It’s week 3 of the #TPTSellerChallenge!  This week is all about creating a masterpiece!

Let me tell you what, I’ve created just that!  This labor of love has taken me several months to complete.  But guess what?!  It is finally FINISHED!  It’s also the sibling of my best selling [Math Intervention Binder].

Before I jump into the specifics of my [Reading Intervention Binder], I’d like to share a bit of background on how intervention is done in my classroom.

First, lets start off by taking a look at when intervention happens in
our classroom.  Each day (Monday-Thursday) we are fortunate enough to
have an Intervention Team (I-team) visit for a 50 minute block.  The
block is divided into two 25-minute portions.  During this time, the
Tier 3 kiddos work with an I-team teacher, while Tier 2 kiddos work with
me.  I do one rotation of literacy, then one rotation of mathematics. 
While all of this is happening, Tier 1 kiddos work on various activities
(AKA centers) such as iPad apps, math/literacy centers, read to self,
etc (similar to Daily 5 without the mini-lessons).

On Fridays we still have I-Time but the I-Team doesn’t visit the
classroom.  I use this time to meet with some of my Tier 1 kiddos to
make sure that they are getting the necessary extensions that they need
to keep advancing.  This is also the day that my Tier 2 & 3 kiddos
get to independently work during I-time through centers activities practicing the
skills that we have been focused on throughout the week.

All of this is great, but who has the time to make a bazillion-and-one
activities to target all of the MANY, MANY skills that we should be
covering during intervention???  I know that I don’t!  Time with kiddos
during intervention is so precious that I need to be prepared, ready to
go, and in a hurry!

Fortunately, this [binder] has almost a bazillion-and-one activities!  Let’s take a look.

The binder is conveniently organized into 6 sections:  Phonological Awareness, Comprehension, Concepts of Print, Phonics, Vocabulary & Word Structure, and Writing.

These sections are designed to help you target specifically where a student is struggling (and easily)!  They are also aligned to the NWEA Map Test.  If your school uses MAP testing as a progress monitoring tool, this is perfect for you!  It’s also a fantastic school if your school does not use MAP testing!  My new school does not participate in MAP testing, but I will still use this resource daily because I have seen how effective it can be!

 Here’s a closer look at what skills are covered in each section.

Phonological Awareness

Concepts of Print

Comprehension

Phonics

Vocabulary & Word Structure

Writing

In honor of the #TPTSellerChallenge, my [Reading Intervention Binder], [Math Intervention Binder], and [Reading & Math Intervention Binder BUNDLE] are all on sale until July 2, 2015!

Visit any of the hosts of the challenge to see lots of other fantastic masterpieces!

[Third in Hollywood]

[Sparkling in Second]

[Peppy Zesty Teacherista]

[Teach Create Motivate]

First off, today through Wednesday is STAAR testing (our state accountability exam).  During this lovely period of time K-2 gets to pretend that we don’t exist – I kid, I kid.  Well, sort of.  We really do have to nix the outdoor recess, stay super quiet in the halls, have grouped specials… the list goes on.  Needless to say the kiddos start to get a bit antsy after being cooped up so long.  (Hence the zoo reference part 1)

Luckily we will be visiting the Dallas Zoo for our Spring field trip next week so we are learning all things zoo animals leading up to it!  This is helping to keep us a little more motivated to learn.  (Hence the zoo reference part 2 – see, I kept my word!)

For today’s Monday Motivation post I want to share a new resource that I created to accompany our zoo unit.  I love this pack for the ease of bridging literacy, science, and social studies!

The plan is to focus on one animal per day during the literacy block and then again during the science block (double whammy!).  As we complete each page of our journal I am collecting them so that we can compile them later on.  I chose to print the writing page and labeling (science) page for each animal front and back to keep it simple.

Today we started off learning about elephants with a fantastic story called “Elephant’s Story” by Harriet Blackford.  Can I just say that the kiddos were enthralled listening as the elephant grew up.  This is such a great book for introducing just enough factual information, while following an engaging story line.

After we finished “Elephant’s Story” we created a class Can/Have/Are chart.  I love how much the kiddos had already picked up on from just our first exposure to elephants.

