Class Pets, Painting and Rockets!

Three weeks since my last post - woops!   It has been a very busy three weeks. Let me show you why!

In Science, we have been looking at habitats and minibeasts. I bought the class these hermit crabs to look after. You can imagine the squeals when I put these little guys on the ground and they started to crawl towards the kids! They still aren't named - any suggestions?  

A tropical cyclone recently went through North Queensland, here in Australia. It had downgraded by the time it got to our area but there was still huge amounts of heavy rain so many kids were kept at home. We decided to make the best of the rainy situation and made some butterfly blob prints. They are SO bright and colourful!  

We have introduced the idea of MABs to the kids so I made these cute place value pals from Amy Lemons to put on the wall for display.  

We also have been revising 2D shapes. We made these super cute shape monsters using parts of Kindergarten Smorgasboard's free shape monster pack.  

Last but not least, we need to practise sight words! In my first year I had a wonderful teacher aide that made me a bunch of reading rocket folders. I needed more so I created a few extras this week. I'm so happy with how they turned out. They will be put to use next week!

I hope you all had a lovely week!

Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies

I love teaching reading comprehension strategies!

Each week I focus on a different one. I blow up examples of texts to an A3 size and laminate them. I introduce the focus strategy and then model reading the text.

After, I go back to what the strategy is that we are learning and model answering some questions about the text that focus on using that strategy.

The points I reinforce EVERY time I teach comprehension are:

1) Always go back to the text, if you need to.

2) Highlight/underline/circle any key words from the question that you find in the text.

3) Reread the question as many times as you need.

4) If it is a multiple choice question, read EVERY answer before choosing one.

I teach that multiple choice questions often have 'silly' answers. The children enjoy reading through the answers and deciding which are the silly answers. We have a good chuckle at them and discuss how they don't make sense and aren't a good choice.

When answering the questions, I always model and 'think aloud' the strategies and skills that I am using. For example:

1) I read the question (and answers if it is multiple choice).

2) I model and talk about going back to the text to highlight any key words that are linked to the question.

3) Once I've highlighted key words, I read the sentence and sometimes paragraph that those key words are in.

4) I go back to the question and then decide what is the best answer.

I've found that, for some reason, children think that they are not allowed to go back to the text to find answers. I think some teachers think this is the case and it is simply not true!

Comprehension is NOT about 'remembering' information. It's about knowing and using strategies to FIND information.

I use MANY resources, when teaching reading comprehension strategies. Some I create myself but a lot are from comprehension books that I've found. I was contacted by Blake Education a while back and they sent me out their Achievement Standards Assessments for Comprehension.

It's packed with texts on an array of subjects. Each text has a range of questions that cover different reading comprehension strategies. I love that each text has questions that cover a range of strategies, not just one. My only wish is that they were in different structures and had more diagrams and pictures but I still love them!

The book also comes with a CD-ROM and interactive PDFs so you can complete them as a class, if you'd like. They provide pages for you to track student progress, too.

Here are some pictures of some of the pages in action, using strategies I've taught in class.

What tips and tricks do you have for teaching reading comprehension strategies?

Back to School Chatterboxes / Cootie Catchers!

Hello friends!

Do you sometimes have a concept that you need to teach that you just think to yourself, "How ELSE can I teach this to make it fun for the students AND me?"

I had this moment a few weeks ago. I had to revise months and seasons and I was bored with all of my usual lessons.

I knew I wanted it to be fun for the kids and tried to think of what I found fun as a kid (and what they might still be interested in).

Then it hit me.

Chatterboxes.

At least that's what I've always called them. I think they are also known as cootie catcher or Chinese fortune tellers.

This is the one I whipped up for the class as a model.

The kids all made their own versions using some square paper that I had, buddied up and then had to use their chatterboxes with each other.

It was such a hit revision lesson and was completely made up that morning!

It got me wondering in what other ways I could use them and realised they could very easily be used in an array of ways to revise concepts.

I put together some other printable ones in a packet that could be used for grades K-3 to revise different concepts. Here are some sneak peeks:

 

 

 The concepts I've included revise seasons, colours, 2D and 3D shapes, common sight words, numbers and the alphabet! I've also made sure I've included spelling for both my US and Australian friends.

If you click on the cover page picture above, it will take you to it in my store. Download the preview to get this colour chatterbox for FREE!

My Back to School Plans and an AMAZING offer!

I start my 2014 school year on Tuesday. I'm really excited to meet my new kids and get to know them.

I've been very busy putting my classroom together and planning our first week. I have the same room this year and have been trying to change it up a bit from last year (more for me than the kids). I will come back with some snaps of my 2014 room and my first day during the we but for today I thought I would share some of the reading and writing activities that we will be doing in our first week.

I want to get straight into some writing and reading activities on the first day! It's a great way to see where the kids are at with their basic skills. After creating some class rules together, I want us to talk about and create our own Star Jars from A Cupcake for the Teacher. We will talk about ways to earn stars in our class jar (I'm hoping they mention the class rules that they would have just created!!).

During fruit break, we will read the first story in Millie Starts School by Jane Godwin.

My teaching partner actually found this book in the library and it is just so sweet! I teach second grade but I know I have some anxious ones coming to me on Tuesday. This is perfect to talk through those feelings of coming into a new classroom and meeting new friends. The best part is that this book actually has four stories about Millie.

We will be writing about our first day of second grade and creating these ADORABLE school kids by Mel at From the Pond.

 

I'm going to take photos of the kids' faces and somehow strategically paste them on the heads.

I will also be using my Building Better Sentences worksheets over the first week to see what my new class know about writing sentences.

My class last year were addicted to these in their rotations! They loved seeing what the picture stimulus was going to be each day.

If you like the look of my Building Better Sentences worksheets then you are going to love this amazing deal over at Educents!  I have teamed up with 17 other amazing sellers to load your classrooms with 27 outstanding resources for writing!  I've included my bundled sets of Building Better Sentences AND Building Complex Sentences

For a limited time it is $29.99 from Educents which is over 71% off!  It also includes these other great products so there is sure to things you love!  (They even have $10 off for first time customers… so it can be even cheaper if you have never bought anything from Educents!) Click on any picture to check out the other amazing products that you will receive!

Now I need your help! I want to give the kids a cute little gift on the first day. I've found a lot of ideas on Pinterest but I would love to hear what you have done for your students!