It's hard to believe...

but it is my very last week with my kiddos.  Our school's RtI budget has officially run out!  It has been such an amazing year.  I am happy to report that the vast majority of my students have made HUGE strides in both Reading and Math thanks to Tier II instruction.  I am submitting my collection of data to the Intervention Team on Friday.  I will be smiling ear to ear when I present this information to my principal, and I know she will be ecstatic when she sees it.  The classroom teachers and I might have even clapped giddily (and/or jumped up and down- shhhhh!) while reviewing our students' post test scores today.  It is very exciting to see such growth from children who were truly struggling in school this year.

As summer draws near, I would like to leave you with a wonderful activity for your students to remember their 2012-13 school year.  Endeavors such as these one day become special mementos- I even have a few of these childhood projects tucked away myself!  Thank you to Jessica Travis from Wild About Firsties for this adorable memory book. 

Click to Download

I wish all of my readers a very safe, happy, and relaxing summer.  Even though I will be away from the classroom, you know us teachers- we NEVER stop learning!  I will be sure to update my blog often and post about all of the exciting classroom ideas that I come across over the summer months.  Sayonara for now, sweeties!

Website of the Week

 Ok, friends...  I cannot believe it has taken me this long to share my favorite Reading website with you.  Many (if not all!) of my teacher friends out there are very familiar with this site, but those of you with young children who aren't, let me direct you to Starfall!!!!  Children who are learning their alphabet, letter sounds, or are already on the road to reading will LOVE this educational website.  There are hundreds of activities for children of all ages to enjoy.  Their systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice, is perfect for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, special education, homeschool, and English language development (ESL).  We all know how important phonics instruction is, and Starfall has it by the boat load!  Hope you enjoy. :)

Stupendous Subitization

Subitizing is "instantly seeing how many."  Subitizing is a relatively new concept for me. Children often have little experience with subitizing. When I first learned about this concept, I thought it pertained only to kindergarten, first grade, and struggling students beyond those years. However, I have now seen that children of all ages benefit from subitizing.

What is subitizing, and why is it important? Clements and Sarama (2009) define two types of subitizing. The first, perceptual subitizing, pertains to the ability to both perceive intuitively and simultaneously the amount in small number sets. No counting is necessary, you just know the amount when you see it. Children develop the prerequisite skills for perceptual subitization at a young age. According to Clements and Sarama, children begin naming collections of 1, 2, and 3 from ages 1-2. By age three, children can also create collections made of 1-3 objects, sometimes 4. Perceptual subitization up to a collection of 4 occurs at age four, and the recognition of sets of 5 develops at age five.

The second type, conceptual subitizing, relates to the ability to instantly see the parts, and join them together to make a whole. For example, given a picture of five arranged with three and two dots, a conceptual subitizer would see 3 and 2, and know that makes 5. Again, no mathematical operations may be consciously enacted, but rather, an instant recognition that the parts make that whole. As children progress, subitizing helps with the visualization of operations and mental math. Conceptual subitizing to five and ten begins at age five. By age six, children are able to conceptually subitize to 20. At this age, five and ten-frames are helpful organizers for promoting subitizing at these higher levels. Skip and counting and place value with subitization begin at age seven, and by age eight, children see multiplicative relationships, such as 5 groups of 10, and 4 groups of 3, which makes 50 and 12, so 62 dots. As you can see, children benefit from subitizing activities well into third grade and beyond.

In my search for spectacular subitization activities for my Tier II students, I have come across a few really great ones.  Just click the pictures to download these freebies!

Happy subitizing!!!

#EdCampRVA!

Last weekend, my teaching partner, Jamie, and I were fortunate enough to attend Richmond's very FIRST EdCamp at St. Christopher's School.  Wow!  What a great experience.  EdCampRVA was presented as an "unconference" for educators in the Richmond area.  Teachers and administrators of all walks of life and backgrounds met to discuss the latest trends and topics in education.

