Character Analysis

This is a wall display following some work on charcter analysis. Since students were already familiar with the book, Teammates, I used it for my exemplar. Each student selected a picture book that my librarian pulled for me (all books had characters with strong character traits). They read their text and then completed a draft of the poster using two details from the book they chose. 

Contracting Contractions

I made these contractions using 3 by 5 index cards. If you unfold them, you will see the two words that make up the contraction.

I have also made contracting contractions with the longer paint chips from a hardware store. They are brightly colored and quite durable.

I used the list of contractions in The Reading Teacher's Book of lists. They are neatly grouped for your use!

Evening,

I have been attempting againa and again to add a post. I have not been able to add except as Serendipty, which is the name I use for my art blog. I can write on my smartphone, but you know how long that takes.

I have some pdf files I wanted to upload this evening for you. For some reason, I can't get them to upload. They are the masters for my compound word puzzles. I will keep trying to load them for you.

I see that I have 9 followers! Thank you very much for following me.

Have a great night.

Interactive notebooks

This is a page from my interactive notebook. I grabbed a variety of paint chips for my students. My poem is about the color yellow and how I feel about it.

Vocabulary

This is a vocabulary word wall (in a jar) that I have posted in my classroom. I have the word written on it as well as the definition. Many of the words are the same as the Jenga game activity I described in an earlier post. After we read a book, entitled Miss Alanius, we added the word and definition for miscellaneous!

Center Activities

Here are some more activities I prepared for the workshop I did this past Monday. I hope to link them to Pinterest so more people can have access to them!

My Latest Workshop

Yesterday I taught a workshop entitled, Make It Today, Use It Tomorrow! After about an hour presentation of the 20 projects they could make, I let them go to town. The participants could choose any or all the projects I was featuring for the day.


The first photo shows my paint chip word families. I created these by using paint chips from home improvement stores. I am totally in love with paint chips and can't resist hoarding them! If you click here, it will take you to the blog I used to create this activity. Soon, I will upload the sheet I created for my workshop so you can make your own. You can make over 500 words from a few paint chips!


The next photo is a picture from my interactive notebook. We were reading a Marvin Redpost book at the time. My students were struggling with r-controlled vowel sounds, so we had a mini lesson. I used post-it notes and had students hunt for examples in our text. Since this photo was taken, I have improved the lesson by color coding the r-controlled vowels. I put er, ur, and ir on the same color post-it note because they make the same sound. We stick them on one side of our notebooks as well. The ar and or r-controlled vowel sounds each get their own color and go on the opposite page. 


The last photo shows my whisper phones and fluency folders. The whisper phones are PVC pipes from a home improvement store. I have two different sizes to give students an opportunity to make a choice. We use these for our independent reading or while we are using the fluency folders. These folders contain the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 100 phrases by Tim Rasinski. He is my fluency hero! When students do the fluency phrases in the folders, it is important that they use their index finger on their dominate hand. They need to scoop the phrase and read read it. They should progress from left to right and work their way down each page. This multi-sensory method really works, but you need to monitor students to make sure they aren't "cheating" the method. I also emphasize with students that as they are reading a phrase, their eyes should be already moving to the next phrase.