The first one is Real World Mats for Grade 1. These mats, available in multiple grade levels, allow for the teacher to provide students with something extra - authentic experiences.
What I liked about these was that these mats contained topics that children recognize in their world's. I liked how the mats were in color and can be used with dry erase/wet erase. If one student or a pair were working together for an extension activity, the dry erase markings would answer the questions and it would be enough for assessment. The boards fold out and are big enough for little hands to write on and have enough room :)
There are also recording sheets that can be used for any work mat and these were easy to follow as well. The recording sheets I used when we did a center rotation for related topics and they were unable to write on the mats. An idea could be that if you wanted your children to still do dry erase they could erase before they go to their next choice center, however, it would be time consuming :)
Do what is best for your students and your classroom. The positives I take away from Common Core and working at such a wonderful school are student choice and individuality.
Do what is best for your students and your classroom. The positives I take away from Common Core and working at such a wonderful school are student choice and individuality.
The Real World Mats are great for math and language arts centers and can be also used as extension activities for enrichment or early finishers. I keep these in a reachable place so when students are finished with an activity, they can quietly choose a real world mat and have fun while working!
I also have the Carson Dellosa Reading Comprehension and Skills book (First Grade) - This was an important resource that really enhanced my curriculum. What I liked about this book is that each standard appears in the upper right hand corner of each page. The book is categorized and separated by skill and strategy, and I am able to pull from the book quickly whenever a topic arises. The students are also getting a lot out of reading paragraphs, underlining and highlighting key details and words, and performing an activity based on main idea, retelling, sequence, opinion, grammar, etc.
Take a look at some of these sample pages. These two examples are about writing opinions. The students read a short little paragraph and answer questions about the passage based on what skill we are talking about. Some of my kiddos are not fluent readers yet and the small readings help keep their stamina and attention.
Some of the passages are short, but some are also lengthier. It's a nice variety for different leveled readers. I did not take more pictures of us doing this activity since they were so engaged and busy working as I was facilitating :) Please let me know if you have any questions about these 2 products, but I highly recommend them! They have already helped my firsties a lot!
Disclaimer: Carson Dellosa sent me products in exchange for a blog post, but all opinions in this post are mine.
