iLearn Technology

What it is: We use the Treasures Reading curriculum (Macmillan McGraw Hill) at the school where I teach.  Although there are things I like about this curriculum, one thing that is in need of improvement are the activities provided for students to practice the skills that they are learning.  The activities don’t change from 1st-5th grade, are very repetitive, and do not encourage any sort of deeper thinking skills.  In an attempt to remedy this for our students, I went through each unit for 1st through 5th grade and pulled out the essential learning components.  I found activities that were engaging and required some deeper thinking to supplement what was currently in the curriculum.  As I worked to supplement the activities, I looked for a few things: 1. The activity could be completed with the whole class, using an interactive whiteboard or projector, or could be completed as a computer center (for the classroom with 2 or 3 computers).  2. The activities had to meet and reinforce the essential learning. 3. The activities had to be more engaging than what was already suggested.

How to integrate Treasures Reading Supplement into the classroom: These guides are meant to be a supplement for the Treasures Reading Curriculum.  They are designed to offer some extra ideas for helping students to practice and solidify learning.  You will find a few activities that are meant for offline use such as a whole class bingo game or partner matching games.  You will also notice some suggestions for Promethean activities.  I created some supplemental flipcharts for our teachers to use that I am happy to share if you can use them. (I hope to have these up on Promethean Planet soon).   Many of these activities can be completed as a center activity in the classroom.  We don’t always have access to a computer lab of computers.  In the classroom with a few computers, set up a weekly rotation so that your students can complete some of the online activities.  Some of the games and activities are also appropriate for whole class participation.

In my classroom, I like to play games with my students.  I will often split students into teams where the teams will take turns working through a game.   Students love the extra layer of competition being timed.

In my reading classroom, I  had literacy groups that I met with every day.  Each day I met with a new group (those students who were in need of remedial reading met each day of the week).  During literacy group time, the group that I was working with read the story for the week, learned and practiced key essential learning together (phonics, grammar, vocabulary) , and worked on building comprehension strategies.  While I worked with my smaller literacy groups, the rest of the class  worked through independent literacy centers.  At the beginning of the week I explained all of the centers for the week.  Because my classroom had limited space, I put my centers into colored tubs that rotated around the classroom.  Each day a small group of students received a center tub.  The tub has all of the necessary supplies and directions for that center.  One of my centers always involved the classroom computers.  Sometimes the centers were inquiry based, sometimes games, and sometimes additional reading practice.  Every week, each student completed each center activity.  In the meantime, I was able to work one on one with my literacy groups.  This worked really well in my classroom and technology made it easy for students to work at their own level independently.

The guides are below in ebook format using Issuu, they have been separated by grade.  Even if you don’t teach the Treasures Curriculum, everything has been arranged by the learning focus, these overlap in most curricula.  You may find some great activities that meet your classroom need here:

First Grade:

Second Grade:

Third Grade:

Fourth Grade:

Fifth Grade:

*Note: The fourth and fifth grade spelling lists on Spelling City do not come from the Treasures curriculum.  The fourth grade uses Houghton Mifflin and the fifth grade has generated their own lists.

For a list of all of my publications check out my library on Issuu.

Leave a comment and share how you are using the Treasures Reading Supplement in your classroom.