And the BIG Bloggy Birthday Winner Is…
Congratulations Laurie!!
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A HUGE thank you to our blogging buddies for helping us out too.
You Ladies are amazing!
This week, we got cracking on our Earth Day learning.
It is one of our favorite units to teach.
We are super excited to be
trying our sweet friend Katie’s Easy {and adorable!} Ecology unit along
with our We Love the Earth activities this year. You can read our other Earth Day posts from last year {here} and {here}. We’ll post pics over the weekend of all our Earth Day learning.
But, for today…
Today, we paired some of her Awesome Ecology fluency pages with our Fluency Building Bookmarks and we nearly hugged a tree over it.
It was awesome!
We pulled the fluency pages included in Katie’s Easy Ecology unit for today’s fluency practice.
We knew there were easier passages in her pack, but we were looking for a challenge.
We wanted to prove how powerful these little Fluency Building Bookmarks can be.
They proved us right.
We nearly hugged them over it.
We started by projecting one of the passages up on our BRAND NEW Promethean Board.
Yes, we’re totally squealing. It’s a Promethean Board People…
For us!
Now, we’re just like Anderson Cooper or Wolf Blitzer on CNN…
We get to look all smart whilst swiping things with our finger. This has never been a smart look for us as typically the things we‘re swiping with our fingers are not really newsworthy.
No, quite the opposite…
Our finger swiping days are usually followed by a quickly tossed tissue and a stern request to please wash their hands…
And, ours.
But, now…
It’s a fashion statement!
Seriously, we got manicures and everything just for the full Finger Swiping Experience.
Nobody wants to use a Promethean Board with pitiful nails!
Okay, okay squealing ceased…Back to fluency.
We asked our class to cold read the passage.
It was a full choir of robotic cave kids at their finest.
It was definitely the challenge we were looking for.
We read through it with them on the board a few times. We practiced key vocabulary and highlighted with our manicure finger. When they were ready, we gave them each their own Easy Ecology fluency page and one of our Fluency Building Bookmarks to Read to 3 different friends. You can read more about them {here}.
When it came to reading time, they roamed around the classroom, finding 3 different friends to read to.
We told them if they had a difficult time reading alone, then we wanted them to read together with their partner in 1 voice.
This helps alleviate some stress that our struggling readers may feel, but also lets our higher readers know this is not a show off session or Party of 1. We support each other as growing readers.
They did wonderfully!
If they had trouble finding a partner, which typically takes the form of a wandering lost soul meandering aimlessly around the classroom, we gave them a central “picking spot” to return to. They were to return to the class rug and wait for someone to come. This alleviated the wandering and they were able to move on with their next partner very quickly. Nobody stood around for more than a minute or so.
As they read, we roamed and buffed our nails listened. 🙂
The first read was bumpy, but they helped each other.
The second read was louder, more readers, faster and much better.
By the third reading, they were sailing through.
After each reading, their partner gave them a compliment about their reading, then signed their name or initials on one of the lines on their Fluency Building Bookmark.
Our Fluency Building Bookmarks include Read to 3, Read to 5 and Read to 8 sets for each month of the year.
The kids actually look forward to the “new” sets each month and beg us to Read to 8.
Did you catch that?
B-E-G to R-E-A-D.
We should feel bad for tricking them.
We should…
But, we don’t.
Getting them to reread is just one strategy for building their fluency.
We always make them chant,
“The more we read, the better we read!”
And, guess what?
After today, they believe it.
And, so do we…
Katie’s pages include comprehension questions at the bottom, so it was the perfect tie in to close out today’s fluency practice. Tomorrow, we will re-read and use some of our own Comprehension Cards with the whole class to get them thinking deeper about the selection.
Plus, we’ll be using our Fluency Building Bookmarks in math. They‘ll read a selection from their Student Reference Book to 5 friends. It’s a short 2 pager with lots of pictures, so they’ll be able to handle reading to more than 3 friends.
Click the pic below to take a closer look at our Fluency Building Bookmarks & Comprehension Cards.
So, we’re curious…
How do you help your kids build fluency?
Leave a comment below and we’ll pick 2 to receive our Fluency Building Bookmarks & Comprehension Cards!
Off to do our nails for the second time in 2 days!
We’ve got Promethean fingers ready to swipe tomorrow and we’ve got to pick out our nail polish!
Squeal!!!!!
