Stamina Growing and Students Are Loving Read to Someone

HEY THERE!
We are half way through September.  I have three more reading tests to do and them all my students current Guided Reading Level will be known!  How are you doing with assessments?

Our stamina continues to grow!  I am so proud of my Multi-agers urgency to read and grow their reading skills!  Today they were able to read to someone and got right to it; now time to lose :-)  When we did check-ins and checked our stamina, many reported that they enjoyed reading to someone and were surprised how well they did.  All the partners choose 1 book to share; now what will two different books look like?

Smiles,

Need A Website That Recommends Book Lists?

Hello Teachers!
It's 88 degrees here!  Sounds like a name of a pop band :-)  I think this is Wisconsin's last run of warm weather for the year!  Believe me, I am eating up the sun rays.

So, are you hungry for a site that has multiple selections of books choices categorized by ages, awards, themes, genres, or/subject.  YOU ARE GOING TO BE SERVED DESSERT WITH THIS SITE:   Bookworm  It has been helping me choose books for Daily 5/Cafe and to meet the Common Core ELA Standards!  Not quite that far yet to be my best teacher friend, but close!  ENJOY!

                    

Literacy smiles to you,

Looking For A Comical Author-Guaranteed to Make Your Students Smile!

Anyone else feeling a TAD overwhelmed right now?  ANYONE?  

Guess what?  I might have the answer!  Yes, that's right.  Get your smile face ready!

Have you heard of Aaron Reynolds?  If not, type in Amazon in your browser!  He's guaranteed to make you chuckle, grin, and you will be enticed to read all of his publications.  Here are two of my favorites:

I cannot wait to share these with my Multi-agers!  Hmmm, maybe we will make some Salsa or Wings-kidding aside, please check them out if you need a happy moment!

P.S.  He has a new release this month!  I have yet to read it!!

His website:  Aaron Reynolds

Flaming hot smiles,
Rosie

I Found A New Series!!

HELLO!  IT'S HOT AND I MELT OVER THIS WEATHER WITH HAPPINESS!  93 degrees!!!

But, not only am I sunshiny smiley about this weather, I am beaming because I found a new series in our school library!!  WHO WAS....books!  Have you read any of these?  Not only do they meet some of my social studies standards they fit very well with the Common Core Standards!!  I read Who Was Daniel Boone? and am currently devouring Who Was Sacagawea?  Next, Who Was Helen Keller?


 

Literacy smiles,

Make An Online Comic!

JACKPOT!  I hit the online jackpot-ok..some of you probably have been on this site, but for those of you who haven't you can enjoy the wealth with me :-)

Go ahead and try this out:  Make beliefs comix

If you didn't yet..what are you waiting for??  (For those of you who did, how did your comic turn out?)

You get to choose how many frames you want, the color of the background, characters in your comic, and what type and how many speech bubbles you want.  PLUS, you can print it or email it.  HOW COOL IS THAT?  Oops, forgot you can choose from a variety of scenes, have students produce a comic together, and perhaps even make an entire comic book!!!

I am eager to try this with my Multi-agers...now what should be the focus of our first comic?

Smiles,

Adjectives and a Caterpillar-What's the Connection?

HAPPY EARTH DAY!
Today our school spent most of the day with our lights off to honor Earth Day!  Just like in the Colonial Times (we remembered that from our Colonial research).  Till the P.M. part of the day, we were very tempted to turn on the lights, but we RESISTED!  LOVE THE EARTH...Earth hugs!

Today we also used a caterpillar template to write and create an adjective caterpillar!  We used this template link as our rough draft and wrote down words to describe ourselves.  After conferencing, we traced the circles on construction paper and then rewrote the adjectives.  Next, we assembled our creepy crawlers!  Finally, we [resented our buggy friends!

Smiles,

Retell Forms and Rubrics

Tuesday; it will be a terrific Tuesday for sure!  But, first, my thoughts and prayers go out to any and all who are in harms way or know someone who is in danger due to Sandy!  May they all have comfort and strength from us, their loved ones, and our nation!

