Five for Friday

Hi there! I'll be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday today. So, let's get started! :)

Lucy and I have been loving all of the snow in upstate New York recently!

Of course, with the crazy weather here, we have 2 feet of snow one day and then two days later it's 50 degrees and everything is melting! 

Just a little shout out to Teach-a-Roo, who created an amazing resource! I downloaded these Valentine Science kits this year instead of giving out treat bags (because they definitely don't need MORE sugar on Valentine's day!) and they were a huge hit! I went back and downloaded other science kits to use for other vacations throughout the school year!

Check them out here!

I visited a local living museum on a full moon when they were doing an Owl Moon night. It was a lot of fun! There was a nighttime snowy hike in the woods, roasting marshmallows, a reading of Owl Moon, hot chocolate and cookies, and....REAL LIVE OWLS! Very exciting!

Here is a sample of some writing one of my second graders did for me recently. I love Reader Response Journals! I write my kiddos a letter each week in their journals, and they respond to me. One paragraph is personal, and the other is text-based. You can see some of the scaffolding I provide (which goes away as the year progresses). I love looking back through these journals and seeing how far each of my students has come!

I'm still loving the Brag Tags! They are a new addition to my second grade classroom this year. I wish I had thought to use them last year too, because I know that class would have appreciated them as well! 

Sunday Scoop

I'm linking up with The Teaching Trio for The Sunday Scoop!

I'm reading the book The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I highly recommend it! All about occupied France during World War II, focused on the lives of two sisters living separately and fighting in different ways. So, I'll finish that up and tidy the house up for the meeting tomorrow! I'm dreading vacuuming. My dog always freaks out when I vacuum!

Although it is February, we have a beautiful 55 degree day here in upstate New York! I don't know how long this weather will last, but I'm going for a hike with my dog on a nearby trail!

And I am very excited for a delicious Italian meal tonight! Plus, I won't feel guilty leaving the dog alone because she will be POOPED after a hike! :)

Spark Student Motivation Saturdays

I'm here to link up with Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Student Motivation Saturdays!

Just a snapshot of the writing in my second grade class!

I have been using Reader Response Journals since I was a fourth grade teacher, and I still love them. Basically, I write a letter to each of my students each week, and they write back to me. You can see from above that some kiddos get more scaffolding than others, depending on their needs. The first paragraph is personal and fun, and the second paragraph is focused on our most recent guided reading text.

I really love pulling these journals out during parent-teacher conferences for families to observe how far their children have come! I encourage students to do the same, reminding them that each letter should be an improvement, and our focus is on growth.

Comprehension Connections

Our Teacher Resource Center has a great workshop called "Comprehension Connections." It is based on the text, Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement.

The book has great lessons to teach comprehension strategies in the beginning of the year and it really is awesome. A metacognition salad? Genius! Also, it fit right into my Daily Five self-motivated kiddos. Check out the text and enjoy!

The metacognition lesson is fun because you read aloud for the kiddos and have them evaluate you. Of course they tell you how lovely you read, and then...DUM DUM DUMMMMMMM! You reveal that you were not reading for meaning...you were simply reading to sound good, and you don't remember anything you read! Then, you move into a comprehension salad of reading for meaning and sounding good, because you need both!

We use the teacher bag lesson here. Bring in a ginormous bag and tell the kiddos you're going to the gym after school, but you have too much in your bag! They decide the 5 most important items for the gym. A few days later, I review by bringing in a pot of spaghetti and straining the spaghetti and water, showing them that the important part stays in the strainer and the stuff you don't need going down the drain. Your brain is a giant strainer!

I make mini versions of these anchor charts and kiddos glue them into their Reader Response Journal to reference without having to hang these all year long.

The Questioning lessons are fun because you get to use wordless picture books you love, like Flotsom, Tuesday, and more!

To review, we fold regular computer paper, staple, and glue these headers to each flip section. Kiddos write what these strategies mean underneath the flap and explain how it helps their comprehension.

The Daily Five

I love the Daily Five! I've been using it in my classroom, in some form or another for many years. It is FABULOUS! Of course, every teacher needs to tweak it to fit their needs!

I hand my I-Charts along the wall in the back of the classroom for easy reference.

Response to Literature

My kiddos keep Reader Response Journals. They write a letter to me and I write them back each week. We discuss books they are reading, along with some personal items and our read alouds.

I use a checklist of required items kiddos must have completed by Friday. Work on writing is an early finisher activity that a lot of kids select.

