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Sunday, November 30, 2014

Thankful for Traditions!


With my new role as a Reading Specialist, there are some classroom traditions that I have had to let fall to the wayside :(

So, I am extra thrilled when I am able to "work-in" any of my classroom traditions with my REACH students. Every Thanksgiving I read the book, Cranberry Thanksgiving, to my students. It was published in 1971 so I was 3 years old when it was first published. My Nannie Dorris use to read this book to my sister and I every year. We would then make some cranberry bread of our own. It is a Thanksgiving memory that I love sharing with my students. Check out the snaphots of the REACH students who are Thankful for Traditions and...yummy cranberry bread and cider!





Happy Thanksgiving!! Gobble, Gobble!

REACH Readers Read Fluently!

These REACH readers have been working on improving their Oral Reading Fluency. They first spent some time exploring punctuation marks and who they impact our reading. Then, using a play, these 3rd and 4th graders spent time exploring their assigned role and reading fluently. They learned words or phrases that were unclear and practiced reading the punctuation. Just like professional performers, they really took time to rehearse and prepare for their final performance. 


Text talkers (aka phonic phones) help them to hear themselves reading clearly, without disturbing the other students.

3rd grade performed, "How Glooskap Saved Summer", a native american folktale.




4th grade performed as divers in, "Coral Reefs", and even spent some time researching Coral Reefs prior to their performance. 


After their performance, they used the play to answer text dependent questions as part of our TBE Club-Text Based Evidence Club.
They locate the answer in the text, highlight their answer, and then use a text talker "sentence stem" to begin their responses. 

They must be sure to cite the page number, line number, paragraph number or in this case-the character who said it. 

After they have confirmed their answers are accurate and complete, they pull out their TBE grid and prepare to earn "points". They earn one "point or box" for each of TBE elements they used in their response. This means they get to color in one box for every element they included in their response. If they included all 5 required elements they earn a free space box to color.
(that was Ed Niya's request..we voted yes!)



These REACH learners love TBE Club. The simple motivator of shading in boxes serves to increase their efforts in writing a solid response. You can find out more about TBE Club here...

 Hello Literacy
Saturday, November 1, 2014

Jack-o-Lanterns, Spiders, and Bats...Oh My!


Last week we all voted on just exactly how our REACH jack-o-lantern would look. Everyone chose their favorite eyes, nose and mouth! Check out the final results!






The weather was perfect for starting their duck collection!

Halloween Non-Fiction
On Friday, we re-focused our REACH lessons on all things creepy...tarantulas and bats! Each REACH group spent some time exploring all the strange and unusual facts about these creatures! 
4th Grade: Tarantulas

We were amazed to learn that Tarantulas have hinged jaws and FANGS! We predicted their colors to be black and brown but after researching found them to actually come in all the colors of the rainbow...the pink and purple were our "favorite".


 3rd Grade: Bats

All eyes on our reading!!!


Despite the cold, rainy weather-these REACH readers are all smiles!!

It was definitely a ducky kind of day...






Bats wear clothes!!!??? Well, some bats have hair and fur. 
Bats with little or no fur are called, Naked Bats...who knew?!

 We've gone "batty" with our reading!

A long time tradition of mine...building a small rubber duck collection throughout the year..this time Halloween and Zombie ducks!!
2nd Grade: Bats

 During our study of Bats we learned a great, new word: Nocturnal! On this cold, rainy Halloween-we all want to be nocturnal-Sleep all day and hunt for CANDY at night!

Happy Halloween from the REACH Learners!