Soft & Warm Reading!

One of my favorite things to do is curl up with a good book . . . so to encourage my students to do the same, I have pillows and stuffed animals for them to use during independent reading time.  I even keep a few hidden in the closet and bring them out later in the year to delight my students with new choices!

There are an assortment of colors, textures, and animals in our bins so that everyone can find the right fit for them.  I have different textures of pillows for students who may have sensory needs.  Some pillows are soft cotton while others are slippery polyester.  I also have different styles of stuffed animals for students to read with . . . some students really like to read to a stuffed buddy!

And since we all know that every kid fights over whose turn it is, we have a schedule for what days students may use the pillows and stuffed animals:

I have organized the schedule using numbers so that it can be reused every year (each students has a number assigned to them for the year).  This cuts down on the arguments and tension surrounding getting to the pillow bins first!  The only thing that still gets us is deciding whose turn it is when there is a snow day . . . 

Literary Themes

Here is a set of posters I've made to help students recognize themes.  It includes many recurring literary themes.  I also accompanied each word with a symbol to help drive home meanings.  My students use this set of posters often as they are searching for great words to describe the theme of a passage or book. 

I created this set of posters to help my students realize the common themes among books.  Theme can be a difficult, abstract concept to grasp, and I've found that these posters help students communicate a book's theme more readily.  Oftentimes, the theme of a book can encompass many of these ideas, but these words act as a springboard for brainstorming themes!

Get a FREE download of my Literary Themes Posters!  It is a google.doc in PDF format.

Literary Conflict

It can often be difficult to teach about literary conflicts with elementary students.  I don't just mean "what is Johnny's problem in the story," but rather the causes, effects, and changes due to conflicts.  To be honest, I don't think I fully grasped the concept until high school; however, I have found a way to help my students begin to dissect conflicts that they read about and experience.   

When it boils down to it, every conflict comes from one or more of the following perspectives: religious, political/power, psychological, economic, social, technological, philosophical, and cultural.  Even the youngest of students have experienced these things (the power conflict of different bedtimes, the economic conflict of not getting the candy bar at the store, the social conflict of disagreeing with friends). 

One of my graduate professors actually shared these 8 perspectives with me and I now use them to classify all conflicts with my students.  Even though the vocabulary is a bit sophisticated, the pictures remind students that these perspectives are always in play.  Plus, the kids get a kick out of learning college-level material! 

Try using these perpectives with your students, or even just reminding yourself of these perspectives when you come across conflict in your life.  There are always different perspectives being challenged . . .

Get a free download of my Literary Conflict Perspectives Posters!  It is a free google.doc in PDF format.

Bookmarks

Do you ever use a paper cutter to trim projects?  Are you left with tons of strips of colored paper? Put them to use as bookmarks!

I have a cardboard box sitting near the classroom library that I constantly fill with pre-made and recycled bookmarks.  My students are free to take as many as they need. 

One of my library rules is to use a bookmark (instead of folding over page corners!) and this box is just the right size to hold hundreds of bookmarks.

What a great way to recycle simple paper scraps into something useful!

Common Core ELA Grade 5 Checklists

STUDENT CHECKLISTS:

I created these checklists to keep track of student progress on each of the ELA standards for Common Core. 

These checklists are for all strands of the ELA standards: language, literature, informational text, writing, reading foundations, and speaking and listening. 

The checklists have spaces for student names as well as corresponding boxes to keep track of student mastery.  When a student meets a particular standard, write the date in the matching box.  This helps you document student progress. 

The checklists can be very long (specifically the writing checklist), so I glued them together - see the first picture.  In order to fit the large checklists in my grading binder, I folded each list to fit. 

Get a free download of my Common Core ELA Grade 5 Student Checklist!  It is a free google.doc in PDF format.

TEACHER LISTS:
This checklist is for teachers to correlate the new Common Core ELA Grade 5 Standards to their current textbook and curriculum series. 

This checklist includes already prepared columns with the Common Core ELA standards - one column with the official language, one with more common language.  There are also two additional columns for you to write the corresponding chapters or sections in your current textbook and other activities/projects/worksheets that you use.  This chart is a fantastic way to organize your current materials to work for the Common Core standards.

Get a free download of my Common Core ELA Grade 5 Teacher Checklist!  It is a free google.doc in PDF format. 

Also take a look at my MATH checklists!

 

Scholastic Book Order

Here are my materials all ready for my Scholastic book orders:

I have a pocket folder (that I got free from one of my first orders) to keep extra book flyers organized.  I also have an accordion file to hold things like order forms, payments, coupons, envelopes, etc.  Again, I got this with one of my first orders; however, a coupon accordion file would work great!

My favorite OCD preparation for book orders?  My envelopes!  I use the sticky address labels that come with every order form to prepare envelopes for future orders.  Each envelope is ready with my return address, payment slip ripped off, and my customer order number already written in.  This way, all I have to do is insert the checks, write the amount, and drop it in the mail.

When I send my book orders home, I include a short note like this one:

My notes have information about the due date, online ordering instructions, and a reminder that online orders earn free books for our classroom. 

