Teacher Appreciation EOY Books

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  We love and appreciate teachers - classroom teachers, pull-out teachers, special areas teachers, teaching assistants and student teachers.  This week we're celebrating educators and giving lots of tips to help busy teachers. 

Today experienced teachers have hand picked some great reads for the end of the year.

Hi, everyone, it is Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars!  When I was in the classroom, I loved reading aloud to my students.  It was our down time after recess, and they loved it.  Many times we went over the allotted time, but it was so worth it.  

My students especially loved the Herdmans, so I read all three of them as the year went on.  I really love the message in The Best School Year Ever.  In the book, the Herdmans all learn important lessons, as well as the other students in the book.  I used to read this at the beginning of the year, but I think it is also perfect for the end of  the year too!

*Quote from Reading Rockets

I'm Tara from Looney's Literacy.  Reading Aloud is a critical part of literacy learning. This simple act provides children the opportunity to hear expert readers. It models fluency and expression. It opens opportunities to hear and find new interesting words that are not necessarily apart of their vocabulary. And it is just fun! It gives us the opportunity to enjoy a story with one another.

Over the years I've found many books I've fallen in love with, and love sharing with my kiddos. As my appreciation for you, another dear educator who gives it your all for the good of our future, I want to share a list of some books you and your students might enjoy from now until the end of your year together.  

Here’s to the birds and the bears and the bugs! Here’s to the weird and wacky, the cute and creepy! From toothy fish to get-you-when-you’re-sleeping cats to lick-lick-lick-lick-lick-lick dogs, every creature is unique and lovable . . . especially you! David Elliott’s infectiously joyful poem and Randy Cecil’s brilliant, amusing artwork invite us to celebrate the world’s vast diversity — and feel pretty happy with our place in it, too.

Woolbur is not like other sheep. He hangs out with wild dogs, cards his own wool to avoid the shearing barn, and even dyes his wool blue. "Don't worry!" says Grandpaa when Maa and Paa fret that Woolbur is different. But when they tell their son to follow the flock, the opposite happens—the flock follows him! Soon everyone is copying his wild hairstyles and taking turns on the spinning wheel. Leave it to Woolbur to find a new way to step ahead of the herd.  Spunky, funky, and refreshingly distinct, Woolbur will strike a chord with anyone who's ever felt different. And that's all of us! Written by: Leslie Helakoski

From Booklist

K-Gr. 2. Classroom clutter and chaos are fun in this picture book, and so is the sense of everyone in a small town pulling together. Mrs. McBloom has taught at Knickerbocker Elementary for nearly 50 years, and she has never once cleaned her classroom. Now she is due to retire, and everyone wonders how she will ready the room for the new, young teacher. One small pupil comes up with the solution, and every former student in town comes to take something away. The comic pictures are packed with all kinds of objects, and the cleaners uncover more things when they begin work, including a library book 35 years overdue and three buffalo nickels. The beloved, eccentric teacher gets a fond send-off. The nostalgic images (a picture of Elvis on an old lunch box) will mean more to adults than kids, but children will still enjoy the messy farce. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

It's the last week of school, and Mrs. Hartwell's class is excited to leave for summer vacation. The only problem is that the kids don't want their teacher to miss them while they're gone. Once again Julie Danneberg and Judy Love bring to life the crazy antics of Mrs. Hartwell and her class and show that teachers and students are more alike than different.

Hi, Literacy Land readers!  It's Lauren from Teacher Mom of 3 here to share my favorite book for the end of the year.

I Knew You Could! A Book for All the Stops in Your Life 

by Craig Dorfman

A few years ago, I bought all the first graders a copy of this book as an end of the year gift.

  This delightful little picture book features a spin on The Little Engine That Could with a reminiscent theme found in Seuss' Oh, The Places You'll Go!  What an inspiring and encouraging tale for the end of the year and for graduates of all ages!                 

The picture book is filled with metaphors relating to making changes and new transitions.  Young primary children may not totally understand these metaphors, but they will enjoy hearing the story read aloud, especially if the are familiar with The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper.  Plus, students will understand the simple message of I knew you could do it and that Anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

As an end of the year activity, an idea is to read aloud both this book and The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper.  Discuss comparisons and why we should be like this little blue train.

 A few follow-up activity ideas:

Use the story to reflect on students' growth and achievements such as the following:  

• What was their "I think I can"?  This is something that was hard or challenging for them at the beginning of the year.
• Share with students an "I knew you could".  Discuss the potential you saw in students and an example of what you thought they could do.  For my first grade reading group, I discussed how I knew that they would make reading progress and was specific (e.g., reading on grade level). 
• Have students share their "I knew I could".  What was something that was hard for them at the beginning of the year?  This is something that they kept working on, they were persistent, and they didn't give up.
• Depending on the age and ability level of your students,talk about the metaphors in the book.  Metaphors include the train track (find your own track), the stops along the way, the rivers, valleys, mountain tops, and tunnels.
• Talk about the messages/themes in the book:  Find your own track, enjoy the trip you'll make as a train, don't wish to be an airplane or a car, toot your own horn, have faith in yourself and stay positive, and running out of fuel.

