Throwback Thursday: Reader's Workshop

So I keep staring at my laptop, thinking I will have ideas... but I don't. I'm completely preoccupied with wedding stuff and have spent the last three days driving from one end of town to the other, trying to find the items we need to rent for our October wedding. 

I have it in my head that, once school starts, I will not have a spare minute to spend on wedding. This is happening around August 1 - we have a reading camp and grade levels are coming in to plan for the year. This is exciting and a great idea, but  I know that the more time I spend at school, the less time I spend on the wedding and the more likely I become a BRIDEZILLA!

I'm not one yet, I've been told... but it could happen at any moment.

Anyway, I thought that, as people are getting their rooms ready for school, Reader's and Writer's Workshop are great blogging topics. And the best part is...

I already blogged about it, back on August 25, 2012. So here's my Throwback Thursday Post: Must-Have Materials for Reader's and Writer's Workshop!

As soon as I saw Lindsay's Linky Party, I knew I had to link up. The problem was I have been a little braindead when I get home. It's like the hamster in there is so exhausted from running all day that he just keels over and zonks out for hours at at time. Don't ask me questions after 6:00. My answers don't make any sense. 

But I definitely had to link up with Lindsay's Linky Party, and I just needed to wait until my brain worked well enough to do it

I Looooooooooove Reader's and Writer's Workshop. To be honest, my Writer's Workshop is a modified version - I find that students need smaller chunks of independence and so I spend more time on a ping-pong instructional method than WW allows for, but I love the ideals.
Now, be prepared. This next section is a teacher's nightmare.
One year, my whole campus was contaminated with mold. Seriously. Mold. The swamp coolers (lame excuses for air conditioners) stopped working and it rained. A lot. Considering we live in a desert. The library, full of lovely books, became a swamp, and we lost everything in that library. Everything.  They had to throw out all the books. 
Isn't that awful? ALL THE BOOKS! IN THE LIBRARY! HAD TO BE THROWN AWAY BECAUSE OF MOLD!!! Holy cow, right?! Because our campus was full of old, and therefore, uninhabitable, we were displaced. Without our stuff. Three weeks before school started, they said, "Guess what! You're going to be shipped across the city. Every day your kids will ride the bus for half an hour - all of them - and sometimes, you will ride the bus, too, to monitor the kids! AAAACCCKKK! Also, you won't have access to your stuff! All your classrooms are being sifted through and we are throwing away things we think are contaminated with mold! HEART ATTACK But you better meet accountability. So we started the year in an old building no longer used as a school. We rode the bus for a week out of every four weeks. And that was pretty awful. The word essentials took on a new meaning for me, because that was all I could afford to buy. Again. And pray they didn't throw our stuff out. Which they sometimes did.  This is what I considered to be essential:
Classroom library A well-stocked and engaging classroom library is necessary for kids to make good book choices and learn to read independently. I tried to have books at a variety of levels to match my readers at a variety of levels. Series books always seem like a good addition to the classroom library because the kids can get hooked and then you've got a reader. Nonfiction is always great (and necessary) too.

New model mini-library in my new room.

Nonfiction shelf with book display on top.

This was a nonfiction nook I had several years ago. Loved it.

Chart Paper

I use a lot of chart paper. I chart everything. Once my hunny came into my classroom and was asking about things on the walls. "They look useful," he said. I said, "They're supposed to be." He thought it was interesting that everything was in my handwriting - I don't use pre-made posters very often because I think that kids look at them, say, "Oh, that's nice," and then forget. I chart everything out with the kids during my lessons and then very occasionally I'd use a nicer version, if I thought it could do the same job.
These are some reading and writing charts through the years. Oh, how things change but how they don't, too. 

