Mr. Giso's Room to Read Bright Idea #13

Make a Classroom Tree

This weekend I came across a really neat idea of making a Book Recommendation Tree thanks to a fellow blogger from Lessons With Laughter.  Click HERE to be inspired by her.  You see, this clever fourth grade teacher places this tree in her classroom and has her students recommend books to each other by filling out a tag and placing it on her tree.  I, being inspired, set out to replicate this fantastic idea.  The only thing is, I'm not sure if I want to use it for the same purpose.  For now, I have an empty tree.  Here is Molly's tree.  I love it.

Here are some pictures that show how I put together my tree.  First, I set out in my forrest, aka my backyard, to find the perfect branch.  As you can see, I had my choice.  Feel free to stop on by to get a branch for yourself--it will save us on the landscaping bill.

Next, I took off the leaves from the branch and decided to use electrical tape to add on a few more small branches to make my tree a little fuller.  I knew I would spray paint over the tape anyways.

After my branch was ready to go, I placed it in an old pot of dirt and covered the pot in a plastic bag in order to prep it for spray painting.   Orange was an easy choice, since it's my classroom theme this year.  I am painting some frames too for my personal desk pictures.

While this was drying in the sun, I painted a clay pot a blue color--also a part of my classroom colors.  I used a plastic carton that had mushrooms in it to hold the paint.  It's easy to throw out afterwards with no mess.

The tree was stabilized with colored glass beads.  I made a colorful bow and attached it to the tree.  Looks fun, right?

Using my Fiskars flower punch, I punched out a series of flowers on colored paper and laminated them.  I added some fancy ribbon and my tree was complete.  Well, it is almost complete...

The only problem I have now is that I need some clever ideas to use this tree with my first and second graders.  I'd like to use it for different purposes throughout the year by using dry erase markers. Let me know any ideas you may have, please.

Happy creating.

A New Beginning

Well, it's been quite some time since my last post.  I know, I know--wrist slap.  In my defense, here's a list of things that have kept me from the Blog World.  I'm not making excuses, just sharing.

1.  I taught a Summer Session I course--it was new to me, so lots and lots of work.

2.  I co-directed a summer program for about 100 readers, writers, scientists and artists; it ended last Thursday.

3.  I taught (and am still teaching) a Summer Session II course--also new to my course load--yikes!

4.  I took our state's mandated SEI endorsement, 3 credit course on sheltering content for English Language Learners which ended last Wednesday evening.

5.  I studied and passed the Early Childhood MTEL (fun teacher tests you take in Massachusetts), so I am now licensed to teach preK and K as well.

6.  Oh, and I packed.  After 15 years in the same school, I moved.  That's 15 years worth of "junk," I mean teaching tools, to move.  Double yikes.  Meet, the Carlton Innovation School.

All and all, I think it's safe to say it's been far from a summer vacation for me, but it's all good.  Moving on to more important things--my new school.  I've been lucky enough to be hired to work as a grades 1/2 teacher at the Carlton Innovation School, still in the same district.  This school, being an Innovation School, has been able to, under the direction of the principal, develop a program that best matches the needs of its learners.  The Carlton School's mission statement sums this up nicely: "The goal of the Carlton Innovation School is to meet the individual needs of our students.  Instruction takes place mostly in small groups through workshops in reading, writing, and math. The use of the Responsive Classroom program helps us create a community of learners while helping students grow socially and emotionally.  Our motto is to 'Try hard and learn a lot!'"

The school's Innovation Plan notes its school, curriculum and instruction structure.  Check it out by clicking HERE.  I'm super duper excited to have this opportunity to join the Carlton team for year two of this model.  Multi-aged classrooms, flexible groupings based on student need (as evident via assessments of course GRIN), project-based inquiry and team-teaching are a few perks that make this move an easy decision for me.  In addition,  I'm excited to join a dynamic staff.  (I've heard they are a bunch of fun-havers!) For more information on this fantastic school, check out Carlton's blog by clicking HERE.

I plan to blog my next few weeks of setting up my new classroom.

It's a tad bit smaller, with a tad bit less storage space--not that I'm

nervous or anything.  There's a storage closet right across the hall,

and I've already been given some shelves to fill.  Here's some 

pictures for you all.

Ah, here is a little glimpse of moving day.  Pictures include my Element, my boxes in the hall and the city's truck.  The city employee was the nicest mover, ever.

 

Now for my new classroom.  Boy do I have a lot of work ahead of me!  It's good work, though.  My theme is going to be a mixture of three colors: orange (my favorite), blue and brown.  I can't wait to see what it is like to have no desks for the first time in my teaching career.  Any helpful suggestions for me?

For those of you that started school this month, hope you are off to a great start.  For those of you like me who have to set up, good luck with that!

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.