Anchor Charts of the Week

The Fab 4s write a lot when it comes to thinking about reading. One of my favorite formats is writing me a friendly letter in their Reading Journal. I have learned more about them as readers by reading these letters than meeting with them one-on-one.

Even though we have been writing letters for nearly two months, I still get the occasional letter that is not following the proper friendly letter format. I created this simple poster for reference.

Now when I ask a student to make sure they follow the proper format they can refer to the poster.

I love to display examples of story maps around the classroom. They get changed out when we run out of room; that way we always have a few for reference. We read Jumanji last week and did a story map together.

I always love the idea of having these charts done before hand and ready to hang up, but I worry that it won't be as relevant as if we create it together. It definitely doesn't save on paper redoing them every year, but I think it's worth the material (and time!). 

All Duct Tape is not created equal

Sorry 3M. I know you have been good to the citizens of the Twin Cities Metro Area with your jobs and opportunities. I do love your post-its. I truly could not get through one single day without a 3M post-it.
But.....

You duct tape sucks.

It hurts my heart to say so. Your duct tape is so pretty. So funky. So bright and cheerful. So quirky.

But it doesn't stick to painted cement walls. I know that a permanent adhesion is probably not what most people are looking for when they purchase your designer duct tape. After all, they are making neck ties and wallets and flowers for the ends of pens.  Not me. I need a rubbery stickyness that I can have complete confidence in. Every Monday I walk around my room rescuing poor anchor charts that are lying slumped on the floor.

My poor, poor beloved anchor charts.

*sigh*

And 3M duct tape is so cute, too.

No, if you want duct tape that works you have to get Duck Brand. I know it may drive you crazy that they call their company Duck when they are talking about Duct, but you have to look past that. 

My anchor charts never peel off when I use Duck tape. 

But hey, 3M? If you decided that you wanted me to try out a big pack of your duct tape in an effort to change my opinion, I am fully open to that. I mean, I'm not going to turn down a big box of designer duct tape. I know I could write a bitchin' review if  I were to come into a 3M duct tape windfall. 

If you haven't yet, please bop back a few posts and get in on the $25 Amazon gift card giveaway action. It's all about rubrics and linkys and fun. 

Anchor Chart of the Week

This week's anchor chart is brought to you by Hindsight. 

Ahhhh, that good old hindsight. Where would we be without ya, Hindsight?

I was reading through our Reader's Notebooks (singular, not plural like Readers' Workshop. We don't all use the same notebook) when I noticed that kids weren't doing all of their due diligence when they finished with a book. They would do parts of what they were supposed to, but not a one did it all.

Looking back, I see the error in my ways.

Since the lovely and omnipotent CCSS came to town, we are fully aware of the writing that our students are expected to be able to do. I'm all over it. It's a field day teaching the Fab 4's to write, and I love reading it all.  Because I love to read it and love to teach writing it follows that I would have the Fabs do a lot of it. We write a lot.

One of my favorite things to have them do are book reviews. If you read my post about it, you'll get where I'm coming from. It's all about the non-fiction and persuasive writing this year.

If you read even further back, you can read this post about our book recommendation anchor chart.

While I was spending my Sunday afternoon doing one of my favorite things - reviewing last week's work and prepping for next week - I made this poster here to help us all remember what steps we need to take when we finish a book.

(Do you see the duct tape? I just restocked!)

For fun, look what I found on my iPad while looking for the chart photo.

I love my Baileyboo!

Anchor Charts of the Week - Readers' Workshop

Reader's or Readers'?

Everywhere/Everybody says Reader apostrophe s.

But I like Readers apostrophe. Because it means all of us readers. Not just one single person's workshop. It's Santa's Workshop, because there is only one Santa. But there are wayyyyy more readers in my classroom.

So I notion we change it Readers' Workshop. Plural readers. Shall we vote?

Yes? You don't care?

