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Friday, February 14, 2014
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Interactive Reading Notebooks
What have we been up to lately? Grammar notebooks! Well, my
students don't actually have grammar notebooks, they have reading
notebooks. In our reading interactive notebooks we keep reading
foldables, grammar foldables, poetry, guided reading notes, and
writing/thinking organizers. As you can imagine, we are in these
notebooks multiple times a day; which is why our super cute ribbon
bookmarks come in so handy.
I have used interactive notebooks ever since I started teaching three years ago, but this year I really wanted to focus on using a reading and math interactive notebook. I have dabbled with math foldable's before, but I had never done a reading interactive notebook. My focus with interactive notebooks in the past was social studies and science. So with this in mind, I set to work over the summer creating all sorts of foldables to make it easy for myself to stick to my goal and actually use an interactive notebook in reading and math.
Below you will find pictures of my reading interactive notebook (stay tuned for pictures of my math interactive notebook). As I said before I keep everything reading in our reading interactive notebooks, which is a lot, but I wanted to make sure everything was kept in one place since I was just starting out. I had a fear of under-using the notebooks and eventually giving up on my goal with them. I plan on fine-tuning for next year and maybe having separate notebooks for certain topics. As for now, things are going swimmingly. Since there is so much that goes into this notebook, students are really taking ownership. At first it was like pulling teeth to get my students to color or add their own flair. But now, they ask if they can go back and add to assignments if they have free time.
Utilizing the interactive notebooks has also helped me feel more confident about my lessons. When I follow up a mini lesson with an interactive notebook sort or activity, I can quickly walk around and see who understood the concept. Since I created a foldable for every strand before the school year even began, it's really keeping me consistent and accountable. I can't get lazy or make any excuses because it's already done for me. Not to mention, the students ask if they know we're starting a new skill and I don't whip out a foldable eventually.
I am enjoying seeing our notebooks grow; although I am thinking we're going to need a volume two by the end of the second quarter. I will try my best to leave links to where I found certain activities, a lot of my grammar or reading notebook foldables can be found in my store.
Enjoy!
Our notebooks are getting fat!
I have used interactive notebooks ever since I started teaching three years ago, but this year I really wanted to focus on using a reading and math interactive notebook. I have dabbled with math foldable's before, but I had never done a reading interactive notebook. My focus with interactive notebooks in the past was social studies and science. So with this in mind, I set to work over the summer creating all sorts of foldables to make it easy for myself to stick to my goal and actually use an interactive notebook in reading and math.
Below you will find pictures of my reading interactive notebook (stay tuned for pictures of my math interactive notebook). As I said before I keep everything reading in our reading interactive notebooks, which is a lot, but I wanted to make sure everything was kept in one place since I was just starting out. I had a fear of under-using the notebooks and eventually giving up on my goal with them. I plan on fine-tuning for next year and maybe having separate notebooks for certain topics. As for now, things are going swimmingly. Since there is so much that goes into this notebook, students are really taking ownership. At first it was like pulling teeth to get my students to color or add their own flair. But now, they ask if they can go back and add to assignments if they have free time.
Utilizing the interactive notebooks has also helped me feel more confident about my lessons. When I follow up a mini lesson with an interactive notebook sort or activity, I can quickly walk around and see who understood the concept. Since I created a foldable for every strand before the school year even began, it's really keeping me consistent and accountable. I can't get lazy or make any excuses because it's already done for me. Not to mention, the students ask if they know we're starting a new skill and I don't whip out a foldable eventually.
I am enjoying seeing our notebooks grow; although I am thinking we're going to need a volume two by the end of the second quarter. I will try my best to leave links to where I found certain activities, a lot of my grammar or reading notebook foldables can be found in my store.
Enjoy!
Article Notes
Polar Bears Writing (topic, detail, and closing sentences are colored)
Irregular Plural Notes
(We will be using this for our biographies. Students will draw pictures in the app boxes to create a timeline of their life events and write their story behind the flap.)
(Students will draw a picture of the person on the pocket and write about them on the pull-out tab.)
(They LOVE this!)
Our notebooks are getting fat!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
I'm Back! and I have Probability pictures!
Well, I'm back! This has been my first back to school season being a mom and I am proud to say that I pulled through! I am exhausted. I don't know how teachers with
more than one kid do it. Anyway, I never got around to showing all the
classroom pictures I took before school even begun (I'll do
that later). But I did want to share the probability unit
that we just finished. Yes, we just took our second math unit test.
That's how late I am.
I love teaching probability and I usually do centers. I'm typically scrambling trying to pull things together at the last minute. So this year, I decided to be proactive and use my super cute clip art that I just bought from Melonheadz to create an entire probability center set. It took me a while but it definitely paid off! My students loved this and I love how it helped me with teaching the unit.
Below are some pictures showing the centers that I put together and my students hard at work. To see more of this set, you can visit my store.
I promise I won't be gone too long this time (although I did say that last time). I have a ton more cool things to share, including those classroom pictures that I never got around to. I'm also working on an animal adaptations unit, and I just tried my first ever close reading (thanks to the 24 seven teacher freebie).
Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!
I love teaching probability and I usually do centers. I'm typically scrambling trying to pull things together at the last minute. So this year, I decided to be proactive and use my super cute clip art that I just bought from Melonheadz to create an entire probability center set. It took me a while but it definitely paid off! My students loved this and I love how it helped me with teaching the unit.
Below are some pictures showing the centers that I put together and my students hard at work. To see more of this set, you can visit my store.
Here is a closer look at some of the centers:
I promise I won't be gone too long this time (although I did say that last time). I have a ton more cool things to share, including those classroom pictures that I never got around to. I'm also working on an animal adaptations unit, and I just tried my first ever close reading (thanks to the 24 seven teacher freebie).
Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Interactive Reading Notebook!
Happy almost end of summer! This is my last week of complete freedom. Next week the school opens up for teachers to begin setting up their rooms and the following week is work week. With the anticipation of a new school year, I have been thinking a lot about how I want to structure and improve my literacy block. I thought I would share the interactive notebook that my students and I use to keep track of our skills. The pictures below are from the notebook that I keep along with the students. We also will include grammar activities and notes in our notebooks, but the pictures are just of the reading portion. Enjoy!
What do you use in your room? I would love to hear what you are doing or how I can improve.
These are just some of the pages from our notebook. If you are interested in finding out more about the reading notebook, you can visit my TPT store. The complete list of the activities the notebook includes is below.
-fiction/nonfiction
-author's purpose
-elements of fiction
-main idea
-making predictions
-making connections
-sequencing
-cause and effect
-ask and answer questions
-problem and solution
-text features
-folktales
-context clues
-drawing conclusions
-biography
-autobiography
-compare and contrast
-author's purpose
-elements of fiction
-main idea
-making predictions
-making connections
-sequencing
-cause and effect
-ask and answer questions
-problem and solution
-text features
-folktales
-context clues
-drawing conclusions
-biography
-autobiography
-compare and contrast
Have a great day!
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