Introducing Schema

When I sent out an email to my entire faculty asking 

"Does anyone have a lint roller in their classroom? I left mine at home and I need it for a lesson today!" I'm certain that I had people saying to themselves... what in the HECK is she doing that that classroom of hers? 

Did you know our brains are like lint rollers? 

We make our schema stick!

I saw this FABULOUS idea from Holly on her blog Crisscross Applesauce in 1st Grade!  What an amazing idea and I couldn't wait to do it in my classroom.

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First, I had my students write a fact they knew! It could be anything. Here were some of their sentences:

*Penguins can't fly.

*Hawaii is warm.

*I am seven years old.

We sat in a circle and I told them their brains are like this lint roller. As we learn, we gather up new facts and they stick to our brain! This is called SCHEMA.

I asked the students to tell me about their schema they wrote.

"I wrote about that Hawaii is warm because I've been there and I felt how warm it was!"

That is a perfect example. Some students might have read about Hawaii's weather and a few had actually been there. We can gather schema from many places (books, friends, experiences, etc.)

After we made our schema "stick", I asked the students to draw and label at least 5 things they have schema about! I made these "heads" on 11X17 paper so they had plenty of room to draw and write. They turned the heads into faces that looked like them.

You can download the schema head (haha sounds funny) HERE and another great printable from Holly at Crisscross Applesauce HERE.

Now that my students understand schema, we will continue to reference it and then move on to inferring!

Animal Word Helpers {Reading Decoding Strategies}

I know there are a lot of variations of tricky-word word helpers and these are the ones that I like the most!  They work great especially if you can find a stuffed animal (or Beanie Baby) that goes with each one.  I hang them right next to my guided reading table.

Using decoding strategies while helping your students become independent readers is very important! I like to link the decoding strategies with an animal to help my students remember them.

Animal Decoding Strategies:-Fly Eye (use the picture for clues)
-Lips Fish (get your lips ready for the word)
-Stretchy Snake (stretch the word and put it back together)
-Chunky Monkey (find a chunk you know in the word)
-Flippy Dolphin (flip the vowel sound)
-Skippy Kangaroo (skip the word, finish the sentence and come back to the word)
-Asking Alligator (ask someone for help)

Included:
Posters {color and B/W}

Bookmarks

Reading Sticks

Pennant Banner (see below)

"Word Helper" letters for bulletin board

I also made the posters into pennant banners! It turned out cute and I hope you like it! 

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If you want the posters ONLY, but also want lots of mini-lesson ideas. These packs are just it! 

(please note that only the posters are included with these- the bookmarks, sticks, banner, and bulletin board words are only exclusive to the pack that is posted above (Animal Word Helpers)

Teach 2nd Grade?
{Get your mini-lessons pack here}

3rd Grade Guided Reading Mini-Lessons

Does guided reading in 3rd grade seem daunting or maybe even boring? Or maybe you catch yourself doing the same thing every day? Are you ready for a switch? The 3rd grade team at my school is LEGIT and I idolize them (second only to my team, of course). SO... I teamed up with one of my favorite 3rd grade teacher-friends Brittany and we made this 236 page pack JUST FOR OUR 3RD GRADE FRIENDS! She's going to use it lots in her classroom and I know you will too. I actually had some super high 1st grade readers who could have benefitted from this last year.

This pack is full of ideas to help you plan for your guided reading mini-lessons for 3rd grade. These lessons are perfect for your small group, but many can be used in whole group!  This goes great with the Common Core State Standards and goes with ANY book (informational and narrative).  Included in this pack:

*Comprehension*
Narrative Spinner
Informational Spinner
Narrative Story Board
Informational Story Board
Comprehension Question Rings
Questioning Necklaces
First, Then, Next, Last
Making Connections Posters
Informational Text Feature Posters
Comprehension Questions {Graphic Organizer}
KWL  {Graphic Organizer}
Venn Diagram {Graphic Organizer}
Question Words {Graphic Organizer}
Sequencing Events{Graphic Organizer}
A Story Takes Flight {Graphic Organizer}
Author's Point of View {Graphic Organizer}
Cause and Effect {Graphic Organizer}
Moral of the Story {Graphic Organizer}
Book Club
-Job Card
-Book Club Bookmark
-Book Club Booklet
Making Inferences Task Cards

*Word Work/Phonics*
Consonant Blend Chart {for remediation}
Spelling Pattern Chart {for remediation}
Spelling Pattern Posters {for remediation}
Vowel Chart {for remediation}
Consonant Digraph Chart {for remediation}
Vowel team Fill-In {for remediation}
Decoding Word Questions
Decoding Word Bookmarks
Word Parts Posters (prefix, suffix, root)
-re, un, dis, pre, mis, er, est, ful, less, able
Word Part Riddle Board Game
Word Stairs Game
Multi-syllable Freeze
Monster Munch Game

*Fluency*
EARS Posters (expression, accuracy, rate, smoothness)
Fluency Rubric
Fluency Self Rubric
Silly Voices Cards
Sight Word Zap
Word-O
Fry Phrases {Remediation} (8 lists)

*Vocabulary*
New Word {Graphic Organizer}
Super Word {Graphic Organizer}
Word Wizard Poster
Word Wizard Book
New Word Fold and Cut

Teach Kinder or 1st Grade? 