How do your students do with retells?  Do you have a scoring page to help you justify how you think they did?  Do you do nonfiction and fiction retells?  What do you score on their retells?  Have you ever recorded their retells?

In the past I have not used an "official form" but yesterday I found two on Reading A-Z that I will be using.
Here are the links to the forms:

Nonfiction Retell Rubric

Fiction retell rubric

If you use either one, please let me know!

SMILES and be safe!

Similes are as Hilarious as Me Tripping and Falling into a Box

 Wednesday!! We are officially on fall break!   Oh..and it is 65 HEALTHY degrees here! Guess who will spending the day getting caught up vs watching the leaves gently glide to the ground....me!  Busy as the wings on a hummingbird!

Ok..now to the main content of this post!  SIMILES!!!  Have you introduced them to your students yet?
You know these good old guys:  Happy like a bird in flight.  Tight as fuzzy skin on peaches.  Cold as scoops of frozen peas.  Strong as an ox.  Stubborn as a mule.  Fun like writing similes.

Here are three wonderful like sleeping in on Saturday books to share with your students:

This one is also presented on:  pbskids

Here is a BrainPOP Jr. video:  Click Here
Here is a list of activities and ideas as helpful as a cube of Post It notes for you to try too:  Click Here

When we get back from break we are going to write smilies about ourselves and our parents and make them into a class book!  I will be as happy as a Blue Jay who just spotted a slab of suet to share them with you!

Smiles!

Tah-dah! Here Are A Few More Pictures

It is a BRIGHT morning here in Wisconsin!  The forecast is calling for temperatures to be in the mid 70's.  For many Wisconsinites this is Weather Heaven!  Which makes me ponder, does your school have air conditioning?  Our school does not! But, we are testing out a few window units to see if we can create a comfortable learning climate without installing central AC. 

Just as the weather is a blessing, so is being able to feel a tad more at ease with the progress I am making in my classroom!  Gone are the following:  stacks of books to put in desks, teacher supplies to shelf, and folders to update.  Now, I just need to add a couple more locker tags, get my classroom door done, and finish my math binders and Guided Reading/Literacy materials.  Oops, I forgot, my math wall still has a "caution" sign on it-ok it does not have a sign on it, but I feel it should.  It still needs to be revamped!

Here are the 2nd set of photos:

Trucker Buddy wall-where we post our correspondences with our Trucker Buddy.  Take a peek to the right of the picture, see the AC unit?

Part of my Social Studies wall.  The curriculum for my level taps into parts of the government and there a handful of standards on geography, locations, directions, etc.  Oh, in case you are wondering, the plants love being an "active" part of the classroom!

The second part of my Social Studies wall-sorry about the sun!  Yes, that is the President and his family.  We write him every year and "he" writes us back!  I wonder who we will be writing this year?

My classroom library

Another part of my classroom library.  I could not forget the pillows!  My students curl up with their books and their pillows when they are reading.  I call it DIRT-Daily Independent Reading Time!

SMILES!!!
 

Additional Guided Reading Tools to Share With You!

Maniac Monday or Marvelous Monday-which one is it for you?  For me, a tad of both!  Just a reminder, today is the 2nd to the last day of June-I know, like you needed to be reminded, right?
Today I would like to share with you to more Guided Reading tools that I use with my 2nd Graders.  The first is my 5 Day Guided Reading Plan (I cannot take credit for creating the plan).  I have used this since I implemented Guided Reading (over 10 years ago).  It has been a mainstay in my Guided Reading binder!  The boxes are big enough to write and note comments, suggestions, strategies, interventions, group names, and texts to use!  In the side margins, I also write additional ideas (for instance if I need to additionally monitor one specific students volume or a student's reading rate, etc).  This, by far, is the most effective plan I have found for my needs and my wonderful and growing readers!  Here it is:  5 Day Guided Reading Plan

Do your students know what kind of readers they are?  Do you know your reading style?  Are you a Racing Rabbit, Slightly Confused Turtle, Smart Fox, or a Reflective Owl? Does it matter what you are reading? Do your students reflect on what type of readers they are either before, during, or after they read?  After your have a shared reading or a read-aloud, do you reflect on how you read?  When I have a Guided Reading group or even when  work with one student, I discuss reading styles with them.  I have them tell me what type they feel they are; I feel when my students are able to self-critique their reading styles, I am equipping them to become more reflective, strategic, active, and independent readers. Here it is:  What Kind of Reader are You?   

