ISTEP is a good time!

This week was ISTEP+, Indiana's standardized test. It can be a stressful time but I try to make it a little less stressful in my class. Of course, our preparation for ISTEP+ begins on Day 1 of school but I found a GREAT idea on TpT for doing some test prepping in a new way. We tried it a few times in recent weeks and the kids blew me away! The discussions I overheard and the answer defenses I observed were exciting to see! I highly recommend giving Laura Candler's Buddy Test Prep activity a try. It definitely took some conversations to a deeper level and I was really impressed and encouraged!

Pinterest ABOUNDS with ideas for test treats. Last year, I went with the "smart cookie" idea.

This year, since we tested for 3 days, I opted for a small treat each day.

Day 1: Andes mints

Day 2: Smarties candy

Day 3: Fruit Roll Ups--Last day!!

Yay! It's over and we survived... well, until Part 2 in April. In the meantime, here is a cute little video to get the kids excited about ISTEP, put together by another Hammond school, Lincoln. Enjoy!

Purdue's "R-Dub" Club

Since 2005, my class has been a participant in the Purdue University Calumet's "R-Dub" Club (Reading and Writing...as in "dub-ya"! Get it??). We are one of three classes in the entire district to participate and the only class to have participated since the first year! Every spring, athletes from the men and women's basketball teams visit our classroom once a month to introduce a new chapter book. They read a few chapters out loud together and then discuss what was read. Finally, the students have the opportunity to interview the athletes to learn more about them. The students make notes from the interview in their writing journals. After the visit, we spend a couple days in writer's workshop, putting together articles about the athletes. We make the articles into a book and present it to them at the next visit. In January, the featured book was The Mouse and the Motorcycle. In February, it was Frindle. The last two books in March and April will be Stone Fox and Dear Mr. Henshaw. As participants in the program, the students and their families also get to be guests at a home basketball game in the late winter. Here are some photos from a recent visit:

Athletes from the women's basketball team read from the new chapter book as the students follow along in their copies.

The first book we created and presented to the team in February.

Our next visit on March 22nd and we can't wait! We enjoy being a part of this program every year and look forward to many more years in this partnership!

Catching up...

I'm playing Saturday morning catch up--lots to share about what we've been up to the past month. Life has gotten in the way and I haven't been able to post recently. So expect several posts from me today!

First up? Valentine's Day! We did a few things that week to celebrate the holiday. To start, I found a cute idea from Laura Candler on TpT for a cinquain writing activity. The students interviewed each other following her format and created very sweet Valentine's for that person. They turned out pretty cute!

I also remembered finding a cool idea for making Valentine mailboxes on Pinterest and I thought I pinned it but cannot find it. The only idea I actually used from it was having students use empty cereal boxes for them. We then tore pieces of construction paper to create a mosaic look to the boxes. The students took them home, decorated and returned them on party day.

Lastly, I was excited to share my Valentine's for the students with them. I borrowed an adorable idea from The Teacher Wife as part of it. I found the cute V-Day pencils and gift bags at the dollar store and filled a couple little other goodies from Oriental Trading (bought during a free shipping weekend!). They turned out really cute!

It was a week of love in C107!

100 Days Smarter!

We celebrated the 100th day of school on January 31st. This is always one of my favorite days of the school year. We make a whole day of it completing 100s day activities intertwined with our regular schedule. This year, I included a couple new things that I found on TpT. Every student made a crown to wear proclaiming, "I am 100 days smarter!" Here is a photo of everyone in their crowns:

See how happy it made them?? I snagged this from It's Always Sunny in SPED on TpT. I even made one myself:

Another cool thing I found was this activity called, "What can I do in 100 seconds?" created by Lauren Lunceford on TpT. The kids ABSOLUTELY loved this! I have the funniest video of them hopping up and down. Here is a photo of some of them fervently counting how many times they can write their names in 100 seconds:

Be prepared for a little whining from the kids with 8+ letters in their names!

