Pumpkin Patch Words!

Here is a fun activity I did with a preschool/kindergarten group yesterday!! We have been learning new sight words so I wrote the letters of their name and the letters of the sight words we have been working on randomly on a sheet of orange circle stickers.

Then, they spelled their name independently by finding the letters of their names. After that, I gave them a sight word (our word wall was right behind us, too, so they could refer to that if needed) and they spelled their sight word!

Students who needed a challenge also spelled out "my pumpkin patch".

Don't forget to add the stems!

I think they turned out pretty cute! :) 

Halloween/October Fun!

It is hard to believe it is already October! Time for pumpkins and fall fun!

One of my favorite books to read this time of year is Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano. 

After we read the book, we make our own Spookleys! It makes for a great bulletin board! It is hard to see, but we use pipe cleaners for the stems!

We also brainstorm safety rules for Halloween and trick-or-treating. Students break into groups to make posters and we hang them around the school!

We also invite parents out for a "Pumpkin Math and Science Day" where we do several math and science related activities with pumpkins!
(Sorry for the hard to see pictures! You can see some of the slides here.)

Last, but not least, you know I love a choice board! My Halloween Activities and Choice Board is the perfect incentive during holiday time! You can leave it out as an incentive for students who finish their work early.
OR
You can make it a whole class incentive where students earn an activity a day for nine days! Number the choice board 1-9 and have students vote on the activity they are trying to earn that day!

Of course, you can always use the activities separately without the choice board if you want! There are handouts included in the product for each activity that does not require plain paper. 

I hope you and your students have a great October!!!

My related products:
Halloween Activities and Choice Board!

Pumpkin Math and Science Smartboard Activity!

Holiday Activities and Choice Board!

 

 Choice Board and Activities Ultimate Bundle!

Celebrating Grandparent's Day!

One of my favorite Grandparent's Day activities has always been making a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast what school was like when the Grandparents were in 2nd grade to the current school year. 

Then, I got a Smartboard and it brought the activity to a whole new level!! My students had so much fun watching their Grandparents try to figure out how to write on the Smartboard! The Grandparents equally enjoyed the activity as they, too, tried to write on the Smartboard! We also had fun discussing how much technology has changed!

How do you celebrate Grandparent's Day in your classroom??

Book Study: Week 7 (Helping Struggling Readers)

It's week 7 (and the last week) of the #GuidedReadingGals' book study on The Next Steps in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson!

This week Amber from Barefoot in Grade School is hosting Chapter 7: Helping Struggling Readers. Go check out her page for a more in depth post about Chapter 7!

Chapter 7 is all about helping the struggling reader. I had a big ah-ha moment reading this chapter! At the beginning of the chapter, Jan Richardson gives you three steps to take when determining how to help a struggling reader: 

Step 1: Analyze your teaching

Step 2: Analyze student assessments

Step 3: Ask a colleague to observe the student

Step 4: Develop an acceleration plan

Ok, so I definitely analyze my teaching- I make sure my guided reading groups are consistently meeting, that I'm following my lesson plans, etc. I also analyze student assessments. I look at the student's running records, state mandated test data, anecdotal notes, etc. 

But....

I can't say that I've asked any colleagues to come in and observe any of my struggling readers. Jan Richardson says that with having an extra set of eyes and ears, you might learn things you didn't notice before...and she is so right! 

**Don't forget to check out Amber's post about helping struggling readers!

Check out each week of the book study by clicking the links below!
Week 1: Guided Reading- Center Rotations
Week 2: Guided Reading- Grouping Students
Week 3: Pre-A and Emergent Guided Reading
Week 4: Early Guided Reading
Week 5: Transitional Guided Reading
Week 6: Fluent Guided Reading
Week 7: Helping Struggling Readers

Buddy Journals

Have you tried buddy journals?

My first graders used to write to fourth graders and it was so much fun! These buddy journals taught my first graders how to write letters and gave the students in both classes a fun, real reason to write! 

I saved this particular journal because both students happened to move during the school year. It is a little old (only from 2007!!), so the pages have wrinkled some but they are still so cute to read. 

"Dear Daniel, My favorite sport is soccer. My favorite color is blue. I have a dog. Do you have a dirt bike? Do you have a cat? Your friend, Seth"

"Dear Seth, I do not have a dirt bike but I do have a motorcycle. And I do have a dog. But I do not have a cat. My favorite color is blue too."

You can see here that I wrote out some of the inventive spelling so his buddy could read it! I tried to stay away from writing on their letters as much as possible, but sometimes had to so their buddy would fully understand what they were trying to say. 

The relationship these kids formed by doing these buddy journals was amazing. They were so excited each week to trade journals and see what their buddy had to say. My favorite part was that it was a "real" writing experience which we often lack in school! 

Book Study: Week 6 (Fluent Guided Reading Part C)

It's week 6 of the #GuidedReadingGals' book study on The Next Steps in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson!


There are 3 bloggers blogging about Chapter 6- Fluent Guided Reading:
1. Melissa is guest blogging on Teacher Talk with Mrs. Sadler about Part A (p.178-199).
2. Brooke is guest blogging on Big Ideas for Little Hands about Part B (p.200-224).
3. ME!!!! I'm hosting Part C (p.225-251)!!!!

