Teacher Appreciation Freebies Roundup

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all my blogging buddies and teaching friends.  I hope your week has been warmed by many "gifts."  Whether they be a smile, a homemade card, or an extra hug, I know your students appreciate each and every one of you.  You have made a mark, sparked a memory and have forever helped shape the future!  Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.

Teacher Appreciation Week may be coming to an end, but the celebration isn't over yet!  Teaching Blog Roundup is teaming up with 20 of the best blogs to host this Teacher Appreciation FREEBIES Roundup blog hop.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!  I would like to show my appreciation with this great freebie for you.

First, I'd like to give a special thank you to Teresa from Fun in K/1 for inviting me to join this inspirational group of bloggers.  Now, on to my Freebie.  I'm actually pretty excited to share with you my "Read It to ME Fluency Cards."  You know when you have a project (or two, or three) hanging over your head?  A project you can't wait to complete so that you can use it with your students?  Well, my newly created set of fluency cards is exactly this type of project.

These cards are hot off the press!  I'm laminating them right as I am typing this post.  You use these to jazz up your guided reading. When it's the part of your guided reading lesson when your students need to read, pick a card to give them a way to sound while reading.  For example, they may read like a robot, like they have a cold, like they are a rapper, like they are a karaoke star, etc.  I am pleased to have put together 28 fluency cards to try out.  I already know my first graders will love these!

In addition, I plan to use these cards for buddy reading.  Each pair of reading buddies can select a card and read to their partner following the card's description.  Check out some examples.

Click HERE to download your fluency cards.  

I have ideas ready to go to make a part II of this item.  Let me know how they work with your readers.  I love your feedback.  Do you have an idea for a card you'd like to share?  Leave me a comment.

I'm glad you hopped by!  If you are new to my blog and liked what you see, don't forget to follow me!  I'm on Facebook, Teachers Pay Teacers and Pinterest.  

Now head over to Preschool Wonders to roundup the next FREEBIE!

We Appreciate you!

                                          

Mr. Giso's Room to Reads' Bright Idea #12

The Wonder of Recycled Meat Packaging!

In the beginning of the school year I send home a "Mr. Giso's Wish List" to every family.  On it, includes things I need for various projects throughout the school year.  Here are some items on my list.

•paper towel and toilet tissue rolls
•tisse boxes (see this blog post)
•yarn, ribbon and string
•old greeting cards, tissue paper and wrapping paper
•magazines and newspapers
•baby food jars
•Crystal Light containers
•cleaned out cans of various sizes (see this blog post)
•anything else you think we can use

In addition to the above, I include meat containers (washed, of course)!  These things have so many terrific uses throughout the year.  Here are my two favorite ways I thought I would share with my blog friends.

#1 Use as a Dice Rolling Miracle

When my students play mathematics games, they often need to roll  dice.  This mean a lot of noise and a lot of dice falling onto the floor and ending up under shelves, tables, etc.  It also leads to many arguments over when a die rolls off the surface, is it a "do-over" or not.  By rolling the dice over a meat tray, it's quiet.  There's no need to over roll and no need to argue.

#2 Use as a No Mess Art Surface

When crafting, it can take quite a bit of time to cover surfaces with newspaper.  Plus, once you get paint all over the newspaper, it usually ends up getting thrown out to avoid more messes.  By using a meat tray as your surface, it's easy take out and easy put away!  I recycle the same trays over and over again.  It gives children a clear visual as to where they should keep their mess.

In addition, meat trays are an easy way to hold counting chips, pennies and other manipulatives that you may need to distribute to your students in small groups.  They are a must in my classroom and model recycling for my students.  What other ways do you think meat trays can be used?  

I have special shout out to Jessica Stanford for her blogging tutorial.  It guided me through the creation of my new, cool blog post "signature" below.  What do you think?

Mr. Giso's Room to Read Takes Part in Another Magical Product Swap

I'm very proud to take part in my third Magical Product Swap put together by Jessica Stanford, author of the blog entitled Mrs. Stanford's Class.

This time around, I had the pleasure of being paired up with Nicole Johnson, author of her fantastic blog Teaching's a Hoot-- Musings of an Elementary School Teacher.

