"Marking your place" as you progress!

Now that the 2014-15 school year is fully underway here is an activity that is both fun and useful.  As our students enjoy reading new and different materials (and maybe some old favorites!), they can use a homemade bookmark that keeps their place in a book and guides them to be even better readers.

Make a reading bookmark!

What You Need:

• Any book your child is reading
• “Good Reader Strategies” sheet
• Heavy paper (cardstock)
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Hole punch
• 1/4" lightweight craft ribbon in three different colors.

What You Do:

1. Explain to your child that everyone can become a better reader, even a parent, and that you have some fun, easy ways to help her become a better reader, too.
2. Print out both sides of the reading bookmark (click here for printable version), cut it out, and glue it onto heavy paper that is trimmed to fit the bookmark. (One side of the bookmark will contain word recognition strategies; the other, comprehension strategies.) If you have access to a laminator, you may wish to laminate the bookmark.
3. Use the hole punch to make a hole on the top left corner of your bookmark. Then cut a 20" length of ribbon in three different colors that your child likes. Hold the three strands together, fold them in half, and stick the fold through the hole you have made. You will see that you have made a "loop" of ribbon. Now stick the ribbon ends through that, and pull tight. You will have a bookmark with six colorful ribbons attached.
4. Focusing on one set of strategies at a time (word recognition, for example), have your child read aloud from her newest book. When she comes to a word she doesn't know, help her use the bookmark strategies to figure it out.
5. Continue this process for as long as needed until your child has a good grasp of the strategies.
6. Have your child use the other set of strategies (comprehension, for example) before and after reading their book aloud. Guide her along as she uses the bookmark.
7. When she's ready to stop reading for a while, she can use the bookmark to mark her page...but the ribbons also give her a new freedom with her "chapter" books. She can move one ribbon to the Table of Contents, for example, and another to the title page. Or, if she's reading a textbook (as many second graders will start to do this year), she can mark one section at a time, and not get lost!

Parents, do beware: strategies alone don't make a super reader. Reading is a lifelong skill that takes steady, solid practice. But with tools like this bookmark, along with a joyful, positive attitude about your child's evolving skills, you can be sure you're offering the best support and encouragement possible.

By Laurie Daley

Laurie Daley has been in the educational field for nine years. She has worked as a reading specialist with students from ages 5 through adult. She has also lead training sessions for math teachers.

Lichterman Nature Center Scarecrow Contest

Third Grade Friends and Parents - I am excited to announce that we have begun working on our entry in the Lichterman Nature Center Scarecrow contest!  Here is a link to the Lichterman website that contains examples of scarecrow entries from last year - Lichterman Nature Center  
I will send additional information soon -
Have a great weekend!

Welcome Back and Brain Rules...

Welcome back to returning students and "welcome" to our new first grade friends!  I am so excited to see you all and look forward to learning with you this year.  I wanted to share with you some great tips from a book that I enjoyed reading this summer.  The book is called, Brain Rules, by John Medina and I bought it at the airport in Sydney, Australia when my husband and I traveled there in June.  It was a great read and something that has tips from which we could all benefit.  The book actually lists 12 "rules" that relate to how our brains "work".  It combines science with things that we do in our everyday lives and I was very excited to read it.  I am going to list the rules and then perhaps re-visit them in future blog posts.  Also, feel free to contact me if you would like more information about the "rules".

Rule #1
Exercise boosts brain power.
Rule #2
The human brain has evolved over time.
Rule #3
Every brain is wired differently.
Rule #4
We don't pay attention to boring things.
Rule #5
Repeat to remember (to store things in your memory).
Rule #6
Remember to repeat.
Rule #7
Sleep well, think well.
Rule #8
Stressed brains don't learn the same way.
Rule #9
Stimulate more of the senses.
Rule #10
Vision trumps all other senses.
Rule #11
Male and female brains are different.
Rule #12
We are powerful and natural explorers.

I am often reading articles and books about brain research and we all need to remember that just like our physical muscles, our reading and brain "muscles" also become stronger when they are exercised regularly.  Hopefully we will all work hard this year and "grow" our brains as we explore, read, and learn new things.  We also spoke quite a bit during our teacher inservice time about "creativity" which is a passion of mine and I ran across this video which I really enjoyed and wanted to share with you all -

Rules to spark learning video

The countdown begins...

Summer is flying by and I am trying to fit in some last minute fun (going to the beach) and learning (I just attended a terrific multisensory workshop using manipulatives).  I wanted to let you know that I have updated the resources listed at the top of this blog so please check them out (especially the ones on Learning Differences).

The "Math" and "Reading" resources list online sites with activities to help with skill development for students.  I also hope that everyone is finding time to read some good books (I have added a couple to my "shelfari" bookshelf here on the right side of my blog).