Jamie and I were kind of unsure about how this whole thing would go down.  Our business minded husbands thought we were crazy for signing up for a meeting that had no "agenda".  We assured them that when you put a hundred teachers in a room, amazing things magically occur.  Boy, were we right!!!  We couldn't imagine how the "unstructured" structure of this event would come to fruition, but the EdCamp planners made it all come together.  Very quickly, I might add...

First, all of the campers brainstormed ideas that we wanted to learn more or teach others about-  areas of concern, areas of expertise, or topics and skills that we wanted to integrate into our own classrooms.  This was the batch of ideas that we came up with.  Pretty awesome, huh?

When we arrived at EdCamp, along with our name tags, we were given three sticky dots.  These dots were used as votes to indicate which mini-seminars we wanted to attend.  Each room in the school was a designated meeting place for the campers.  

Next, we read the wall and made decisions about what topics would be most beneficial for each of us.  We placed our stickers on our choices and were told to "vote with our feet", meaning that if we weren't getting what we were looking for out of the group, that we should move on to something else- no feelings should be hurt.  We wrote down our personal schedule for the day and went about our merry way- learning, sharing, and meeting other fabulous educators in the process!  :)

At the end of the day, we walked away with new contacts, fresh ideas, and a renewed love of learning!  I will DEFINITELY be attending EdCampRVA again in the future.  

Sound interesting to you?  

Start one in your own hometown- nothing beats this kind of grassroots collaboration!

Hop on Twitter and search #edcamp.  :)

Spring has Sprung...

Hey Y'all!  We are back from Spring Break and ready to roll.  Although the kiddos seem a little tired today, I know they are happy to be back at school and are ready to get back in the swing of things.  It's the final nine week period of the school year, and I am dedicated to keeping all of my kiddos on track!  We still have many skills to cover and lots of work to do.  Now that all of my K/1 students seem to have their letter sounds mastered, we are moving on to sight word recognition.  I have SO many wonderful sight word activities to share with you.  Here are just a few of my favorites:

My number one fave is this SUPER HERO sight word activity from Erin at SmallTypes.  My first graders absolutely loved this writing activity, as you can see below!

Visit Erin's TpT store to download this awesome freebie! 

Next is this really creative freebie from the Moffatt Girls... Now, if you have never visited their wonderful, amazing, fantastic, incredible blog, you MUST go check it out right this second. 

THE MOFFATT GIRLS ROCK!

Their TpT store is also chock full of freebies and exciting educational ideas.  Anywho, here is a "Crack the Code" activity that I am going to be using this week.  I thought this was such a clever idea.  I always wondered what I could do with all those little whimsical picture fonts... now I know!

Click the pic to claim your freebie!

My third and final activity comes from Kimberlee Fulbright at Two Fulbright Hugs.  This sight word extravaganza has FIFTY (yes I said fifty!) sheets of Fry Sight Word practice for your little learners.
This freebie is so comprehensive, you need not look any further!
The students will read, write, color, cut and paste their way to sight word stardom.  :)

Click image to download

Hope these activities will be useful in your classroom or at home.  Please follow me by email if you'd like to get my posts sent straight to your inbox.  Thanks for following, friends! :)

It's Spring Break Time!

Hoppy Easter, friends!!!

This week has been a bit of a bust...  We had a snow day on Monday, and we have another half day on Friday (which means that I don't come to school)!  However, before my little bunnies hop off to Spring Break, I wanted to do a fun little activity that is ALWAYS a hit.
Meet the delicious springtime treat known as BunnyMallows...

Aren't they cute??

What kid doesn't like to enjoy a special snack at school?  Teachers love when we can incorporate learning into eating treats!  Here is the perfect activity for when the kiddos are all hopped up, waiting for the Easter Bunny to come.  Thanks to A Cupcake for the Teacher for this deliciously delightful math lesson.  This comprehensive packet of activities reviews skills like sorting, counting, graphing, adding, and subtracting with pretty pastel marshmallows.
It just can't be beat!

Click on the bunny below for your freebie.

Enjoy your Spring Break!   

Luke- I am your teacher....

Today's blog post title must be spoken in Darth Vader's voice.  Now try it again!  :)

Love this free poster from @chroniclebooks! Just click to download and print-