When You Wish Upon a Star {A Beginning of the Year Classroom Wishlist FREEBIE}

Hi there!  It's Brandy from Firstie Kidoodles again.  I hope you all are enjoying your summer, that is if you are already on summer break.  I'm in the middle of week 3 and I'll just say that I am loving every.single.second of it!  The sleeping in. The pajamas all day. The laying out and playing in the pool with my little. The binging of Netflix.  The late nights. The nowhere to be at any specific time.  You get the idea.  But let's be real-that does not for a second mean that I am not thinking about that little six letter word, reflecting on last year, and making changes for next year.

The beginning of the year is so busy.  There are so many things to get ready, copy, and buy for our classrooms.  That buying part can quickly add up and become out of control.  One way I have found to reduce the amount that I'm spending for my classroom and allow all of those anxious, generous parents the opportunity to make a difference is with this little golden star box.

This is my Wish Upon a Star box.  This is an easy tool to make to set out in your classroom on your Open House or Back to School Night in addition to Parent Night.  I have a cute poem that I have laminated and that I keep in a cheap plastic picture frame.  I like to set the poem out right behind the box for the parents to read.

The box is a paper mache box with a lid spray painted with gold glitter paint inside and out.  Inside the box are little star cutouts labeled with the different classroom tools and resources that we will frequently need and use in our classroom throughout the school year.  Parents are free to take a star home with them and they simply send the item in once they've purchased it.  

I have a master list of frequently requested items that I fold and keep in the box from year to year so I don't have to sit and think or go searching for the list when the next year rolls around.  I have included a list of some popular items that I request in this freebie packet.

I have done the star cutouts inside the box a couple of different ways.  Since I don't reuse the stars from year to year, I like to just buy small star cutouts from our teacher store from Carson Dellosa or whichever other company catches my eye that year.  I have included some editable color and black and white star templates for you to just print and cut to put in the box.

I hope some of you find this tool as useful and easy to use as I have.  Head over to my TPT store to grab this freebie and get it ready for the the upcoming school year!

If you're not already a follower, I'd love for you to follow me!

Using AudioBoom in the Classroom to Promote Fluency

Hi all!  It's Amanda and Aylin from Learning to the Core!  Today, we are discussing fluency...

In first grade we are continuously working on becoming fluent readers. There are so many different ways to help promote fluency in a first grade classroom and one of my newest and most favorite ways is using audioBoom!

AudioBoom is a free platform that allows anyone to record and share podcasts.  In my first grade classroom, we simply use it to record ourselves reading a story and then share it with others by creating a QR Code (all done on AudioBoom) so that students can listen to each other's reading.

Asking students to work on fluency and read a book several times so that they are reading it in a "just right" voice is not something most 6 and 7 years old want to do.  HOWEVER, tell them that they will be recording themselves and then classmates will be listening to their recording...you have a class full of excited readers!

Once QR Codes are put on the books, place them in a special spot in your classroom  so students can listen to each other read throughout the school day.

Getting Stared with audioBoom

1. Sign up for a free account at audioboom.com Then download the free app, "AudioBoom" to your iPad.  Sign in and get started!

Once students "upload" their recording.  I go onto my account on the computer by going to audioboom.com and click on your username and scroll down until you see "my posts."  Click on it and you will see all of the uploads.  From this screen, you can also turn it into a QR Code to put on the book.   Fun stuff!  The kids enjoy hearing themselves and their peers read.

Tips and Tidbits:  Other things can pop up on this website (like sports broadcasts) so I make sure to hand it to my students already in the "record mode."  Also, I can't quite see how to turn the reading into a QR Code on the iPad so I always do that part on the computer.  It doesn't bother me to switch back and forth between iPad and computer but if it bothers you it might be worth figuring out how to do it all on one device.


Happy Monday,
Amanda and Aylin
Learning to the Core

Why You Need Trello In Your Life!

Hey there! It's Alison from Learning At The Primary Pond, and today I want to share a tip that will make your life EASIER when it's back to school time!

During the last couple of months of school, I've been thinking about the things that I want to / need to do next school year. Many of them require me to take action at the beginning of the year.

I know that even though these ideas are fresh in my mind now (I'm writing this 2 days after our last day of school), I will likely forget most of them during the summer! To avoid this, I created a "Beginning of the School Year" list in my Trello account.

"What's Trello?" you ask? Well, it's an amazing (and FREE) app that you can use on your computer, on your tablet, or on your smartphone (Apple or Android). Simply create a free account, and then start making boards. Within a board, you can create lists and movable cards.

