Beach Sand: reading strategies

Showing posts with label reading strategies. Show all posts

Happy Hump Day! It's time to join Teacher by the Beach for another week of Wish List Wednesday!

Today I'm featuring a product that is fun and versatile! Reading Response Improv Cards will be a great addition to your reading time.

Your students will have the chance to demonstrate their understanding of the books and stories they are reading with these 36 improv cards. Hand these out to small groups or individuals. Use them as an assessment tool or as a brain break.
The kids will be SHOWING their understanding of books not just TELLING about the stories!
My students found these very challenging this year. They asked to do these over and over again!

Here is a sample page:

I offer suggestions for using the cards, too!

I think you and your class will find these are a fun and different way to practice reading comprehension!

Grab them at 20% off in my TpT store for the next 24 hours! Check out my NonFiction Improv Cards too!

Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

It's FIVE FOR FRIDAY time with Doodle Bugs Teaching.

I have had this post started for the last couple of Fridays so here's 5 random things from the last few weeks...

My students completed a multigenre writing project after returning from winter break. The task was to write in three different genres about one topic. Our topic was snow/winter. First they had to write and explain some aspect of winter...how snowflakes are formed, explain the season of winter, etc. Then write a how-to piece like how to build a snowman, how to make a paper snowflake, how to bake snowflake cookies, etc. The narrative piece was a story or poem about winter/snow. They worked in groups of 2 and 3s. I liked this project and plan on using it again with a different genres.

A group research project that we have been deep into for the last couple of weeks has been our United States regions project. The students had a good time working on this and so many teachable moments came from it. I divided the class into 5 groups and assigned each a region of the U.S. Their first task was to read the pages from the social studies book about their region. Other resource they pulled from were atlases, books about the states, and the internet. The idea was for them to become "experts" on their region. They were required to learn about various aspects of their region: landmarks, climate, natural resources, vegetation, etc. They created a poster and then had to present their findings. I told them they were going to be the teacher. Once I said that then new ideas started flowing. They wanted to make Keynote presentations and even worksheets. It turned into more than I had intended, but it was great...all student lead. It was so much fun and they did a great job!!

I decided to offer a FREEBIE for my regions project because I liked how their work turned out. I think you might, too! Check it out HERE if you are interested!!

You can find more products for social studies HERE at my TpT store.

Text structure and text features have been a huge focus for us over the last month. Third graders need a lot of practice with these skills. We read lots of books that are patterned after various text structures. I use graphic organizers to model and for the students to practice. I created a text structure pack with posters along with organizers that have been very helpful for my students.

Why Mosquitos Buzz in People's Ears is a great mentor text for cause and effect. We went a field trip to see this play so it was perfect!

My text features posters and activities have also been very helpful this last month. Students were able to refer to these during the U.S. regions project since they had to include 3-5 text features on the poster.

And we had a little class picture fun this last week! Their faces just crack me up!! I emailed this to my parents and they loved it! How can you not smile when you look at it??

That's been my January! I CAN NOT believe it is February already!!

Stop by tomorrow and check out the Stop, Swap, and Roll linky that I am participating in! I will be showcasing a fun unit to accompany Dear Mrs. LaRue from my friend Kelly over at An Apple for the Teacher. Join the fun! Find some new products and blogger friends and enter to win some great products!!

Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

Hey all! Trying to get back in the swing of things here. Joining up with Doodle Bugs for her famous

Here's what's been going on in my neck of the woods:

There is an assessment frenzy happening here. We got rid of one test and now a greater monster approaches...the FSA (Florida Standards Assessment). More than before it seems the pressure is on yet no one really knows what to expect...not even the top dogs! My district also implemented running records for all 3rd grade students. I am using the DRA2 (anyone familiar with that one?). It is quite involved and it takes so long to administer per student. I hate taking so much instructional time away from the class. I'm happy to have Daily 5 going strong. At least I know the kids are engaged in meaningful work. I would love to hear your advice or experience with administering running records.

