Read to Self and Take Home Books

I took some pictures of my classroom today! Below is a picture of our Reading Focus Wall. The students gather around the carpet in this area for our morning meeting and our whole group for Reading Block. 

On this wall I have our spelling words, Pop-Corn Words (High Frequency Words) And our Hot and Spicy words (These are our vocabulary words. We call it Spicy Words because they spice up our writing! There is a tabasco bottle that goes along side the Hot and Spicy words however it has fallen down! Boo!) Below our weekly words I add special reminders and anchor charts we will need to use for reference during the week. 

I created a story map poster to use with our weekly story. The poster is laminated so I use notecards to tape to it. I found this works better for me than post-it notes because it doesn't fall off during the week and I can easily remove the tape. My students fill out their own personal story maps as well. I keep this one up as a reminder of how they are supposed to be correctly filled out. I have found this to be a great tool because it keeps our previous skills fresh in my students minds.  

Below is an idea I saw from Life In First Grade's classroom and I love it! I put our weekly skills up and then move the previous down. This is another great way to keep the previous skills available for students to use as a reminder! 

I just got the Lakeshore leveled 1 and 2 libraries donated to my class :)! 
They are awesome! My students are able to pick a book on their level and place in their Read to Self Box. Below is a picture of the new library (the blue bins) and the Heart Magazine folders above are my students Read to Self Boxes. My students each have a number for their class. Therefore, I  numbered the folders so I can use them next year! Students can take their AR quizzes on these books and I have them log them in there book log.

Every Monday, I send home a Book Bag with my students. Students are given a color based on their Reading Scores (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green). The student returns their books from the previous week and then goes to their color bin and chooses two books. 

My students know to use the  IPICK steps to choose books that are just right for them! I have found that when the students choose their own books they will WANT to read them! Included in their book bag is a book log to be signed by parents, as well as a Story Map. The story map is included to ensure that the students are reading for comprehension! It is due on Thursday of each week. This allows for parents to have enough time to help their kiddos fill out the sheet (since I know things can come up during the week). 

When students choose two books, they go to the sign out log and sign out their books. This helps me to know who has what books, what books they have read, and helps me to make sure books are returned!

The book log sign out is kept in the library above the reader response sheets!