Here's an image of my "Beginning of the School Year" board on Trello:

As you can see, I have three lists:  "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done."  You can't actually see all of the items on my "To Do" list - you'd have to scroll down. As a reading specialist, I have lots of responsibilities at the beginning of the school year!

Each responsibility is listed on one of the moveable cards ("Get 1-2 teachers' schedules and grade division," for example). As I start working on these different responsibilities, I can move them to the "In Progress" list, and eventually to the "Done" list. Trello also allows me to share my lists with other people, so I can keep the other two reading specialists in the loop!

The wonderful thing is that I will never again have to make a new to-do list for the beginning of the school year! I will keep this board, and then at the beginning of next year, I'll move all the "Done" items back to "To Do," add or remove cards as needed, and voila! I'm set to go.

I bet there are things that you have to do at the beginning of every single school year, right? Wouldn't it be nice to keep track of them digitally, so you can't lose your list? And in an app that you can access at school or on your phone, wherever you are? You've gotta try out Trello, because it will make your life much easier!

To learn about how to use Trello in other ways to make your data tracking and anecdotal note taking easier, check out the video below.


Happy teaching!

Read It Again! Reasons to Repeat Read-Alouds

This year I've become a real fan of repeating read alouds. Each week we have one extended text that we reread and explore for several days. 

How do I know when when I've found a book that would make a great repeat read-aloud? Well, my crazy book-loving brain does this...

This is the inside cover of My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza. You can see that I had a brainstorm and scribbled the teaching opportunities inside the book. You'll know you've found a book worth extending across several days when there are opportunities to teach a comprehension strategy, a trait of writing and/or vocabulary. You'll know you've found a book worth reading again and again if the book provides opportunities for asking questions, making connections or considering different opinions. 

Here are three reasons for repeating read-alouds. I've added the opinions of some well-known educators. That way, you don't have to just take my word for it!  

Curriculum Choices

When driving through a roundabout, there are several options for exiting. In the same way, repeating read-alouds gives you curriculum options. Of course the first time around, you'll just want to read the book for enjoyment. On the second reading of the book, you might choose to focus on a comprehension strategy such as visualizing. On the third day you might focus on the craft of writing. "Remember yesterday when we found words in the book that helped us visualize? Who thinks they can use words like that in their writing?" Other days might also include a focus on vocabulary or a writing prompt related to the book. In In Defense of Read-Aloud: Sustaining Best Practice, Brian Cambourne says that read-alouds are the "swiss-army knife" of instruction. Books are a compact container of handy tools. If they are all that, why would you want to use a good book only once?

Higher-Order Thinking

Repeating read alouds adds rigor to your reading program. Can you remember a time when you were riding along a familiar road and you said, "I never noticed that before!" The second reading of a story allows children to move to higher levels of thinking. Once children are familiar with a story they can move from remembering and understanding to applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating.

Matt Glover has this to say in Engaging Young Writers.

Models of Good Writing

Repeating read alouds helps children hear the language of good writing. Here's what Lucy Calkins offers in Authors as Mentors.

If you'd like some specific ideas for extended texts, please visit my blog. Recently I've shared some ideas from my own classroom. Just click to go directly to each post.

If you enjoy repeating read-alouds or if you'd like to share another good reason to use extended texts, please leave a comment!

Reading Reward Day!

I love to watch my kinders GROW as readers! Every year each student makes gains in his or her own way. One student may finally get all 26 letter names and sounds while another may surpass this grade level and the next. 

SO, why not celebrate it?!?

This year our principal set a school-wide reading goal and all grade levels worked together to meet it! 

So, she planned a Reading Beach Day. 

Students were invited to dress in summer clothes (which included hats, sunglasses, and flipflops), and bring a beach towel and their favorite book from home. This added a fun element to the "Day of Reading" I already plan for my class each year!

To celebrate the reading growth of my students we 

Read. All. Day. 

for one day within the last weeks of school. I plan surprise guest readers, I read aloud a few of my favorite end-of-year books, and I plan fun centers that are all about reading. Students rotate through these centers for about 10-15 minutes at a time in small groups.  (Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate with the beachy theme, but we still had fun reading indoors.)

1. Bookshelf Reading:  At this center students can read (or look at) literature off our display shelf. Books on this shelf are changed out weekly during the school year with texts that align with our theme or topic for the week.

