Busy Week

It's been a busy week with District literacy training, Professional Development training, and a field trip to the zoo. I am also getting ready for parent conferences next week. But actually isn't EVERY week busy? This week I did a new lesson about CHOOSING JUST RIGHT BOOKS. It went so well! While surfing the web this summer, I found a new idea to teach choosing just right books. I feel bad I can't tell you the site or give credit where credit is due. I don't know if anyone is like me but I read and see things and then weeks later an idea develops in my brain from what I saw weeks before. That's how it was with this idea. The teacher had 3 different sized t-shirts, very small, medium, and too big and compared them to shopping for books and finding the right fit. I had one of my boys come up and I handed him the very small shirt and asked the kids if this was a good fit for him. They thought is was funny. Then I held up the too big shirt and asked the same question. We even had him try this shirt on. No way did it fit. Then I brought out the medium- just right shirt! Yes way, perfect fit. Next we compared shopping for shirts to shopping for books for us to read. The kiddos decided they needed to shop more carefully for their books. We then made anchor charts for too easy, too hard, and just right books. I must admit I haven't had any low readers picking up Junie B. Jones books and telling me they can read it. I hope that continues. Here's a picture of our charts. If you're wondering why I have two different boys with the shirts it's because I taught the lesson twice-once to my morning small literacy group and again to my afternoon group. We have staggered starting schedules.

 Here is my graph of the week. It's about our families. Click on the picture for a PDF.

Sharing

Having 30 students this year is killing me!!! I've taught 28 for the last few years but for some reason just 2 more is putting me over the edge. I really shouldn't complain because two of the teachers on my team have 32. Budget cuts are to blame. We have a saying in UTAH "Stack em' deep and teach em' cheap". Anyway, I've had a hard time remembering who's turn it is to share at the end of my reader's workshop. I used to just pick who I really wanted or felt I needed to hear from by putting a "share bear" (beany baby bears) on their desk at the beginning of reading. But a few years ago, I had an autistic child in my room and she would have a 'melt down' if she didn't get to share EVERY DAY. So I started writing on the board who got to share that day and she started to understand if her name wasn't there she had to wait and take her turn. This year with so many kids, I want to make sure I hear from every kid every week. So I made  little charts. Each child is assigned a day, that way I can schedule the kids that are gone to speech a day they are here for sharing time and not miss them. It is working great. I even added journal share time. So the kiddos know they will share their journal during writing time and a book during reading. Yeah!

Here are my little charts. The clipart, of course, is from DJ Inkers, my favorite! Click on the picture for a PDF.