And the conversation goes...."We just got Wonders and there are sooo many resources!" I have heard this from many teachers who have just adopted the Wonders Reading program. I agree that there is far more than one week's worth of material available. Each teacher really doesn't have a choice, but to choose the aspects that are most crucial and beneficial to the students. It is best to examine all the resources and choose the ones you think best fit your students' needs, but having some backbone to start with is also nice. Here I am to share with you how we use the resources from Wonders, how I pull in other activities, and how we find time to also assess.
Like many classrooms there just isn't enough hours in the day to perfectly devote enough time to each subject. I teach at a religious school, so we also teach religion. When we first adopted Wonders I taught with a 10 day plan. This gave me the opportunity to really see what resources I found most useful.

Vocabulary: We begin our weekly vocabulary routine with a cloze activity. These are so fun and allow for some deep conversations about context clues. All my vocabulary activities can be found in my TPT store! Click the pictures below to take you there!
Reading: Our reading routine begins with the Reading/Writing workshop book. The students and I work through the shared read for the week using the accompanying skills sheet from Math Tech Connections. I LOVE LOVE these sheets because they introduce all the skills for the week in a quick, kid-friendly way.

Reading: Tuesday we continue working with through the shared read as a class and completing the skills sheet.
Vocabulary: The third day we work to complete the synonyms/examples and/or antonyms/non-examples.


Vocabulary: The fourth day we continue to complete the synonyms/examples and/or antonyms/non-examples.
Reading: Thursday's reading plan includes finishing up a bit of the graphic organizer if it wasn't complete from Wednesday as well as the entire anthology story. As a class, we then complete my text dependent questions. You can access these by clicking the image below. It will take you to my TPT store for purchase. For the first semester or so we do this together. I model complete sentences and using the questions in the answers. Usually in the spring students are independent enough to complete it independently and/or with a partner. We also have designated chromebook time in the afternoons on Thursdays where the students take the Accelerated Reading test over the main selection anthology story and then work on the Connect Ed website and play Wonders Reading games.

Of course before completing the spelling test we play SPARKLE. Kids LOVE this game! It is so simple and gives them one last chance to hear the word right before the test. The kids stand in a large circle facing inward. One student is given a word, he/she must say the first letter, next student says the second letter, and so on until the word has been spelled. The NEXT student says sparkle and therefore the NEXT student is out. This child who is out sits down and play continues around the circle. This is a fast-paced game that allows all children a chance to win, not just the good spellers.
Vocabulary: The final day of the week we do one last vocabulary practice with a crossword and then complete the weekly assessment that is included in the Wonders series.
Reading: Friday is traditionally assessment day, so we also complete the Weekly Assessment Test from the Wonders series. These tests are made up of two cold reads with 10 questions each. With some of my class being below grade level, as in all classrooms, we can not get through two reads. I just copy one of the cold reads with the 10 questions and then just adjust the written response from the back to only include information from that one story.