The Joys of an Inservice Day!

Today was a district learning day for us!  Some of the joys......

1.  Bringing everyone on my grade level Chick-fil-A!  Another team teacher brought Sonic drinks.  Our day was off to a great start!  It is so funny how a little food makes teachers so happy!

2.  Finding out that I was doing lots of things RIGHT!  GOLD STAR FOR ME!  Sometimes it is just nice to know that you are doing things right.  What I think I love the most is when another teacher is talking about something they are doing in their classroom that is working for them and you think I'm doing it in my classroom too!  And YES it is working.  It gives you the motivation to keep doing it because you know it is working and now you have heard from someone else that thinks it is working also!

3.  Lunch out like a real grown-up!  We ate so fast that we had tons of time to sit and chat since we had an hour for lunch.  I think that no matter what the situation teacher eats fast.  I learned a few new things about my teammates and we had a bunch of laughs!

4.  Learned about a book that I must read...  Teach Like a Champion.  I just ordered it on Amazon.  We had a presentation on parts of it and it was interesting.  It had a lot of different questioning ideas and who can't use some more ideas to make our questioning even better!  I just finished the last Alex Cross book, so time to read something professional.

My school was assigned to do a presentation on phonics.  Well phonics is certainly not what this TN Core Math coach is strong at, but I figured why not give it a try.  So I turned to my favorite place.... PINTEREST to find the best ideas I could that teachers could actually use without spending a lot of money.  Here are some of my favorites that I will be using in the classroom in the next two months to prepare for SAT10 testing.  You can click the picture to go directly to source where I found these AMAZING IDEAS!

I love this sorting game.  It is so much better than anything I already have because not only is it for long and short vowels, it has a set that doesn't belong in either category.  Great for my higher level kids that are so used to things being easy.

Here is another fantastic idea that hits so many different skills and brings a personal connection for the kids.  We will pick a name from a hat each day right before the test to help us get some extra review in on syllables and phonemes.  You could segmenting, name another word that has the same vowel sound you hear in the middle of their name, or anything else you need practice on.  How much fun will the kids have with this great idea?

Teaching prefix and suffix is always a tough skill for kiddos.  I made these last year before testing time and they really got a lot out of the activity.  You make rainbows focusing on either prefix and suffix.  

So that is some of my favorite activities from my presentation today.  Please click on the pictures to go to the amazing teachers that came up with these ideas.  I don't think I have ever tried searching for something on Pinterest that I can't find 10 things that I would love to do with my kids!  Please feel free to share your favorite phonics ideas in the comments.   

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Teaching!

Tracy

January and February FUN!

Well I have been MIA for a bit.  I was waiting on my new blog design and decided to take a break. Well the new design didn't work out and I am currently looking for someone new that doesn't have a ton of orders in front of me.  So I decided it was time to go back to old set up until the new one can be designed.

My focus in January and February has been reading, reading, and more reading.  I am not a fan of our reading series, so I have really had to create a lot of materials that we could use in our classroom.  I was so lucky to have a dear friend retire (not lucky that she retired because I miss her SO MUCH!)   She left me a bunch of novel sets that we have been using for our reading instruction.  Without them I would be sunk!  So we have really jumped into chapter books and the kids love it.

To work on work attack, I created a series of powerpoint slides with the national reading vocabulary words on them.  Nothing fancy, but at least they are colorful.  We do a set every morning and the kids are really picking up on them.  I like to have them trade the letters out.  So for the word "jump", I might tell them drop the "j" and make it an "l" and they say "lump".  They think it is a game!  I can really see this helping my lower kids build confidence.  I also might ask them the baseword, prefix, suffix, antonym, synonym, make it plural, or the part of speech.  Anything I can think of to keep them on their toes.  Click on the picture to see more about this product.

We love SCOOT games in our classroom.  I post task cards around the room and the kids get their clipboards and solve the questions.  Here is a an array SCOOT game from one of my favorite TPT authors....  AMY LEMONS!  

We have also broke out a 3rd grade packet for Roll and Read.  They think they are so grown up and can't wait to read the BIG words.  It keeps them engaged while I do my face to face lesson with my RTI friend.  I snapped a few pictures of them yesterday.

Tomorrow is an inservice day for us!  I'm really excited about my presentation this time.  It is all on phonics!  Not something that I am an expert in, but I sure hope it goes well.  I tried to capture the best ideas I could find to teach phonics for 2nd graders.  I will blog about it over the weekend!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Happy Teaching!

Tracy

Planning Some Holiday Fun!

The holidays are finally coming up!  I think I get more excited each time I go into a store and see more lights and decorations!

Instead of grading papers, I decided to make up a task to use as soon as we get back from Thanksgiving.  My husband got the biggest kick out of it because I can't bake a dozen cupcakes let alone 525, but that's the fun of creating things for your class.  My kiddos can think I am an amazing baker!

The TPT download includes directions to using tasks in your classroom.  You can click on either picture to download this for FREE!

I hope you can use this freebie!

Happy Teaching!
Tracy

Teaching Reading Strategies!

We have been working really hard on using solid reading strategies.  I wanted to find something to use with any fiction text we read and also be able to use it with some non-fiction as well.  After searching Pinterest and TPT, I couldn't find something that had all of the strategies that I know my kids need to be able to use when they read.  So over the last few months I have been working here and there on my newest product.  Here it is!

It includes a section to cover the following reading strategies:

1.  Predicting

2.  Asking Questions

3.  Making Connections

4.  Inferring 

5.  Monitor and Clarify

6.  Visualizing

7.  Evaluating Text

8.  Summarizing 

Each section starts off with an anchor chart.  You can print or project it.  What I love about it is that the kids know exactly what they are trying to learn.  

The next part is teacher questions that focus on the reading strategy.  Print these off and put them on a ring to use over and over again.  It is also great to make a set for the kids to use when they are talking with each other about the text.

This is one of my favorite foldables.  It makes a long accordion when you put it together.  This look so cute on desks or on a table.
 

This is one of activities that is easy to differentiate for your class.  It has two levels and even a blank flower so kids can pick their own words.

I love to give the kids bookmarks while we learn.  Each section has bookmark to remind the kids of the reading strategy.  We tape them to our desks and then after we finish learning about the strategy, we put them in our binders so we can refer to them again.

So that is a peek into my latest product.  I hope you love it as much as I do!  Click on any of the pictures to see more of the pages in this product.

Happy Teaching!
Tracy