These are the sample charts I have in my room now as a literacy leader. Exciting to share with teachers!
Guided Reading Binder, Table, and Tools
I did a whole post a while back on guided reading and how important this structure is to me. My guided reading binder documents all of the work I've done with students and is a great source for a number of things. You can check that post out here. -Planning future instruction -Demonstrating to students and parents how their child has grown -Supporting the RtI process -Asking for help from support staff by showing evidence

 Last year's guided reading setup

 This year's guided reading setup

Mentor Texts I use mentor texts for both reading and writing instruction. Our  mentor texts become our buddies in reading and writing, and we try to connect everything we do back to the texts.  These are some of my favorites.

Click here and here for a post about Tomie DePaola's books.

Click here for a post about using In November.

Reader's and Writer's Notebooks Students have to write about their thinking and they have to try things in writing. We use our notebooks constantly and I've had students fill up one spiral and need another.

Included in this free packet is a sample cover for a Reader's Notebook.

Clipart from KPM Doodles and FrogSpot From the Pond

Fonts from Kevin and Amanda and Hello Literacy

And last, but not least, Post-Its!

Big ones, little ones, yellow ones, pink ones, all varieties! 

We use them to mark our thinking in our books: shared reading and independent reading.

So go check out the linky party to get some great ideas for growing your reader's and writer's workshops!

And check out my Rolling Out Reader's Workshop at TPT. Includes tons of materials and tools for getting your Reader's Workshop ready and rolling!

Link up or check out more Throwback Thursday posts at The First Grade Parade!

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Piles Upon Piles: A linky party

So lately I've kind of been snowed under with all of this work I've been doing for my new product: Rolling Out Reader's Workshop for grades 3-5. But I also have several other items on my list to accomplish today, including reading some articles for an inservice I have tomorrow, cleaning, and paying some bills. 
This, of course, means that I am looking for other things to do so I do not have to do those things I just mentioned. And I found the perfect one!
I was browsing through some blogs the other day, and came across this graphic.

STUFF?

PILES?

Oh, yes. I can participate.

I have piles of piles. I have piles upon piles that have been created to disguise piles of other piles. My StUfF is piled on top of other sTuFf and it's giving me anxiety.

I hate walking by these piles. Because these piles all represent

- Things I am supposed to do

- Things I can't do yet because I'm waiting for another thing

- Things I already started but haven't finished

- Things I started but can't finish unless school starts and/or I get married

This is because I have two kinds of piles. As I was wandering around the house with my phone, snapping pile pictures, I began to realizes... I don't just have SCHOOL piles. I have WEDDING piles and piles and piles! 

I have a whole room piled full of wedding piles!

I hate my anxiety-causing piles. 

I am a lover of "a place for everything, and everything in its place." These piles have taken over places where nothing should be. I am pretending I want them there.

Let's start with the tour.

Near my front door, in a high-visibility spot, I keep my school bag. Inside of this bag are items (documents, papers, articles) that I intend to take to school with me. Stacked artistically on top is a bag of Office Depot stuff I bought two weeks ago, ready for the first week in August!

Inside of this Office Dept bag are my purchases: A new notebook and a new calendar. I love technology, but when it comes to note-taking and date-keeping, I am surprisingly simple. I need to be able to flip. I also like notebooks small enough to fit in my purse, and the covers should be bendy without creasing. 

To find the right notebook is kind of holy-grail-ish, so when I found it, I bought and put it in a place I can't miss it. Neither can anyone else. 

I also keep my gift mug here; a gift from one of my teachers that I want to take with me when school starts. I find it creates a homey atmosphere.

This pile is new, especially embarrassing, and was not created by me.

It is an enormous Smucker's box full of crap. It is from my brother and sister-in-law. They are extreme couponers. Need I say more? At least this pile is contained in a box. Unfortunately, this box has crayons somewhere deep inside, so I can't put it in the garage. It is in my den. Lovely.

On my dining room table, I have another set of piles. This is a pile of books to read. I have read exactly 1/3 of each of these books.

This is a pile of sample anchor charts I made for a my never-ending Reader's Workshop product. I'm going to take them to school to put in my room (I'm the Literacy Coach) as ideas for the teachers. It's taking up half of my dining room table.

