Why I Do What I Do {ALL Students Can Learn}

This week's "Why I Do What I Do" refers to my teaching belief that ALL students can learn and yes, all means ALL.  I know we all say this, but what are some ways that we DO it?

One way I accommodate all of my students' during reading is through small groups.

I have my reading groups organized in drawers and, in each drawer, is a folder with the week's activities for the group.  These pics come from an older blog post- click the pic to head to that post and see more!

How do you accommodate ALL of your learners?  Link up and share below! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Daily Read Alouds and an Outstanding FREEBIE for One Day Only!

A few years ago when I was working on my Master's degree, we talked about daily read alouds and I was surprised that not everyone just automatically reads aloud every day to their students.

I can get on quite a soapbox about this topic, so I'll try and remain calm (!) but I just wanted to share some of my favorite read alouds, get some from you, and relish in the joy of reading aloud to kids.

I read several times a day. During my Daily Five mini-lessons, I usually read at least one book every day for instructional purposes. I have some favorite book lists for comprehension strategies that you can find here.

I also read during snack. My students eat and I read from a chapter book. Sometimes we do things like draw our visualizations, keep track of good words or characters, or track character development. Other times, we just read to enjoy a good book. Some of my favorite chapter book read alouds are Charlotte's Web, Mr. Popper's Penguins, My Father's Dragon, The Chocolate Touch, Pippi Longstocking, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, Stone Fox, and anything and everything Roald Dahl.

A few summers ago, two reading gurus from New Zealand visited my area and I attended a week long conference with them. Aside from being incredibly fun and entertaining, I learned a ton! They suggested doing 3 read alouds daily... 1 for instruction and 2 just for the heck of it. I have tried to embrace that philosophy since then. My kids LOVE when I read aloud to them and it is one of my favorite times of the day too.

I heard someone say once, "If my students can read to themselves, I don't need to read aloud to them". FALSE! My 8th grade language arts teacher (Mrs. Pinney... who I *love* and who inspired me to be a teacher!) read to us every day and I still remember it. I LOVED it!

Reading aloud helps your students develop important listening comprehension skills, hear fluent reading, and practice important skills like visualizing and predicting. Not to mention all of the instruction you can do on a whim- vocabulary, helping understand jokes, and showing emotion during a book. I love Stone Fox and read it every year even though it's a toughie and I have to help my students think through the story. But, I always cry and have a few students who do too. A few years ago, one of my little boys said in an awe-filled whisper with tears running down his cheeks at the end of the Stone Fox, "Wow. Who knew a book could make you feel something like that?". That was a teacher heaven moment that I will never forget!

So, in the spirit of all things read aloud, and Thanksgiving, and the giddiness I am still feeling after a HUGE Donor's Choose project of mine for tons and tons and TONS of stuff for my math workstations got funded last night, I am giving away my unit for The Chocolate Touch OR My Father's Dragon. Both of these are available for pay on The Teaching Oasis however, if you follow my ridiculous list of demands below, I will shower you with the free unit of your choice!

1.) Leave a comment suggesting a favorite read aloud and why you love it... either a picture book for instruction or enjoyment, or a chapter book. I'm in need of new chapter books because I looped with half of my class!

2.) In the comment, leave your e-mail address and which unit you'd like.

I'm going to be a jerk though and insist that demand #1 is followed! So, please recommend something for me and why. I looooove buying books and adding them to my library. I'm counting on you to help!

That's it! This is for one day only... so I'll start shipping out units on Tuesday (or maybe even tonight if I'm feeling ambitious!)! Marygrove College has a great blog on the importance of reading aloud for older students... if you can, go check it out!

Cutest Giveaway EVER!

Before I get to the awesome giveaway, I want to say THANK YOU to Janis at Caffeinated Conclusions, Mrs. Shepherd at Shepherd's Shining Stars, Elisabeth at The Adventures of Miss Elisabeth, Abby at Third Grade Bookwork, Mel D at Oh The Places We'll Go, and Tara at Fourth Grade Frolics for listing my blog in their Top 10 Teacher Blogs! I was so excited to hear from them today... I'm so glad you all find what I have to say useful!

I have too many favorite blogs to do a Top 10... you can see the blogs that I stalk over on the right. Having only entered "Teacher Blogland" in June, I've been so amazed at the creative and generous teachers out there who invite us into their brains and their classrooms every day! Being a part of such a caring community of professionals who support one another all around the world is just one of the many things that make this the best profession on earth!

