The week's following any school break are always difficult, for students and teachers. Although some of my kiddos are still getting back into the school groove, we managed to have a pretty good week!
I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to talk about what's been going on in the past few weeks!
Before I dive into teaching stuff, I want to share some pictures from my spring break!
My fiance and I took a wonderful trip to the Smoky Mountains. We did a lot of hiking, tourist-ing, and relaxing. It was great!
When we got back to NC, we caught the final Red Wings game before playoffs!
We have been working on fluency a lot in my classroom. My students really struggle with this, so I try to find fun and engaging ways to practice this skill. Our most popular way now is Buzz, Buzz, a sight word phrase fluency game.
You stick all of the cards in the middle of the table and students pick one card and read the phrase. They have to read it correctly and fluently, or else it goes back in the pile. Some cards tell students to pick more cards or put cards back into the pile. They love it and ask to play it every day!
You can find it in my store here.
You stick all of the cards in the middle of the table and students pick one card and read the phrase. They have to read it correctly and fluently, or else it goes back in the pile. Some cards tell students to pick more cards or put cards back into the pile. They love it and ask to play it every day!
You can find it in my store here.
In my post on graphic organizers from Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites, I mentioned that I wanted to try to implement more graphic organizer practice with my younger students.
I tried that this week with much success! With some support, they correctly filled out a beginning, middle, and end organizer. We talked through it, but they wrote it down in their own words. Happy teacher moment for me!
We've been hitting prefixes and suffixes pretty hard lately. When reading, my kids tend to leave off suffixes and struggle with the meaning when prefixes and suffixes are added. After working so hard this week, I am seeing SO MUCH improvement.
One of my kids who was having a lot of difficulty in the beginning of the week was independently answering questions by the end of the week. I was so proud, and I could tell he was so proud of himself.
My job really is the best.
Here's a picture of the anchor chart we've been referring to all week!
We have state testing coming up in a few weeks. To prepare, we've been doing a lot of task cards and reading passages. I don't want it to get too dull for them, so I'm looking for other review ideas. What do you do in your classroom to get your students ready to take the state tests?
I love the Smokies! My husband and I live in the very Northwest corner of Georgia and we love weekend getaways to the mountains!
ReplyDeleteMy students love pairing up with partners to review! We try and pair up a few times a day and they have shared conversations using different prompts that I give them. It is a great way for them to talk to each other about what they have learned and learn from each other! I usually give them 2-3 minutes to discuss and then when we meet back for whole group time they share what their partner told them! This helps to make sure that they really are paying attention and reinforces whatever new ideas they might have gained from their conversations! Maybe it is something you could do with your class to help review/prepare for testing! Good luck :)