Guided Reading Strategy to Help Fluency

Hi all, It's Emma from Clever Classroom. 

Okay, let's talk guided reading for emergent readers.

Reading comprehension and fluency are vital reading competencies for any reader, especially our beginning readers. These leveled reading pointers provide a FUN, hands-on system for your students to grow their fluency. These reading sticks will help children follow and understand the text that they are reading.

When I taught kindergarten I had an inspirational mentor who helped me understand loads of things like: phonemic awareness, phonics, guided reading and spelling strategies. I am so passionate about these aspects of teaching all these years later. She helped me understand 1:1 correspondence with text and how students move from that to sweeping their finger under the text as they read. Finally, students should move away from these two foundations to reading just with their eyes. This was a great framework for my students.

Providing a Concrete System to help Children with Fluency

I found that some of the students needed concrete materials to motivate their reading progress. I came up with a fun way to help my students. Reading pointers aren't new, they have been around for years. I remember using them more that 15 years ago!

Another great idea is to use transparent counters to help students read the word they are pointing too.... anyway....

Providing students with a system will ultimately help them grow and motivate them to keep going. It's kind of like giving them goals to work towards. We all love that, right?

Different Countries, Different Guided Reading Levels or Systems

I know that different countries use different leveled systems, eg. letter and numbers and some colors. Which system does your state or country use to represent leveled readers?

No matter which system, I am referring to the first emergent and beginning reader levels. You might implement the graduation of pointing, sweeping and eye sweeping slightly different to myself, that's okay, you can decide when to change up the sticks.

What do I Need? 

The sticks are easy and very quick to make. your students might like to help!

I found three different sized popsticks, but you could use just one size if you wanted.

What are the Three Levels?

One on one correspondence is first. I use this for the first 2-3 levels.

I promote reading with a sweeping finger for the next two levels. The best way I thought my students would understand this was with a paintbrush. Woot-woot, it's kind of FUN!

Then finally, I encourage students to be using no fingers, and just their eyes to follow the text as they read. I would invite students to use the eye sticks for one level as a transition to independent eye scanner reading. After this, there are no more sticks!

These fun sticks are a great way to help children progress and develop their reading competencies. I hope your students love them too.

Thanks so much for dropping by. I hope this idea helps to motivate your students as they develop their reading skills.

Similar Teaching Ideas

You might also like our Reading Reminder Slips which are a fantastic way to communicate with parents and also remind students which skills they are working on at home with their take-home readers.

  

 If you're looking for emergent reading centers that are hands-on and that will last the entire year, and are also super-dopper FUN, your students will enjoy these centers and printables. They are matched with kindergarten or emergent reader skills set for both reading and writing. Click the image to see more.

   

Thanks so much for reading, I do hope it helps.

If you are a mad word work and reading nut like me, then you might like to join me over on my blog; Clever Classroom.

You can also follow Elementary Chalkboard to receive updates from more than 30 of our talented teacher-bloggers. 

Click here to follow this collaborative blog. 

Thanks for dropping by. 

Emma

Calendar Time in our Classroom

Hi teacher friends! It's Haley from My Silly Firsties. I wanted to stop by today and share with you about our Calendar Math routine. We follow Everyday Math and I really like that the program hits so many skills in a short amount of time. When I first started teaching 1st grade, I thought the point of calendar math was to teach calendar skills, ahha! But I was SO wrong. There is so much that can happen during these few minutes! My favorite way to complete calendar is on the Smartboard, but my district asks that we have our calendar activities displayed on a bulletin board. I'm going to be completely honest and say I took these pictures a few months ago, but our routine remains the same. :) I just never got around to blogging about it until today!

I change out our activities frequently, and we don't do them all everyday. My kiddos LOVE this time, and are always quick to remind me when we forget! Here are a few activities we have done in the past! :) 

I think the main reason my kiddos like calendar is because it is led by them! Calendar helper is definitely the most coveted job each week! I lead it for the first 3-4 weeks of the year...then I lead it WITH a student, and by October, they are doing it completely on their own! 

You can see my sweet little one holding the day's calendar card. Every Day Math has a different type of pattern each month, so I use these. We also add birthdays and important holidays at the beginning of the month. He has his friends tell what the card looks like and how they know. Then we discuss the pattern unit. For this month, you can see it's A-A-B. (Triangle, triangle, square.) This is a great opportunity to show that triangles can look many different ways! 

I have no idea the source of this song! I learned it years ago when I taught preschool and the kiddos love it! 

We keep track of the days in school 2 different ways. We use the post its and a 120 chart. I like using colored post-its because it's easy for them to see patterns, but you definitely don't have to!

This seems like such a simple task, but little ones need so much practice writing the date!

I purposefully set up my Word Wall next to our calendar wall. It is a quick reminder for me to make sure we review the words each day!

This is one activity that never changes. I think it is SO important and such a powerful number sense activity! I give them the sum (like 12) and they ALL must think of a way to make 12. We take about 45-60 seconds of think time so that everyone is engaged. After they come up with a number sentence, someone else comes up with a story problem to match. :)

Like I said, I change out the activities regularly so here are some other activities we might complete. :) You can click the picture to grab these printables in my TPT shop!

What do you do during calendar time? 

Social Skills and Classroom Expectations

Hi all!  It's Emma from Clever Classroom. 

Are you looking for quality books and resources to help model desired behaviors as you start a new school year? 

I have previewed and selected 30 books to help your students learn a range of social skills. 

Each book contains a message that you can turn into explicit instruction within your classroom on a daily basis. 