There is lot of great information in Chapter 6, so let's get started!!

Chapter 6 is all about the fluent reader- readers who are reading levels N+. These readers have mastered decoding skills so are ready to focus on comprehending challenging texts. 

Chapter 6 Part C (225-251) focuses on several comprehension strategies and how to scaffold them. Jan Richardson discusses cause and effect, character analysis, making inferences, poetry analysis, and more!

1. Scaffolding: Okay, so I've always known I needed to scaffold and I do scaffold my instruction the best I can, but sometimes it is hard!! My favorite part about this chapter is how Jan Richardson spells it out for you!! She gives you a strategy and then tells you exactly how to scaffold it. 

For example, when teaching cause and effect, she gives you 3 steps:
1. Flag the effect and students find the cause
2. Flag the paragraph that contains the cause/effect relationship
3. Flag the page that the cause/effect relationship is on. 

She even gives a paragraph with each step that further explains what you should do. She makes it so easy!! 

2. Character traits: Jan Richardson says you should introduce 1 character trait a week and connect it to someone they know (people or characters in fiction, fairy tales, current events, etc.). I love this idea! I can see even adding the weekly character trait as a bonus word on their spelling tests. Students would have to spell it and define it. 

She also cites how Manyak recommends having the whole school on board to teach character traits. This way, each grade level would be responsible for teaching about 20 character traits. Wouldn't it be nice to have the whole school on the same page? 

3. Individual Prompting: When students are reading silently and working on their independent writing responses, Jan Richardson says the teacher should conference with individual students. In this chapter, she states several questions to ask students you are conferencing with when they are stuck on something. 

Two questions really stood out to me:
1. What are you thinking now?
2. What questions are you asking yourself?

I don't feel like I incorporated questions like these enough. We have to teach students that readers are thinkers. We have to teach them to ask questions and to think about what they are reading and writing and asking these two questions will do just that! 

1. At the end of chapter 6, Jan Richardson lists several questions teachers often ask about fluent guided reading. One teacher asked if students can write on whiteboards instead of in reading notebooks. Richardson says you should use notebooks so you have artifacts you can use for evaluating students and I couldn't agree more! 

When I was in the classroom, all my students had guided reading notebooks where we recorded our word work, guided writing, and comprehension work. This past year, I worked as a remediation teacher and all my students had folders to keep their work in. I made quick little charts like the ones below for students to show their work on and keep in their folders. If you have notebooks, these can easily be glued into their notebooks. Once students get comfortable using charts, teach them how to create their own charts in their notebooks!

Character's Feelings 

Vocabulary 

Sometimes you just don't have any schema on a word! :)

Cause and Effect

2. In this chapter, Jan Richardson talks about the importance of reciprocal teaching. She talks about how you should start by teaching each strategy to the whole class. Then, have students practice one strategy at a time in guided reading groups. Once all the strategies have been taught and mastered, you can give students their own strategy card to work on independently. 

Another idea would be to create a comprehension puzzle. Give each student in your guided reading group a comprehension strategy on a puzzle piece. Then, after all students are finished, have them share their puzzle pieces and put the puzzle together!

1. Since this chapter is all about comprehension, I thought I would share my Reading Comprehension Choice Boards and Activities Bundle! It contains choice boards and activities for the following reading comprehension strategies:
~ Summarizing
~ Inferring
~ Visualizing
~ Making Connections
~ Questioning
~ Predicting
~ Schema

Each comprehension strategy contains a choice board with 9 activities. Handouts and activity sheets are included for each activity that does not require plain paper. 

Choice boards can be put into a center for students to work on independently... 

...or they can be used as homework, a whole group activity (number each activity and have students vote on the activity they want to do that day), or as a Fun Friday task during guided reading groups.
(I like to use Fridays as my day to catch up on anything we didn't finish during guided reading groups and a time to work one-on-one with students who need extra support. These choice boards are perfect for those students who have finished everything and are ready for an independent task!)

You may also like these:
Reading Comprehension Skills Bundle
(Contains whole group Smartboard lessons and activities for schema, inferring, questioning, predicting, visualizing, summarizing, and making connections!)


Character Traits Games and Activities

(Contains four fun character trait games!)

 

Character's Feelings, Traits and Motivations 
(Contains Smartboard lessons and activities for teaching about character's feelings, traits, and motivations!)

Cause and Effect 
(Contains Smartboard lessons and activities!)

Don't forget to check out Melissa at Teacher Talk with Mrs. Sadler and Brooke at Big Ideas for Little Hands!

Check out each week of the book study by clicking the links below!
Week 1: Guided Reading- Center Rotations
Week 2: Guided Reading- Grouping Students
Week 3: Pre-A and Emergent Guided Reading
Week 4: Early Guided Reading
Week 5: Transitional Guided Reading
Week 6: Fluent Guided Reading
Week 7: Helping Struggling Readers

And, check out the rest of the #GuidedReadingGals blog posts below!

Class Pets

Do you have class pets?

Back in the day (again- don't pay attention to the dates! I keep things for entirely too long), I had a lot of class pets. I put a journal at each class pet for students to record what they animal was doing. Students were allowed to write in the journals during center time or when they were finished with all their work. 

Our hermit crab's journal:

These were perfect because even my students who didn't like to write couldn't wait to write about our class pets!