  I just know that you and your students will love and cherish this little book as much as I do!

Graphic by Classroom Collage.  Fonts by KG Fonts

What is your favorite book to read at the end of the year?  Join us tomorrow, when teachers share their tips for organizing stations and guided reading. 

Time-Saving Recipes for Teachers

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We know that all teachers, especially this time of year, don’t have a lot of extra time… so we’ve compiled some of our favorite time-saving recipes to help you survive the end-of-the-year craziness!

This is Deniece from This Little Piggy Reads, sharing Crock-Pot Taco Soup. Perfect to set up before school when you want to come home to a ready dinner!

Hello Literacy Land Readers!  This is Wendy from Read With Me ABC.  I'm here to share one of my go-to meals for busy days. 

Easy Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings

Preparation: 15 mins
Cooking time: 6 hrs
Ready in: 6 hrs 15 mins
Serves: 6-8

4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons butter
2 (10.75 ounce) cans of condensed cream of chicken soup
1 onion, finely diced
1 cup water
2 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough, cut into eighths
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Place the chicken, butter, soup, onion, and water in a slow cooker.  Cover and cook for 6 hours on low. About 30 minutes before serving, turn the crock pot up to high, shred the chicken, and place the biscuit pieces on top of the chicken mixture.  Return the lid and finish cooking.  Serve and enjoy!

Now, a recipe from Cathy... Next time you make chicken for dinner cook 2 or 3 extras breast and you can make an Easy Chicken Salad.

4 ingredients, 20 minutes.

2-3 chicken breasts
2 cups of grapes cut in half OR 1/2 can of diced pineapple (drained and patted dry)
1/2 cup of chopped pecans
1/2 cup of mayo (more or less to your liking)

Mix.  I make it at night and it's perfect for lunch the next day.  If you want to add another ingredient, put it on lettuce for a lettuce wrap.

That's it.

Enjoy.

This is Jenny from Luckeyfrog Learning. “Plantation Casserole” is one of my favorite recipes because it needs to sit at least overnight- which means you can make it ahead of time and then just pop it in the oven when you want to eat!
PLANTATION CASSEROLE
1 lb. sausage
1 sm. onion (if desired)
2 1/2 c. Rice Krispies
1 c. cooked rice (Minute Rice is fine!)
2 c. shredded sharp cheese
3 eggs
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 c. milk
1. Sauté sausage and onion. 
2. Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish with 2 cups of Rice Krispies.
3. Layer sausage and onion, cooked rice, and grated cheese over the Rice Krispies.
4. Mix eggs, cream of mushroom soup, and milk; pour over the layers. 
5. Use a fork to punch holes in the layers. 
6. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of Rice Krispies on top. 
7. Refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
My brothers and I still fight over this casserole at Mom’s- and I hope your family enjoys it just as much!

Just in case you’d like one easy download of these recipes, I’ve compiled them all here for easy shopping! (Plus, you can cut them apart and slide them into a recipe box.)

Be sure to stop back later this week to see the other surprises we have in store for you!

DIY Ideas to Rejuvenate Your Classroom

Hello readers!  Carla from Comprehension Connection here to share fun DIY projects to spice up your guided reading block.  Here at the end of the year, your kids are probably test weary and ready for a bit of fun.  These simple ideas all come from readily available materials from your local Dollar Tree.  

First up is this twist on soccer.  These little mini balls work perfectly for word work, but you could also write comprehension questions, vocabulary words from the book you're reading, overused words (and have kids brainstorm replacement words), or homonyms.  Just toss the ball and answer the question your right thumb lands on.  Games are lots of fun, and they can purposefully be used to review or teach new skills.

Sometimes a few fresh manipulatives can liven up lessons.  Dollar Tree has just put out their spring goodies, and in the stash, I found the bug kits. The magnifying glasses work really well for framing text evidence or for word hunts. For the little people, you can find all kinds of fancy pointers. Use these for I Spy, identifying details in a group article or poem, or for tracking print.  Even themed erasers can add to your inventory of teaching tools as game markers or score keepers.  I picked up these car themed erasers to use with my Parking Lot game.  I'll share that freebie at the end of this post, but you'll have to head over to Dollar Tree to pick up your own markers. :-) 

Cookie sheets can be used for so many different things. With a can of spray paint, you can make them bright and colorful for a gameboard background or turn them into a chalkboard. You can also use contact paper to dress them up. Add magnetic tape to any printable gameboard and game pieces for storage ease. Cookie sheets and pizza pans can also be made into reminder boards for missing homework, attendance, or memoes for the day.  Just search on Pinterest, and you'll find all sorts of ways to use them. 

