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The Gist and…Why I LOVE it:

Caterpillar, Ladybug and Bee live in a lovely garden and are friends.  However, Bee and Ladybug can fly and Caterpillar cannot.  He is always saddened when he is left by himself when they fly away to go off exploring.  One day when they return they cannot find Caterpillar anywhere so they ask the wise snail where he might be.  Snail tells them that he is sleeping in a chrysalis.  They wait for him to wake up and as he peeks out he announces that he is now a lovely Butterfly.  They fly off together leaving poor snail behind.

Story Telling Tips:

I have a different voice for each of the main characters of the story.  I hot glue a foam mask to a paint stick and when I read that character’s part I hold the mask over my face.  (I ordered my masks from Oriental Trading Co.)

Math Extension:

 After the story we graph which character in the story was our favorite.  Click on the link to view/print a copy of the Caterpillar’s Wish graph.

Science-Art Extension:

We make a life cycle of a butterfly caterpillar. Click on the link to view/print the caterpillar/butterfly life cycle pattern. 

When you get done with the art project, students can use their caterpillar as a bookmark.  They will enjoy taking their caterpillar home and explaining the life cylce of a butterfly to their families.  

To get the "wiggles" out, I have my students use their caterpillar as a manipulative to do the Caterpillar Pokey.  Click on the link to view/print the Caterpillar Pokey song.

Magic Trick:

I put a caterpillar in my change bag, which I refer to as a chrysalis, out pops a butterfly.  If I use my double-load change bag I put an egg in and then out comes a caterpillar.  I re-insert the caterpillar and then out comes the butterfly. 

The magic word of course is metamorphosis. Click on the link to view the butterfly life cycle magic trick on my video page; scroll down to the 6th one.   

The magic trick really helps nail the concept and the new "chrysalis" and  “metamorphosis” vocabulary words.  They could see this a zillion times and never get tired of seeing it again and again.

We review the life cycle of the butterfly via a poster; I point to the various steps. I also pass out numbered pieces to a life cycle of a butterfly puzzle that I also bought from Insect Lore.   I call for a number and we arrange the pieces on the floor.

I purchase live larvae from this company as well and we watch the caterpillars eat and eat and then finally go into the J-position, form their chrysilis and then emerge as Painted Lady butterflies in about 14 days. My students are absolutely thrilled.  It's well worth the money as students can see this fascinating process first hand.   I re-use the butterfly house that I purchased initially and then simply re-order the caterpillars each year.   

Reader’s Theatre:

After I read the story, I assign parts to my students who are not shy.  I made simple costumes out of large towels by simply cutting a hole in the center so that they would easily fit over a child's head. 

I cut up another black towel and appliqued heart and stripe details to the ladybug and bee towels and then outlined the details with puffy paint.  I drew a swirl on the purple snail towel with silver puffy paint. 

I sewed a black thorax stripe down the center of two turquoise towels to make a huge butterfly and then appliqued on yellow hearts.  The children held up foam masks. A plastic headband with pipe cleaner antennae and laminated construction paper heart pieces on the ends completed their costumes.  

Since my students can’t read I sit in the audience and prompt them as to what they should say and then they repeat it.  The rest of my students sit in the audience.  I have two helpers hold up a grey sheet that caterpillar crawls under.  This is the chrysalis. 

Another student plays the butterfly.  She is also hiding behind the sheet 'til it is time for her to pop out.  The audience yells "metamorphosis!"

I made a black cone shaped stinger that I safety pin to my bee’s bottom.  On the bee's back is a sign that says: The End.  After the production, all performers come out and take a bow and then bumblebee turns around so everyone can read the sign. 

The audience claps.   My students enjoy doing this so much that I’ll repeat it several times over the next few days so that everyone can have a turn.  By the third time I don’t have to prompt much as to what they need to say.

Whatever books you're reading this month, I hope they help you soar to new heights!

Bibliography for April

I love using Aesop’s Fables to teach life lessons to my students.  The last week of March when we are studying wind I tell them the story of the Wind and the Sun.  I explain to them that these stories have a moral or lesson that they should learn and we discuss what that might be when I finish telling it. 

Since these fables are very short they make fun interactive stories where all of your students can get involved.  It’s not quite a Reader’s Theatre but a great introduction to that type of activity.  I’ve made some clipart cards that you can hold up while you tell the story or you can pass them out to your students to hold up at the appropriate time while you're telling it.

After you've told the story reenact it by having some of your students play the part of the wind, while some of them play the part of the sun.  Instruct the wind children to pretend to be really conceited and boisterous, puffing themselves up and blowing really hard making lots of wind noise. 

If you want the wind noise to sound realistic, help them out by downloading the sound of the wind and then playing it.  Microsoft has a variety of wind sounds that are perfect for this. Click on the link.  Wind sounds.

You’ll also need to assign students to play the part of the people that are affected by the wind and sun.  Pass out some hats so that they can toss them off when the wind blows; they’ll also need to put on their jackets or a sweater so that they can clutch them tightly when the wind students are blowing extra hard.

They can then take them off and wipe their brows and act all hot and sweaty when the sun people shine on them.  Designate a swimming area so that they can all jump in the “pond” to go swimming when the sun people reach their highest heat level.

 They can then get out of the pool and lay on the “beach” as the sun students shine over them.  The wind people can then say in unison: “Sun you have won our bet; you are the strongest!” 

During snack time I show several Aesop Fable videos.  My set stars Bill Cosby.  Click on the links to several YouTube videos of this tale. There are quite a few, but I thought these 3 were the best.  Video one.  Video two.  Video three.

Click on the link to view/print the pictures and my version of the story to go with them.  The Wind and the Sun Aesop Fable cards. Enjoy.

A few years ago they added 3D shapes to our Y5 report card standards. I thought, terrific, how am I going to do that?  My students don’t even know the flat shapes!  Do I teach them after they learn the flat shapes, or do I teach them at the same time?  I decided it would be less confusing if I waited ‘til my students had mastered one-dimensional shapes and then introduce this new concept during the second semester and teach it much the same way that I do the

latter and it has worked just fine.  3-D Shape Book.

Get Parents Involved:

I get parents on board and we work as a team.  It’s always been my philosophy that Together Everyone Achieves More.  To make this fun for them I recently dreamed up a Shape Scavenger Hunt. Click on the link to view/print the flashcards.  

Post the shapes in the room: I think “A picture is worth a 1000 words.” is especially important for young children.  I have a 3D poster that I purchased at a teacher store,

I have 3 (small, medium and large) yellow, lime green, and turquoise spheres dangling from the middle of my ceiling.

A foam dice (cube), plastic ice cream cone (cone), foil-wrapped toilet paper tube (cylinder) and a plastic ornament (sphere) shapes are stuck to my calendar bulletin board. (We review the shapes whenever we do calendar.)

I have a "What 3-D Shape is our Mystery Shape Today?"  laminated-hinged sign on the black board. Underneath the sign is a picture of one of the 3D shapes.  I call on a quiet child to take a guess, and then reveal the shape.  Click on the link to view/print one for your room.

