Daily 5

Just finished a great day with "The Sisters" - Gail and Joan! What an amazing day of learning and tips as well as meeting some great new friends, even one from blogworld....Julie from Thoughts of a Third Grade Teacher and I were actually at the same table...what a small world. I can't wait to go back tomorrow and hear more about CAFE!!

Here is a little sample of some the great ideas shared today...

When making the anchor chart for Read to Self you should only do the first two behaviors in order to keep the focus lesson short and the teacher should just provide those behaviors for the students instead of having them brainstorm them. The first two behaviors are Read the Whole Time and Stay in One Spot.

When sending students out to practice you should place them around the room and start by placing your students with the most independence first and end with the least independent. 

The other information that was SUPER all had to do with the "Barometer Child." I will share more of that later...off to have some dinner and prepare for tomorrow!

Teaching Heart Back to School Party!

"Teaching Heart ( www.teachingheart.net ) is hosting their annual back to school party on July 24th till July 30th.  Each Day a new prize!  Gift cards, Books, Teaching Heart Products, and more!!!  Plus a free printable will be posted during the week.  You need to visit the blog at; http://teachingheartmom.blogspot.com/ 
daily to check out the prizes each day and enter for the ones you want to win!!!"

Dollar Tree Finds

Okay...so I am visiting my family for my Great-Grandmother's 98th birthday this weekend and made a trip to the local Dollar Tree with my mom today. They had a box of sight word cards and parts of speech cards. I grabbed a set of all of them and only spent $10. I am excited to pair these with my desktop easels from Target for a great Work on Words station during Daily 5.

Sight Word Cards and Parts of Speech Cards from Dollar Tree

Speaking of Daily 5...I will be heading to Ann Arbor, MI on Monday to see the sisters....can't wait. I am beside myself with excitement, it should be a great conference and I am looking forward to hearing what Gail and Joan have to share as well as all the wonderful teachers who will be there as well.

Okay, one more thing....I just want to give a shout out to my home district. We had a teacher led Tech Fest yesterday and I was able to share with some wonderful teachers in my district how they can use iPods in their classrooms to enhance reading instruction. What fun!! 

Target Dollar Spot!!

I went shopping yesterday with a great friend of mine who is moving from 6th grade down to Kinder....wow is she brave...We made a few stops and saved the best for last...Target. We found some great items you can see in the picture below. My favorite of which is the desktop easel. I am planning to use them for Word Work during our Daily 5 and as a back up at my guided reading table. I also picked up the materials for my new easel wall. I have been wanting a Copernicus Royal Reading and Writing Cart for several years now, but did not want to spend the near $300 price tag for it. So I was browsing through a home mag and spotted a new product...white board paint!! I am so excited about this idea. I purchased a magnetic primer, the whiteboard paint and a sheet of peg board. My plan is to paint an area of my classroom wall with the paints and hang the pegboard next to it. I want to use the pegboard to hang chart tablets and pocket charts on depending on what I am doing at the time. The paint was not cheap...about $30 for a quart each, but I figure $60 is much better than $300!!! I will post pictures while in progress. Wish me luck!!

Cindi