Shower curtains and plastic tableclothes work well for DIY activities too. With a sharpie and a little bit of drawing talent, you can turn these items into Jeopardy boards, Boggle boards, Letter recognition boards, and Twister sightword boards. Add in bean bags, and you can work in a little movement too.  Here are a few pictures of what you might try.  Another way to use plastic table clothes is to create vocabulary graffiti or comprehension projects like the one to the left.

For other DIY reading or classroom ideas, check out my Pinterest board below. With a little bit of time and a few inexpensive supplies, you can streamline classroom storage, spice up teaching strategies and lessons, and spark creativity in your kids.

Follow Comprehension's board Classroom Ideas on Pinterest.      

As I mentioned earlier, I have a freebie to share with you.  Remember you can find those cute transportation themed erasers at Dollar Tree.  How fun, right??  

Until next week, have a fabulous weekend! Be sure to come back Monday for all the great stuff we have in store for you!

Getting Started with Leveled Literacy Intervention

Hello all! This is Colleen from Literacy Loving Gals. I would like to share with you a little peek into Fountas' and Pinnell's Blue Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) Kit, since I use it most often to support my struggling RtI students compared to the other colored kits.

If you are not familiar with the LLI kits, they are ideal resources to support below grade-level students who are struggling in reading and writing. The kits are used in a small group setting with 3 to 4 students, depending on the grade-level of the students. RtI students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade (Orange, Green & Blue Kits) require groups of 3 students for fidelity of the program, while the 4th grade and 5th grade levels (Red & Gold Kits) allow for 4 students per group.

LLI is scientifically-based and designed to prevent literacy difficulties. The program (along with teacher guidance, of course) provides students opportunities to extend comprehension through discussions and writing, to learn and apply phonics and word solving skills, to increase vocabulary and processing strategies, as well as improve fluency and phrasing through rereading. Since the groupings are so intimate in size, I'm easily able to model appropriate reading behaviors, in addition to prompt for and reinforce effective reading strategies. Fidelity of the program definitely correlates to student success. I have seen much growth in my students' reading abilities, since I began using LLI in the early Fall.

The majority of the students I service are in grades 2nd and 3rd, which is why I use the Blue Kit most often. It encompasses guided reading Levels C through N. There are 120 lessons. Each lesson has 4 colored copies to use while in group and 6 black and white copies of each book for students to take home for additional reading practice. Canvas bags are available to keep the Take-Home books in good condition. In addition, a Prompting Guide and the resource book When Readers Struggle: Teaching That Works are accessible in this kit.

The Prompting Guide supplies a variety of prompts for each targeted reading behavior. A few prompting categories and examples are below.

• Early Reading Behaviors "Say it slowly and move your finger under the word.", "Show me____ (a high frequency word) on this page.", "Point to each word as you read."
• Using Information "Can the picture help you think about this part of the story?", "You said____. Does that sound right?", "Are you thinking about what will happen next?"
• Solving Words "Get your mouth ready for the first sound.", "Cover the last part of the word.", "Look at the middle of the word.", "Do you know a word that starts with those letters?"
• Monitoring and Correcting "Why did you stop?", "Does the word you said look like the word on the page?", "It has to makes sense and go with the letters.", "Where is the tricky part?"
• General Problem-Solving "That won't help you.  This will help you .", "Try that again.", "Try it another way.", "Think about what you know." "What can you do?"
• Maintaining Fluency "Listen to me read.  Can you read it like that?", "Make a full stop at the period.", "Make your voice go up when you see a question mark.", "Take a short pause when you see a comma (or dash)."

The lessons are 30 minutes in length (45 minutes in length for the Red & Gold Kits). There is a nice variety of fiction and nonfiction texts for the students to read. For each set of 10 lessons, there are 5 instructional texts and 5 independent texts. The routine for the lessons alternate depending on the lesson number. Odd-numbered lessons consist of Rereading Books (5 mins), Phonics/Word Work (5 mins), introduction of New Book at the instructional level (15 mins) and additional Letter/Word Work (5 mins), if time permits. Even-numbered lessons consist of Rereading Books and Assessment of the instructional text (5 mins), Phonics/Word Work (5 mins), Writing About Reading (15 mins) and introduction of New Book at the independent level (5 mins).

