The Magic of Wordless Picture Books

Wordless books are pure magic! They are great for igniting students' imaginations. Students can have loads of fun writing down the words that the illustrators have left silent.

Finding News to Use in your Classroom- Tech Thursday

Technology Thursday is a weekly linky dedicated to all things technology related. Check out our Linky Parties page for details on how to link up!

At the end of the year, I love focusing on Non-Fiction with my kids. We have used it numerous times throughout the year, but we really dive in during the last few weeks. It can be hard to find some news articles for my students. Over the past few months, I have found a variety of websites that my students just love!! I have compiled a list of go-to websites if you are looking at adding some news to your curriculum check out these websites!!

I hope you check out some of these websites or bookmark them for next year! Link up below with your tech tips!!

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Tech Thursday {Resources for your Reading Series}

Technology Thursday is a weekly linky dedicated to all things technology related. Check out our Linky Parties page for details on how to link up!

Today I'm sharing some tips on how and where to find resources for stories from your basal reading series. My school uses Scott Foresman Reading Street, so the resources I link will be specifically geared towards that, but you can use these tips & sites no matter your series.

1. Google it!

This seems so obvious, but it took me several months of teaching before I realized that I could Google the name of our series and find all kinds of websites filled with resources that teachers have created or curated for me! Some of my favorites for Reading Street are Waltke's Web, and Mrs. Lewis's Classroom. I recently found this site, which has close reads for each story. I haven't tried them yet, because we are in the middle of a novel unit, but I will when we start using our basal again!

2. Games!

We all know our students love to play games online, but who has time to create them every. single. week. (Not this girl!) The good news is, someone, somewhere DID have time! I can almost always find ready to go games on our favorite sites for our reading selections by searching the site, selection title (or sometime unit and week - U1W3, for example), and the series name. For example, I might search "Quia Reading Street Stretching Ourselves." My favorite game sites to search are Quia.com, Quizlet.com, StudyStack.com, and SpellingCity.com.

3. Prezi! 

Prezi has become so popular in classrooms, both for teachers and students to use in creating presentations. By default, most Prezi presentations are public, so you can find all sorts of great resources. I search for Prezis in the same way as games, "Prezi Weslandia."

4. Collect your resources!

Once I find resources I want to use with my class, it is vital to collect them all in one place for easy student access. There are a couple of easy ways to do this. I personally use a Symbaloo WebMix on my class's Weebly page. {Here's a post from a while back on how I set that up.) It's easier than it looks to create a cute, kid friendly site with no ads!

Before I learned about Weebly, I used a PortaPortal site to collect resources for my classroom. You can sort into folders, so it makes links easy to locate. It's not the cutest site on the block, but it works well, and it's free with no ads! PortaPortal is even easier than Weebly to create a site on, so anyone can do it!

Where do you find great resources to supplement your district's curriculum? (Special thanks to Juliet for teaching me some of these tricks!)

Link up and share your tech tips, tricks, and resources with us!

   

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Favorite Things Linky {February}

The Favorite Things Linky is a great way to share your 3 favorite anythings! Grab the template and button and link up below! If this is your first time linking up, check out our Linky Parties page for more details!

Do you teach theme? My students struggle with it every year. This year, I approached it a bit different. Instead of just talking about different themes, I read specific books with specific themes. We then charted out the themes as we went. That way, my students had a book to reflect on while thinking about the theme of their books and future books that we will read. So here goes... 

Let me break down the picture books and the themes that I use them for in my classroom...

This book is a fabulous book for teaching the theme of Courage. Molly Lou Melon is extremely short. She constantly gets teased by Ronald Durkin. She has some very special talents that help her overcome this bullying and stand out. Throughout the whole story, Molly Lou Melon has the courage to show her friends and classmates her talents. Ronald Durkin realizes his mistakes and the two of them actually become friends! We find out at the end where all of Molly Lou's courage comes from. This book is one of my favorites and one of my students' too! 

I chose to focus on Compassion for this book. You could easily choose the theme of friendship or empathy. In this story, Champ dislikes Walter an awful lot. For a fundraiser, the person who raises the most money will win a truckload of potato chips. After Champ breaks his leg in a game, he is unable to play baseball for the rest of the season and he misses the "big game". Walter scores the winning run and everything seems to be going his way. He wins the truckload of chips too! Throughout the story, we find out that Walter's mom is a single parent. They don't have much money and he has to ride his rusty bike everywhere. In the end, Walter shows Champ that it isn't all about having the best of everything. Sometimes it is so much more than that! {Spoiler Alert: They become friends!!!}

This book is a super cute. It is the story of, "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" only it has Bigfoot in it. Oh, and it is told from the point of view of Bigfoot. I think it gives the story an interesting perspective. Throughout the story, Ben keeps telling everyone in the town that he just saw Bigfoot. At one point, he even uses a prop to make gigantic footprints. Eventually, everyone decides that he isn't being honest and that he is lying. Then, Bigfoot actually appears! He says that he is intrigued by this tenacious little fellow. When Ben tries to tell everyone that Bigfoot is there and he is "stealing" his bike and his dog, no one believes him so no one comes to see. It wraps up by showing readers, that always telling the truth is so important! 