Don't forget to get the kids and parents excited about book orders.  Here is a fabulous Scholastic video that I have posted on my classroom website for all my families to view:

Check out the website for Scholastic Book Clubs site to get started. 

Classroom Library

"I can't find a book!"

Every teacher dreads hearing this from a student.  I have found a way to bring order to the chaos of my hundreds of books.  The best part is, I no longer hear that dreaded phrase. 

My secret weapons?  Plastic bins from the dollar store, recycled cardboard boxes, a lot of dedication, The Classroom Booksource website, and lots of time to put it all together. 

This portion of the library hosts genre bins for genres like comics, realistic fiction, mystery, science fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy.  I actually have 3 whole bins for fantasy - obviously it's our favorite genre. 

This side of my library consists mainly of reading series like Percy Jackson, Inkheart, Septimus Heap, Flat Stanley, and Narnia.  There are also bins for well-known authors like Gary Paulsen, Patricia MacLachlan, Judy Blume, and Beverly Cleary.  There are leveled book bins on this side as well.  These books are labeled using guided reading level letters.  Once students find books at their comfort level, they can utilize these bins for similarly matched books. 

Newbery winners and honor books are kept in these large plastic bins with room for yearly additions.  I recommend that my students try reading at least some of these classics. 

No space in my library is left unused.  I have used various shallow plastic bins (all from the dollar store) for groups of books and magazines stored beneath the large book shelf. 

This is my new favorite bin!  I began with a cardboard box that housed paper coffee cups and covered it with construction paper.  I got the circular sign free with a Scholastic book order and I taped it to the top of the cardboard box.  Once I added a label, it was done!

My library is my baby (can you tell?) and I'm so proud to share it.  It's been a few years of working out the kinks, but I'm in a place where I'm so happy with how things are organized.  I can honestly say that every container was either free (recycled cardboard boxes) or just $1 (yes, every plastic bin is from the dollar store - some even came in groups of 3 for a dollar).  What could be better?  That means I can spend my money buying books instead of containers. 

The Classroom Booksource website was my newest addition to my library protocol.  This summer, I spent hours cataloging every book in my library onto this FREE website.  This website also allowed me to document which bin each book belongs in.  The O.C.D. side of me fell in love with this website at first sight!  Even though many of my coworkers think I'm crazy for spending so much time with this process, I know that it was the right choice for me.  It will help me (and my students) keep track of my books - which total over 650 as of right now!  A place for every book, and every book in its place . . .

Now that you know how everything is organized, it's time to talk about what this means for my students.  First of all, my students find the book bins to be important tools to choosing well-fitting books.  Students know that if they love a genre, they can find books in it.  If they love a series, they know where to look.  If they want a particular level, there's a bin for it.  Once they find the perfect book, checking out books is a two step process: 

1. Students find their name on The Classroom Booksource website.  They search for the book they are checking out, and mark that they have it. (They also return books on the websie
2. Students use their numbered clothespins to clip to the bin where they took a book from.  Three clothespins = three books can be out at a time. 

This side wall of the library is where students use personalized clothespins to check out books. 

The clothespins (in addition to being budget-friendly) serve a dual purpose.  They help me visually see how many books each student is reading (a missing pin means a book is checked out).  The pins also help my students remember where to book their books back.  They clip the pin on the bin where they got the book.  When it's time to return a book, they find the pin with their number to return a book to it's home. 

Another benefit of the clothespins?  I can see what genres or series my students are reading.  This helps me order more books that correlate to what the kids truly enjoy. 

Students who forget where to return their books or have ripped books, place their books in this "medical box."  The classroom librarians determine if the books should simply be returned to their rightful place or if they should give them to me for repairs. 

Is this already too crazy for you to wrap your mind around?  Well, I take it even further . . . hello, OCD teacher here!  Inside each book cover is helpful information for both me and my students.  Book information listed includes the book's genres (a star indicates the book bin), guided reading level (letter), and lexile level (number).  These labels help everyone find appropriate books - be it by level or genre.  How empowering for students to pick up a book, flip to the back cover, and be able to decide if it may be a worthwhile choice for themselves! 

Whew!  So that's my classroom library.  I'm sweating just thinking about everything it took to get it to this point.  I also am looking back over this post realizing that I'm like that proud parent talking about every little cute detail.  What can I say?  This project really is my baby :)

Book Recommendation Videos

Even though I firmly believe that books are always far superior to movies, I realize that we are now in a world that revolves around technology and visual images. 

I love this quote, but I have found a fantastic way to mix video with books successfully in my classroom!  If you can't beat them, join them.   My classroom website includes pages of book trailers (think movie trailers, but for books) for my students to browse.  They are organized by genre.   My hope is that these videos spark interest in my students, particularly my reluctant readers, to pick up a book! 

These book trailers are a bit tricky to find sometimes.  I go to YouTube and type in the book title with some combination of the words "book" or "book trailer" or "trailer."  Sometimes adding the author name is also helpful.  Please be warned that most books do not have book trailers, but it's possible to find some great gems if you're willing to dig around!  Also, be sure to watch the trailers you do find . . . many of them are done by students as projects and can include grammatical errors, misinformation, and spoilers. 

Here are some of my favorite book trailers (five of them, in fact):