Journeys Reading Series – First Grade Activities

Journeys reading series for first grade can seem overwhelming when you first begin. There's so much content you may be wondering “How can I fit it all in?”

Well if that's how you're feeling, keep reading because I'm here to tell you there's not only a way to fit everything in, but you'll see huge growth in your students reading abilities too! 

How Do You Fit It All In?

One of the biggest questions people seem to have when they start out with the Journeys reading series is, “How am I ever going to fit all this in every day?” 

Oh man, do I understand that feeling!  When I opened my manual for the first time I felt completely overwhelmed.  I had no idea how I would possibly teach all of these skills to my students every day. 

But I soon came to realize what a really great program it was.  I love the way Journeys introduces the letters in kindergarten. It really does a great job of letter introduction so that you can move quickly into simple CVC words.  

Journeys Reading Series – Daily Word Study

In first grade, it's very similar.  Each skill builds on the one introduced before and it cycles back all year, so you never have to feel like your kids have to master something right away.  They keep reviewing skills over and over all year.  

But there's a lot of new skills every day. There are spelling strategies, phonics, new sight words, grammar and writing – every day.  Plus you have to make time for the Journeys assessments. 

How do you do it all? I knew I wanted to touch on all the Journeys skills every day, but it took up so much time. 

I decided to make a program that I could use on my interactive board – one slide each day that had all the daily skills we needed to work on – the First Grade Word Study. 

How Does The Word Study Work?

Each day there's a new slide with the skills we're learning that week.  We work on spelling and phonics strategies, our new sight words, grammar and we play a different sight word game each day.  

We spend about 15-20 minutes a day on this whole group lesson.  The kids enjoy it and we pack a lot into this powerful daily activity.

Each lesson is interactive, which gives the students a chance to come up and participate in the word study. Students use an expo marker to add letters to words, fill in missing words in sentences and play different word study games. 

If you're like me, and you feel overwhelmed by all the components of the Journeys series and are looking for a way to fit it all in, the First Grade Word Study  just may be your answer. 

My first grade team and I all use this every morning and it has truly changed our life!  We're finally able to teach all the necessary Journeys skills, while still having time for everything else – Math, Guided Reading, Science, Social Studies, etc.  

If you'd like to see everything included in the first grade word study,  hop on over here  where you can see the entire set.