Fluency Practice

After a few weeks of school our language arts department does a district-wide language arts benchmark to record where our students are coming in at.  One of the biggest (and longest) parts of the process is finding their independent reading level.  We use the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System now.  That was a change from the DRA system that I liked.  

Before I have the children read with me I do a week-long FLUENCY review where kids work with their peers to practice reading aloud and using their retelling skills.  

I began our week by working on reading aloud appropriately and explaining what fluency was.  I put on an anchor chart that we were focused on:

• Stopping at periods and commas
• Reading with expression (especially when we see question marks and exclamation marks)
• Reading at a quick speed like we are having a conversation

Before practicing with our reading partners we first watched Tim Tebow read Green Eggs and Ham on YouTube here.  This is a great way to grab the attention of the boys in your classroom, especially during football season!

(Side note: I have the SWEETEST kids in my room.  I told the kids that I was Tim Tebow's future wife and would have to call me Mrs. Tebow soon so when we did an assessment later in the week one of my sweet girls drew this:

LOL!!

Later on in the week we used our basal online system, Think Central, so practice reading troubled words.  Then we practiced retelling and reading while thinking.  

So far the kids are doing great on their independent levels.  We've got work to do but we're off to a great start!

Love Me Some Dr. Seuss!

So, I LOVE reading.  Anyone that knows me knows that I know as much as most elementary librarians know about up-to-date children's literature and I'm a complete author stalker (in lite terms, of course)!  So when I decided on my travel theme this year I found lots of ideas for "Oh, the places you'll go!"  So I decided to do a co-theme of Dr. Seuss and Travel.  Indulging in my love of Dr. Seuss has been SO.MUCH.FUN.!  Just saying :)

My ribbon topiary was a lot of fun, and very easy to make.  Just wait until Hobby Lobby ribbon is 50% off and go to town!  I used wine corks to make the dots on the planters pot.  The color of the tool was right on key with my ribbon colors.  I just love it and I'd love to make more of these for the holidays, etc.

If you look closely you can see my ribbon topiary on top of the series section of my classroom library.  You can also see a lot of my Dr. Seuss stuffed animals that I got at Kohls, apart of their Kohls Cares program.

Picking my lunch box each year is a BIG DEAL!  I decided in early August that I really wanted an old-school tin lunch box.  One night I couldn't sleep and searched online for Dr. Seuss tin lunchboxes and found this one at www.lunchboxes.com  I love, love, love it!  And I've gotten a lot of fun compliments on it at school.  

And THEN, while searching for Leopard Converse I found......... DR. SEUSS CONVERSE SHOES!!!!!!  Can you say, "YES!!"  I mean, I was floored.  I couldn't find the perfect ones in women sizes on www.converse.com so I actually ended up googling Cat in the Hat shoes and found these from a company in Canada, www.bagginsshoes.com.  I also have my eyes on the Green Eggs and Ham shoes and The Lorax ones, too!  Christmas presents!!!

If you have any other ideas/resources be sure to comment!  I'd love to hear about them.  My students are really responding positively to my Dr. Seuss addiction. :)  It definitely brings life to the classroom!