Starting off a Happy New Year...

Happy New Year! There is SO much to look forward this year!

One thing for sure is our engagement! And how darn cute is the sign Ms. Thomas gave me for Christmas? LOVE it BIG!

Warning: this may be a long post- New Years, Saints Games, and GUIDED READING! What a combo. 

We rang in the New Year in NOLA… 

Our dinner at Muriel's in the Quarter, followed by watching the ball drop and fireworks in Jackson Square. 

The next day we headed to the Dome where I got to rock my sequin jersey. I'm happy just thinking about it ha. 

After the game I ran into Ms.Thomas! I definitely jumped into her arms. No seriously, my feet were off the ground. It's barely been two weeks and I was beyond happy to see her. We are dorks!

ANYWAYS… moving along to some "teachery" topics...

Since resolutions are the talk right now, I figured I would share how I organize my favorite time at school! READ TO SELF! It makes my heart smile when I see my littles sitting around the classroom, quietly engaged in a book! Cheers to that! Hopefully this will help give you some ideas on how to structure your own Read to Self time (This is one of the parts I choose to use from the Daily Five, so I know it will be different for everyone!)

I recently rearranged my classroom library. At the beginning of the year my library looked like this… arranged by genres. 

Well, my little ones this year are having a more difficult time choosing JUST RIGHT FIT books. Ugh. Pull my hair out! So I decided to elimnated the lecture I was giving over and over again about the importance of picking just right fit books and  chose to orgaize my library by Guided Reading Levels. 

Each book has a correlating sticker placed on the front, matching the label on the bin! This allows the students to easily put the book back into the correct spot! *Smiles* Also, located on the inside of the books is the AR Quiz number. 

Each morning my students are given time to Read to Self after their morning work is completed. They get their book bin and go to their spot in the classroom to quietly read!

The book bins were purchased from Really Good Stuff (I went with the neon colors cause that's my thing… what can I say?) I chose to put the students numbers on them, therefore they can be used again next year!

After my students feel ready to take a quiz on a book; they complete a book look. I keep these in an area for the students to easily assess! This saves me from handing them out each time!

When they have completed their book look my students will then go to the AR Quiz Line and place their number in the pocket chart.

  

The line starts off with ALL of the numbers in the pocket. Students find their number, place it in the chart, then return to their spot to continue to read. As I float around the room during our morning time, I call out the numbers in order for the child to bring me their book look. If I feel as though they are ready to take a quiz, then the student turns in their book look to a drop off box and goes to the computer. I have index cards with each child's username and password hanging on the computer!

Once they are done, if they scored a 100% then I will sign their incentive sheet! Last year I brought students subway who filled up theirs! I have smaller rewards in place for students who reach 10, 20, 30, and 40 as well! This REALLY keeps them motivated to read for comprehension!

Hope this was helpful for some of you. 

Hope you are enjoying the start to a new year! I wish you the best in 2012!

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!