Have a MARVELOUS Monday! 
Smiles!

Two More Guided Reading Tools!

Happy Thursday...yikes, a few more days and it is August!  Have you been working around the clock in your classroom or are you avoiding your classroom because you fear it will become your second home?

I have been making steady progress in my library and Guided Reading/reading support area.  I'd like to share two tools with you that my students love to use when they are reading (in small group, independently, partner reading or whole group reading).  The first is a reading guide.  This is made from a plastic page protector.  I just took several assorted colored plastic page protectors and cut them in 1 inch strips.  I made sure that the page protector was shut so I had a Reading Guide that would be able to slide down the page and also fold under the following page.  My 2nd Graders love these!  Some had a favorite color, others had me choose a color for them-the element of surprise!  As they read the slide the guide down the page.  Students can use them as a "highlighter" by having the guide go across/over the words or use the guide under the line of words to help their eyes track the words across the line and sentences.

The other tool is a heart pointer!  All students should "heart" reading, right????  My 2nd graders use these as a pointer to help them track their words and stay on the line. I also use these to have them answer my questions.  For instance, point to a word that is a key vocabulary term; point to a word that has a digraph in it; point to a word that has two syllables! 

Hopefully, in the next two weeks my Guided Reading supplies, tools, and materials will be all organized!  More to come, Blog friends!
SMILES

Heart pointer and reading guide (sorry the
pictue is not the best quality)

Organizing Guided Reading Materials

This morning- yes on a Saturday- I went to school to tackle my Guided Reading Table.  The table was there, but another person walking into the room would have sworn I did not have one; it was that overwhelmed with materials that I needed to reorganize, sift through, and revamp!  This year I am going to have a much smaller class for Literacy (I am teaching 1st and 2nd Grade Science, Math, Social Studies, Technology, and Health).  I will only have 7 2nd graders for Guided Reading so I need to really examine how I am going to do Guided Reading groups and what my Literacy block is going to look like (I know,  I have less than a summer to have this ironed out). I did come across two items that I thought I would share with you that were really helpful last year and will be heavily used this year again.  The first is a Reading Strategies Bookmark  Each student had one that he/she could use and we would talk about the strategies they were using to make them successful 2nd Grade readers!  The second one, Reading and Thinking Strategies Bookmark, assists the reader with word attack skills!  It helps answer the question, What do I do if I can't read a word?  (on the prior link scroll down 3/4 of the page to find the bookmarks).  At the end of the year, I allowed my 2nd Graders to keep them; hopefully they would be friendly reminders to read over the summer!  Once I have my Guided Reading area and Classroom Library done, I will share some pictures with you!  SMILES!!!                       

ReadWriteThink- A Must Visit and Bookmark Site!

It is the 15th of July- yep it still is after I double check the calendar; I am not sure why this summer is moving by exceptionally fast.  Is it for you?
Today I'd like to share with you a must visit site:  readwritethink student-interactives My 2nd graders love this site and tomorrow I will be showing it to my summer school Tech Buddy students!  The link above will bring you to the student interactive portion of the site.  It has numerous A+ interactives for students to complete!  Also a bonus, the grades that the interactives are intended for are also posted next to the activity!  That will save you time when you are scrolling through the activities and trying to decide which interactives are best suited for your students!  A little side note, on the top of the Student Interactive page, make sure to click on All Student Interactives to get the entire list of activities!
Here are a couple of our favorites:

Make an Acrostic Poem!

Make a comic!

  







They could also make a timeline CLICK HERE TO MAKE A TIMELINE

ENJOY this site; please let me know what activities you enjoy or play to use with your students!