Can't wait to see what your Three Favorite... Anythings are! Make sure you grab the graphic/button above and link up below.

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Guided Reading "Must Have" Tools

Today I am blogging about my guided reading "must have" tools. These are tools that I use every day and I can't imagine guided reading without them. These are tools that I have found my students love and that I find helpful. So here goes.

We call these little glass stones "book bubbles". The pictures don't quite show it, but when these little stones are placed over the words... they work like a little magnifying glass. I found a bag of about twenty bubbles at the Dollar Tree. You can find them in multiple colors too!

The picture on the left shows our eyeballs. I found these at a local store for about $1.50 each. I have about 10 of them. They just slide on the student's finger and they use their finger to point to the text. (Usually the eyeballs are doing the reading... not looking back at them... hehe.) The picture on the left shows my kiddos VERY favorite pointer that we use. These "later fingers" were found at the same store I found the eyeballs. They were about $3.00 for the pack of 4. So of course I bought 5 packs! :) I bought them 2 summers ago and I have only opened 2 packs for guided reading! The batteries have lasted a long time. My kiddos strap the little light on their finger and use it as a guide while they are reading.

The first picture is my absolute classroom MUST HAVE. Post-its are everywhere in my classroom. We use them at guided reading for snapshots (quick thoughts that we are feeling about the text), recording text evidence and making connections! This pile of post-its is a permanent fixture on my guided reading table. The second picture shows my next favorite tool! I absolutely love using these plastic plates for practicing spelling, sight words and responding to text. I found them in packs of 4 at... yet again... the Dollar Tree. (Just a side note... if you are looking for some great personal whiteboard erasers.. go to your local Dollar Tree and buy some of their facial scrubber thingys. They work fabulously and you can just throw them in the wash every month or so!)

 These little pointers are just erasers from (you guessed it... the Dollar Tree) on some bright-colored pencils! I mean... just look at those erasers! What kid wouldn't want to point with a little duck or frog... monkey or baseball!

I snagged these posters from the fabulous Amy Groesbeck! I just have to say... these posters are great. I change them out each week depending upon which reading comprehension strategy we are using that week. I just staple them to the bulletin board right behind my guided reading table. My students refer to them all week during guided reading.

The first picture shows some Rolling Comprehension pages that I found in Tammy Staser's store. My students love to roll the dice and then respond to reading! It is so easy!! The second picture shows these amazing Bloom's Taxonomy questions that I found a few years back. I have searched HIGH and LOW for them... but can't seem to figure out where I got them. I remember laminating them when I was in college.... hm. If you happen to know or see them, please let me know so I can give credit!!

This last Guided Reading Must Have is from Joanne Miller (Head Over Heels for Teaching). I have two rings of these questions (Non-Fiction and Fiction) hanging on a pin in the bulletin board right behind the table. They are perfect. She separated them out by before, during and after reading questions!

I hope that you were able to get an idea or two from my Guided Reading "Must Have" Tools. I would love to hear what your #1 Tool is in your classroom!!

3 Little Pigs Project-Based Learning: Tried it!

I am linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper today for Tried it Tuesday! This happens on the second "Twosday" of each month!

Ever had a good idea that just kind of sparked your imagination?

That's what happened here! My friend and fellow 3rd grade teacher, Lora, and I were planning a simple STEM activity to go with a story in our reading series about a house. Lora suggested we do the 3 Little Pigs- houses blown down and all that jazz.  This "little" idea turned into a humongous project that included Project-Based learning, Problem-Based Learning, STEM, literacy comprehension activities, and persuasive writing! All rolled into one! Covering tons of our standards! Not to mention loads of learning fun!

The Launch: Reading The 3 Little Pigs to the students.  We read a slew of different versions!

The Problem: How do you build a house the Big Bad Wolf cannot blow down?  Engineering Design Process to the rescue!

The Solutions: Wow, our kiddos came up with some inventive houses!  Give kids some tape and paper and you are good to go! Obviously a few more materials were provided...

The test: Turning our hairdryers into the Big Bad Wolf!  Can your house withstand 1 wolf or how about 2 wolves (hairdryer on high)?

Not done yet! Students then had to persuade other "pigs" to buy their house with persuasive ads and posters!

They had to answer questions such as: Why would a pig buy my house over another one?  What would it cost to build my house?  What words and images can I use to entice buyers?  Can you all say rubrics?!

We continued the project by reading different versions of The 3 Little Pigs. We discussed sequencing, main idea and theme, cause and effect, fact and opinion, and characterization to name a few!

Tons of fun- oh, and learning- was had by all...well, maybe all except the Big Bad Wolf!

Check out the products I developed for this project! I divided the activities into a Literacy and Project Based products, and of course, a discounted BUNDLE!

          

Have you done anything exciting in your classrooms lately? We love to hear what you all are doing!