Guided reading groups are an essential part of every classroom. Sometimes it is hard to keep all the guided reading materials neat, accessible, and ready to go. I have two ideas that I've used the last few years that cut down on my prep time and have helped me to keep supplies for my students organized. By creating these time savers, you will be able to keep your guided reading groups running smoothly!
These guided reading supply baskets have been a time saver for me for sure! I started with enough Classroom Pencil & Marker Baskets for each student in my small group to have one. Most of my groups have 5 to 6 students so I keep 6 baskets on hand. Next, I add in a Black Dry Erase Marker, a Mini Dry Erase Eraser, and a Star Student Pencil. We use the Dry Erase Markers to practice writing sight words and letters on whiteboards. With the mini dry erase erasers, we are able to quickly erase our work and move on to practicing the next skill. Finally, we use the Star Student Pencils to help us track print. The star eraser on top is perfect for pointing to words in different texts and helps beginning readers remember to track print while they are reading. I set one basket in front of each student's spot (along with a whiteboard) so they are set up and ready to go when their group arrives at my small group table.
I used to spend time each Friday pulling out all the magnetic letters that my students would need the following week to help us make different words in our guided reading groups. Not anymore! I let my students do the work and the more we practice, the faster we get! I created a magnetic letter board for each one of my students. I printed out a sheet I purchased online that had each letter of the alphabet listed (along with doubles of some letters) and taped it to a magnetic cookie sheet. I then put some former students to work sorting out all the Plastic Magnetic Letters from the Lowercase Letter set and placing them on the corresponding letters on the cookie sheet. They made quick work of it!
When I have students come to my table for small group instruction we will spend the first few minutes writing words on our whiteboards and then move into making words with our magnetic letters. When we are ready to use them, I just hand out a cookie tray of the alphabetized letters to each student and we are ready to go! To find the letters we need quickly, I tell students to collect their letters in a certain order that sounds something like this, "On the top row of letters, please get the letters a, b, c, and f. In the second row down, find the letter m. In the third row, find the letter t." Each time we do this, we get a tiny bit faster, so by the time we are ready to make more complex words, they can find those letters quickly. We also get to work on letter recognition each time we are searching for letters, so that's an added bonus!
These two simple small fixes have given us so much time back to our guided reading groups and has made us over so much more efficient!