This week has been cool in regards to anchor charts. Let me just say that I love anchor charts. I love to make them. I love to hang them. I love to refer to them many many times during the day which makes them actual working anchor charts. Here's what we worked on last week in Readers' Workshop.

Leaving Tracks in Our Reading: marking things we want to write about.

This is not my original idea. I got it from 1/3 of my Fab Four Team, Jess. She shrugged off the credit and gave it all to Pinterest. Of course. Pinterest, where all good things come from. I love the idea of leaving tracks so we can see where we have been. There are many times when trying to write about what we've read is like being lost in the woods. Things start to all look the same, no matter which direction you go, especially for novice readers. If we leave post-its, like so many bread crumbs, we can find our way back to that "aha!" moment, funny bit or confusing part. The best part about this lesson? It's like teaching a secret code. I didn't tell the kids what any of the symbols meant, they had to sleuth them out. They even gave me the connection idea, which I love.

Book Recommendations: how do we write them?

I get a little off-balance trying to teach these Fab Fours. I under/over estimate them all the livelong day. I love when I get to do an anchor chart lesson because I'm teaching myself along the way. We went over how to write out a book recommendation. I guess I don't need to tell you that Fab Fours do not necessarily come equipped to write these off the bat on their own. This was a great way to lay down parameters and guidelines. The best part of the lesson? Getting to animatedly (that means with hands flying all around and occasionally jumping up and down) talk about how the best books I've read have come from recommendations from friends, including The Hunger Games (recommended by Jess!). I even told them how some of the best books I read over the summer were recommended to me by a 12 year old at the book section of Savers Store.

When it Doesn't Make Sense: understanding what we read.

I thank God every day that Dr. Jean does not write songs for intermediate grades. I am not being blasphemous  I really, truly do say a little thank you prayer.

I am used to teaching Back Up and Reread (a la Sisters' style). This expanded version for the Fab Fours is even more fun! Do I even have to say how fantastic it is to teach meta-cognition methods to kids?

I didn't think so. You get it, I know you do.

Do you like the duct tape borders? I will never again make an anchor chart without duct tape. It is THE BOMB. (am I too old to say that?)

MEGA Giveaway,Fancy Anchor Charts and School Spirit

I am at 199 followers! ONE MORE TO GO!!!!!

To get in on the MEGA (Yes, now MEGA!) scroll to the bottom. But read this other stuff first, because it's fun.

First of all, my daughter Olivia (who goes to my school) told her 5th grade teacher, who then relayed it to me, that we don't have many "novels" in our house. 

Um, that sort of makes me look bad., you know? The teacher who doesn't have many novels? The truth is that I have a whole library for all our books. See posts from July 2010 to see it. 

I am loving Clutter-Free Classroom's idea of using duct tape to line anchor charts. It's brilliant! Look at how it does the double duty of fixing them to the wall while making them extra special fancy. 

I love it. L.O.V.E. it. On a side note, do you see the "Why do Readers Abandon Book" chart? One of the suggestions from a sweet student was "You might just be tired of reading and want to lay around for awhile." Honestly is the best policy. You notice I didn't add that one in.

This is homecoming week. Our football players and cheerleaders do this thing they call the "Spirit Bus". Travel to the elementary schools and run through the halls high-fiving and hollaring and whooping it up. The kids LOVE it. I do, too. Go Raiders!

It's especially fun with the 4th graders. When I taught first, the kiddies all sat in the hall and wondered why the hell football players were all of a sudden running through our school. 

Now for the MEGA Giveaway!! It's getting bigger and BIGGER and BIGGER!

Check out these three sweet giveaway packages. For details, go back to the last couple of posts and you can see details for these great products. There is also a NEW giveaway package at the end. Check it out and enter!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ok, so I'm having issues with TPT and rafflecopter at the moment. Must be all the traffic from people lying in bed with their laptops/ipads. I'll get the new giveaway up tomorrow.