Friday Freebie! {Word Wall Letters}

Hi friends!
Well, summer is officially drawing to a close... Hope everyone is ready for a fantastic school year.  I was finally able to get into my classroom (I was switched to a new room over the summer) and WHOA, was it a mess!!  After some reorganizing, purging, and cleaning, I am super happy with my new space.  We lost two of our Interventionists this year- (I'll miss you Jamie and Karen!!!) so we are in the process of hiring two more before October.  Luckily this year, we are only going to be two to a room instead of three.  Can't tell you how happy I am about that.  Anyway...

Since we have a room that needs to be shared, I set up two very large free-standing white boards to bisect the room.  It helps with noise and to keep the kids from being too distracted.  I have been racking my brain trying to think of something to do with these monsters.  At first I was going to cover them just like bulletin boards or use them to hang anchor charts.  But then it hit me-  these would be perfect for constructing a word wall!  I didn't have the wall space to do that last year, and I think it would help my students so much with their sight word recognition and their writing.

I am going to use washi tape or duct tape to separate my boards into squares-  kinda like this:

So, without further ado, here is the perfect freebie this week-  an adorable chevron (it's all the rage!) word wall letters set.

Click to download

I'll try to get some before and after pictures of my teaching space put up on the blog.  Hope everyone has a great teacher work week!  :)

National Geographic LOVES teachers! {Website Wednesday}

Those of you that know me know that I love to read and learn about nature- animals, plants, weather, bugs, etc....  I stumbled across something today that just rocked my socks off! Did you know that National Geographic has a Young Explorer magazine just for kids?  Even better, it comes with a teacher's guide that has lesson plans, activities, and even discussion questions for use in the classroom- and you can download it all for free, my friends!  This would be fantastic for a whole group lesson on the smart board or for independent computer centers.  The possibilities are endless!!

Check out Nat Geo's Young Explorer site today!!

Friday Freebie!

Hey there!

Ready for your Friday Freebie?  Here is a cute little back to school booklet featuring School Tools.  It is a reading and writing activity all rolled into one- a great way to get your students accustomed to recognizing and spelling all of those important school words.  Click the pic to download!

Fry Words Freebie!

Happy Wednesday, y'all!  

I have an AMAZING free download for you today.  I am printing it off as I speak (or type)!  It is a fun Fry Phrases game that would be great as a small group or center activity.  These phrases contain the first 100 words from the Fry Instant Word List, which represent 50 percent of all the words children encounter in elementary school reading. Repeated reading of a few phrases per week gives students practice reading high-frequency words and developing fluency and general proficiency.  Thanks a bunch to Kristen Smith at A Day In First Grade for this activity.  It is just perfect for differentiating my groups who are moving on from simple sight word recognition to something a little more challenging.

Click Photo to download

For this game, students will work on reading the first 100 Fry phrases with accuracy and fluency. The students first pick a phrase card.  Then they pick out a "voice" card and  read in that voice with emotion and gusto!  My kids are going to LOVE this one.  So fun!

Looking For a Book to Read?

Are you an avid reader?  Are your kids avid readers?  Is trying to get your kids to read like pulling teeth?  At my house it seems that no matter how much my husband and I model this behavior and/or talk about the importance of reading, my boys just aren't buying it.  This summer is all about playing outside and cooling off with a movie or the X-Box.  Hopefully once school rolls around, they will pick up where they left off and get back on track!

I came across this wonderful list that I wanted to share with you.  NPR's 100 Must Reads for Children 9-14 is a collection of amazing stories, classic and contemporary.  Both of my sons fall in this age range, and I remember reading many of these books when I was that age ( a long, lonnnng time ago!) so I was excited about having this list as a resource.  How many of these titles have you read?

Friday Freebie

Hi all!
This week's Friday Freebie comes from Maria M., a teacher/blogger who runs a site called KinderCraze. She does great technology tutorials and creates wonderful resources for the elementary classroom. She was kind enough to share this cute calendar freebie, and I am thrilled to pass it along to you.

This packet includes 2.5" square cards for you to cut out and display on the classroom calendar. The cards remind students (and teachers!) of upcoming school or classroom events such as an assembly, early dismissal, birthday, testing, and more.  Click here to download from TpT. Enjoy!

We Are ALL Smart!

Hi friends!
It's hard to believe that we are approaching August- the summer is just flying by.  I have to say, I am getting really excited about seeing my students again.  I have missed them like crazy!  There are many great things about being an Interventionist, but one of the best things is that I get to work with some of the same students year after year.

Many of my kiddos come to me feeling kind of crummy about themselves, not understanding why they can't just pick up on concepts as easily as their classmates do.  They sometimes have a hard time dealing with the fact that they have to leave their regular classroom to receive extra help in my room.  Their self esteem is not as high as it could be due to their learning difficulties or their lack of support at home.  I try my very hardest to build them up while they are with me- academically as well as emotionally.  I try to make them understand that we are all unique and special in our own way.  There are many ways to learn, and we all have positive attributes that help us to learn.

I am very inspired by Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences and the belief that as humans we all have strengths and weaknesses in different areas.  Read more about these theories here.  I display posters, that are written and illustrated in kid-friendly language, describing these theories in my classroom for the students to view.  I like that every student can identify with at least one of the domains and see that they each have characteristics of value.

Last week I found this amazing resource from Stephanie at Falling Into First, and I want to share it with you. She created a back to school unit incorporating the eight Theories of Multiple Intelligences: Word Smart, Music Smart, Body Smart, Art Smart, Number Smart, Self Smart, Team Smart, and Nature Smart.  Her unit includes a story to read to your new class. In the story, the little girl is sad on the first day of school because someone told her only smart kids can go to school, and she doesn't feel smart. Her teacher assures her everyone is smart, then proceeds to introduce her to her classmates and share their different types of smart.

After reading the story, the students each get a sticky note with their name on it.  They will then choose one type of smart that they feel they relate to most and stick their sticky note underneath it.

Brilliant!!!

The main idea of this lesson is to show the kids that everyone has strengths they can feel proud of and show them that "book smart" isn't the only type of smart that is valued. Students will also complete a short writing piece about the smart they select. When they finish their writing they are given one of these bracelets to wear proudly around the school!

In addition to this fabulous activity, there are many other back to school get-to-know-you type lessons in this pack.  Hop on over to Falling Into First to read more about this lesson and download either a first, second, or third grade pack for yourself!!  Worth every cent! :)