Play Games:

To help get my students familiar with the shapes and the vocabulary I play familiar games with them.  I print off two pictures of each shape and laminate them and then I hang them from the ceiling in each corner of my room with fish line.  I can refer to them anytime during the day as well as play the game “Four Corners”. Click on the link to view/print the shape signs.  

3 D Shape-Four Corners: I choose a child to be “It” and cover their eyes.  We count backwards from 10-0 while the rest of the students quietly scamper to a corner.  When we get to 0 “It” calls out “Freeze!”  Anyone not in a corner/under a 3D shape-sign or moving and not frozen is out and must come sit on the carpet with me.  “Its” eyes are still covered.  They call out a 3D shape.  All of the students in that shape corner are out and come sit on the carpet.  The first “It” joins the rest of the students who are not out.  I choose a new “It” from the out students and play continues ‘til there is only one person left.

What’s Missing? Students sit in a circle.  Run off a set of 3D shape pieces, laminate and cut them out.  Follow the directions on the game sheet.  Click on the link to view/print the What's Missing Shape Game.

Flashcard Flip: I print off several sets of the flashcards, laminate and cut them out.  Punch a hole in one corner and put them on a split ring.  I keep these by my rocking chair and during reading or calendar time I take the cards off the ring and flip them over really fast.

The child who identifies the card first gets to hold it.  The student who has the most cards by the time I get through flipping through the entire pack gets a sticker or 2 Smartie candies.  Everyone gets one for participating.  (These cards were in the Letter home link above.)

Dice Games: Each week we play a dice game.  I always ask my students what shape the dice are.  All of my units have 2 dice games included in them.

Manipulatives: When my students play with perfectly square blocks I have them refer to them as cubes.  I’ll give them time to play with Unifix cubes and have them do patterning and addition and subtraction activities with them using the word cube as we work.  I’ve made monthly mats specifically for this purpose.  Click on the link to view/print “We’re in a Unifix”

Because catching and tossing is one of our standards, I’ll use a variety of balls and have students say “Sphere!” when they catch it.  I also have a rubber ice cream cone and rubber can from our kitchen set and we’ll toss those and say “cone” and “cylinder” as well.

Use Food:

Children enjoy eating to help learn and snack foods provide the perfect lesson.  When my students are learning the “flat” shapes I buy skinny pretzels and let them make the shapes out of the pretzels and then eat them.  For the 3D shapes I buy Bugles for cones, cheese balls for spheres, croutons for cubes, and a large marshmallow for a great cylinder. 

I read about another teacher using combos which I think is another yummy alternative! You can have your students eat one of each and then glue each one to a strip of construction paper and then label them.  Instead of gluing a marshmallow, we use an uncooked noodle. I buy the large straight ones that are great for making necklaces.

Art Projects:

 I include at least one 3D-shaped art project each month.  This usually turns out to be a cylinder, which is OK, because that seems to be the term that is the most difficult for my students to remember.  Cylinder projects have been toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes, tin cans and rolled paper (windsocks).  For a cute March windsock check out the St. Patrick’s day article.  We made a cone-shaped tee pee tent in November.

Tabletop Lessons and skill sheets:

My students complete patterns, play “I Spy”,  match real counter parts and count 3D shapes for various lessons so that they get used to seeing these shapes.  These skill sheets are found in my 44-page Learning 3D Shapes Book.

Also included in that book are 2 Easy Reader Booklets, which is another way my students become familiar with this concept.  In both booklets they TRACE and then WRITE the sentence, and then they CUT and GLUE the appropriate shape to the page.  There’s a graphing extension for one booklet and certificates of praise for both. 

Self-esteem is built because most students can read both of these books by the end of the day whenever I teach them.  I incorporate our simple and most-used word-wall words.  The 3D shapes are reinforced and the pictures of "real-life" objects help them to get a handle on the 3D shape as a real "thing" and not just a block-like object.

I hope that you got some tips to help things shape up for your students!

I’d enjoy hearing how you go about teaching 3D shapes and what’s working for you. diane@teachwithme.com

Something new: While searching the web today I found a site that has free down loads so that you can print off masters to made the paper 3D shapes.  This would be too difficult for my students, but I'm going to make them myself so that I can display the before and after in my classroom.  Click on the link if you're interested.

I keep things simple for St. Patrick’s Day.  It’s not a party day, just a theme day.  I’ve already sent a letter home to parents asking them to please have their child wear green.  Being able to identify colors is one of our report card standards.   Things look really festive when everyone shows up in various shades of green.

Mood Music:

I have Irish harp music playing.  It’s soothing and the students enjoy listening to it while they do their morning lessons. In the afternoon I play some livelier Celtic music and teach them how to do the Irish Jig for the gross motor movement part of our day.

St. Patrick’s Day Goodies:

They look for their shamrock nametag and I pin it to them.  I also tape on a slap bracelet.  At their desk they have a “Happy St. Patrick’s Day from your teacher” note, with a green Skittle that was probably left by the leprechaun.  Click on the link to view/print these St. Patrick’s Day Items

I have lots more fun things you could use in the 60-page March Apple Bytes Newsletter packet.

I have a variety of St. Patrick’s Day themed tabletop lessons for them to complete.  (I take many of my tabletop lessons from my 79-page Shamrock unit.)

After they’re done with those, they can earn a necklace.  I made these from the inexpensive shiny green and gold garland that they put on sale after Christmas for as little as 10 cents.  One strand makes 3 necklaces.

I check my students’ work and stamp it with a shamrock.  They transition to their centers.

St. Patrick’s Day Centers:

One of their centers is to cut out a leprechaun hat and glue their shamrock to it.  I’ve already written their name in gold glitter glue the day before.

Another center is to glue their bookmark to a rectangle of green construction paper and stamp the math equation for the day on the back which is 3 shamrocks + 3 shamrocks = 6 shamrocks. I have a shamrock stamp, black stamp pad and dark green marker that I set up on a TV tray. TV trays make perfect mini center areas.

Another center is to bingo dot their shamrock in an ABAB pattern using orange and green bingo dot markers.

They also lie on their tummies, using a golf tee, they pinch & poke a shamrock, as a fine motor skill activity.  Click on the link to view/print these  St. Patrick's Day Center Activities.

St. Patrick’s Day Art Activity:

I vary my one-on-one art center activities for St. Patrick’s Day.  I enjoy using food to do art with because it’s a double learning experience for my students.  For example, a fun art activity you can do for St. Pat’s day involves a large green pepper.

It’s perfect for this holiday because it’s green, and when you slice it in half the inside looks like a shamrock!  If you want to reinforce the cylinder shape you can make a windsock.

If you want to keep things simple, have your students just stamp a sheet of white paper three times using 3 different shades of green paint.

Cut the end off the green pepper so that it is about 1 inch thick, then cut 2 more 1- inch pieces.

Eat & Graph:

I dice up the rest of the green pepper so that my students can each taste a tiny square.  I find that most of my Y5’s have never eaten green pepper before.   I assure them that it is not hot.   Some of them like it; most of them do not.  We graph our results later.  Click on the link to view/print the graph. Our snack that day is also green including green punch.

