Five for Friday February 3

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Thank you for hosting, Kacey!

       

These are going to be some quick tips for the week.  Tip number one,  let your kids read in front of a mirror!  I wish I had LOTS more mirrors in my classroom because my children love to read like teachers in front of the mirror, which means a LOT of really great fluency and expressive practice with their reading!. (And a lot of looking at themselves, which is really fun too...).

I use these Reading Strategies in my classroom:

My children really need practice noticing and remembering to read the chunks as chunks.  I made these worksheets that I turned into a little packet so that we can practice circling chunks and reading the words correctly. If you would like a copy, just click on the picture below!

I realized that the children LOVE Lips the Fish and are great at getting their mouth ready for that first sound in a word... but that's not enough!  They can't just say that sound over and over. 

SO this week, I taught the kids that Lips the Fish says that first sound, but then, swims right through the rest of the sounds.  They totally got it!  They say it to me, now, all the time.  "We have to swim through it!"  WIN!!!

Here is a little chart we work on each morning.  I call different children up to find chunks in the words each day, just to keep think thinking about those chunks.  

This is a free prezi I made for practice chunking.

It is part of my Beginning Reading Prezi that I use all the time in my classroom!

Could I have said the word "chunk" one more time?!?!

We are working on writing first and last names now.  A quick fun center for the children is to prepare a paper for each child with his/her first last name on top. I just wrote each child's name and made copies so I have lots for whenever I need a quick activity.

 I'm showing it below with only the first name, but we are now working on both names.  Put out all different writing tools for your child to use to practice writing, writing, writing... colored pencils, thin markers, smelly markers, pens, glitter crayons, special pencils...  anything!  They can use any and all to write, write, write!  Offer and give a sticker prize for neatness and trying your best-and you are good to go! OR who can write their name the most times the neatest?   Add a clipboard and let them go ANYWHERE in the room, and it's even better.

Some days, I just put out my white pencils, glitter white crayons, and white crayons and have them practice writing on black paper.  Something just a little different can make a big difference.

Here's a simple, fun idea for February love.  Cut a pocket out from an old pair of jeans.  Fill it with some plastic hearts (I bought a packet from The Dollar Tree).  After reading A Pocket Full of Kisses, give each child a heart to remember to be kind.  You could fill it with Hershey Kisses, too, if you want!

Speaking of kindness,  February is not only a month of love, but of kindness.  February 17 is National Random Acts of Kindness Day!  Did you know that?  Well, my sweet friend Dr. Jean Feldman reminded me, and so we put together this little packet for your classroom if you'd like to use it.  You can have your children draw and write different acts of kindness they do for others. You can collect acts of kindness that you do as a class.  You can use it any way you want!   This first cover is blank because I like to add a photo of my class underneath the title before I laminate it for a classroom book.  Click HERE if you'd like a copy.

These are some awards you can print out for children to reward kind acts.  You can use these any and every day! 

You can make this into a little classroom poster as a reminder!  

Thank you for stopping by.  Have a wonderful weekend!