Hey, Hollywood! EOY

Oh my WORD. Who is ready for the year to be OVER? This coming from the girl who bursts out crying as I write reports and put the final "we have cherished our year with xxx. We will miss him/her dearly and wish XXX all the best in second grade" because I know I won't see my littles next year. I am in a weird place of wishing the year was over about 3 days ago, yet also wanting to freeze time and capture every little smile, laugh, story, lunch, morning meeting we are sharing together as a class. For. The. Last. Time. :( Such a conundrum. I think if there was a way to not make reports due at this time of year, it would make everything a zillion times easier. Anyone else out there do narrative reports? 20 students x 5 subjects at a page each = 100 pages worth of narrative reports. Luckily they are due 4 hours (right down to the wire) so I can finally BREATHE and get back to my newest passion- blogging and teacher instagram :)

Anyway, I wanted to share a little lifesaver that has been getting me through reading groups this week... Wait, reading groups this week? I didn't plan any of those! I'm reporting and assessing, DUH! ...'cause that's how every teacher wants to spend the last few moments of the year with their kiddos. YEA RIGHT.

Luckily, this activity kills two birds with one stone. My Hollywood Voices activity practices fluency and gives lists of short vowels, word families, diphthongs, digraphs, vowel teams and 150 sight words which means that while we are playing away, I am secretly assessing them on their mastery of these concepts.

The young readers snatch up a word list (you can differentiate by separating the easy from harder lists) then pick a Hollywood Voice card. They then have to read the word list as that particular character. I guarantee this will have you and your littles rolling on the floor laughing.