This is a mini-pile of pop tabs. My school collects them for the Ronald McDonald house, and I've chosen to keep them in this aesthetically pleasing spot.

Also being collected are more bottle tops for my teachers. They're using them to make letter manipulatives and don't they look lovely in that antique ice-cream dish? Really finishes off the look, I think.

These are wedding piles. These are much worse.

My entire guest bedroom is heaping with boxes full of things I'm saving to work on for the wedding

And things I've already worked on. I have about 100 glass jars, about half of them wedding-ready  and half nowhere close. 

My craft supplies are strewn in bags.

I've got empty wine bottles and piles of fabric.

I even found a mini-pile of jars by the kitchen sink. 

I've rinsed them but now I need to figure out how to remove that label!! (The sticky ones are the worst)

My piles are embarrassing. They're downright shameful. They're not even all hidden from the casual observer, although I do slam the guest bedroom door shut as soon as the doorbell rings. That's the least I can do to HIDE MY PILES!

Ok, I showed you mine. Now show us yours! 

Link up with Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge!

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Five for Friday! Linky

I've been completely off for one week (except for Monday which I just remembered). I spent this week doing things around the house which usually get neglected. This means that the things that usually get done are not done. I just replaced them with things you can't see with the naked eye.
Such as cleaning out the closets, painting trim, and trying out dozens of recipes from pinterest that I usually wouldn't invest the time in!

These are my five pictures that show what my week has been like:
It's a little embarrassing that most of these pictures are food. At least they're healthy food. I didn't take pictures of the apple strudel I made or the wine I drank all night. That's NSFB: not suitable for blog.)
I have cut up more zucchini this week thanI have in my whole lifetime. I tried three different recipes for zucchini chips (I have a thing for chips) but I can't get it right!

This is one of the recipes I tried. It was tasty immediately out of the oven, but it took them no time to get kind of gummy.

 Then I tried this recipe I found on pinterest, too! The original recipe came from FoodGawker. I left out the potatoes, though, and just used squash, zucchini, tomato, and onion. It was pretty tasty, but then, I like anything with parmesan on top!

This is my sneaky dog, Penny. She knows she's not supposed to be up there. We invited my family over last weekend and we were all sitting outside on the patio. When we came in for dinner, I left the cushions (which I usually put in the deck box for just this reason!) on the chairs. I looked outside and saw naughty Penny enjoying her evening.

And I think this is my mostest favoritest picture of all! My brother and sister-in-law are pregnant! They're due to have a little girl in September, and I've been a shopaholic. I bought the most adorable shoes at JC Penney last week. Couldn't help myself!

That's my week. Mostly food, a little family, and some time in the yard! Now go check out all the other link-ups at Doodle Bugs! Pin It

Throwback Thursday: Math File Folder Games

I am at a total loss for what to write about. My brain is seriously in summer mode, and you can only talk about all the tasty snacks you've made so many times.

Fortunately, First Grade Parade is having Throwback Thursday!

My instinct about this was that it was going to be about clothes from the 70s, but that was not correct. Mrs. Carroll wants a blast from the past: for us to re-post a blog post from the olden days.

I hunted back through all of my old posts, and honestly, it's a little embarrassing! I guess my blog has evolved in some ways, but there are some pretty silly patterns.

At least, as you'll see in the post below, I've figured out how to arrange my pictures!

For my Throwback Thursday, I chose a post about some math ideas that really helped me in my fourth grade classroom. It was also great for the school-home connection that was so important to my kids. It was also one of my first posts that wasn't holiday-related, because I started blogging right after Thanksgiving!

So check it out, get some ideas, and when you're done, go link up with The First Grade Parade for Throwback Thursday, or spend some time browsing through the other link-ups there!



-Original post January 27, 2012-

*This is a linky party. I wrote the whole thing and realized I left that out! But it should be obvious, cause I'm not good at coming up with specific things to write about. I'm a rambler. So here it is:

Link up with the Lesson Plan Diva about Center Organization!
Do it!!

