Reader of the Day and more Skippy!

What is it?!  Each student has a day that he/she reads to the class for 5 minutes!  Simple as that, but ever so effective! 

You can run this however you would want.  In the beginning, I gave each student a day of the week.  Then we went to 6 day cycles--so I gave them each a "cycle day."  Then we moved to 4 day cycles... which didn't work out because they would be reading every 4 days.  Now, I create a monthly calendar and schedule the students to read 2 times a month.  This allows me time for them to read! 

I set a timer for 5 minutes.  They read until they finish or until the timer goes off.  Afterwards, you can have students praise the reader.  (You could do 2 praises and a push, etc.  Whatever your time allows.  Quite frankly, I just let them read.  The biggest reward of this "idea" is that they are reading.  Period.)

I used to keep track of what each student read and how well they did, but now, I just fill out a form for each student and write an encouraging note and/or recommend something for the next time they read.  (i.e.  Practice reading louder for next time!  or  Don't forget to show us the pictures!, etc.)  I've found that the real prize in this activity is the time spent at home reading. 

Give it a try! You'll be amazed at how your most reluctant readers start to shine and take off after a few times in front of the "crowd!"

Click {HERE} to grab the letter I send home and the scoring sheet I give them!

***I fixed the error that you see on the student scoring sheet!  So, when you download it, it will be a correct version... sorry folks!  My brain was FRIED!***

Also-I just HAD to let you know about this fantastic website that actually found little old me!!!!
(And, I have NO idea how I've missed it!!)  

Seriously.  If you missed out on the fantastic Kohl's Skippy stuff last year, you can get some things here!  (Of course, it's NOT $5, but, it's not at an outrageous price either!)  I am totally getting the Skippyjon Jones mask, cap and ear headband!  My kids will FLIP when I read them these books with it next year!

 


 Are they NOT the cutest??  They also have bags that would be great to take a stuffed Skippy home in to have families write about....  Oh, the possibilities are endless!  I am just SO excited that they found me.  (And, just as excited that my blog was posted on Skippy's Facebook page!!!  holy guacamole!)

Also--I was super excited that my son's baseball game was cancelled last week.  It gave me a chance to take him and a friend to hear, none other than Judy Schachner!  (the day after we went and got her autograph at the library)  Can I tell you how amazing she is?!  She is such a fantastic speaker and I loved hearing the stories about her cats.  If she is ever near you---GO!  I was even more excited to learn how she lives somewhat close to me!!!!  Yay for PA! :)

{They wanted FRONT ROW seats!  Adorbs!}

I'm linking this up with Freebielicious!  Check them out for more great stuff!

Where does your closet lead?? More Skippyjon Jones Fun!

Was this week long for anyone else?!  I guess it is the weekend now, so it must have gone by fast at some point... (most likely the nights..)

This week we wrapped up our Skippyjon Jones books and fun.  It's kinda sad.  They had such a blast reading and loved learning some Spanish words along the way!

During reading, we worked in 2 groups to do a Reader's Theater-Skippyjon Jones, Lost in Spice!  You can find the script here on Skippy's website.  (Click on "for teachers"  It's free!)  I had the kids choose and problem solve in groups over the parts they wanted.  Lesson learned--next year, I'm going to "randomly" choose the parts.  I had a few parts that needed switching due to the amount of text to read and the pace/volume of the kids' voices..  They did actually do well with problem solving.  After practicing it for a day or 2, I gave each student a 9X12 piece of white construction paper.  They wrote their character's name and drew their pics of their character.  I tied it around their neck with yarn.

 (I didn't get any pics of the play as I was recording their "shows" to put on my school website for their parents to see.  They were just adorable---especially with that expression!!!!)

In writing, we worked on CREATIVE writing this week!  Creative?!  What's that these days???  On Tuesday (we had a special day on Monday, and didn't have our Reading time), the kids brainstormed ideas of where their closets would take them, if it could.  Wednesday was spent drawing on plain white construction paper (9X12 size), held up and down, like a door ;)  Thursday they spent time writing what happens in the picture.  They used the following paper (look below for the link to grab this page):

Friday, we decorated brown construction paper to look like a door.  I even had them include a little name sign for their doors.  I stapled the door to their pictures and stapled their writing to the bottom of their pictures.  I hung them in the hallway---not sure why at this point in the year, but the kids were so proud of them.  They just HAD to be displayed somewhere--even if we only have 20+ days of school left!  :)

Some of my littles used more than one sheet of this writing.  I just stapled them all on top of on another, so you need to flip to continue to read.  I just love how they incorporated some of the phrases that they found in Skippyjon's books!  {I just realized that I forgot to snap a picture of the display in the hallway before running out of school this afternoon!  I will add it next week!}

Check out these darling pictures!

{The door}

{Open the door and you'll see.... this one is the Great Wall of China!}

 {This one is just the desert}

{Attached at the bottom is their writing---this one is about the Great Wall of China--she has a second page too, that I didn't snap a pic of}

{More writing---I love this---she bounced on her BIG GIRL BED!}

{I love this one too---he wrote that Skippy started to sing!}

Some of my littles used more than one sheet of this writing.  I just stapled them all on top of on another, so you need to flip to continue to read.  I just love how they incorporated some of the phrases that they found in Skippyjon's books!  {I just realized that I forgot to snap a picture of the display in the hallway before running out of school this afternoon!  I will add it next week!}

Click {HERE} to grab the copy of the writing page.  I haven't updated my Skippito pack-ito yet, to include this, but it is coming.  I had one more idea that I'm going to be adding to the packet, as soon as I can get a chance to make it "packet worthy" for you all!  Once I do, I'll make sure to let you know to go download it again!

Aye, Caramba! Skippyjon Jones loco-ness!

So, I was struggling last week to decide what I was going to do this past week.  I mean, it's been nothing but non-stop laughs and fun in Reading and Math with the integration I have been doing.  Robert Munsch, Froggy, Knuffle Bunny, the PIGEON!  I didn't want to disappoint, but could NOT think of anything to save me.... till 8:00 SUNDAY NIGHT!

Skippyjon Jones!  I got all of the books waaay back at Kohls---well a few sets so I had some at home for my boys and some at school for my daytime kids.  Then I remembered that Cinco de Mayo was coming up (YAY for MAY!) and thought it would be a perfect fit!  (Not to mention that we are doing the Little Passports with our class with a grant I got last year--and this month we saved Mexico for--cause it made more sense with Cinco de Mayo)

The kids love the books---and are doing well with retelling and story maps, and shades of meaning (that I have added into the packet) BUT they LOVE learning the new Spanish words!  So, I've created little word cards that we are using in our pocket chart right now.  When we are done with Skippy this week, I may just turn some of them into a fun memory game!  The kids are going to go LOCO!  

I do not have any pictures of this unit in action yet...  We were mostly concerned about getting things prepared for our Open House last week---so my camera was the last thing I was remembering!  I'll post some as we finish it up this week.  I am looking forward to the math lesson I have in the pack--measuring with beans!  The goal of the worksheet/activity is that they will see that things will get different measurements when using different thing.  (I'm having them measure the same things with pinto AND black beans--so they are measuring twice)  I'm hoping that after this, they will come to the conclusion that we need something STANDARD to measure with to really know size.  (Or realize that is WHY we have rulers, etc.)

You can find my Skippito Pack-ito in my store at TPT or TN!

And in honor of Cinco de Mayo--my pack will be CINCO dollars today only till 10PM EST.