If you want to make a windsock, use large white construction paper 8 inches wide and the entire length of the sheet.  Cut 1-inch strips of 3 shades of green construction paper and glue them to the bottom of the inside of the windsock. 

Have students do this before you staple it into the cylinder shape.  Each student will need 3 of each color.  You could also use green crepe paper; punch holes on either side of the top and hang with yarn.

For more creative and fun art ideas, check out my 133-page Spring Art and Activities book.  Click on the photo button to view the pictures.

Leprechaun Lessons:

St. Patrick’s Day is a much-anticipated day, as I’ve used it as a behavior modification concept.  Click on the link to read the article about Leprechaun Lessons.  Because of that, my afternoon activities are set as we go in search of the pot of gold at the end of our rainbow trail of yarn and then collect gold nuggets.

Games: I plug in a game or two depending on time:

Play Leprechaun-Leprechaun who took your 4-Leaf Clover? Click on the link to view/print a 4-leaf clover. Play this game like you would play Doggy-Doggy Who Took Your Bone. Laminate the 4-leaf clover.

Choose a child to be the leprechaun and have them sit on a chair in the middle of your circle.  Place the clover under the chair. The “leprechaun-child” closes their eyes; you point to a child sitting in the circle, they quietly take the clover and hide it behind their back.  Everyone puts their hands behind their back; tell the leprechaun child to open their eyes.

Everyone chants: “Leprechaun-Leprechaun who took your 4-Leaf clover?” The leprechaun child points to the child they think has their 4-Leaf clover.  Play continues ‘til timer goes off, or until everyone has had a turn to be either the leprechaun or a person who has taken the clover.

Hot Leprechaun: I have a stuffed leprechaun that I’ve been using like Elf on a Shelf all month; I now use him to play Hot Potato.  I put on some zippy Celtic music.  When it stops, the child holding the leprechaun is out.  You could also use a gold coin.

Toss the Leprechaun into his pot of gold: Since catching and tossing a beanbag, is one of my report card standards, I try to have my students toss things every day.  I use a cauldron pot that I got on sale after Halloween and the children have 2 tries to toss him into the pot.

Dice Game: Follow the Rainbow Trail and get the leprechaun to his pot of gold.  Students roll the dice and color in the appropriate circles on their game sheet.  Each number equals a color.  This helps reinforce the rainbow color pattern we have been learning.  The child who colors in the entire rainbow trail first wins the game.  Click on the link to view/print a copy of the Rainbow Trail dice game.

Reading-Writing Block: My students do several booklets that they enjoy making and taking home to share with their families. Lucky Me I Found a 4-Leaf Clover,   Let’s Count Leprechauns, and  There’s a Pot Of Gold At The End of The Rainbow.  Let’s Count Leprechauns is my personal favorite because I can nail lots of standards with this one booklet.

Writing Prompt:

As a writing prompt we pretend we are leprechauns and discuss what we'd do if we had a pot of gold to spend.  My students TRACE and then WRITE the sentence filling in the rest with what they've decided they'll do with their gold.  I list their ideas on the board for them to copy.  Some of them are as typical as "buy toys";  others are as wonderful as "help my mom and dad fix the house" to "buying food for the needy." 

I cut their school photo into an oval for them to glue on the leprechaun.  They draw a picture of their plans and I collate the pages to make a class book.  Click on the link to view/print the Leprechaun Gold Class Book writing prompt.  

End of the Day:

We end our day with story time and I read some of my favorite St. Patrick's Day books. 

We sing several songs and toss the leprechaun around; whoever holds him gets to share what part of the day was their favorite. 

Finally, I pass out certificates of participation.  Click on the link to view/print a St. Patty’s Day certificate

With Irish eyes smilin’ and happy hearts brimmin’ over, my little green-clad “leprechauns” head for home.

Whatever you’re planning for March 17^th,  I hope it’s very merry!  Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you and yours!

My final idea for March is Reading Month is a CHALLENGE!  I tell my students that during the Renaissance, knights would challenge each other by throwing down a gauntlet.  I define these terms and then throw down my glove and say: “I challenge you to a Reading Contest; who’s interested? “ I now have their attention, and many, if not all, of their hands are raised.

 Then I explain my “Turn OFF the TV and Turn ON to reading” week-long challenge and show them Telly the elephant.  Each day that they go without watching television, they COLOR in the appropriate box on Telly. 

The student, who colors in the most boxes, hopefully all 7, or an entire week of no TV, wins a really cool prize!

I show the girl and boy prizes I have selected for this specific occasion.   They are inexpensive enough not to break the budget, but cool enough to be quite motivating.  I stock up after Halloween and Christmas when things are slashed and on sale for ridiculous 80% off prices.

I also inform them that anyone who participates will get a certificate and have their name thrown into a basket.  I’ll pull out two names and those two students will get to select a book from my birthday book box.  (I give students a book on their birthday.) As a surprise to them, I will also be taping a “You’re a super-star lollipop” on each certificate as well.

I send a letter home explaining the contest to parents along with Telly and a reminder note that they can tape to their TV, so they don’t accidentally forget and turn the TV on. 

I let them know that I will also be participating right along with them.  It’s not that hard for me to give up TV, as I’m a voracious reader.  I do have a few favorite programs tho’ so I’m thankful that I’m able to record them, but it is nice to turn the squawk box off entirely and have some extra quality time with my family.

I show them the video Arthur’s TV-Free Week to further motivate them.  It’s a cute video that reinforces the importance of giving up TV as well as the fact that it’s not that easy.  They enjoy Arthur so I also have several websites that they can independently visit for my computer center.  They can print off an Arthur reading books bookmark one and bookmark two and an Arthur mask.  Click on the links to check them out.

I have a book basket with some “No TV!” related books in it for them to read. 

My students write their name on an "I'm taking the challenge!" badge and I pin it to their shirt.  I give faculty a "head's up!" to ask my students what the challenge is, so my Y5's have an opportunity to explain and "shine".  Click on the link to view/print a set of reading challenge badges for your students. 

They also sign a contract that they accept the challenge.  "Promises" are big with young people and this helps reinforce their commitment.  Click on the link to view/print the reading contract, certificates and letters home.

I send a reminder note home on Friday that Telly is due. Students bring their elephant in on the following Monday and share it with their classmates, explaining what they did on the days that they didn’t watch TV.

I graph whether they liked doing this activity or not, whether they thought this was difficult or not, and how many days everyone gave up TV, and then I award the certificates and prizes. Click on the link to view/print the graphs.

I’ve gotten quite a bit of positive feedback from parents that they were glad that I was the catalyst behind giving up TV for a week.  They say it’s something that they wanted to do, but felt it was easier to do coming from the school.  They also shared that having a family game night was something that they were going to continue to do.

All in all it’s something that I will continue to promote each year and hope that you will jump on the “Turn OFF the TV and Turn ON to Reading” band wagon.

I think that my students’ favorite thing that we do for March is Reading Month is Camp Read Away.  I’ve collected 8 tents over the years.

You can pick up some great buys at garage sales, and when my close friend Maria asked me what I wanted for my birthday she wasn’t too surprised when I said: “The purple Disney Princess tent”.