So, I'm kind of a mess.
To be organized, I really have to think about, like,
Ok, I have this thing in my hand. Where am I going to put it?
Is there a place it goes?
Do I want to walk all the way over there?
I probably should.
Walk, walk, walk.

Wait. Why am I over here?
Absentmindedly set belongings down in the wrong space.
An hour later, I'll find them and wonder why they're there.

So I have to create systems.
My necklaces hang on little hooks in my bedroom
and my earrings are in compartments like a tackle box.

My barrettes
yes, I'm an adult and I'm allowed to wear barrettes if I want
hang on a ribbon in my bathroom
and I have a special, designated place
for my keys in the basket by the front door.

That's what has to happen to keep me running.
If one of these things doesn't happen, I'm up a creek.
You know which creek.

So my center/station activities have to have a special system, too, or they don't happen more than once.

This is how I organize them.
It might not fit everybody's needs, but as an upper grades elementary teacher, it's really helped me stay organized. Keep in mind, centers aren't my favorite. My style is not too center-y. For you diehard center or station people, you might be kind of waaaaay beyond all this basic stuff. But maybe something will help out!

Centers may not be my favorite. But I love file folder games. So...

All of my centers become file folder games. All of them.

I glue the instructions on the front and the activity on the inside. I try to shorten it to only a couple of pages so it fits inside, but if I have to, I glue two file folders together to make a muy super wow expandable folder.

On the back, I glue some sort of sheet where kids have to practice the skill in writing with a vis-a-vis.

I take all the little pieces, stick them in a zipper baggie and staple the bag to the inside of the folder.

This one's not very pretty. 

It is special, though. The letters necessary to build the sight words on the orange cards are in the little bag. They're stuck on magnet tape. Then the kid can build them on the magnet tape string and write them with a dry-erase marker.

Wow. I just realized these pictures are pretty bad.

Then, they all go in a file folder crate. I have one for reading and one for math activities, and one special one for sight words.

Math: Needs a new label.

Reading: Also needs a new label. Like the extra junk underneath it?
Yep, it's all part of Ms. B's charm.

Is it just me, or can you never get your pictures to line up the way you want them?

To get extra mileage, I also use the games for this:
Family Math Weekend!
Or, Family Game Weekend!
Every weekend, with my kids who struggle in specific areas, I send home a game that they can practice.
This is the letter I send home to parents. Grab it here.

Clipart by ScrappinDoodles, border by Karen Cox: TPT Store.

The first time I sent home a Family Math Weekend 'Game' with my students, I sit them down to try to psych them up a little. This is how the conversation went this year. (Honestly. This is THE conversation. I am in black and the student is blue. Obviously, unless they are sending home extra stuff for ME to learn over the weekend.)
Notice how everything I say ends with an exclamation mark because we fake it till they believe us.

You know how we spend a lot of time practicing good math skills?
Yes. suspiciously.
And how we have to keep practicing to hold on to those good skills?
Yes. even more suspiciously.
Guess what you get to do this weekend?
What?
You GET to take home a fun game to play with your parents!
I GET to?
YES! You GET to!
Oh.
Yeah! I know! You get to take this game home and play with your family!
I GET to?
Yes! And then you GET to write down what happened on this cute paper with the bees on it and bring it back on Monday to show me how smart you are!
This sounds like extra work.
Oh, it's not work. It's a Game! See? It says GAME.
But it is math.
Yes, it's a math GAME!
So...it's like a video game...that I play by myself...except I'm going to play it with my family...and it's on paper.
Yes! Exactly like that!
Hmmm. a little excited. So it's like they played games before they had electricity?
Yup! That's exactly how they did it!
Okay! a little brightly. 
Teacher chuckles diabolically, having finally tricked the student into doing what he's supposed to do and liking it.

 Included in the file folder is this sheet for the student to fill out with their parents:

Grab it here from Google Docs

Happy Family Math Weekend!

Monday Made (too much of) It! Kale Chips.

