabbing, colorful, game-like format.



This is an example of the grammar game. The focus is adjectives. As each word pops up on the screen, the little character changes to reflect the description provided by each adjective. Fun. Interactive. And visual…





This hungry frog eats the fly that says the correct vowel sound. I definitely wouldn’t want to be THAT fly! Yuck, lol!

When you click on the comprehension tab, it brings up a story that is connected to the theme of the main story to listen to reading and make connections. You get the picture. Great resource, huh?

If you might’ve been wondering about that little button, I hope this post helped you to discover another tool to toss into your toolbox to guide your “littles” toward being thinkers, readers, and writers too.

I’ve been asked several times about pacing and how we move through the course of the day, so I’m working on a post to answer that question. I should be able to wrap it up this weekend…should be! I’ll see ya soon…the kids and I are off to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.

Enjoy your weekend!