I think Can/Have/Are charts are so awesome for getting a ton of information into one space AND are super helpful for struggling writers because they can easily pull pieces from them to write sentences if needed.

You can also see two of the other books we used throughout today (one for a quick Read Aloud filler, the other for our non-fiction science lesson).

After verbalizing our knowledge about elephants, it was time to write!  I am just so proud of how far my little writers have come this year.

I love how matter-of-factly this friend let’s her reader know that elephants do not eat peanuts, LOL!

Here’s a look at a friend hard at work labeling the parts of an elephant.

If your class is visiting the zoo this Spring, I hope this will inspire you to get your kiddos brains soaking up knowledge about the animals that they will be seeing at the zoo!  Click the picture below to snag your freebie by downloading the product preview!

Buckle up!

First, lets start off by taking a look at when intervention happens in our classroom.  Each day (Monday-Thursday) we are fortunate enough to have an Intervention Team (I-team) visit for a 50 minute block.  The block is divided into two 25-minute portions.  During this time, the Tier 3 kiddos work with an I-team teacher, while Tier 2 kiddos work with me.  I do one rotation of literacy, then one rotation of mathematics.  While all of this is happening, Tier 1 kiddos work on various activities (AKA centers) such as iPad apps, math/literacy centers, read to self, etc (similar to Daily 5 without the mini-lessons).

On Fridays we still have I-Time but the I-Team doesn’t visit the classroom.  I use this time to meet with some of my Tier 1 kiddos to make sure that they are getting the necessary extensions that they need to keep advancing.  This is also the day that my Tier 2 & 3 kiddos get to independently work through centers activities practicing the skills that we have been focused on throughout the week.

All of this is great, but who has the time to make a bazillion-and-one activities to target all of the MANY, MANY skills that we should be covering during intervention???  I know that I don’t!  Time with kiddos during intervention is so precious that I need to be prepared, ready to go, and in a hurry!

Alright, fast forward to the [Math Intervention Binder]!  This baby truly makes my 25 minute math rotation a BREEZE!  I have all of the resources that I need at my fingertips in order to help my kiddos master a multitude of skills.  I don’t have to make copies, laminate, cut out, etc. any other resources for my intervention time (I still do this for the other centers activities!).

 Beyond the functionality of this resource, I just love how it looks sitting on my small group table!  It literally makes me want the time to pass by so that I can meet with my small groups.  Let’s take a look at what’s inside!

I keep extra copies of my intervention logs right inside the cover for easy access.  I generally keep my notes pretty simple – activity/observations/days present, etc.

 My school uses the NWEA MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) Assessment 3 times per year to assess student progress.  I really wanted to create a resource that aligned to the MAP test, but also aligned to just the state standards, Common Core, etc.  That way this resource could be helpful to ALL K-2 teachers, rather than just those who teach at schools using the MAP test.  Therefore the sections included in the binder are as follows:

Number Sense 

I choose to utilize this resource as a binder with each page inside of a page protector so that the kiddos can write on them in dry erase marker, then erase them for next time!  Hello time saver!  However, you could make class sets of specific pages to use as an independent practice, homework, centers activity, etc.  It truly is a versatile resource!

This makes it so easy for me to have 3 different kiddos working on different pages or skills at the same time because they are all organized in one place!  Let’s face it… just because you have 3 kiddos in an intervention group DOES NOT mean they all 3 need to work on the exact same skills.  But, how can you manage having three 5-year olds work on different skills at the same time??  When it’s as a simple as pulling out one page that targets each kiddos needs, it starts to become a lot easier to target those areas of need!

I don’t know how I even attempted to differentiate small-group instruction without something like this before!

Here’s a couple videos of the binder in action!

Here is a kiddo working on a page from the number sense section. You can even here the little one next to him who is working on another number sense page for numbers 11-20.  Differentiation, people! 

And, here’s a kiddo working on addition.  This activity is from the computation section.

You can check out the [Math Intervention Binder] on my [TpT Store]!  It’s suited for Kindergarten and 1st grade students, but is very applicable to struggling 2nd grade students as well.