Buddy Reading with 3rd Graders

Miss Luster's 3rd grade class came to visit my class on Friday, August 31st to do Buddy Reading with my 1st graders.  They read books to my students and then my students read books from their book bags to them.  They practiced some of our CAFE strategies during their reading time also.  They did an awesome job!  We ended with students providing feedback to each other.  Next week, my 1st graders are going to visit their class.  Below are some pictures from our Buddy Reading time together. 



Jason and his buddy



Emily and Ailyn




Jairus and his buddy




Angel and Jarod


 

Karol and Catorian



Joshua and his buddy



Amarii and Arianna



Lashon and his buddy



Natalie and her buddy



Kwadir and Jalen



Jason and his buddy



Noel and Peyton



Nicholas and Zion



Darius and his buddy



Ryan and his buddy



Corey and his buddy




Daily 5 "Read to Self" First Week of School

 During the 1st week of school, our class:

•  Learned about “IPICK” and how to pick good-fit books to read.
• Learned about “Read to Self” and brainstormed ideas about what this looks like, sounds like, and feels like in our room. 
• Added 3 strategies to our CAFE Menu:  Comprehension- “Check for understanding” Students learned how to check for understanding by stopping after they read a page or two and ask themselves: Who did I read about and what did they do?  (Ask Who and What) “Use my schema to make connections” Students learned how to use what they know to make text-to-self connections as they read.  Expand Vocabulary- “Tune into interesting words” Students learned how to record words they don’t know on a post-it, so they can be discussed later.  Strategies are added after I model them repeatedly through read-alouds.  
• Learned that we can read a book 2 different ways.  1.  Read the words.  2.  Read the pictures. 
• Worked on building our stamina.  Stamina is being able to do something for a long period of time without getting tired or giving up.  So far, our stamina is 4 minutes.  Everyone is working hard to make our stamina increase! 
• Visited a 4^th and 3^rd grade class to observe “Read to Self” being done.  We saw some great things and provided those students with some feedback. 
• Self-evaluated our “Read to Self” time and we reflected on what went well and what we need to improve on. 

Here are some pictures of some of my students during "Read to Self" time in their chosen smart place to read.  They are just so cute and focused!



Jarod



Emily



Corey



Noel



That's Elizabeth under the computer table. 

Jayce



Nicholas



Arianna



Cristian



Emily

Jairus

Jason

Corey

Donnavon



I think this is Jairus.



Jahara

Joshua

Juliana

Cristian

Classroom Set-Up for 2012-2013

I've been setting up my classroom over the past couple of weeks.  I was so excited to put all of these great Pinterest ideas that I've found over the summer into place in my classroom.  I'm super excited for the beginning of this new school year which will be the beginning of my 11th year of teaching!  Check out the progress of my classroom below. 


This is my Writing Wall.  Color words are at the top of the wall.  They are so cute and made by Frog Street Press.  The "All Aboard the Writing Express" poster came from the Dollar Tree.  "Using My Writer's Eye Glasses" posters are super cute and can be downloaded for free below.  I only have five of them posted currently because those will be the initial writing expectations.  I will add others as they are taught throughout the year. Surrounding them are my parts of speech.  The posters were purchased from the Dollar Tree and the colored cards were made by me.  They are posted on small sheets of chart paper.  Words will be written on the chart paper based on a specific color (nouns~red, adjectives~orange, pronouns~yellow, verbs~blue, adverbs~green, and conjunctions will be purple.  I label words in sentences daily in specific colors in class on the whiteboard.  I'm a big grammar fan!    https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxLChuvLvJqGMTIxYzA4MGEtMGNlYi00M2YwLTliNTAtZmRjM2RiNDBjMWJk/edit


This is my Reading area.  The "Bananas about Reading" poster was purchased at Dollar Tree.  The "Primary Genre Posters" that are around the window were downloaded for free.  I will post that link later.  The lamp and easel are for my "Spotlight on Great Writing" idea. Someone's writing will be displayed on that easel.  This of course was a Pinterest inspired idea.  :)  I love it!  http://pinterest.com/pin/217580225717876967/

This summer, I read the Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades and The CAFE Book: Engaging All Students in Daily Literacy Assessment & Instruction by Gail Boushey & Joan Moser “The Sisters.”  The Daily 5 is a student-driven management structure designed to fully engage students in reading and writing. 
The book is about helping students develop independent literacy habits, so that teachers are free to work with small groups or have individual conferences.  Once the Daily 5 has become a habit for students, teachers use instructional time to present daily focus lessons on comprehension strategies, writer’s craft, phonics, and other components of their literacy curriculum to the whole class.  This book is also about developing shared awareness and instructional routines with students, through specific, focused teaching, while balancing students’ need for choice and independence. 

Whereas the Daily 5 established the core structural environment and the capacity for independence to meet the needs of our diverse learners, The CAFE Book provides the technical expertise necessary for individual students to receive exactly what they need to improve as readers.   

