The Courage To Try

September is a time of anxiety for many children as well as teachers!  I love beginning the year with the theme of COURAGE.  The Courage To Try is one of those tried and true books that I will always fit into my program.  It is a perfect read aloud, partner, or independent read for your students in grades 3-5.  It provides rich discussions around predicting, connecting, and inferring.  It connects to your school Terry Fox Walk. Grab your copy of the activities I have created to support this book HERE.

I'm updating this post to include a Google Slides Resource.  This resource implements a "Reading Reconsidered" whole class reading approach.  The Courage To Try

You can order the book at Serious Fun Publishing

Choosing Shoes

In my classroom we collect songs and poems during the entire year in our individual Poetry Folders.  Our folders are an excellent resource for shared reading, vocabulary building, and comprehension activities.  Choosing Shoes is a fun poem for the first week activity that integrates math and language.  Grab your copy of the activity and poem HERE.  Grab a copy of my Poetry Folder cover HERE.

Fluency Passages

Once I have determined the independent reading levels of my students we begin our Daily Fluency Passage reading.  This is a quick but extremely beneficial routine.  At the beginning of the week everyone begins a new passage and we draw names for our reading partner for the week.  We keep our passages in a plastic sleeve along with a second page that the students use to track the titles of all the passages they have read.  At the beginning of the year we talk about quick transitions, where to find a spot to sit, and how to sit "EEKK" elbow to elbow, knee to knee.  We also learn about what fluent reading should sound like.  We create an anchor chart together with 4 specific targets; accuracy, expression, rate and punctuation.  We use a timer that is set for 1 minute and each partner has a go at their passage, underlining the word they were at and marking the day of the week under it when the timer sounds.  Peer assessment is an important part of our routine as the students encourage one another by verbally providing a star and a wish according to our anchor chart criteria.  My kiddos love this routine!  It also gives me a chance to quickly listen in to 2 students each day with my own reading assessment checklist.  You can grab a copy of the leveled  passages HERE.

The first week is critical for creating a safe and inclusive environment for our students. The Museum Project will help students get to know one another, find common interests, and make new friends! It's also an opportunity for the teacher to begin to establish homework routines and expectations. Click HERE for your editable version of the Museum Project homework letter.

Speeches

If you have been doing the Monthly Memory writing having your students complete a speech is a great way to provide a purpose to combine the skills your students have been learning and to extend their single paragraph writing into multiple paragraphs. Since September we have learned how to write a basic paragraph, how to "show" rather than "tell", using writing hooks to begin our paragraphs, and adding transitional words and phrases to our writing. I send a package home to include parents in the topic choices first. Grab your copy of this letter HERE. Grab your copy of the Speech Booklets HERE.

Freckle Juice

Freckle Juice by Judy Blume was a quick read aloud that my students thoroughly enjoyed! We had already been studying making predictions, text to text connections, determining character qualities using proof from the text and our own ideas, as well as using a plot diagram to summarize stories. It was the first time we looked at how to answer open response questions as well using the RAP Framework. Grab your copy of the activities HERE.

Fitness Challenge 2015

I'm challenging my students and their families to a Fitness Challenge for January. We will collect our data on a spreadsheet and at the end of month we will us the data to create graphs. We all need that little bit of motivation! If you would like to have your class join us in the challenge leave me a message!!