Open House came and went and I never got a chance to share. (I was thrilled to see that my BFF, Denise, over at Sunny Days in Second Grade used one of my ideas. Check out her post HERE.)

For this activity, students complete the "Welcome to My Class" form. Here are some from my class:

After the kids leave, I put out the "Good Morning" form for parents to complete during Open House. The kids are so excited to see these on their desks in the morning. I had some pretty creative parents fill these out this year:

I also have parents decorate the back of a bookmark their child decorated earlier in the day. I laminate and tie the ribbon on when I get home so this is what the kids see in the morning. They just love to use these special bookmarks all year long.

You can check out this product HERE at my TpT store.

Over the summer, I worked on these:

My students have a had blast acting out their reading! They make a fun brain break, too!

The fiction set can be found HERE and the nonfiction set is HERE.

Fall is my favorite season! The colors. The holidays. The (somewhat) cooler weather. Here are some books I like to share with my students even though our leaves aren't changing:

Margaret Wise Brown's The Little Scarecrow Boy is an old favorite. The scarecrow boy wants to learn to scare the crows like his father, but his father tells him he has to stay home, grow, and practice his fierce faces. I love how the boy makes his father proud at the end. This makes a nice read aloud and is perfect for story elements. Students can practice their own "fierce faces".

Look at these illustrations! The colors are so beautiful!

Another scarecrow favorite is The Scarecrow's Dance by Jane Yolen.

In this story, a scarecrow decides to dance away the night. He finds himself at a house where he watches a boy saying prayers for the fall harvest. He decides to return to his post and do what he was meant to. I LOVE LOVE the illustrations. (The artist also illustrated the Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane...one of my all time favorites!!) Use this story as mentor text for word choice and similes.

Beach Sand and Lesson Plans

It's time...

We have started our study of fairy tales. I love this unit. Here are a few days of lessons that we've completed.
Day 1 started out by brainstorming famous fairy tales. Many kids were surprised to find out that Disney did not write the fairy tales they knew from the movies! I had the kids turn and talk with their reading partner about elements of fairy tales. They came up with this list:

I then sent them off to read a fairy tale with their partner. They had to list 3 elements they found on a sticky and place them on our Exit Slip board. It was a good quick assessment.

Day 2 we reviewed the anchor chart. I showed the book Strega Nona by Tomie DePaolo.

I asked students to look at the cover and to turn and talk about anything they saw that could indicate this was a fairy tale. They came up with the idea that the lady looks like a witch with a magic pot and that possibly the animals could talk. It also looked like a story set long ago. I read the book aloud, stopping at strategic places for turn and talk time. I kept asking if there was anything they heard that would indicate it was a fairy tale. They came up with quite a few elements and in the end we determined it was. The goal of the lesson was to have them recognize a fairy tale may not be the traditional stories they are more familiar with, but authors write stories with the same elements.

Day 3 we reviewed the elements again. I introduced the story The Rough-Face Girl.

This is an Algonquin Cinderella story. After reading it aloud, we were guided into a discussion of adaptations of fairy tales and how cultures infuse their own values into stories. During the read loud they, again, turned and talked about elements of fairy tales they heard. I then assigned a Cinderella book to each pair of students to read, discuss, and write notes about. We came back as a group to discuss what they had found.

Day 4 gave students a chance to practice finding elements of fairy tales during Read to Someone time. I assigned partners my fairy tale graphic organizer along with a traditional story. They worked hard again reading and discussing and writing.

That's where we are right now. We will continue to read and study fairy tales, moving into writing our own.

It's state testing time. Next week we will be testing for 4 days (4 LONG days). Testing makes the week crawl by. Being out of our routine is torture for me! We have been practicing test taking strategies. Here is an anchor chart that we have referred to quite often over the last couple weeks.

This weekend I'll be putting together some little treat bags for the first day using Tootsie Rolls and these little tags I created. Check them out at my TpT store.