It was so cool emailing back and forth with Nicole, prior to the swap.  We have a lot in common.  We are both former reading teachers, her from Title I and myself from Reading First.  We share the passion of having a classroom and a group of kiddos to call "our own."  As a result, we both returned to the classroom as first grade teachers.  What could be better?  It's obvious Nicole has a love of teaching.  She's created countless, quality resources, supplementary materials, science units and mini-books.  Check out her TpT store by clicking HERE.  Her blog's a lot of fun to browse, for you can learn a lot more than teaching tips--like what she likes to read, where she likes to shop and her favorite places to grab a bite--I really enjoy her personal touch.  I'd be all set if I were to leave Boston for a trip to Oregon!
On to my product...
There were so many of Nicole's items that aligned with my first grade curriculum in MA (life cycles, living/nonliving, etc.), but I chose to review her item entitled "My Book of Fact Families."  You see, that was what I was just starting to teach.  I've seen adorable ideas out there with the "fact family in a house" theme, but never came across any first-hand.  This item was exactly what I needed.  It includes over 60 (yes, 60) pages of all the possible fact families for numbers 1-10.  There's a colorful cover too.  Each page has a house with a cloud backdrop and is decorated with charming clipart.
Here's how I used Nicole's "My Book of Fact Families" in my classroom.  I printed, in color, and laminated a bunch of her sheets.  I love laminating...woohoo. 

  Next, I got a shiny new clipboard and tied a bunch of colored curling ribbon to the top (spring has hit New England).  I was a bit cheerful.  I also attached a dry-erase marker.  

In my math center I let children fill out the members of the fact family and show me when they were done.  Then, they easily erased their answers and got another sheet.

I also decided to print out the cover page, in color.  I printed the other pages in black and white ink and decided to make a book with most of the pages for all of my first graders, because they were really into this activity.  How neat is this cover?

In my math center, I made our number lines, 120 grids and 10-frames with colored counters readily available to complete the fact families if needed.  My two furbabies are standing quite proud by the final product.  They both give it two paws up!  Oh, I also used some sheets for Before School Work and for homework--so many uses...

There you have it!  "My Book of Fact Families" is a valuable addition to my unit of addition--obviously it's Common Core-aligned and ready-to-go.  To get this item, please click away HERE.  Click HERE to check out  some more quality resources out there in the blogging world.  This swap is always so much fun.  It's great to meet other teachers from all over the country and to have a chance to grab and try out a great product.

Raise That Reading Stamina!

What is stamina and how does it apply to reading you may ask?  I found this anchor chart on Pinterest that's a good start.

I've been reading a lot of the importance of building reading stamina in our young readers for quite some time.  My interest in this topic stemmed from a discussion of a monthly data leadership team meeting in my school.  We were talking about reasons why our students were not getting certain items correct on our practice standardized tests when we knew they "knew" the answers.  My colleagues felt as if the students grew tired as the practice test went on, were not giving their all or as if they simply gave up. 

As a first grade teacher, and literacy instructor, I wondered what can we do to "boost their performance."  My response was that we need to build our students' stamina.  I feel too often students are reading in guided reading groups or with buddies.  There's not enough time built into the day for our young readers to read books at their independent reading level for an extended period of time.  The importance of this time is necessary to build a community of strong readers which is essentially our goal as teachers--not to raise standardized test scores.  

Independent reading to me means a lot more that just having my students read quietly to themselves.  This block of times starts with a minilesson or link to a previous reading lesson.  For this, I remind students what particular reading strategy we have been learning.  I let them know that they have watched me model the strategy, have helped me with the strategy whole class and have done the strategy in small guided reading groups with my help.  It's now time for them to practice using the strategy independently.  During independent reading time, I circulate and offer assistance to those students that need it.  After independent reading, we have a discussion about which strategies we used and how they helped us overcome reading obstacles.  

Everyone gets independent reading time, not just my advanced readers who finish everything early.  This time is especially important to my middle and my struggling readers too!  Research shows that way too often this population does more worksheets, computer interventions, skills in isolation, etc. when what they need is to be engaged in more reading in books at their appropriate level!  Read longer and get stronger.

Reading Rockets defines stamina as "being able to stick with something for periods if time."  This "endurance builds strength."  It offers these tips for parents which easily apply to what we need to do as teachers.

1.  Vary the way the reading is done, especially for new or struggling readers.  The three ways to do this are "read to self," "read to a buddy" or "listen to reading."  This visual (another Pinterest find) shows reading by yourself, reading to  buddy and I'm not too sure of the third icon.

