Mix-It-Up Monday: Freebielicious!!

Happy Monday everyone!!  If you read my post yesterday, you'll know that I'm starting something new for the summer.  In order to keep myself on some sort of schedule, each day of the week I'll be blogging about a different topic.  Here's the schedule I decided on:

 I'm lucky enough to be participating in a Linky Party on Tuesdays and Fridays, so I didn't have to think of anything for those days.  Today is the first Monday of my Summertime Blogging Schedule, and I've decided that Mondays will be for mixing things up.  It's pretty much a hodgepodge of topics, from classroom management to Pinteresting ideas I've found and would like to try.

Today, I'd like to share with you an AWESOMELY AMAZING blog that I follow, Freebielicious.  In case you have never heard of them, Freebielicious is a blog that has many contributors and is dedicated solely to getting awesome freebies out to as many educators as possible.  This is such a wonderful blog to follow because every resource they post about is FREE!!!  Many times, the resources are made specifically to share on this blog.  {click the link above or the pic below to go become a follower and sign up for email notifications}

Freebielicious has many, many incredibly talented and created educators as contributors to the blog, with a focus on primary grade levels.  There is ALWAYS something new and different to see and snag on this blog, and I LOVE getting the emails that tell me what is being offered up each post.  I have gotten some truly wonderful and amazing creations from this blog, and activities that I use in my classroom again and again.

Lately the folks at Freebielicious have been focusing on a book study of The Daily Five, Second Edition.  They have turned this into a Linky party, and many, many blogs are offering up some AWESOME Daily 5 freebies!!  I just downloaded a ton from Mel D over at Seusstastic Inspirations, and I CANNOT wait to try out her awesome idea for Stamina Necklaces to hand out to the one boy and one girl each day who show excellent stamina during Daily 5 rotations.

***all credit for these photos and creations goes to Mel D from Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations***

Please, please, PLEASE go over to Mel's blog post about how she uses her awesome creations with her Firsties!!  She provides oh-so-many freebies for the Daily 5, you REALLY need to go over and read it to believe it!!  Seriously, GO READ IT!!!  :-)


You can literally spend hours cruising through the different freebies posted onto Freebielicious, and find some truly great little gems from some incredibly creative educators.  The most recent post about The Daily 5 Book Study  from Jennifer White and First Grade Blue Skies offers up some more great ideas and freebies about The Daily 5.  She included a super-cute packet of Brain Break Cards that can be used during the transition times of Daily 5.  I plan on using this little gem with my kinders in August when we launch our Daily 5 routines. {click on the picture below to grab a set for yourself!}

The post just before this one was from Tara West over at Little Minds at Work, and is a truly exceptional 'Guided Reading Guru' presentation that she created.  She has recorded her voice to go with pictures of how she handles guided reading in her classroom.  It is truly a gem that needs to be added to your collection, and it's FREE!!!!  Please go check it out by clicking on the picture below!! It is AMAZING!!!

Last one I'm going to mention (but there are TONS more you should go check out on this blog!!) is another creation from Tara West from Little Minds at Work.  She has created letter name and beginning sound writing strips that littles can use during the beginning of the year.  I am SO EXCITED to have gotten this freebie, because now I have the PERFECT activity for the beginning of the year when we start our Work on Writing during Daily 5!!  You should go grab a copy for yourself!!

 

 Last thing I want to share with you today is the state of my classroom.  I didn't realize just how much STUFF I have until today!!   I have spent the morning cleaning, purging, covering, and putting things away. It got to a point where I was just shoving things into cabinets and drawers with no system whatsoever {yikes for next year!!}  I have to finish my cummulative folders and meet with my team for next year's supplies and then I will be officially on summer vacation!!  I'll have to post some pics of my packed-up classroom tomorrow!!

p.s. - My posts are going to be later on in the day during the summer, not the typical 8:00 am 'school year time' post!!  :-)

Daily 5 - Chapters 1-3 and a FREEBIE!!

