Hi everyone, it's Becky! I wanted to share a new product I made over the weekend for some of my advanced kiddos. This year I probably have the widest span of reading levels I have ever had. Out of my 24 students, I have about 6 at a level B, 3 all the way at a level L, and all of the others in between! We do such a great job of focusing on our below basic and basic students in my school, but we need to beef up our support for the advanced students. I need them to move this year as well! So one of the ways I decided to do this was with challenge spelling lists.

My school district uses the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Journeys reading series. In this series, there are 30 lessons which each last 5 days. Each lesson also focuses on one or two phonics patterns, and include spelling words that follow these patterns. The idea is that if the students have learned the phonics patterns, they should be successful on the tests. I begin each lesson with a pre-test to see how much my students already know about the pattern I will be teaching. This year my students who are at a level L, and some of my other students, have been consistently getting 100% on the pre-test. I give challenge words to any student who receives 100% on their pretest. I realized I didn't have any extension/practice pages for them like those I have bought from other TPT sellers for the regular spelling words. So before starting Unit 2, I decided to make a challenge words packet, complete with those very pages! You can get this packet here in my TPT store! 

This product includes a list of challenge words for each lesson, 6-10, from the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Journeys first grade reading series. The first two challenge words for each lesson are the same two listed as "challenge words" from the series. The other six are more challenging words that follow the same phonics pattern the students are learning for that corresponding lesson. Along with the challenge word lists for students to take home, there are also four other activity pages for each lesson which include a trace it and write it page, a word search, a code breaker page, and a color/decorate it page. This is a great way to provide differentiated spelling practice for your above level students!

When I give the spelling test, all students have the same spelling test paper. I have my challenge word kids write "Ch" on their paper. I then go through the test and first announce the regular spelling word, and then the challenge word. The students know which list they have, and have been great at listening and writing the correct word for them on their paper.

Finally, I wanted to leave you with a little freebie for Fire Prevention Week! We have a "Safety Day" at our school, where the firemen, police officers, and other emergency workers bring their vehicles and show us the importance of being safe. (The kids love it!) We then write thank you notes to show our appreciation! Feel free to grab this freebie if your school does something similar and you could use it! (Click on the picture to take you to the link!)

That's all for now! Have a great week!
~Becky

Hi everyone, it's Becky! I'm linking up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for October's Currently! 

Listening: ALO-Pobrecito Greg just downloaded a few new songs today, so we're sitting here listening to the new tunes. Diggin' it!

Loving: Urban has been really tired and cranky in the evenings lately, so we've been putting him to bed a little earlier. That leaves a little more time to play with Gray before we do his bedtime routine and read books. He has been choosing to play the lowercase version of the Alphabet Recognition Parking Lot I created for him. I am proud to say that he is now identifying all of the lowercase letters! He is reading the cards for himself (and us), and has started telling us where we need to drive our cars too! The next step will be moving on to the pictures and matching the beginning sounds with the letter! 

Thinking: That you should really register for my giveaway! Even if you don't have a baby, I'm sure you know someone who does! They also make cute shower gifts! Who doesn't love a baby in baby legs?! And EVERYONE could use a $10 TPT gift card! I know you have items on your wish list! 

Wanting: Dresses with leggings and boots are my fall and winter staple! I love them and can always use more! I also love fleece lined leggings! Perfect for days when you have outdoor recess duty but still want to wear a dress! They feel like sweat pants inside, but look super cute on the outside!

Needing: In years past, we have held our conferences the week before Thanksgiving. However, this year we are having our conferences the week of October 20th. With two in-service days and a field trip the week before, I know that I will be very busy! So, I really need to get my papers and assessments together so I can fill out my conference papers!

Trick: I have been wanting to share my grading trick, but never seemed to fit it in, so now is the perfect time! Since number grades don't usually mean anything to first graders, I use Mrs. Triangle to show them how they did on assessments. Curly hair means they got everything correct (You are awesome!). Straight hair means they may have gotten a few wrong, but they still did well (Rock on!). No hair means that they had some difficulty and we will work together to do better next time. No triangle means they didn't do so well, and we will need to work REALLY hard to improve! (This idea was not of my own invention, but one from a training I attended. It has worked wonderfully with my kiddos!) 

That's all for now! Be sure to check out the Currently posts from fellow bloggers and register for my giveaway! The giveaway ends Thursday night (10/2) at midnight!

Wishing you a wonderful October,
~Becky