My Daily 5 and CAFE Board are on the same bulletin board.   The Daily 5 anchor charts can be found at http://castlesandcrayons.blogspot.com/. The stamina anchor chart can be found at http://mrskincaid.blogspot.com/2012/06/building-stamina.html. The 3 ways to read a book anchor chart can be found at http://mrsrichardsonfirstgrade.blogspot.com/search/label/daily%205.  My super cute monkey CAFE headers can be found at http://littlepriorities.blogspot.com/2012/07/cafe-headers-freebie.html. I fell in love with them! Above my CAFE board are author's purpose charts.  They can be found at http://mrsgilchristsclass.blogspot.com/2011/07/authors-purpose-charts.html. Below my CAFE board are monster themed charts for the 4 types of sentences.  They can be found at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/4-Types-of-Sentences-Posters-FREE. Every one of these downloads are FREE!  

This was before I added things above and below the board. 

 

This is my Calendar Bulletin Board.  It contains my lovely Number Line Hotel from Think Math.  It is used for daily counting.  Daily, we discuss a pattern on the calendar.  I do "Days in School" with straws, ten frames, and tally marks.  Daily, we quickly review the days of the week and months of the year.  I love my greater than/less than gator poster below the board.  :)

I am SUPER excited about doing "Bucket Filling" in my classroom this year!  My display is below my whiteboard.  This picture is the left side of my display.  Our classroom Social Contract for Capturing Kids' Hearts will be to the right along with students' signatures.  I'm using 2 small pieces of chart paper for that.  I found free bucket filler stuff at http://seusstastic.blogspot.com/2011/05/are-you-bucket-filler.html. The book is called Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids by Carol McCloud.  It's a fabulous book! Those are library pockets with a bucket (made with construction paper) taped onto them.  I found the bucket pattern on Google.  The next picture is the right side of my display. 

This picture is of the whole display.  Have you filled a bucket today? :)

RTCA staff will be "bucket filling" this year as well.  I just finished this display this evening (12th) outside of Dr. Carson's office.  Hope the staff will be as excited about this as I am.  They'll learn all about it during Professional Development this Tuesday, August 14th.  :)

Student work will be posted here on the wall to the left of my writing wall.  It'll be right above my computers. 

Bulletin Boards

These are some bulletin boards that I've done at school. 


"Ice Cream Similes"
Students wrote 2-3 similes about ice cream.  These turned out wonderful!  
Ice cream is as sticky as ________. Ice cream is as tasty as _________. 
Ice cream is like ____________.

 

"Leap Into Comprehension"
Students used  a sequence circle to create a summary about a Frog and Toad story.



"You've Got Mail"
Students wrote friendly letters. 

 

"Our Neighborhood at Work"
Concept/Question Board



"First Grade Shining Stars"
Welcome Bulletin Board


We have to post the following on our hallway "achievement" bulletin boards:
"I can" statement
NHA Objectives and NCSCOS Objectives
Description of the assignment
Rubric
Comments on student work

For example:

I can statement:
I can compose friendly letters. 

Objectives:  
NHA ELA Exemplar: Writing

Measurement Topic: Audience and Purpose

·      Identify words and style that are appropriate for the type of writing (friendly letter)

Measurement Topic: Drafting and Revising

·      Apply basic prewriting strategies:

§  Begin to write in paragraph form with at least three connected sentences

·      Reread and revise writing:

§  Use constructive comments and suggestions from teachers to revise writing

Measurement Topic: Writing Applications

·      Write basic friendly letters using simple letter format including a greeting and closing

NHA ELA Exemplar: Language Usage

Measurement Topic: Spelling and Language Mechanics

·      Use basic punctuation:

§  Use correct punctuation, including periods, question marks, exclamation points

·      Use basic capitalization

 North Carolina Competency Goals

4.04 Extend skills in using oral and written language:

·      Producing written products

5.04 Use complete sentences to write simple texts

5.05 Use basic capitalization and punctuation:

·      First word in a sentence

·      Proper names

·      Period to end declarative sentence

·      Question mark to end interrogative sentence



Friendly Letter Writing Assignment Scoring Rubric

§  Sentences are complete including all of the following: §  At least 3 complete sentences were written in the body and included details of what the student learned about weather or the water cycle §  Capitalization was used at the beginning of each               sentence §  Punctuation was used at the end of each sentence §  The following parts of the friendly letter were done correctly: §  heading §  greeting §  closing §  signature ·        Students received a 4 if none of the previous components were missing from writing.  ·        Students received a 3.5 if one of the previous components was missing from writing.  ·        Students received a 3 if two of the previous components were missing from writing.  ·        Students received a 2.5 if three of the previous components were missing from writing.  ·        Students received a 2 if four of the previous components were missing from writing.  ·        Students received a 1.5 if five of the previous components were missing from writing.  ·        Students received a 1 if six or more of the previous components were missing from writing.

§  Sentences are complete including all of the following:

§  At least 3 complete sentences were written in the body and included details of what the student learned about weather or the water cycle

§  Capitalization was used at the beginning of each

              sentence

§  Punctuation was used at the end of each sentence

§  The following parts of the friendly letter were done correctly:

§  heading

§  greeting

§  closing

§  signature

·        Students received a 4 if none of the previous components were missing from writing. 

·        Students received a 3.5 if one of the previous components was missing from writing. 

·        Students received a 3 if two of the previous components were missing from writing. 

·        Students received a 2.5 if three of the previous components were missing from writing. 

·        Students received a 2 if four of the previous components were missing from writing. 

·        Students received a 1.5 if five of the previous components were missing from writing. 

·        Students received a 1 if six or more of the previous components were missing from writing.