Final meeting for Book Club

Last week was our final meeting for Battle of the Books.  Our school competitions are this coming week and the district finals are on the 25th of April.  I'm excited to take my winning team to face off against the other schools.

I haven't given them any instruction on the books and they held their own small groups.  I'm really proud of how much work they've put into this competition.

One of them even made treats, which was adorable:

Plus they're loving book jeopardy! 

I promised my students we'd play with our small group books during standardized testing time (since they'll need something fun after a long day of bubbling!).

I love watching how much they love reading.

And...she's done!

For those that have been following the adventures of Ursula, I'm pleased to announce that she's done!

My students enjoyed chips and capri sun during our movie reward.  I'm pleased with the positive changes I've seen in most of them.  The strategy didn't work for all my students but it was nice to reward the students who are trying :)

New Novel Guide: The Lost Hero (#111)

As I previously wrote about, the time has come when I have extra homework for my small groups.  Granted, this homework is to read the novels with them, so that doesn't really feel like much work.

I just finished this great read:

I really enjoyed it.  I loved the Percy Jackson series and this in no way a disappointment.  I'm eager to read the next few in the series and love the way the author blends Greek and Roman mythology with a compelling story line! I also loved the subtle hints at the Percy Jackson series for fans but if you haven't read that series, you are still able to love this one.

While reading, I took diligent notes on vocabulary words and comprehension questions.  I turned these into a teacher's guide, which you can snag here on TpT.  I've included everything I will use to do this novel with my own small group.  Coming in at just over 50 pages, this may be my longest teacher guide yet (except for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire since that book is a few hundred pages longer then this novel).


I also included a free preview of my product, which you can also download here
.

Happy reading!

(On a side note, I can't wait to start The Son of Neptune!)

Testing Strategies Recap

During our intervention block we've been working on testing strategies with a practice standardized test.

As a wrap up activity to a week of test prep, we made brochures:

Students got to be a little creative and design their own brochures to help with testing strategies.  They had so much fun with it!

Post-it notes and figurative language

Many of my students are English Language learners, so they struggle with the nuisances of English.  Figurative language proves especially difficult at times, so I'm always looking for ways to reinforce these skills. 

I stumbled upon this idea:

I can't wait to try it in my classroom!  I bet my small groups would love the challenge, especially if I turn this into a competition between home rooms or AM and PM.  

By having them find their own examples of figurative language in the text, not only will they "own" the skill but they'll also be actively reading to look for examples. 

Heart Breaking

This informational graphic really says it all:

I wish more people read.  I wish families read with their children, nightly and discussed the reading. I wish our kindergartners entered school with print awareness.  I wish kids were handed books to read while in the car or waiting places, rather than a cell phone for games.

Please, go read.

Classroom Memes

As I wrote about before, we've been doing morning memes.  We start our day with a funny meme or morning message, like these:

We read these before going over our daily schedule.  The humor creates a positive classroom environment and gets them talking first thing in the morning.  Sometimes they need to explain the meme to one another, which emphasizes the importance of sharing ideas.

Since not everyone has smart notebooks, I decided to make a pinterest board with the memes I've been using.  You can follow it here and use the images in your classroom as well!  If you don't have smart notebook, use powerpoint instead :)

Hopefully your students love the morning memes as much as mine do!