   Evening Happy Readers!!  This post is a long one, make sure to stick with me until the end and grab your FREEBIE!!!
    I have spent the last few days reading the first three chapters of The Daily 5 book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser.  I downloaded it to my NOOK last summer, but never got around to actually reading it let alone implementing it.  I had good intentions, of course, but there were two brand new initiatives that started last year at our school.  The first was the Common Core, and we had to completely revamp everything we had done before.  I am a big fan of the Common Core, but I will be the first to admit that it takes a lot of work to implement it.  My school was one of the pilot schools for our district, so we were lucky enough to get a bit of a head start.  The second initiative we did last year was having our early childhood program be validated through the State Department of Education.  Both initiatives are continuing into this coming school year, but I feel a little better with one year under my belt!  In just a few weeks, I will be attending a state conference on the validation program, and I will be sure to share more as it gets closer!  For now, back to the Daily 5!

Click the picture to take you to Amazon.com, where you can purchase a copy of your own!

   I know that there are many, many educators out there have already established using the Daily 5 in their classrooms, but if you haven't heard of it yet I strongly suggest reading the book.  I started it with the hopes of finding a way to effectively manage small independent groups in my classroom.  I have heard that this is a great method to help establish an environment to foster independent learning.  Today while enjoying breakfast at my local diner, I finished the third chapter of the book.  I've been taking notes as I'm reading, and when I got home I went back through them.  The authors of this book have spent a lot of time researching what makes good readers, and how to foster a lifelong love of reading.  The first topic in my notes was the importance of finding 'good-fit' books.  The authors state that choosing good-fit books is one of the most important things to do in order to become a better reader.  They also state that a good-fit book is a book that students can read with 99% accuracy, and it is our job to help them choose books that are a good fit for them.  We need to help them determine their purpose for reading, their interest in the topic, their ability to comprehend, as well as their ability to read most of the words.  They created an acronym to help students remember the steps to choose a good-fit book, I PICK.  It stands for 'I choose a good book', 'Purpose - WHY do I want to read it?', 'Interest - Does it interest me?', 'Comprehend - Am I understanding what I am reading?', and 'Know - Do I know most of the words?'  This acronym should be used every time a student choose a book, whether they're at the school library or a bookstore.  (I fully intend on including our Media Specialist in this process, so that my students can use this when choosing their weekly library book.  I just haven't TOLD my Media Specialist this yet!!)  The authors of the book stress the importance of having an anchor chart that is posted in the room and stays up all year long, which should show the I PICK acronym.  They also have a really cute lesson idea for introducing the acronym, involving shoes.  I fully intend to try my own version of that lesson when school starts, and I will share how it goes!!  I spent the rest of today working on an anchor chart that I could post in my classroom for my littles to refer to all year long.  I came up with an idea that is 'some assembly required', so when I get back to school I'll have to put it together.  Once I do that I'll post pictures of my finished product.  I created a set of posters, and each letter of the acronym is represented on one page.  My goal is to connect each page with a set of metal binder rings, so that the poster hangs vertically on my wall.  I will be able to refer to this chart throughout the year.  I also intend to teach my little a kinesthetic movement to match each letter of the acronym.  I learned from reading the Daily 5 that a memory stored in the kinesthetic system of the brain evokes the longest memory.  So I'm gonna teach them how to use their bodies to form each letter, YMCA-style!  Since we'll be using this all year long, I also have plans to teach them the sign language letters and how to work together to lie on the rug and form the letters.  I'll post some pics of my kiddos doing this kinesthetic activity.
    SHEW!!!  That was definitely my longest post yet!  If you stayed with me through my rambling, you deserve a FREEBIE!!!  I would love to share with you the set of posters I created for the I PICK acronym.  I hope that you can use them in your classroom, and if you do please let me know what you think of them!!

Click on the picture to head over to my TPT store and grab your freebie!!