2. Text Book Reading:  I use an old set of first grade basal text books as a supplement for guided reading groups once students begin reading independently. They love this center because they can re-read favorite stories together

3. Online Reading:  Of course, we have to involve technology in our reading centers. Starfall is my go-to website and it's a site with which all students are familiar.

4. Leveled Reading:  This center includes ALL the leveled and decodable readers students were able to choose from for self-selected reading throughout the year. They love this because they can choose new books for a challenge or reread the "easy" ones they have outgrown.

5. Magazine Reading:  At this center my assistant shares a summer "Scholastic Let's Find Out" magazine with students. This was a weekly favorite all year long.

6. Newspaper Reading:  This is my personal favorite! I save a set of kid-edition newspapers (provided by the local news) for this center. When students are settled I ask, "How do grown ups sometimes read the paper?" Responses always included, "With coffee!" or, "With their feet up!" So, I serve them my special of the day - Clear, Cold Coffee (AKA water) and allow them to put their feet up while reading, "just like a grown up."

What have you done to celebrate reading achievement this school year?

Non-fiction Reading Activity

Hi! I'm Mona from First Grade Schoolhouse. Happy summer (coming soon) everyone! I just started my summer break this week. I hope you're enjoying yours.

I'm already meeting with my grade level teachers to talk about plans for next year!

I thought I'd share a non-fiction reading activity that I do in my classroom. The activity can be done during your word work time, writer's workshop, or used at a social studies or science thematic center.

I start by gathering books about a topic. I will show you samples of one for farm animals, but you can do this activity with any topic of study in your class. You will want to make sure you have books at various reading levels that will meet the needs of the readers in your classroom. I use books from my own classroom library, our school library, and our public library. I usually have a couple of baskets of books for student reading.

I use the activity as a center activity, so I don't have all my students doing this at the same time. They start with choosing a writing printable about a topic. This is one from a study of farm animals.

The students read about the animal. They write 3 facts they learn about the animal. And then they read their writing to two other students in the class. The children who have been read to write their names on the lines. It's a way for students to learn about the animals from each other. It's a great activity to integrate reading, writing, speaking, listening, and science/social studies.

I place picture word cards on the word wall or on a pocket chart for reference.

These picture word lists are available for students at the writing center. I print them on cardstock and laminate them.

Each student has a personal word list in their writing folders. They can add words under "Farm Animal Words" that they will need to know how to spell in their writing.

The students love these activities. They learn a lot about the topics, and they especially enjoy sharing what they have learned with their classmates.

You can view Writing about Farm Animals by clicking on the picture below.

I hope you find this idea useful. Enjoy your summer break!

Summer Skills Maintenance

Hi, Everyone!  It's Anita from Primary "Teach"spiration.

It's so hard to believe that summer break is upon us!  For some, it has already begun, while for others 

it's just around the corner.  I know, for me, the very end of the school year has always been such an emotional time.  We've nurtured those babies for nine months plus, and they've come so far since

Day 1.  Now it's time to let them go, and as we send them forward to the next grade, we feel a

sense of pride in all they have learned.  

Yet, we know that along with summer break comes the backslide.  You know what I mean.  You're confident your kids are fully prepared for the next grade when they leave your classroom for the summer, but next year's teacher may wonder why they didn't learn this or that.  It's the summer slide!

The kids put it out of their minds for those few short summer months and forget so much.

To help parents recognize the summer slide and get some helpful tips, I developed a parent letter to send home at the end of the year.  The tips are simple:

1.  Read with your children every day or as often as possible for just a brief amount of time.  You might take trips to the library and let them find new books that interest them.  Let them read for a while, then you read for a while.  Kids really do like it when you give them that special time.

2.  Surprise them with a special notebook.  Suggest to them how much fun it might be if they keep a "diary" of their summer days.  Set aside a special time each day for them to write and share with you their thoughts of the day.  Then, without being teachery (is that a word?), ask them if they can find anything in their sentence(s) that might need fixing (capitals, periods, spelling, etc.).  Guide them to find needed revisions.  Make it fun, no pressure!  Praise for the thoughts and writing skills!

3.  To keep up the math skills, play a variety of math games; you can find many at teacherspayteachers. com.  Or, for those who enjoy coloring or if you don't have as much time, encourage them to do one of the many color-by-number math sheets.

If you would like a copy of my letter, you can download it here.

And here is a fun summer color-by-number math facts packet you can get at Teachers pay Teachers.

Have a Happy Summer!