It easily holds 4 giggling girls and they LOVE “reading away” in it! Camp Read Away is an easy theme day to throw together. Here’s how I do it:

Notes Home:

I Launch Camp Read-Away on a Friday; I send a letter home about it on Monday with a reminder on Thursday.  To make “camping” a bit more fun, I ask parents to please send a flashlight to school with their child.  Click on the link to view/print the letters. 

Preparation:

The night before I cover my windows with black bulletin board paper, and set up the tents.  I like to have the windows covered so that when my students enter the room it is entirely pitch black; they have only their flashlights to guide them.  They love the adventure.

I have foam alphabet and number puzzle mats that I put on the floor as a path that leads to the various tents.   I tell my students to stay on the path.  If they fall off they’ll land in the Camp Read Away swamp and could be eaten by a crocodile!  This adds to the excitement.

Set the mood:

I put a CD of a thunderstorm in my boom box.  I flip it on so that when they enter the pitch-black campground it’s raining.  A rumble of thunder cracks and startles the children whose eyes are still not adjusted to the darkness.  It makes the adventure even more fun!

I put a small basket of books in each tent.  I’ve already explained to them that they are to read quietly with their flashlights for a full 10 minutes.   As an incentive to get them “down to business” I tell them that if their tent is quiet, I will come around with glow-in-the-dark bracelets; they may choose any neon color they wish to wear for the day, but they have to be caught quietly reading to earn one.  This does the trick to simmer them down!

Snack Time:

For snack we have Smores. I have parents who signed up at my Open House that are willing to provide things for our special occasions. I’ve already sent a note home with those children asking them to provide an ingredient for our Smores.

They are easily made in the microwave.  Depending on how many students you have, you’ll need 3-4 Nestle candy bars, a bag of large marshmallows, and a box of cinnamon graham crackers.  I like the cinnamon kind because they taste better.   Because they are so rich, each child gets only ½  a graham cracker.

Break the tiny chocolate rectangles apart.  Put 1-2 rectangles on top of ½ a graham cracker, put a marshmallow on top of the cracker; put 4 of these stacks on a paper plate and then set in the microwave for 5 seconds. Keep watching through the window that they are melting.  Add more seconds if needed.  Immediately put the other graham cracker on the top when they have melted.

Continue to make more until you have enough for each child.  I have a microwave right in my classroom so this really helps.  I’ve put the tents back up and my Y5’s are once again reading, while I’m making snack.  I have my “mood lighting” on.  They still like to read with their flashlights even though it’s not necessary.

 Lessons:

It’s basically a regular day except that our tabletop and their centers revolve around a “camping” and “reading” theme.  For example one of their centers is to cut out a circle and glue it to a Dixie cup and then Pinch & Poke a pattern in the top.  When everyone is done, we again turn off the lights, put our flashlights inside the cup and see our star design on the ceiling!

We play flashlight tag, sing the alphabet song with the flashlights, add and subtract numbers with the flashlights, and play “I Spy” with the flashlights.  To sing the alphabet song just put the beam of the flashlight on the letter and move it along.

To add and subtract, write the numbers 0-10 with a black marker on a piece of tag board; include the symbols + - and = on the bottom line. Move the flashlight beam to a number, then to a + or - symbol then another number then the = sign.  Whoever calls out the correct answer first, gets to hold the flashlight next.

I play “I Spy a Shape” and point the flashlight beam to the door. My students should say,  “Rectangle.” We also play  “I Spy a Color.” My students have to say the color of the object the flashlight beam is on, in English and Spanish.

For a reading-writing extension they TRACE-WRITE-CUT-and GLUE their My Camping Booklet together and then we read it as a whole group.  They enjoy taking these "easy readers" home and sharing them with their families. Click on the link to view the booklet.

To reinforce listening and following directions we do a camping glyph, as well as a camping-alphabet slider. We sing the alphabet song with that and they manipulate the paper strip sliding it up and down as I ask for various letters. Click on the link to view my Activities For Camp Read Away Book. 

Story Time:

I found a blow up campfire at a garage sale, that I blow up with a bicycle pump. I set this in front of my rocking chair.   Before I had the blow up campfire, I crumpled up red, yellow and orange tissue paper and laid it around and under a real birch bark log.   I stuck a small flashlight that I had wrapped in tissue beside it.  I use this during story time and we read by the campfire and sing campfire songs.

I have a few favorite songs that I teach my Y5's:  A Camping We Will Go and  The Little Skunk. I have a skunk puppet that I use to help out.  Because we're learning to count in a variety of ways we also sing 10 Little Campers to the tune of 10 Little Indians.  They enjoy making an Itty Bitty Number Booklet as we "Camp Count" by 10's to 100 as well as 1's, and then count backwards from 10-0 and blast off.  The Itty Bitty number booklet also counts by 2's, 3's and 5's for older students.  Click on the hot links to view/print the songs.

I also play the CD "Goin' On A Bear Hunt" Our paper bag bears are still hibernating in their big leaf bag cave, but will soon be awakening on the first day of spring (March 20th).  I thought it would be fun to do this musical-movement song, since bears are often seen at campgrounds.  We sit in a circle and repeat what the narrator says as well as a movement that they do.

Michael Rosen's Board Book Goin On A Bear Hunt is animated in this YouTube video and the author does his personal version of the book in this Goin' On A Bear Hunt YouTube video.  Check out the next YouTube video to see another song that we sing. 

After we go on our initial bear hunt we sing this song and instead of catching a bear we catch different animals.  This song leads us into our writing transition, where each student illustrates their own page and writes about what animal they caught on our bear hunt.  Click on the link to view/print this Class Book.   

There is another You Tube video called Goin' On A Lion Hunt that you can show and do a comparison contrast discussion of the two stories.  You could also have your students write their own version of the bear story using another animal like these children did with the lion.  Have them substitute different things that they will cross or go through to make their adaptation even more interesting.  You can have them graph which story they liked better.  Click on the link to view/print the graph.

My favorite camping story that I read to my Y5's is a hilarious rhyming book called A Camping Spree With Mr. Magee.  {amazonWS:itemId=0811836037}

At the end of the day we toss Ebony the skunk back and forth and share what part of the day was our favorite.  I give everyone a certificate of participation.  Click on the link to print/view a Camp Read Away certificate.

I keep the tents available for the next week and simply pop a few of the biggest ones up during Free Play center time and Free Reading time.  They are great for imaginative play, and a “super-duper-shutter-upper” when I want them to quietly read.  

Even if you only invest in one tent, it is really worth it, because of the fun YOU and your students will have.  I set a timer so that everyone gets a turn in the princess tent, even the boys!

Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to PIN away.

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading, or do things worth writing about." -Benjamin Franklin

 Another theme I like to read about during March is Reading Month is KITES.

To add color to my hallway, I hang some interesting kites from the ceiling.  My students’ favorite is the butterfly. I add more in April when we study that unit.

I also decorate my students’ lockers with nametag kites and their squisher kite artwork. 

