Last Monday I unveiled the first half of my reading area makeover. It really is my favorite part of the room to work on! So I left off last time explaining how I talk to my students about my love for reading. I show them the book racks they will be using to keep books that they want to read in the future (Tried it Tuesday-Reading Area Revealed!) and tell them that they will get some time to begin looking for books to put on their rack today.
I remind them that they need to choose books that are just right for them. I tell them that one way to check if a book is just right is to read a page of the book and raise a finger each time you come to a word you don't know. If you get to five words you don't know before you reach the end of the page, it's probably too difficult of a book for you.
All of my books have library cards in them that the students need to fill out, and I show them the back part of the reading area where they will keep the library cards. This is the before picture of this part of my room.
This is the larger bulletin board after I finished it.
I used a pocket chart for each of my kids to put their library cards, and as a little first day of school surprise, I put bookmarks in them that I made over the summer after seeing them on Pinterest. This was the picture from Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas.
I thought they were a great idea and easy enough to do quickly. I got a variety of colors, wrote READ! on them, and put one in each pocket. So, when my students filled out their library cards and went to put them in their pocket, they got to take out their bookmark. I told my kids I made them and someone said, "Really?" like they thought it was amazing!
On the right side of the bulletin board I put my Theme Mini-Poster Set which you can find at my TPT store.
This is the second bulletin board back in the corner. Sorry, the picture turned out a little fuzzy. :(
As you can see, I am a big Snoopy fan! I found these great classroom supplies online a couple years ago. The small ones are little game boards. Each time a student finishes reading a book, we talk about it, and I put a small sticker on their game board. It's an easy way to keep track of how many books everyone has read. The goal chart to the left is where we track our quarterly reading goal. When the students reach the goal, we have a reading celebration!
I have so much more to talk about, but my teenage son is chomping at the bit to get on the computer! Check out all the Monday Made It ideas at 4th Grade Frolics!
No comments
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.