One more thing I always do is the "100 of something"--kids bring in 100 of something and we share our collections. Everyone gets a little certificate for participating. Then the students vote on their favorite 100 collections. The winner brought in 100 crayons but I think his creative display of them won everyone over:

All in all, it was another successful celebration of the 100th day of school. It certainly feels like an achievement and makes us feel that much closer to summer vacation!

Our pets.......

How have I forgotten to mention our classroom pets up until now??? They've been the underwater classmates since October--our 5 goldfish! We are "fish-sitting" for a friend of Harding until spring. They are some pretty cute goldfish and they really like to eat! Allow me to introduce:

Fish keeper has been added to our list of class jobs and has become the most sought after job at that. They are fun to watch and we loving having them!

Book Clubs, Part 2

Our first round of book clubs lasted a little over 2 weeks. We continued our station schedule as usual. The only difference was that we took a break from traditional guided reading and Read to Partner. During guided reading time, I met with the small groups to hear about the book club meetings, listen to some of their reading (trying to snag a few informal RRRs) and answer any questions they had and make sure everyone was keeping up with the "packet" (more on this in a minute). They also had a chance to share some opinions and thoughts about the book. I really made an effort to let the group members lead the discussions and decide what they felt they needed during that time. This was the part that made everyone nervous at first. Our GR lessons are pretty routine driven so this was a new experience. They got the hang of it eventually.

During Read to Partner time, they would meet with their groups to read a chapter or two of the book together and then they could work on the packets. What is the packet? The packet was a series of reponse sheets that the students used to keep track of how much and what they were reading. I have a subscription to edhelper.com (which I LOVE!) and they have so many reading reponse packets for many different chapter books. They had them for two of the books we were using which was very helpful! It helped guide everyone and keep them on a schedule to finish the book in the allotted 2 week time. I also used these packets for reading grades along the way. Here is the packet for Matilda:

There were not pre-made packets for Drita and Goosebumps so I turned to TpT, of course! I found a fantasic response packet for literature circles from Jessica Osika for {FREE}!! And they worked like a charm for these two groups:

And here are my kiddos working in their book clubs. They did great!

I'm proud to say our first trek with book clubs was a success! We've since completed a second round of books clubs that began after Christmas break. New books, new groups, new packets, but BETTER discussions! It's safe to say that this will become a permanent part of my literacy block.

A Foray into Book Clubs

We have been doing some form of balanced literacy for my entire 10 years at Harding. When I first arrived in 2003, we were a Four Blocks/Big Blocks school. Some years later, we moved to the F&P framework of balanced literacy--big on differentiated instruction and flexible reading groups. I then got a copy of The Daily 5. This changed my classroom completely. Up until a few years ago, I thought "stations" were a primary thing (much like the anchor charts I mentioned before).

Including independent literacy stations has given me the opportunity to work more closely with my students! Does that sound odd? Well, think about it. When students are able to work independently in literacy stations, I am able to conduct small group, daily, guided reading lessons. I really get to know my students as readers--what are they able to do really well as a reader and where do they still need help?

Now that our school has been doing this for several years, students are coming into my 4th grade class as better readers overall. Therefore, I thought it time to add a new dimension to the fold. This year, I have been taking a 4 part workshop through a local literacy initiative that focuses in Book Clubs and Inquiry Circles. It has given me new ideas for my literacy block! During the month of December, we began our first true try with book clubs--I gave up complete control and let students form their own groups. I think the students were more nervous about it than me!

After presenting about 7 different book ideas to the class, the students gave me their top 2 choices. We ended up with these 4 our as our first book club books.

Quite a range but worked perfect for the varying reading levels in the class. I was impressed that many of them knew enough about themselves as readers to choose the book most close to their level (F&P GR level or SRI Lexile--we use both and they know both).
I will post more about this experience in a "to be continued" post.