I wrote my favorite kite books on an inexpensive Dollar Store kite and stuck it in the middle of a bulletin board with a blue-papered background.  The title: Reading Helps You Soar To Great Heights!

Some crumpled up white tissue paper, helped make the 3-D clouds.  Take a picture of each of your students reading a kite book, mount them on multi-colored kites, with yarn tails and staple them around the kite.  Easy and instant bulletin board.

As a home-school connection my students create ME kites.  Click on the link to view/print the ME-kite letter home. This is a great way to learn more about your students, and a wonderful opportunity for them to share and increase their verbal acuity.  Simply cut out a diamond shape on a half sheet of tag board and send it home with the letter.

Instead of the usual recess, I asked for several parent volunteers to walk to the park and they helped the children fly my collection of kites.  They had a memorable blast.

One year my semi-professional kite flyer friend Donovan, was available. Hhe came and gave an awesome loop-de-loop demonstration of all his kite tricks.

Afterwards, students ran around with their own decorated plastic grocery bag kites to see how high they could get them.

Simply turn printed grocery sacks inside out and let students decorate with permanent markers and stickers, tie a string on the handles so they can pull it.  You can also do the same with a paper lunch bag, but cut a hole in each corner and then insert the string.

I take an entire day or two to do a theme around kites. 

Click on the links to check out these fun activity booklets and Unit: My Easy Reader Counting Kite Booklet (With Math Extensions), Go Fly A Kite, (Spatial Directions) My Shapely Kite, (Reviews Shapes)  Where Have All The Kites Gone, (subtraction easy reader), My Kite Counting booklet (Math activities)  + the big 78-page Kite Unit. One of the things my students enjoy making in the Kite Unit is the slider pictured on the right.

My favorite easy reader is: My Kite booklet because of all the fun extensions. Pictured on the left, is the rhyming word kite. Click on the link to view the entire booklet. 

I also like The Shape Of My 3D Kite because it helps review those tough shapes in an interesting and fun way.

I have a Kk is for Kite poster that lists all of the rhyming words.

I also have 5 kite activities in my 133-page Spring Art & Activities Book. One of my students’ favorites is the Japanese watercolor fish kite. Click on the link to view the adorable photographs.

There are also other fun and easy projects that make great March bulletin boards, as you reinforce report card standards and explore some science concepts.

You can do the math extension kite graph with your students, as well as share the kite poems or make the class kite book; view/print the kite activities.

During story time we enjoy the following: 

The Emperor and The Kite, Yolen; Kite Flying, Lin; Kite, Packard; Laura’s Secret, Baumgart; Berenstain Bears: We Like Kites, Bear’s Bargain, Asch; Dora and The Rainbow Kite Festival, Ricci.

I hope you got a few ideas to supplement your March is Reading Month plans or kite activities. 

May they take you up-up and away to a great day … of reading!

Happy Fat Tuesday! 

As we “Read Across America” I wanted to do something a little different and also toss in some geography; so I thought it would be fun to learn about Louisiana and have a Mardi Gras theme day on a Friday. 

My students have really enjoyed it in the past.  It's another fun thing to do for March is Reading Month and a great way to learn about another state.  Here are just a few of the things I did:

I kept it simple, just sending a letter home asking parents to please have their child wear something festive, purple-yellow-and green, or dress as a Mardi Gras-type clown if they wanted to.  I also dress up.  I've collected quite a few costumes over the years. 

My students enjoy seeing me dressed up and it makes story time extra fun.  Here I simply appliqued some Mardi Gras fabric cut out's to a black dress, added some gold and purple puffy paint around the edges, donned a feathered boa, a coin necklace, some beads, put on crazy purple, yellow and green socks, and a metallic mask and I was all set!

I have a Happy Mardi Gras note on their desktop with a purple, yellow and green Skittle waiting for them.  They get to eat two Skittles and then we use the other one as a manipulative to play “I Spy” the number or letter for our first Table Top lesson.  Click on the link to view/print the Mardi Gras note + a blank “I Spy” skill sheet. (You can fill in whatever letters/numbers that you're studying.)  

I bought Mardi Gras necklaces at the local party store and the students got to choose which color they wanted. Since Mardi Gras is all about collecting necklaces they got to make an additional one out of dyed macaroni, incorporating a specific ABC-ABC pattern.

Their favorite centers were decorating a mask, using bingo dot markers to make a pattern, and doing a pinch and poke with a golf tee.  Click on the link to view/print these Mardi Gras center activities

In the afternoon we played a few games. I tossed purple, green and gold coins all over the floor while they were at lunch.  When they came back to the classroom they got to scamper around and find as many as they could and then sort them by color.

The one who found the most coins won a prize.  Everyone got to keep 3 coins (one of each color); we identify these colors in Spanish.

We made several different patterns with the coins, counted them by 10’s to 100, and by 1’s in English and Spanish.  We counted backwards from 10 to 0 and then "blasted off" to our lockers to put the coins in our backpacks.

Oriental Trading sells quite a few Mardi Gras items as well as your local party store.

As another math extension, they also played a Mardi Gras dice game. Click on the link to view/print the Mardi Gras dice game.

I bought a beanie-type Mardi Gras stuffed Jester and we played “Hot Jester” (Like Hot Potato) passing it around in a circle to music; when the Mardi Gras music stopped, the one holding the Jester was out.

We had our own Mardi Gras parade marching around the room and then down the hall to visit a few of the other preschool and kindergarten classes.

For writing/reading they completed their Mardi Gras page for our class book. Click on the link to view/print a Mardi Gras class book.

For geography/writing/reading everyone cut and glued their Louisiana book.  We found Louisiana on the globe and state map and looked at books from the library.  If you are a Gold Subscription member and want to make a comparison booklet using your state, drop me an e-mail and I will send you the clip art and pages for your state. Click on the link to view/print a Louisiana state booklet.

For story time I checked out books from the library on Mardi Gras and showed them photos that I printed from the web.  Some books I recommend are:

• Mardi Gras in New Orleans: an Alphabet Book by Karen Jansen.  This is a different kind of alphabet book as it doesn’t just have A is for Alligator.  The text recognizes all of the initial A’s.  e.g. Accordions, the anticipation of Ash Wednesday, the day after “Fat Tuesday”, We all attend the Mardi Gras, an annual action that…” All of the bolded letter A’s are be in a purple color.
• Mimi’s First Mardi Gras by Alice Couvillon, is a great way to give your students a bit of information about Mardi Gras as well as learn some of their distinct vocabulary, everything from beignets (doughnuts eaten for breakfast) to the doubloons (colored coins) thrown from the floats.  The book is illustrated in the vibrant colors of Mardi Gras that help the story come alive.
• Cajun Alphabet, by James Rice is also an unusual alphabet book.  I like that it rhymes, but the text is a bit long at times.  It definitely has a Cajun flavor and even throws in some French phrases.
• Celebrate  Mardi Gras & Carnival, by Campoy This included a regional map of the US and highlighted Louisiana.  They gave a short description of the holiday and had actual pictures of Mardi Gras.  The authors also mentioned hurricane Katrina in their dedication page to New Orleans.
• After reading about Mardi Gras, we graphed whether we'd really like to go to Louisiana and attend Mardi Gras.  Surprisingly, some of my students did not; they thought it would be kind of scary.  Click on the link to view/print the Mardi Gras graph.
  