Now... for the GIVEAWAY!!!!

My husband and I spent the day shopping today and we stopped at Michael's where I found so much great stuff for my classroom on a HUGE clearance!

I got these puppets for $0.20 each!


I think I'm going to pair them up with books that have a dog, cat, butterfly, bee, or flower as the main character so my kiddos can do retellings!

Then I found these keychains for $0.14 each!


They are stuffed and fully plush and 3-D cuteness! I'm going to take the keychain parts off and then... I don't know.

And that's where you come in... and the giveaway too!

What you need to do is:
1.) Leave a comment letting me know how you would use the KEYCHAINS in your classroom (1 entry)
2.) Leave a comment letting me know you follow this blog or have just become a follower (1 more entry)
3.) Leave a comment letting me know you like my blog on Facebook (1 MORE entry!)
4.) Leave a comment and the URL letting me know you posted about my giveaway on your blog (1 MORE entry!)

AND, if you want an even better chance to win...

5.) Leave a comment letting me know that you like The Teaching Oasis on Facebook (1 MORE entry!)

So, you can enter as many or as few times as you wish... obviously up to 5. :)

Next week on WEDNESDAY (because who doesn't need a mid-week pick me up?!) I will use the random number generator to choose a winner and the winner will receive via snail mail... their own set of the same keychains that I bought for my classroom! That's right... a colorful set of 6 cute keychains for you to use however you desire... a dinosaur, snail, robot, lady bug, flower, and a turtle!

I think that's it and I hope you'll be excited about these too. I can't wait to hear how you'd use the keychains in your classrooms. I know you'll have some awesome ideas!

Help me spend some money!

What a long week it's been!

Teachers reported back on Monday for a week of Professional Development. It was a good week- yesterday and today we got "refreshed" on the ways we could use the awesome technology my school has. The way it was set up was like a conference where you could choose your own sessions... so each hour, three different 45-minute sessions were offered and you got to choose which one you wanted to go to and we (the staff) were also some of the presenters.

So, yesterday I presented a session on ways to use free web programs for students to "jazz up" their assignments and then I did a session where I shared about 15 cool websites for teachers. We also had a session on our interactive white boards, our Wiis, document cameras, digital cameras, Google Docs, Edmoto, and Ipods. I really enjoyed doing PD this way and think my co-workers liked it too!

Last night was Open House and it was awesome! It was so great to see my kiddos again and meet my new ones... I'm super pumped about starting school next Tuesday.

So, the point of my post today... I feel like I should treat myself to $25.00 worth of books from Amazon to celebrate the successful (but long!) week. AND... if I can find the books in paperback, I can do their 4-for-3 promotion AND get free shipping if I spend $25!

I would love for you to leave a comment to suggest your favorite picture book and what you use it for. It could just be a book you love to read because you love to read it. Or maybe it's one that lends itself to an awesome lesson. Or maybe your kids just love to hear it!

Two of my favorite favorites to read are: Love the Baby by Steven Layne and Who Hops? by Katie Davis. Love the Baby is just super fun to read and great for making connections, teaching voice, and showing some character development. Who Hops? has a very lively refrain and is very silly. My kids LOVE it. But I already own both of them, so that's where you come in!

Thanks for helping me fill up my cart and add MORE books to my library! :)

100 Club for Reading

Happy Wednesday!

I went in to school today to work on organizing (who knew I had so much glitter?!) and to do a few bulletin boards. As soon as I get my official class list, I will finish my "Welcome" board in the hallway... and I'm super excited to show you the picture of it!

This is one that I finished today- my board to display the members of my "100 Club". I ordered the banner from Vista Print and the little white basket at the bottom of the banner has some star sticky notes and a marker, so when a kid completed a level, I will add their name to a sticky note and put it in the appropriate section on the banner.


If you aren't familiar with my club, it is an optional "extra" for my kiddos in which they can earn a place in the club by reading extra books outside of school time.

My students last year were really psyched about the club... I think anytime you call something a "club" they get pumped about it! I had two students to read over 200 books and one who completed the 100 Club 4 times!

This was also a good way for them to keep track of books they read at home and needed to take an AR test on in class.

You can check out my 100 Club pack on TpT by clicking the picture below!

OK! That's it for today!