{Get your mini-lessons pack here}

Teach 2nd Grade?
{Get your mini-lessons pack here}

Blend and Digraph Word Sliders

Word sliders are PERFECT to help your little ones with blending. These are blends and digraphs (I also have CVC and Vowel Teams).  They use a letter-sized envelope and slide each letter out and say the sound.  As they continue to pull out the word, they blend it together and then can do a self-check by looking at the picture.  I've seen HUGE progress in my students who struggled with blending. These are PERFECT for guided reading or RtI time.

   

I also have a CVC pack that is PERFECT for RtI!  My little guy that was struggling with blending, loves to whip these out and master them all!

Just added- Vowel Team Word Sliders!

Or you can buy them in a bundled pack for a discount! :)

Shared Reading

I love to use poems as my shared readings during my Daily 5 mini-lessons.  Last week we were memorizing the poem "The Chubby Snowman" and my students had a genius idea! They said we should write some fun things that we could use for the snowman's nose since it was eaten by the bunny.  THEY IS THO THO THMART! :)

So, that's what we did!  It was a little too simple of a writing (aka: fill in the blank) for my students, but they wanted to do it right then... so I whipped up a little something.  I think that maybe next week we'll write a narrative story about how they got their new nose.

Guided Reading Mini-Lessons {Games, Activities and Resources}

It's kind of like I had a baby and I'm just presenting it to the world. Just like when Simba was presented to the kingdom. ;)  I've worked SO hard on this pack because I needed it so badly for my own teaching and now I'm presenting it to you. Hopefully this pack helps you as much as it's helping me!  Sometimes planning mini-lessons in Guided Reading can be daunting, boring, monotonous, and down-right annoying.  THIS pack will give you ideas to help those young readers!

Perfect for kinder and 1st grade! But don't go...I have one for 2nd and 3rd (see bottom of post)

Do you want to know why this pack is my baby?  It's 250 pages and contains all of this:

Reading Skills:

• Word Decoding Strategies
• Word Question
• Word Question Bookmarks
• Guided Reading Journal

Comprehension:

• Narrative Spinner
• Informational Spinner
• Narrative Story Board
• Informational Story Board
• Comprehension Question Rings
• Making Connections Posters
• After Reading {Graphic Organizer}
• Story Map {Graphic Organizer}
• Text Map {Graphic Organizer}
• I’ve Got the Facts {Graphic Organizer}
• Using Clues for Predictions {Graphic Organizer}
• Character Countdown {Graphic Organizer}
• Word Web {Graphic Organizer}
• KWL  {Graphic Organizer}
• Venn Diagram {Graphic Organizer}
• Question Words {Graphic Organizer}
• Sequencing Events{Graphic Organizer}
• A Story Takes Flight {Graphic Organizer}

Phonics

• Alphabet Chart
• Consonant Blend Chart
• Spelling Pattern Chart
• Spelling Pattern Posters
• Vowel Chart
• Consonant Digraph Chart
• Consonant Digraph Posters
• Spelling Pattern Word Card
• Zap! Word Game
• Digraph Puzzles
• Short Vowel Fill-In
• Word Family Book
• Spin and Blend Chunks
• Monster Munch! Word Chunk Game
• Freeze! Word Chunk Game
• Long and Short Vowel Sort
• Long and Short Vowel Posters
• Word Stairs
• Zooming Sound Boxes

Fluency

• Sight Word Saber Game
• Sight Word Swat Game
• Fiddle Sticks Sight Word Game {Fry Words}
• Star Gazer Sight Word Find
• Fry Phrases {Group 1-4}
• Sight Word Mats
• Silly Voices Cards
• Sticky Note Sight Words
• Nursery Rhymes and Poems (6)
• Poetry Walk with Mr. Fuzzy

Vocabulary:

• New Word {Graphic Organizer}
• Super Word {Graphic Organizer}
• Word Wizard Poster
• Word Wizard Book
• New Word Fold and Cut

Here's 2nd Grade's:

Here's 3rd Grade's:

This page isn't included in the pack, but it's a GREAT tool to guide you in the right direction when picking a mini-lesson! This gives you an instructional focus for levels A-N.