During Show & Share time, we tossed the Mardi Gras jester back and forth.  Whoever had the jester got to share what part of Mardi Gras day was their favorite.

The day went faster than usual.  I gave everyone a certificate for participating; it seemed that everyone had had a Mardi Gras great time! Click on the link to view/print a Mardi Gras certificate

I like to feature authors during March is Reading Month.  One of my favorite book series is the Berenstain Bears, by Jan and Stan Berenstain. The photo is courtesy of Amazon.com

This was my son Jason’s favorite “read to me” book before he went to bed.

Stan and Jan Berenstain wrote this successful children’s series together.  It started with their first book The Big Honey Hunt in 1962.  Previously, they had been successful cartoonists for magazines and adult humor books.  Since then, they have produced more that 300 Berenstain Bear books, with 260 million copies sold.

Their son Mike was their inspiration and joined the writing team in the late 1980’s.  He and his mother continue to write new stories, since his father’s death at the age of 82, in 2005.

I’ll sometimes follow up a story with one of their life-skill building videos.  They are very short, usually less than 10-minutes, and teach a valuable lesson.  My favorite is Messy Room. Click on the link to view this on U-Tube.

My favorite Berenstain Bear book to read to my Y5’s is Inside Outside Upside Down.

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The simple gist of the story is that Brother Bear gets into a box. Papa Bear turns the box upside down, takes it outside, and it accidentally gets put on a truck.

Why I Love it:

The rhyming text, and repetitive verse make it a perfect easy reader.

Since teaching spatial directions is one of my report card standards this is the perfect book for explaining those concepts.

How I Teach Spatial Directions:

• I pause at the repetitive verse and have my students repeat the phrase with me, as I point to the individual words.
• I make the book even more fun because I made a large box similar to the one in the book. 
  
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• Since eyes peek out of the box, I cut out two white circles and glued huge wiggle eyes on top and then glued them to the box. I also glued the repetitive words, inside, outside, and upside down on the box.  I put contact paper over them for extra protection.  After I finish the story the child shows the side of the box that says: The End!
  

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• I choose a student to manipulate the box while I read the story.
  
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• After the story I review all the spatial direction words with my students and call on quiet students to manipulate the box.  i.e., the box is beside the student, the box is above the student, the box is between two students etc.
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• Even my ESL students have spatial directions pretty down pat by the time we end this activity.
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• I add spatial direction words to our word wall, make flashcards for them, and have my students make Itty Bitty books from the flashcard skill sheet. Click on the link to view/print a copy of the spatial direction word cards.
  
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• They trace the words, cut out the cards, and I staple their booklets.  They really enjoy sharing them with their families.
• We then think of the spatial direction word that we like best and graph the results.  Click on the link to view/print a spatial direction graph.
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• I also Xerox off their school picture on the photo setting of the copier.  I cut 7 ovals of their picture so that they can glue it beside, above, under, inside... the boxes on the pages of their  Where Am I? booklet. 
  
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• They also get practice tracing and writing the words and increase their fine motor skills cutting and gluing them to the correct pages.  This is one of their parents' favorite keepsake booklets that they make. 
  
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• I make the rounds of several food and appliance stores and ask them for boxes.  During Free Play Center time my students have fun playing with the boxes.
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• Later, I have them manipulate blocks and go through the various spatial directions using the blocks.  We'll do this at their tables.
  
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• For a gross motor movement, I'll have them choose a puppet or stuffed animal, bring it to the circle and I'll tell them to put the puppet/animal on, above, beside them.  To extend this, and get the wiggles out, I'll put on some zippy music and we'll march around.  As they march, I'll say "On!" and they'll put their puppet/animal on whatever body part I put mine on. We'll continue to march and I'll say: "Beside-left, beside-right,  above." etc. 
  


• It also gives me a chance to reinforce the names of the various parts of their body, which is also a report card standard.
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• It’s a fun day for my students, and one of their favorite books in their book basket.  It’s especially rewarding when they come to me and say: “Mrs. Henderson.  Mrs. Henderson.  Listen to me.  I can read this page!”

Where's Blue?

• The other thing that I do to get spatial directions in their head is to “hide” something in plain sight.
• Each morning this is one of their jobs.  It teaches responsibility and gives them something to do that keeps them quiet and focused.
• The first child to discover where the object is, raises their hand and gets to tell the class (using spatial direction words) where it is.
• In September this is Blue from Blue’s Clues, in October it’s a pumpkin.  I skip November because everyone has the concept nailed by then.  I revisit it again in December with Elf on a Shelf as a behavior modification tool. I also do it again in March with a Leprechaun for the same reason and also as a refresher.

Laundry Line Of Learning:

• Another way my students learn their spatial directions is with my Laundry Line of Learning; it has numbers that change with the various months/seasons.
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• i.e., I’ll have numbered school children for September (pictured), numbered snowmen for January, shamrocks for March etc. hanging from a clothesline. The clothesline is just below my number train in the photo.
  
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• Leo the Lion has his thumbs up or down if he’s messed up the numbers. His arms are bendable.  He is sitting on the chalk sill next to the hot pick rectangle.
  
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• My students use their spatial direction words to tell me where the numbers should go so that I can fix the line i.e., before, after, left, right, as well as ordinal placement: first, second, third etc. 

Manipulatives:

• I have a flannel board with Monthly Manipulatives where my students can place a Velcro apple (September) or an October pumpkin in the various positions. i.e, the smaller apples have the spatial direction words on them like "beside". I'll pass out the little apples and the children will put the word-apple where it goes.  The big themed piece (in this case the apple) is in the middle of the flannel board.  The child with the small "beside" apple will put it beside the big apple.
  
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•  If I'm working on left and right, I'll tell them to put it beside the apple on the left or right.  The child with the "above" word-apple will place it above the big apple and so on.  I do this board during story time.  It only takes a minute and the children enjoy placing the seasonal manipulatives on the board. 
  
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• It's another fun way for them to get these word-wall words into their heads so that they can read the matching booklets.  I also have color and number words on the apples, pumpkins, mittens etc.  This also helps them read the matching color and number booklets.  Click on the link above to check out this fun program that helps my Y5's become readers. 
  

Spatial Direction Booklets:

• Finally, every week they have at least one, sometimes two spatial direction booklets that they trace, cut and glue together.
• After everyone has completed their booklet, we read it as a whole group.  This reinforces concepts of print and helps get the spatial direction words in their head.
• My students’ self-esteem is also built because they can actually take these little booklets home and read them to their families!
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• I have lots of spatial direction booklets available for only .29cents. I designed them for each of my themes.
• My students really enjoy making them.  They reinforce reading skills, but also help with writing, listening and following directions; plus it helps increase their finger dexterity, increasing muscle control as they improve their cutting skills.
• My students are familiar with the directions, so I simply pass a booklet out during our reading block and they “get down to business”.
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• Because this is an independent activity, I’m free to do assessments, or work one-on-one with a struggling student.
• March spatial direction booklets are:  Go Fly A Kite,  Lucky Me!  I Found A Four-Leaf Clover,  There’s a Pot Of Gold At The End Of The Rainbow,  Where Is The Pot Of Gold, and  Where’s The Lion?
  