So I have been off for about three days and I think I've made excellent use of my time. I already told you about how I painted the grout in my bathroom. I love it so much. I just go sit there and look at it and think about how nice it looks.
I mean, I would be spending some time in there anyway, but now, I'm enjoying it.
I've also watched the entire first season of Wilfred. It's dark and twisted and I like it.
In addition to these outstanding accomplishments, I've been trying to eat better. (This doesn't count Sunday, which was Father's Day, because that's a holiday and holiday foods don't count. That includes my tasty Village Inn breakfast of eggs, cheese, and various breakfast meats, nachos at my grandfather's house, and the bratwurst on the grill we made for my dad. Whew! Good thing it was a holiday!)
I have, though, been eating better the past couple days. I made myself a smoothie thing but it came out a little gloppy. I drank it anyway, but I have a feeling it's supposed to be a little smoother. But this isn't what I'm sharing about for my...

with Fourth Grade Frolics!

Then I hunted all over pinterest for some tasty and better-for-me things I could make to snack on during the day. And I happened on... kale chips!
This is my kale adventure.
I had never purchased kale before. I've heard lots about it. "It's a superfood." "It's so good for you." "It really helped me control my diet." What I hadn't heard was, "You can make it into chips." CHIPS? Yes, please.
So when I hit Wal-Mart for my SUMMER IS STARTING shopping spree, I added to my cart a giant bag o' kale. And then I got it home, and I looked at it and thought, "Now what do I do with you?" After about an hour of pinning (I started out looking at kale and ended up pinning things like "sexy shoes", "my patronus is a bookworm", and "pretty wedding hair") I settled on this recipe I found at Carla's Confections.
But I never quite do things as I'm told. Mostly because I'm impatient and pretty lazy. So this is what I did: I poured some olive oil in a large plastic zipper bag and dumped a bunch of kale in it. I tossed it around and poured the kale onto the pan.  I turned my oven to 275. Then I stuck the pan in and set the timer for thirty minutes.
After fifteen minutes, I looked in the oven and the kale was still squishy. Probably because it had only been fifteen minutes and I was supposed to leave it in for, like, forty. But I got impatient because I really really really wanted some kale chips, which I'd never tried before, but I assumed I really wanted them because they have the word 'chips' in their name. So I turned up the heat to 325 and set the timer for ten more minutes.
After ten more minutes, I went back in the kitchen and poked my head in the oven and they were kind of starting to look done-ish but not quite, so I set the timer for five more minutes. When the timer went off, I went in and took the pan out of the oven and saw that I'd kind of burned up half of the kale. 
So I took the pan and poured the kale chips/ashes into a bowl and I started over again, pouring olive oil in a bag and filling it with kale (it was a really enormous bag) and tossing the kale in it. Then I stuck it into the oven at 425, because I'd found another pin that said 425 was a good temperature to bake kale at. I set the timer for twenty minutes. 
Then I took the bowl of kale ashes & chips and salted it.
And I ate it all.
So then I went back into the kitchen after twenty minutes and took out the kale that I'd baked at 425. Aaaaannnndd...
it was also kind of ashes-y and a little oily.
So I turned the oven down to 275 and poured a very very small amount of olive oil into a large plastic zipper bag and dumped some kale in and tossed it around. Then I put it onto a pan (again) and put it into the oven. And I left it in there for thirty minutes. During this time, I ate a second bowl of kale ashes and olive oil.
When the timer went off, I took out the third pan of kale and dumped it into a bowl. 

And I ate it all.

So all in all, I ate three pans of kale chips and ashes. It was pretty tasty by the third time around. Kind of like broccoli but crispy. So I would recommend it. But I would NOT recommend eating three pans of it in one day. I do NOT want to tell you the consequences of consuming that much kale in such a short time. Let's just say I've had plenty of time to appreciate my excellent grout-painting. 

I'll give you a minute to think about that...

Make sure to link up with Monday Made It with Fourth Grade Frolics! Very fun.

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