Henry and Mudge...

Last week we read Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night.  My students always love this story! They are able to make so many great connections to Henry and Mudge.  Thought I'd share a few of our activities.

This activity is from my Mental Imagery 6pk.  You can check it out here.

 The bones in the activity below are from Teacher Created Resources.  Click here to head on over to their site to check out this great freebie.  They actually go along with the story Clifford, but worked perfectly for Henry and Mudge.  I just added some Mudge clip art and the title. You can get the title below.

I had to post the picture below of my sweet Emma's mental images.  Oh my gosh...her pictures are super cute!  This template is not in my mental imagery pack.  It is a template by Debbie Miller.  She discusses it in her book, Reading with Meaning.  Which is a MUST read!!!

They also use the template above to write a friendly letter to a character in the story.  My students use this template weekly in their reading journals.  You can get the template for free below.

 

Decoding Strategy Posters

This summer I have been working through my to-do list which doesn't seem to be getting any smaller.  I think I'm adding more than I am actually finishing.  One of the projects that I've had on my to-do list for a VERY long time is updating my decoding posters. You can click here to see the original post from last year.  Many people asked for these, but I wasn't completely satisfied with them, so I never added them to my store.  I had made them so long ago that many of the fonts wouldn't embed in a pfd and the image quality wasn't great.  I just never seemed to find the time to update them.

Well,  I had another sweet teacher ask about them, so I thought it was time to get those puppies finished.  I am officially done. Checked off my list.   I did change some of the images from the original post last year.  I will add pics from my classroom when I get them up at the beginning of the year.

Here is the finished product:

There are NOT colored borders on the posters themselves.  Here is why. . . I am super OCD.  I change my mind a million times.  One day I might like polka dots, then chevron, then stripes, or whatever else I come across.  So, I didn't want to commit to a particular border.   So to create a border that matches my classroom, I simply find super cute scrapbook paper, attach with double stick tape, and laminate.  If I change my mind a month later, then I reprint them and swap them out.  I also wanted other teachers to be able to choose borders colors and prints they love.

Included you will also find this mini version below called- Decoding Dots.  This little handy dandy tool is great for guided reading.  Each of my students have a copy and they refer to it while they are reading.  There is also a one page reference page, like the one above, that is a great handout to keep in their Daily Folders (Homework Folders).  This will help parents know what strategies you use in the classroom, and they can support their children while reading at home.

 

You can click the here to head straight to my store to check out this resource.

***Update- I've added a bulletin board title and lined borders for the posters.

Reading and Math Strategies

I've been away from work for almost 2 weeks with Greysen.  He has almost healed from his tonsillectomy and thank goodness our days in the hospital are behind us.  I go back to work tomorrow and I know that it will be a hard transition for him, especially because he still has pain from surgery.  He's napping now, so thought I'd post something I had been meaning to post for awhile now. 

I saw a Reading strategy anchor chart on Pinterest awhile back.  She used the acronym- UNREAL to teach students her reading strategy steps.  Check hers out here.  It only linked to an image, so I'm not quite sure of where it originated.  I liked it and thought it could be modified a bit for my own classroom/grade level. My grade level preferred to go with the acronym REAL with a couple extra R's at the beginning instead of UNREAL.   This is what I finally came up with.

 I'm going to have my students keep it in their Daily Folders along with their  Math strategies (see below).  You can get both at my Teachers Pay Teachers store for free. Simply click on the images to head to my teacher store.

Reading Strategies

The one item in my classroom that I think I refer to the most often and am most in love with would be my Scoop on Comprehension visual. I have it hanging at the front of my room near the carpet where I do read alouds. Each scoop is labeled with either a reading skill or strategy. I teach them all very early in the year. Throughout the year, we refer to each of the different colored scoops as we utilize the skill or strategy in our reading. By the end of the year, my students have a real and deep understanding of all these reading skills and strategies because we refer to them several times per day across the disciplines. You can find all 15 scoops at my teacher store at Teachers Pay Teachers. There is also a  mini scoop page that contains all the scoops on one page.   I have my students color each of the scoops the correct color to match the large class cone. There is also a 2 page handout that students can use as a reference page.  It gives a description of each of the skills and strategies.  I also use the scoop below in stations to reinforce the skills/strategies. For instance, I may have them write fact/opinion on their scoop and then write 2 facts and 2 opinions. Or I may have them write Ask Questions and they would write 4 unanswered questions they had as they read the story. The handout is open ended and could be used for any of the scoops.

Click on any image below to head straight to my store.

 

 

 

Decoding Strategies

These are the decoding strategies we use in our classroom.  I have them posted right next to my Guided Reading table, so students can utilize them while they are reading. Honestly, we refer to them all day long.  When I saw Kim Adsit from Kinder Gals had the strategy "skip it, and mo(o)ve on", I just had to add it to my strategies.  It's just way too cute!  It was the perfect addition to my favorite strategies. 

UPDATE- I finally updated these posters.  If you are interested, they are now in my store.  Click below to head straight there.  You'll notice, I changed just a few of the images, but the strategies are still the same.  You can see the post where I discussed them in more depth here.