• Become a Gold Subscription member and download over 100 booklets and anything else at no additional charge.  Every week I add new things including at least one easy reader!
  

This Berenstain Bear book can be read to even a very young child.  My children enjoyed it as young as one.  So if you have little ones at home, snuggle up on the couch, and grab a big old empty box from the basement.  You’ll have some great quality time with your kids!

I remember one Christmas my daughter Kelli’s favorite thing that year was not playing with her new toys, instead, with a bow stuck to her little blond head, she crawled inside a box, rolled upside down, squealed… “Mama Mama!” and had the time of her life, much like the ending of Jan and Stan’s book: “Mama Mama I went to town, inside, outside, upside down!”

Happy Reading,

whether you're inside, outside, or even, upside down!

Click on the link to view/print a spatial direction certificate.

Happy Read Across America! 

Here's what I'm doing in Michigan to promote reading! I wanted to write an article that would include lots of the fun things that I've designed that helped my Transitional Kindergartners and First Graders learn words.  I even use some of these things with my Y5’s.

Word Wall:

For my word wall  I had a Garden Of Readin’ wall that was several pieces of lattice.  It was a fun way to put up alphabetical word cards.  These were not only the usual sight words, but had a place for the month’s seasonal words as well as color, number and calendar words.

I made the word wall a bit more fun by reviewing it daily in the dark.  I’d pick a Popsicle stick with a student’s name out of the “garden basket” and that student got to use a lighted laser to point to the words.

Word Cards:

I have packs of word cards that I laminate and use for games.  I laminate them and make Memory Match games.  Students also partner up and flip over one card at a time.  The one who reads the card first gets to put it in their pile. 

I’ll play “Slap” with them as well and sprinkle the cards on the carpet.  I give each of my students a flyswatter and call out a word. They slap that card.

Sometimes I’ll flash a card from the pack I keep by my rocking chair.  The first student to identify the word gets to hold it.  The one with the most cards gets two M&M’s (Most words Memorized!) Everyone else gets one. 

My students also gather in a circle and we’ll play “Word Down.”  I’ll hold up a word and the first person reads that word.  If they can’t they sit down and the next person reads it. Then I flip up another card and so on ‘til only one person is standing.

We play ABCDe-tective.  I’ll hide word cards around the room and in the hall.  If someone finds the card they read it to the class.  If they can’t read it they give it to a friend that can.

I have several word card books:  Popcorn Words  has 70 FREE traceable popcorn words, a writing sheet and a poster + a blank set for you to make your own. I also have over 300 FREE Dolch word cards from pre-K through 3rd grade + more helpful things in my Dolch Word Help Book and Kindergarten Mini-Site Words includes 52 traceable word cards. 

Elkonin Word Boxes are also helpful. Click on the link for 50 word templates + blank templates for 3, 4 and 5 letter words to make up your own.

Activities:

I have a mystery letter of the day. I also do this with our number and shape of the day.  They are posted behind the apples that you see on my board.

I have a WOW on the board each day.  (Wonderful Outstanding Word!) Click on the link to print a FREE poster.

There are also directions for making a "Reading Survival Kit" as a little gift for your students and Zippy a reminder to be quiet poster. 

I also have a Secret Word of the day.  This is usually a word my students are having difficulty with.  I’ll give clues about it all day and then during “Show and Share Time” I’ll ask who’s guessed it and reveal that turned over word card.

I’ll mix up a row of word wall word cards and “steal” one and see if my students can figure out which one is missing.

I’ll drop the word cards in a basket. We’ll sit in a circle right before lunch.  Each student will choose a card and read it.  I call this “Munch a bunch of words before lunch!” Crunch-Crunch!

Toss all the word cards on the floor.  Have your students tip toe in.  They can only pick up a word card if they can read it.  As they pick them up they read them. Then assemble in a circle.  Have each child show their cards one at a time and read them.  The rest of the students repeat what’s on the card.  The student who found the most cards gets 2 M&M’s the others get one.

I’ll pick 3 cards my students are having trouble with,  and play "Hot Cards!" My students sit in a circle and I turn on some zippy music.  Three different students pass the 3 cards one at a time.  (Start them at 3 different sections of your circle.)  When the music stops whoever has a card reads it and is then out. Play continues ‘til there are only 3 people left.  They receive 2 M&M's everyone else gets 1.  (I remind them that M is for March and M is for M&M's (Most words Memorized so get busy!)

We graph our favorite words, colors, numbers, days, and months. (ages, birthday month, birthday day etc.)

Games:

Play 4 Corners with 4 difficult words.  Play Simon Says with word cards.  Simon says “Read this card.” Play Doggy Doggy Who Took Your Word?  Each time you play use a different word card.

Put 4 cards in the middle of the carpet and play "What's Missing?"  Read the word cards: all-are-an-and.  Have students close their eyes.  Take a word card away.  Ask students to guess which card you took?  Continue to add another card until you have 8 cards.

I'll pick a word from the wall and put that many dashes on the board and then set the timer. Students have one "Mad Minute" to ask me a letter.  If it's in the word I'll write it in, until someone can finally read the word and tell me what it is.  If the timer hasn't rung yet, I'll put another puzzle word on the board. Each day they try and beat their record of the most words that they solved in one "Mad Minute".

When we're waiting in line in the hallway I'll play "I'm Thinking of a Word"  and then give them clues such as it has the letter a in it, or it ends with, or it rhymes with, or it has 5 letters etc.

I make up game sheets I call SCRAMBLE.  I set the timer for 3-5 minutes.  The student who can unscramble the most mixed up word wall words in that amount of time wins a prize.

Spill and Spell is a game I make for my students out of Popsicle sticks.  It helps them to learn their names.  They really enjoy this gift.  You could also make them for your word wall words.

Gross Motor & Music

Instead of saying just the alphabet we’ll also say the phonetic alphabet and add a word for each letter.

We do actions for blends and digraphs. i.e. st - stomp! I have a helpful checklist booklet with this chant in it.

We "cheerlead" a new word:  Give me a Y give me an O give me a U! What does it spell? Y-O-U – YOU!  I’ll brainstorm with my students of how we can make the letters with our arms so we can fit in some gross motor movements.

We sing the vowel song to BINGO.  (There was a class that knew their vowels and this is what they sang Oh! A-E-I-O-U, A-E-I-O-U, A-E-I-O-U, and they were very smart Oh!)

Projects:

I have my students make Itty Bitty Books out of all of my word card flashcards for the various booklets and themes.  They take them home to read and review with their families.

I have them do Table Top skill sheets where they do the following with their sight words: They see it, say it, trace it, write it, find it in a sentence and then underline it; spy it in a box and zap it!  They enjoy these “fun sheets” and it builds their recognition skills, writing skills and self-esteem. 