Click {here} for the download

Students' Reading =Boring?

When I first started teaching, I never even thought to teach my students how to use expression when reading.  THANKFULLY, I had an amazing mentor teacher (Jessica, I miss you) and she gave me this idea... Turn the book "Mud Walk" into a week's worth of lessons about expression.  VIOLA! After that week, my students were sounding like professional narrators! ;)

So... we use Mud Walk to teach expression and it takes about a week.  Do you have this book? Maybe it's in your guided reading library (level H). This book has everything you need to show examples of great expression (exclamation points, question marks, bolded words, quotation marks, etc.). I go through the book at read it with great expression and then I read it like a robot. I tell my student we don't want to sound boring like robots and then I start with the first concept.  

Over 5 days, we go through how to read:

*a period

*an exclamation point

*a question mark

*a comma

*quotation marks

*bolded words

Luckily, I have a step-by-step list for you {5 day lesson}.... here's an example of what you can download for free! :)

I use the posters from my Punctuation Perfection {freebie} to show each punctuation mark. I also use highlighter tape to highlight each part.

Example of one of the posters:

Christmas Readers' Theatre

The other day I had a thought that it would be fun to do a Christmas-y readers' theatre with my students before we go on break. Thanks to good 'ol Google, I was able to find a couple good ones in just a couple clicks. 

Here's the 1st one I found called: 

{Source}

There are 15 characters total, so I'll be able to split my class up into two groups. 

I made some character tags that you can give to each character. Just punch some holes in the top and add some string and you're students can wear their tags around their necks.

I'm thinking that after a week or so of rehearsals we will "perform" our little show to a 1st grade class in our school. 

(Our class has a 1st grade class that we do reading buddies with. Each week for about 20 min, my 5th graders go down and read with the 1st graders. We LOVE it! Shout out to my friend, Misty, who is my reading buddy partner and has a really cool 12 Days of Christmas unit for sale at TPT)

I was also able to find another link to a fun Grinch readers' theatre.

(I have not yet made character tags for this one yet... but I might try to get them done tomorrow...)

Do you know of any other free links to readers' theatre? I'd love to know if I'm missing any good ones!

Reading in the Upper Grades

I thought I'd share some things today that may help you with the way you teach reading in the upper grades. If nothing else, I have some printables that you might be able to use in your classrooms. :)

1. Reading Conferences

I love conferring with my students! I love the one-on-one time I get with each student where I can genuinely focus on them. This sheet I made is very basic, but I love having a spot to give them feedback; I always give my students a positive comment and then one thing for them to work on.

2. Guided Reading

The best resources I've found for guided reading in the upper grades come from my bloggy pals at Lesson Plan SOS. You must check out their Become a Guided Reading Guru packet. Nothing I could say or upload could even come close to the amazing resources you'll find there. :)

3. Take Home Reading
(for my struggling readers)

I'm actually in the process of beginning a take home reading system for my struggling readers. I used ziplock baggies, put on a cute label, and made copies of this little document. I'll be sending home the bags on Friday and each day they should bring their bags back and forth between school at home. On Friday, they'll turn in the assignment and get new books. I'm excited to see how this will help my little cuties that need extra help! 

4. Raz-Kids

Our school is lucky! Our principal has bought every teacher subscriptions to this site for the past couple of years. It is an excellent resource for giving students access to books on their level. The comprehension quizzes at the end of each book, is a definite plus!! The listening and recording components are excellent for developing fluency, and the best part is the Rocket Room where students get to earn points for the books they read; it motivates students to work on this at home and to always do their best work. 

5. Literature Circles

I usually don't start my literature circles until after we come back from the holidays, but I wanted to share this now in case some of you are or will be starting soon. This is my literature circle booklet. I've been using it for the past couple of years, but I recently revamped the whole thing and uploaded to my TpT store. 

One thing I've struggled with in the past is how to keep my students accountable during their literature circles. This is what I've come up with: a booklet that runs students through the elements of literature and some of the reading comprehension strategies. 

The best part is these rubrics I've developed where students can rate them selves on their participation, effort, etc. I've also included a teacher copy, which I love! I love comparing the two scores and seeing if students are really grading themselves accurately. I've also included a reading journal where students can keep track of their days' reading. I've found that it helps keep students on track and accountable of their reading each day.

I will introduce this booklet during during our next read aloud, so I can teach them how to fill it out correctly and so all students know what is expected. Then, when I release them into their groups, they should know what I'm looking for.

If you like this, and feel it's something you'd like to use in your classroom, please stop by my TpT store and pick up a copy. 

Have a fabulous weekend!