Word Work is another early finisher activity. The Hot Dots and Boggle are VERY popular.

Listen to Reading is our reading series on CDs. I created trifles with short response questions based on the stories that the students must complete by Friday.

Flocabulary.com is where our vocabulary comes from and it is AMAZING!!! Super cool. 

Once again, computers are early finisher activities, or a resource if researching something.

Read to Someone. Class Daily Five. We use whisper phones and call that "Read to Someone." Usually, I will see kiddos sharing the nonfiction texts for this I-Chart.

Just read! 

Computer area. CRAFT board for reference. (Clearly this was September.)

Word of the Week is from Really Good Stuff and it is the Grade 4/5. We love using the Word of the Week in our daily conversations and Reader Response Journals.

This is a snapshot of the listening center. That poster has the story title and some challenging vocabulary from the text. The picture frame has the page number and cd track number. The textbooks are there is follow along while listening. The black, white, and pink chart is the schedule for when your day for listening occurs.

PS Those white and pink tables? WHITEBOARD TOPS!!!! I painted them with whiteboard paint, so kiddos use them during math ALL THE TIME. Or to keep score in Boggle. They are so cool.

You need books for Daily Five. And cozy seating.

...did I mention books?

And book boxes.

Aaaaaaaand more books.

The Reader Response Journal is hard work, writing to every kid in your class every week. But worth it.

We keep this blackboard outside of the classroom to quickly state what we're working on that week.

This is hallway boggle.

Hot Dots. Check out my other posts on Hot Dots. Awesomeness.

GIANT BOGGLE BOARD!!! 

I used this to teach the entire class about using the hallway Boggle board.

So, Daily Five looks different in every classroom, but at least you see an overview of our version. While kiddos are working independently or with peers on their Daily Five must do activities, the teacher is working with guided reading groups. It usually goes pretty smoothly. The easy days are Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, when kids are working furiously because they want to finish. Sometimes my naughty children become naughtier when they finish the must do activities early and don't choose an appropriate early finisher activity. That's when the meanie teacher emerges. One look from meanie teacher and those naughties usually make better choices. It's all about the choices in fourth grade.

Anyway, if none of this post makes sense to you, I would totally recommend reading The Daily Five.

The Daily Five

Link Up With Teaching Blog Addict!

Reader Response Journals

Okay, confession time. I am a teeny tiny bit obsessed with fourth grade, and some of my bestest ideas emerged from this unofficial mentor I worked with my first year teaching fourth grade. She had all of these little tricks and behaviors that come about when you’ve been teaching for a while. One of my favorites is the Reader Response Journal. I truly believe that this is a tool that can be used at any grade level and it bring quality writing to a whole new level.

BTW it is differentiation at its best!

So, anyway, the Reader Response Journal. In the past, I have gone all fancy pants and bought the official Fountas and Pinnell Response Journals, with neato dividers and tabs and printed pages, but there is no need. This year, I bought two subject notebooks. One subject is for mini versions of our classroom anchor charts. GENIUS. I shrink down all of those anchor charts (and then some other great printables) to glue into the first section of the notebook. Totally accessible resource for kiddos. Fostering independence? Yes, please!

The second section is the letter writing section. I start the year by modeling, modeling, modeling…a little more modeling...and eventually they get it! We write letters back and forth. I allow the first paragraph to be totes personal, an awesome way to get to know your kiddos throughout the year. The rest of the letter focuses on independent reading, read alouds, and guided reading texts. Depending on the ability of the child, we might write a two paragraph letter or we might be writing for pages and pages and pages!

My students flourish as writers, and I totally owe it to my Reader Response Journals. This year, I used an “Evidence Statements” bookmark so that the kiddos use those while writing. We talk a lot about sounding smart in our writing by using evidence statements and transitions.

And I'm not kidding...as writers, my kids blossom. The stamina required for writing a letter is intense. Plus, most of my kids use a highlighter to highlight the questions I ask in my letter and then answer them in their letter. IN ADDITION, during the school year, I start noticing little Post It notes with labels created by the kids. They tend to stick a Post It note on our character traits list in the anchor chart section because they use it all the time. It's cute, seeing my teeny tiny dependent fourth graders (whom I often use the statement, "I have a shadow, I don't need another. Please stop following me around the classroom all the time.") grow into independent kiddos who figure things out on their own!

So, try this! And let me know how it goes for you, in your classroom. I’m curious!