For the Love of Reading

This year my school has started using a new series for reading from Lucy Cawkins. My school is a big supporter of Lucy Cawkins. We started using the Lucy Cawkins writing units about two years ago and we have seen great success in our students' writing. Since we've had such success, we decided to try out the BRAND NEW, just released Lucy Cawkins Reading Units of Study. Our school was actually the very first school to purchase and receive training on the kits due to the persistence of our fearless leader!! We are so excited to see what this year brings with these kits and we are already enjoying the different parts of reading it incorporates. 

If you are interested there is all the information you will need at this web link:

http://www.unitsofstudy.com/teachingreading/default.asp

Our first unit/book is "We are Readers" which focuses on helping students find a love for reading and understanding the foundations of learning to read. The kit includes some GREAT resources which I LOVE!!! It includes trade books which are considered "mentor texts"that help reinforce learning throughout the units and provide great examples for each teaching point. The kit also includes large post its which stick to chart paper for the anchor charts that go with the lessons. The post its include pictures which help students refer to the chart even when they aren't able to read the words yet. They are super easy to use and help in prep time! There are also small post its that include questions for read alouds (which are the trade books included). This makes it very easy as well. 

My students have really enjoyed the different parts of the kits. The kit includes: read alouds, readers' workshop, shared reading, and small group reading.

Right now we are reading "old favorite storybooks"so my students are enjoying reading and retelling the stories. 

This picture also shows one of my students using another one of my reading tools. Blaire is using one of our "whisper phones" which helps her hear herself read and emphasizes on phonics". The phones make reading more fun for students and they are super easy to make. 

If you are interested in making some "whisper phones" of your own here is a link to another blog which goes into more detail. 

http://teacherificfun.blogspot.com/2013/02/diy-whisper-phones.html

We also use technology during our reading time. At my school we use Starfall to learn reading and phonics skills. 

You can visit Starfall.com to see all the fun learning opportunities for K-2 students. 

That's all my reading insight for tonight. Hope I helped someone learn something new today! :) 

Behavior Clip Stick

After many request I have decided to repost the behavior stick I am currently using with directions and helpful tips for those who are interested. 

The concept came from the clip up clip down method that's popular now.

Here is an example from TPT:

My colors were a little different since I was trying to stay as close to our school behavior colors as possible. I chose: 

Orange for "Super Student"

Pink for "Great Job"

Green for "Ready to Learn"

Yellow for "Think about It"

Red for "Teachers Choice"

Blue for "Parent Contact"

The thought behind using a stick instead of simply posting it on the wall in my classroom is the concept of it being moble. The stick can be taken anywhere in the school and students immediately see the results of their actions, whether positive or negative. 

 

Directions on how to create the behavior clip stick:

You will need: 

** a yard or meter stick

**Multiple colors of paint (with a primer base to ensure only one coat is needed)

**a clothes pin for every child in your room with their name printed on it 

**permanent marker or print outs for each sections title

Step One:

Create one clip for all your students with their name printed on top. (You can spray  paint the clips before printing their names to give a nice look to your stick.) I chose to do two different colors, one for girls and one for boys. This was just a visual for some of my competitive students to see who was doing better and also makes it easier for me to locate the student on the stick as I move them. 

Step 2:

Place all of your clips on the yard stick starting at 0. Alternate the clips on both sides of the stick for the shortest amount of space. After placing all the clips on the stick write down how many inches your whole class of clips takes up. This will help in determining the amount of space needed for each color on the stick. Green will need to be large enough for all the clips since that is where every student will start. You decide based on the class size and amount of colors how large each section will be. As you will see on my stick, the positive areas are much larger than the negative to encourage positive behaviors. Deciding this before painting will ensure each color has an adequate amount of space on the stick.

Step 3:

After deciding how much space each color needs, you are ready to paint. Start at the top of the stick (0) and work your way down, painting according to the measurements you decided on for each section.

Step 4: 

After paint is completely dry, write the title of each section on the color such as "Super Student". (You can also print out the titles and glue them if you don't want to write it out.)

Step 5:

Clip all students to green and you are ready to use your behavior clip stick. Remember that any behavior plan is only as good as the understanding of the students you are using it with and the consistency of the user. 

Finished product will look something like this:

My Newest Find: Bouncy Bands

While surfing blogs today I found the perfect thing for my little "fidgeter" this year. They are called Bouncy Bands. This is probably not a new thing, but it is the first time I have seen it so I was super excited to try it! I don't know about you, but I have a student in my room that simply can not be still no matter where she is. I am going to try this to see if she can focus while working. 

         

According to the website: "Bouncy Bands for Chairs help students move while they work. Children enjoy bouncing their feet and feeling the tension to relieve their anxiety, hyperactivity, frustration, or boredom. The support pipes attach to the Bouncy Band to prevent them from slipping off the chair legs and becoming a nuisance."

For those of you interesting in this product, they can be found on Amazon from around $12 each. The blog I found them on was using Donors Choose to fund getting them for all her fidgeting students. Just a thought in case some of you have too many "fidgeters" to fund bouncy bands for. 
I'll be sure to blog again about my new find after I've had a chance to try it out!