Another thing that I have enjoyed doing this summer is adding ideas to my Pinterest boards (mostly food things!), but here are a couple of "boards" that have some great ideas for summertime fun -

http://www.pinterest.com/desertrio/fun-activities-for-kids/


http://www.pinterest.com/sheherrington/~kids-playlearn-grow~/

Summertime family reading

"Summertime, and the livin' is easy" are lyrics from the famous play Porgy and Bess and I hope that this is the feeling you have around your house right now.  Although you are all probably busy still doing "regular" daily things, you at least don't have lots of "homework" added to the schedule.  This is a perfect time to read together as a family and there are several "techniques" that parents can use when reading with their child to improve reading fluency.

Fluency is developed by listening to good readers and by practicing fluent reading.  You and your child can "chorus" read passages together (reading the same thing at the same time) or "echo" read where one person reads a sentence or phrase first and the another person reads it immediately after, like an echo.  As you read together, stop and point out connections to real-life experiences, movies or tv shows, or other previously read books.  Making connections is a good way to build your child's understanding of, and, interest in, a story.  Also, make sure to stop and discuss unfamiliar words and practice sounding them out together.  It is fun to "share" things that you have read with an "audience" (like other family members) as your child improves their reading ability and confidence.

Here is a nice source for ordering books online for specific age groups:

Amazon book lists

Do-it-yourself Summer Camp!

Celebrate "dynamite dinosaur week" this week or any of the other arts and crafts summer camp "weeks" listed at Education.com for some summer learning and fun!  (sorry for the ads but this

is a good website with cute ideas:)

Click here to go to Education.com summer adventures

3 cheers for the Red, White, and Blue!!!

We are getting ready to celebrate America's birthday on July 4th so I wanted to share a few activities with you.  Have fun playing them and have a Happy 4th of July!

Drag and drop online fireworks puzzle (click here)

What is inside a firework? (click here)

Match the color to the firework online game (click here)

US Flag Jigsaw Puzzle (you can choose how many pieces to use)-(click here)


Here are some instructions to make your own fireworks (well, sort of!):
-->For most kids, Fourth of July fireworks are a highlight of the holiday. Who doesn't love those magnificent and exciting explosions of color? This activity is a great way for your child to make her own fireworks, without the danger of course, and celebrate the holiday with a bang!  Your child will have fun and she'll even learn some science too!

What You Need:

• Large, tall clear glass jar filled with water—half a gallon or more works best!
• Blue, red and yellow liquid food coloring
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• Small jar
• Spoon or stir stick for mixing
• Clear Pyrex measuring cup

What You Do:

1. Fill a large clear glass jar—half a gallon or larger—with plain water. Place it on a table where your child can watch it from several angles.
2. Invite your child to pour 2 tablespoons of oil into a clear Pyrex measuring cup. (Remember: measuring is a core science and math skill in elementary school, and there’s no such thing as too much practice.)
3. Now help your child put in about 5 drops each of red, blue, and yellow food coloring into the oil. Stir each color into the oil.
4. Have your child pour the oil onto the water in the jar all at once.  At first, the oil will be spread around in globules, but keep watching: right before your eyes, the oil and food coloring will first float to the top, and then the globs will “find” one another and come together.
5. Now it’s time for even more fun as the “fireworks” begin! The food coloring will begin to separate from the oil and move back into the water, in long streams of each of the three colors. The colors will separate from one another as if they never mixed in the first place, and stream through the water in the three original colors that you began with. For both adults and kids alike, the results can be mesmerizing.

What's Going On:

This experiment is a demonstration of that old scientific truth: “oil and water don’t mix.” Another important scientific property being demonstrated here is the movement of liquid molecules and the effects of "relative density." Oil molecules like to stick to other oil molecules more than they like to stick to water molecules. Likewise, water molecules are attracted to other water molecules more than they are to oil molecules. Left to their own devices, oil and water will push each other away and try to get as far away from one another as possible.

When you pour the food coloring into the oil and shake it, the two will mix briefly, but the mixture is quite unstable at this point. Then, when you pour the oil onto the water, it will break up at first, but as you continue to watch, you'll see the oil molecules find one another and begin to come back together. Finally, the water-soluble (meaning "water-liking") food coloring finds its way out of the oil, and heads back into the water, one color at a time, offering an extra art lesson in the ways that primary colors combine and separate. In the spirit of adventurous scientists everywhere, you can encourage your child to try this experiment several times, with lots of colors!

By Julie Williams -

Julie Williams, M.A. Education, taught middle and high school History and English for seventeen years. Since then, she has volunteered in elementary classrooms while raising her two sons and earning a master's in school administration. She has also been a leader in her local PTA.

From Education.com