Click on the link for 61 FREE Sight word skill sheets + the 46 page companion More Sight Word Skill Sheets book, covers colors, numbers, days of the week, months, and question words like who-what and where etc. 

Another different site word skill builder filled with skill sheets and covering 53 words is 76 pages long. Here they trace, write, color, cut, rearrange and glue the letters to make the words; involving all sorts of skills.  My students enjoy this book because it's like putting together a puzzle.   

Take Action With Contractions is another FREE book that's 62 pages long and chock full of activities to get contractions into your students' heads. 

We think of rhyming words to go with our word wall words even if they are nonsense words.  It's often a silly time.  We'll start in a circle with the 1st letter of the alphabet for the word and go from a to z. i.e.  at is the word.  The first child starts and then it goes to the next child:  at, bat, cat, dat, e-at, fat, gat, hat, i-at, jat, klat, mat etc.  We do a lot of giggling.

I make skill sheets with groups of words all over them and make it into an “I Spy!” game sheet.  I’ll call out a word on the sheet and students spy it and circle it.  That student then calls out a word and the students find and circle it. The first person to raise their hand is the next one to be able to call out a word.

We alphabetize our words.

We do word finds.

We compare a word with another word.

We play “I spy!” and look for words inside words.

Booklets:

I make up “Easy Reader” booklets for them to trace-write-color-cut and glue.  Then we read them as a whole group.  They enjoy collecting these booklets and sharing them with their families. One of the most popular "Easy Readers" that teachers pick is the "I Can!" booklet.

I have also designed counting, color, spatial direction and shape booklets for each theme.  The repetition of each booklet in the series helps a student recognize the format and words.  Many of my Y5's can read these booklets by the end of the year because of the simple repetition. 

Because students recall the familiar directions the teacher is freed up to do other things. As students work independently, a teacher can help students one-on-one or do assessments.  One of my Y5's personal favorites is the color booklet.

I do 3 of these booklets through out the day.  My students enjoy them and take only 5-7 minutes to complete one, depending on the booklet.  It’s great as an independent center activity, home-school connection, something for students to do when they complete other work, or something for your sub. folder. 

Calendar:

Calendar time is also another place I incorporate reading.  I incorporate reading words during calendar time.  The days of the week and the months are part of our word wall. I have a fun class book that my students make that gets the months into their head.  It's called Rhyme Time Movin' Through The Months and they LOVE reading and making this book. 

The other booklet they really enjoy is There Was An Old Lady. This is a spin off of the original as my old lady has a different twist. My students feed her the months as we read the story.  I've also written one for colors, numbers, shapes and letters.  My students enjoy the manipulatives I pass out.  We sequence them as well as pop them into the various old ladies' mouths, learning the different concepts and report card standards as we go.

Whenever I give them a free choice book that they'd like me to read it's usually an "Old Lady" booklet.  I've made these 2 on a page so you can run off copies of these booklets so your students can each have one to take home and enjoy reading to their families.

Students also practice their writing skills and learn to read the month words by making a Very Hungry Student booklet, they especially enjoy the rhyming text.  There's even a page for classmate's autographs.

I also get my parents on board by sending themed-word and picture cards home each month with an "I'm So Cool Calendar!" A letter of explanation tells them how to use the pictures and cards and the calendar provides a way for them to keep track of the words their child is learning.  It's a great home-school connection as well as self-esteem builder. 

Click on the link for this FREE 27 page reading help calendar booklet. You may find Calendar Concepts as well as Calendar Helper Book worthwhile too.  The first is 80 pages long, the 2nd is 50.  

Get Parents On Board:

I have a program that I call RAH RAH. It stands for Read At Home. I hang a megaphone that I bought at The Dollar Store from the ceiling and put a poster listing all my students' names on a wall in the hallway, so that everyone can see how well my students are doing.  A letter home asks parents to read to their children a few times a week and then to X off a monthly-themed piece of clipart and send back the signed note. 

It has been extremely successful.  I think it was all that some parents needed for that extra push to read to their child at night, and see the important value of making the time to do that.  Click on the link to view/print your FREE RAH RAH reading logs.  Click on this link to print RAH RAH #2 A FREE poster, letter, bookmarks, etc.

I not only want my students reading, I want to build their vocabularies.  I need parental help for that and send a monthly list home in my students' Take Home Folders.  Monthly Vocabulary Lists

Misc.:

I read lots of alphabet, color, number and themed books every day to my students.  I use puppets and magic to make things exciting and to help them become lovers of books and life-long learners. I have a book with 260 teaching tips of how to make storytelling more fun.  It's chock full of great ideas to help make your story time educational as well as a much-looked forward to, time of day.

I have my students practice writing their name by sending "I love you" grams and leaving them in silly places once they get home. You could extend this idea by having your students choose a word wall word that they are working on and sign it on the back.

I use a flannel board to post our seasonal word manipulatives. I have two sets: One for the beginning of the year September through December and one for the end of the year, January through May.

I use stuffed animals and Beanie Babies to help my students remember reading strategies.   They "Chunk with the Skunk", "See with the Bee", "Make a Sound with the Hound", "Check the Vowel with the Owl" etc.  I’ve made these into posters and bookmarks and a bulletin board. You can find these things in my FREE 136 page A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That Book complete with word wheels and skill sheets!

We have older students come in and be Reading Buddies with my little ones.  They work with them one-on-one and sometimes just read together flopped down on mats or simply chill out in a corner on a bean bag.  Everyone looks forward to this once a week-end of the day time.

I have a week of Camp Read Away where I let my students read in the dark with a flashlight in a tent for 10 minutes at the beginning or end of our day. I have now collected 10 tents. (More details in another article!)

The entire school has DEAR Time (Drop Everything And Read), where we get to go out in the hallway with a book, plop down in front of our lockers and read for 10 minutes after announcements during March is Reading Month.

Praise:

To build self-esteem I give ABCDe-tective certificates after students are able to read a specific booklet.  Click on the link to see a sample.

I also give them bookmarks as incentives and to praise their efforts.  I designed 8 reading ones in the 60-page March Apple Bytes newsletter packet.  As a fun center activity, why not have your students design a bookmark for Read Across America or March is Reading Month. 

Give them a 7x3 piece of white construction paper and have them create something unique. This is a school wide activity for us.  Each teacher submits the best two from their class and then the school votes on the best one from each grade level.  Prizes are given and the bookmarks put in a frame in our atrium. 

Via a newsletter I let parents know that I want to know how their children are doing with their "I'm so Cool Calendars". When students can read all of the Easy Reader Booklets, or are "Most Improved" or can read all of the Word Wall Words or have done other milestones, I award prizes, stickers and certificates + lots of genuine verbal praise and encouragement. 

I post all of these things in my monthly newsletters.  I think it helps motivate parents to help their child shine a little brighter. 

And finally...

I make it as FUN and as stress-free as I can, through all of the above and promoting a positive "can do" attitude in my students that empowers them.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading and hope my enthusiasm is contagious.

I hope you’ve found these tips helpful.  As always, if you have something that’s working for you and your students, I’d love to hear from you. 

diane@teachwithme.com

As you're reading across America this month I wish you a magical and safe journey!