2.  Make sure all books read are "just right."  A child should be able to decode almost every word in an independent book correctly.  Books should interest the child and come from a variety of genres.

3.  Set reasonable reading goals.  For toddlers and preschoolers, it's difficult for them to sit for a long time, regardless of how engaging the book may be.  Start with just a few minutes and then build up from there.  Elementary-aged readers should start with 10-15 minutes.  A few minutes can be added every few weeks or so.

4.  Take time to celebrate and chart progress.  Make a graph.  Talk about the books, recommend a book to a buddy, go to the library to get more books, etc.

In the older grades, reading stamina is essential in order to navigate through longer text of various forms.  It's never too soon to start to build it!  Built from the inspiration in the visuals, I came up with a few posters to use with my students.  You can get your copy as part of Manic Monday's Classroom Freebies.

Just click here.

 

A Bunny Blog Hop

A Tisket, A Tasket, Freebies for your Basket!

Several phenomenal teachers and bloggers are joining forces for an amazing bunny blog hop!  As you follow us along the bunny trail, you will visit some of your favorite blogs and discover a few new blogs too!  Each with a fabulous freebie just for you!

Thank you for hopping on over to my blog! 

Recently, I completed a second post featuring my Classroom Makeover Series  complete with my "All in One Word Wall" bundle (scroll down below).  I gave my Word Wall a heavy duty makeover.  For my Funny Bunny Freebie, I knew I had to create some "Use-Them-Anytime" activities to share with you all.  They are perfect for grades kindergarten to grade three.

The first part has five sheets that can be copied and placed in a literacy center.  The second part has six additional activities you can print out ahead of time and use them for Word Work in your literacy block.  Check out this Scavenger Hunt.

Working on Alphabetical Order?  This activity can be used over and over again.

These activities include rhyming, digraphs, writing sentences, vowel teams, using question words, and syllabication--OH MY!

 So here they are...

Enjoy my "What Do I Do With My Word Wall?" Freebie by clicking HERE!

Thanks for stopping by and visiting!  If you are new to my blog and liked what you see, don't forget to follow me.  A Tisket, A Tasket, next up with a Freebie for your Basket is Susanna from Whimsy Workshop.  Hop on over!

Just in case you didn't join us from the beginning, here is an ordered list of all the participating blogs.

Stephany from Primary Possibilities
Sally from Elementary Matters
Lory from Fun for First
Linda from Primary Inspiration
Nicole from Mrs. Rios Teaches Second Grade
Brian from Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings
Liz from The Happy Teacher
Jennie from JD's Rockin' Readers
Sarah from Learning is for Superstars
Teresa from Fun in K/1
Nikki from Teaching in Progress
Faith from Kindergarten Faith
Renee from Fantastic First Grade Froggies
Amy from Happy Teacher Heaven
Leah from Learn with Leah
Nicole from Teaching's a Hoot
Kristy from The Phonic's Phenomenon
Rich from Mr. Giso's Room to Read
Susanna from Whimsy Workshop
Amy from Motivate to Learn
Lola from Preschool Wonders
Kimberli from Mixing the Next Batch

A Hippity Hoppity Spring Time Craft

So, due to lots of snow days, one hurricane day, 100th Day and Valentine's Day (on the SAME day), my traditional winter craft simply did not get done this year.  I usually use three recycled cans to make adorable snowmen and snowwomen wind chimes with the kids.  Come March, I still had loads of cans taking up my back table.  So, a new craft was born--spring bunnies.  We do have snow on the ground, but I thought this idea would be more appropriate.  We recently read an informational text article in a big book on cottontails during a finding the main idea mini-lesson, so it was perfect!  They came out really adorable, so I wanted to share.

First, I gathered three cans (of different sizes) for each student.

Second, my firsties sponge-painted all three cans (outside only) using either a white or a pink acrylic paint.  It has to be acrylic or it will flake off!  They dab, not rub the paint...

Third, we took the smallest can and added two eyes, two ears (cut from foam board), a pink pompom for the nose and two white pompoms for the mouth part.  I used hot glue.  The kids were in charge of passing me the add-ons.   Of course, the paint dried first. It took a day, overnight.

Fourth, I got a nail and hammered it through each can in order to make a hole in the can's center.

Fifth, we used a heavy twine and strung the cans together.  At the bottom we tied a wooden bead so the string would stay.  At the top, we made a loop to hang the wind chimes.

Check out our recycled can, bunny farm.  These are some bunnies!