Anchor Charts

Tonight was my last KSRA meeting as an officer, even though I'm ready to be student teaching next semester I was sad for it to be my last meeting. It has been such an amazing experience and I have grown so much throughout it. We presented on anchor charts tonight. We discussed the importance of them in the classroom and how they don't just have to be used for academics they can be used for classroom management as well. Below is a link to our PowerPoint. We also did raffles and had some snacks, it was a great last meeting!

Anchor Charts Powerpoint

Tutoring Week Seven

Today was my last day of tutoring, I was so sad to leave my kiddo. He has grown so much over the last few weeks and I am so proud of all he has accomplished. Today we reviewed all the blends we have covered which are initial l blends, initial s blends, and initial r blends. For my activity today I wrote words with these blends all over a piece of cardstock. Then I put the paper into a freezer bag and poured a bag of white rice into it. My tutee would then play "eye spy" and try to find the words in the bag. After that he would write the words on the correct paper depending on which blend it was. Here are some pictures!

Leveling Texts and Blogging

At this week's KSRA meeting we focused on two topics, leveling texts and blogging! Leveling texts is something that as future teachers we need to have an understanding of. Although there are apps and resources out there to help us level books it is important to have our own knowledge base of the Fountas and Pinnell and DRA levels. Readinga-z is a great website that has a ton of leveled texts and also helps with leveling other books by comparing it to their leveled texts. I specifically focused on blogging at the meeting and shared ideas for blogging for teachers, but also ways we can use blogging in our classrooms with our students. Below are the links to the leveling text powerpoint and the blogging powerpoint!

Leveling Texts Powerpoint

Blogging Powerpoint

Tutoring Week 6

This week for tutoring I focused on initial l blends. I was also excited because based on the data from last weeks session and my running records the last few weeks, I decided to move my tutee up a DRA level! He did awesome with it today, I was so proud! The activity I created for initial l blends used magnetic letters. I created picture cards with the ending of the word already spelled out. He then had to use the magnetic letters to fill in what the initial l blend of the word was. Then we used stamps and stamped the words onto a table I created! Here are some pictures of my activity! Below are also links to my activity that can be printed out!

bl blend freebie

cl blend freebie

pl blend freebie

Reading Fest

Today I got the opportunity to help out with a Family Reading Fest that goes on every year in my area. I helped out my home school district and the elementary school I went to as a kid, Blue Mountain Elementary West! The book we chose for our theme was The Very Hungry Caterpillar (definitely a favorite) and we had a caterpillar craft that went with it! We had so many kids come to our table and they were loving it! I also got the opportunity to meet a few children's book authors like Gene Baretta, Lee Harper and Andy Myer! It was a great experience!

I also created the banner for our table with my Cricut!

Dear Deer is an awesome book about homophones to definitely check out! Now & Ben is a great book as well!

Tutoring Week 5

This week for tutoring I focused on initial r blends, particularly tr, br, and dr. The activity I created was like a puzzle. I used each blend as a large puzzle piece and three little puzzle pieces connected to the large piece. The little puzzle pieces were pictures of words that have these blends. After he finished each puzzle he would use play doh and Popsicle sticks to review the blends again. I decided to incorporate play doh into my activity again because he loved it last week and it really is engaging for him. Here are some pictures of my activity!

Tutoring Week 4

This week for tutoring I moved onto initial s blends. I decided to focus on three, sl, sn, and st. I did a sort using those three blends, I got little buckets from Dollar Tree (I got 5 for a dollar) I taped each blend to the front of the bucket. I got different pictures from clip art that contain my initial s blends. My tuttee would pick a picture, say the word, then sort it into which bucket it belonged. I also decided I wanted to incorporate play doh into my activity, he loves sensory type materials like the sand I used last week. Once he sorted the word he would use stamps and stamp the word into play doh. He absolutely loved it! Once again he wanted to take the play doh home with him! He would pick his picture, say the word, sort it into the bucket and then pick out which letter stamps he needed to spell his word. It was awesome hearing him sound out the words and connect that to which stamps he needed to spell his word. Here are some pictures of the activity!

I used a pencil case to put the play doh in to keep everything clean! It was the same pencil case I used last week for my sand I got it at target for 97 cents! The stamps I got from Michaels with a coupon!

Learning at Home Bag

For my families class this semester we have to create at learning at home bag that we would send home for children to do with their families. We had to pick a non fiction book and a topic to focus on. Since I did a magnetic investigation box last year for my science class I decided to save money and reuse magnetic items I already had! I chose the book What Makes a Magnet by Franklyn M. Branley. I created an activity for math, science, and literacy that all related to magnets.

For math I used large colored Popsicle sticks and magnet tape. I used a sticker for the number on the bottom, the child will use paper clips on the Popsicle sticks to complete addition problems. Here are some pictures!

I used pencil cases from the dollar store to keep all 3 activities separated and organized in the bag!

For my science activity I created a magnetic and non magnetic table and included specific items for the child to investigate. If the item is magnetic the child will color in the smiley face, if it is non magnetic they will color in the frowney face. 

For my literacy activity I created an activity that uses magnetic letters and a cookie sheet. I gave letters that will be used to spell a word and a picture. The child will use the magnetic letters on the cookie sheet to spell words. Magnetic letters are also great to send home because families can create words, sentences, etc on the fridge and it is a simple activity! 

Tutoring Week 3

This week for tutoring was that last week that we were doing short vowel CVC words. I decided to do a review of all the short vowels together. My activity this week was a table of pictures of words with CVC short vowels. The columns and rows were numbered. My tutee would roll to large foam di (that I got at Dollar Tree) the first number he rolled would stand for the column and the second for the row. He would find the corresponding picture and then write that word in sand. I used a pencil box and poured sand into it, then he used the eraser end of a pencil to write the word in the sand. He LOVED it he was begging me to let him take the sand home with him! Here are some pictures of my activity and links to the CVC short vowel table of pictures that I used!

CVC Short Vowels Table

Tutoring Week Two

This week for tutoring I will be doing CVC words again, but this week I will be focusing on short e and short i. The activity I am doing is called Mystery Words, I got the idea from Miss Giraffe's Class. My tutee will look at the pictures on the table and decide what the first letter of each picture is. Then he will put a magnetic letter under the picture, the first letter of each picture will make the mystery CVC word with a short e or short i. Then, like last week he will write the CVC word on the CVC word table, which he really enjoyed last week so I wanted to incorporate it again. He got so excited about it last week he begged me to be able to take it home with him. He asked me if I was going to be coming back to tutor him every day because he loved it, it made my heart so happy! Below are pictures of my activity and I will post links for the mystery word tables!

Mystery Word Tables

Some new leveled books I will be using this week!