To help you teach explicit social skills and expectations, I move on to using our posters.  I laminate and display one copy and bind another. 

I use these posters to focus on what I expect of students. We break each skill down using our social skills flippy books.  Students notice when others are doing the right thing and congratulate each other. The posters are ideal for introducing and revisiting expected behaviours. 

Having the books organized in one area, will make it easier for you to grab for them, when needed. 

Click through to see each book listed in this collection. 

Sight Word Activities

Hi there, it's Emma from Clever Classroom.


I love creating resources that are a bit different and require an element of interaction, movement and fun.  You can view the interactive/hands-on resources in my store. 

This post has inexpensive center ideas that can not only be used with sight words, but with any word list. 

 Are you always on the look out for cheap and also recyclable materials for your students?  I love collecting and using inexpensive props for hands-on literacy activities.

Bottle tops and ping pong balls fall in to this category! There are so many things you can do with both bottle tops and ping-pong balls.





Use ping pong balls or bottle top lids to create fun, hands-on sight word centers.

Ask staff and students to bring in clean bottle tops.  You could hold a table competition to see who brings in the most tops.  Collect them in a container and write on the top of each lid with a permanent marker.

You can use any word list for the 5 activities mentioned below.

1. 

2. 

 I have created a whole bunch of bottle top activities with record sheets and instruction cards, all of which can be used with any word list. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

Find more of these games in our Bottle Top Games bundle.

For even more sight word ideas, see my blog post.

Thanks for dropping by.

Advent Calendar - Day 9 Gifts and Grabs!

8. MORE. SCHOOL. DAYS!  But who's counting, right?

Nicole here, from Mrs. Rios Teaches, and it's my day to share some holiday cheer with you.  :)

I am going to come right out with it y'all.  Monday was rough!  The kids were just having a hard time focusing, and I saw so many behaviors that we had worked so hard to control, popping out all over the place.

But, then I talked to my teaching buddy from across the hall, and it was the same thing over there. Down the hall in Mrs. S' room?  Ditto!  It was unanimous!  We were all struggling with the "pre-Winter Break Wiggles."

So, I figured we may not be the only ones.  Below are two FREEBIES that I came up with to help my class stay on task, and off of Santa's Naughty List.

The first gift targets MOTIVATION!  It is a Classroom Behavior Poster!  I created these as a spin off of my Editable, Differentiated Behavior Cards (Winter/Christmas Theme).  I just have  a student color a box when, as a class, they are on task and working hard.   Use it to motivate your class to focus on your group goals! Motivate them to fill up the chart in order to earn privileges, treats, read alouds, class party, or let's face it...whatever it takes! I've made one Holiday-ish, and the other more Winter themed, so that everyone can find one that works for them! Click on the images below to download your classroom posters.

The second gift targets MOVEMENT!  The kids need an appropriate way to release their excitement, tension, nervousness, or whatever it is that makes it so hard for them to sit still, and focus, at this time of year. This pack contains easy activities that gets kids moving and working together!

So hopefully, those help you get through December, and for my Deal, I am already thinking ahead for January.  

So, I have one more goodie for you...an exclusive deal for you to grab! I have my favorite non-fiction pack, Polar Bear Plunge! on sale for 50% off, for today only! (Deal ends 9:00 p.m. PST 12/9/14)  Click on the image below to snag your copy!

Hang in there! And don't forget to check back tomorrow!

Nicole

Have You Filled a Bucket Today??

Hey everyone! It's Leslie from First Grade and Flip Flops and I'm here to share with you some character... character education! I'll admit... I'm old school. May not look old school but I am a believer in some well behaved children! 

Can I get an amen???

I mean aren't we all??? Have you ever been out in public and you see and hear some children acting foolishly or saying something you know is totally inappropriate  (hoping and praying and knowing, it better not be yours! ha!) and you want to give them the evil teacher stink eye?? 

Let's face it... as teachers, parents, people of a community, we all want to raise a village of nice kids! 

Every year I love to read this book:

It's a great book that talks about these "buckets" that we all carry. When we use nice words or kind gestures, we fill each other's buckets. However, when we use unkind words or gestures, our bucket's get spilled over and are empty. 

The kids were so silent as I read this book and you can see them start to think of their buckets (and their pets! Pets have buckets, too!) and they begin to relate to the kids in the story.

It is really well written and I encourage all teachers to read this for the beginning of the year to help build a strong community in the classroom. There is even a song that goes along with it:

My class loved it. We talked about how to be bucket fillers at home, in school, and in our community. I did a gallery walk and placed posters around the room and had them write how they were bucket fillers:

Their ideas were so thoughtful and heartfelt! I liked the one for their community where they said 'hi" and "bye" to their neighbors! We will use these to help us write our bucket filler slips for each other. 

I have a hanging shoe rack (sorry, I forgot to take a picture) and each student has a bucket (really, it's a cup with their name on it) where they can fill a slip with a bucket filler form when they notice someone doing something kind or saying a kind word, for example. 

Click to download this FREEBIE!!! 

The kids LOVE going to their buckets and reading what others have to say about them. They gush to the other child how they loved reading their note! Plus, it gets them writing!!! I encourage them to write a bucket filler for someone at least once a day and not the same person in the same week. You know how BFF's are! They'd write one every hour. 

I hope that you will incorporate this into your classroom this year if you haven't done it already. It's a great read! And if I may fill your bucket today..... Thank you for being part of our Primary Chalkboard blog! We so appreciate your support and kindness! We strive to bring the best teaching practices, tips, and tricks to you! Hope you all are having a great school year so far!!!

Lots of love to you!

Leslie