Rereading Books and Assessment:

At the start of each group, students are required to reread the new instructional-level book and independent-level books from the previous lesson or lessons. During this time, you *listen in* while the students softly read, which allows you to support them with any needed prompting. This is when the prompting guide becomes very handy. Keep in mind, there is absolutely NO "Round Robin" reading, as was common before research confirmed it as a very unproductive use of time. Not all of the students in the small group need the same prompting, so students taking turns to read aloud while peers wait for a turn is an ineffective strategy.

Moving on...Face it, most struggling readers are unmotivated to read, which is why they're struggling in the first place. It's such a viscous cycle. Don't you agree? Well, for those slightly unmotivated students, sometimes a little *magical touch* is needed to spark interest. I have trinkets available for my students to use when reading, including whisper phones, "eye-lighters", sock puppets, hand pointers, magnifying glasses and holiday-themed knickknacks. In addition, I supply fix-up strategy book marks as a visual support for students.

Assessment

In regards to the Assessment portion of the lesson, only one or two students' reading is coded using running records on a particular day, so students being assessed must rotate throughout the week. I take running records weekly for each of my students because they are well below grade level. I then alter my teaching and prompting based on the students' running record miscues. The instructional-level text from the previous day's lesson is used. Fountas and Pinnell have a (paid-subscription) Literacy Online Resources site containing all of the lessons' materials, including running record forms for each instructional-level text. I pull up the running record form for the lesson being assessed and code the students' reading behaviors on notebook paper using the Coding and Scoring form below. Cute binders from Target keep my running records organized. In order to help save beautiful trees, I do not print the copies of the running record forms.

Phonics/Word Work:

During this portion of the lesson, students are explicitly and systematically instructed on how language works. The LLI kits provide an Alphabet and Consonant Cluster Linking Chart, poems, letter & word games, and lists of suggested words that can be documented on anchor charts with students. Magnetic letters with cookie trays, beads with pipe cleaners, letter stamps with ink pads, flyswatters and paint strips of various colors are also available in my room to assist in our work work activities. In addition, I often use iPad Apps to boost interest in recording the words being taught. Some easy-to-use Apps include Screen Chomp, ABC Magnetic Letters, Doodle Buddy and ShowMe. However, on occasion the students participate in QR Code activities focused on the phonics skill being practiced. In that case, they use the SCAN App. :)

New Book:

When introducing the new instructional-level book, students are provided the gist of the story. They are also given the opportunity to *walk~through* the text with guidance looking for tricky words, new vocabulary, language structures and important text features when necessary. Previewing the text should only take about 3 or 4 minutes. It's very similar to the routines of Jan Richardson's guided reading routines. As mentioned in the Rereading Books section, teachers use the prompting guide while *listening in* on the students during this portion of the lesson, too. (Remember, NO "Round Robin" reading!) Once the students have been given time to read the book in its entirety, a group discussion takes place referring the students back into the text to support their answers to questions asked.

Writing:

LLI involves students extending their understanding of texts through writing in 3 forms: Interactive, Dictated and Independent. They record their writing in My Writing Book. The writing books are available in yellow, purple and red. There is no particular reason for the colors for the exception of allowing for some student choice. Giving *choice* to students is always a good thing! On a side note, in the Red and Gold kits dedicated to the upper grades, the writing books are different and provide a word study portion.

Interactive Writing:

During interactive writing, students compose a text with the teacher. I ask students to write words or parts of words on the board as I offer guidance and support. The students LOVE participating in interactive writing!

Dictated Writing:

My little ones often have trouble with dictated writing because they miss some of the spoken words in their writing. I generally use some sort of manipulative such as beads, holiday-themed erasers, buttons, etc. to support students in counting the number of spoken words needed in the dictated sentences. It supports 1:1 correspondence of spoken and written words. We count out the manipulative together as I dictate the sentence. The students must then make sure to have as many words in their sentence as beads/erasers/buttons in front of them. For instance, a student writing the sentence "The boy walked to the park with his friend." would need 9 counters in front of him or her.

Independent Writing:

Independent writing may take several different forms depending on the students' needs. Students may write lists, labels for pictures, sentences, paragraphs, etc. On days the students are required to write independently, I often supply them with graphic organizers or response activities to guide them in responding to their texts. Those organizers or responses are then placed into their writing books. The writing books become a keep-sake for them and a place to document their growth throughout the year. If you're interested in fiction and nonfiction guided writing ideas for Levels A-I and J+, click the poster below. :)

Well, there you have it...a little peek into the F&P Leveled Literacy Intervention Blue Kit. Do you use the LLI kits with your students? I'd love to hear your story, if you do! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below.

P.S. Thank you to the following graphic artists for the backgrounds, clip art and fonts! :)

Welcome again to guest blogger Colleen from Literacy Loving Gals!  She has been her before, and we are excited to have her join us again for this guest post!