Into the Book {Wonderful Websites for Workshop Wednesday}

Hi everyone! I'm linking up with Jivey for Wonderful Websites of Workshop Wednesday. 

I used my 2nd snow day of the week to think, think, think about a site I might not have shared on here before. After some lounging on the couch and TV watching it came to me - Into the Book!

In my mind when I try to think of this website I always refer to it as the purple site, just a little random side note for you! 

The site focuses on 8 different comprehension strategies: prior knowledge, making connections, questions, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, evaluating, and synthesizing. Basically, all the stuff my kiddos still need a lot of practice on!

There two different sides to the side - Kids and Teachers. Here is a screenshot of the teacher side of the site.

Just look at all the information available to teachers for each category!! The books section is awesome - just lists of books that are great for teaching the strategy. The student interactive tab gives you all the info you need before you turn your kiddos loose on the site to play. The links tab has additional teacher materials and even more sites where the students can get practice! 

The kids' side of the site is visually appealing. 

I clicked on the inferring magnifying glass and started on an activity about a pen pal letter. 

After reading the text the kids move the magnifying glass over parts of the text that support an inference and then choose what the inference is. 

Really, you've gotta just get on the site and play around. There are so many great features! I think I'll be pulling out the student site for my kiddos to work on during after school tutoring over the next few weeks! 

Do you use Into the Book? Is there any one part of the site you that you like best? 

Have you entered my giveaway? Click on the picture below to get signed up! 

A Main Idea Week in 4th Grade

Hi, everyone! I wanted to stop in and share some ideas about teaching Main Idea! I don't know about you, but this is a skill my students seem to always have difficulty with. 

First of all, the students glued this foldable into their Interactive Reading Notebooks. Each time I asked them to find the main idea of a passage they looked back in their notebooks and followed the steps we'd practiced. That first day's practice was some simple paragraphs I put up on the Smartboard. 

The next day started out with a review using our notebooks and then I had the students glue some practice paragraphs onto the other side of their notebooks.

These little passages all came from this 3rd grade lesson on Readworks.org. It was great practice for us and I love that everyone now has this glued in their notebook and can go back to see how we applied the process from our foldable.

On the third day of our study the kiddos reviewed the steps and then got into pairs to work on finding the main idea of the passage below. 

They used this free graphic organizer from Wendy Gilstrap on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

I like to have my students work on coming up with the main idea using their own words rather than choosing a specific sentence from the paragraph or passage to be the main idea. That's not to say that we don't use sentences from the passage as main ideas, but I don't really give them the option of just looking for one sentence to choose. I want them to think it through in their heads and then see if they can match a sentence or phrase from the paragraph to their thinking. It seems to me that so many standardized test questions now are asking students to formulate a main idea on their own rather than just pick one from the story/passage.

After all the groups were finished we went over the passage together as a class to discuss our ideas and come up with what we thought were the best supporting details for the main idea the students chose. 

I had the class do this routine a couple times until I felt like everyone was ready to try the skill on their own. I gave all my kiddos one of the main idea sheets from the Reading Passages section on Readworks to try the skill on their own. Then, we discussed the questions and answers in class. Finally, I used another of the main idea passages as an assessment. 

Quick Tip 

I always teach my kids to use tally marks when they are answering main idea multiple choice questions. For each answer choice go back to the paragraph and count up all the evidence that supports that idea. Each piece of evidence gets a tally mark and the answer with the most tally marks wins! It is an almost fail proof system to answering those questions if students will take the time to use it! 

Do you have a favorite main idea lesson you'd like to share? I'm always looking for something new to add to my bag of tricks! 

Festive Five for Friday

Happy Friday! I am officially on the countdown 'til Christmas Break ~ 7 1/2 {school} days left!!!! We've been getting into the spirit around here, so I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share the fun!

We've been working on main idea this week. Here is a peek at our interactive notebook pages. I'll be doing a more detailed post on these sometime next week.

Some of the teachers at our school ordered these amazing shirts!!

This is my teaching partner and faithful blog follower, Candace! Love getting to work with her!

We were wearing our shirts in celebration of Family Ornament Night at our school. Teachers team up to make a craft with kids and their parents. We made these reindeer out of puzzle pieces!

I got the tree up in my room and the kiddos colored paper ornaments to help me decorate it! {The pom pom is getting in a little photo bombing action..haha!}

Our 4H Extension Agent came today and dissected owl pellets with the kids! They loved it! 

What you been up to this week? 

Turkey Claus and a Freebie {Book Talk Thursday}

Happy Thursday! I wanted to stop in and share a favorite book of mine to reading during the holidays, Turkey Claus!!

It is a super cute book about a turkey who learns he will be the main dish at Christmas dinner. He wants to write to Santa to ask that he not become Christmas dinner, but it's too late to write so he makes a trip to the North Pole. It's Christmas Eve and no one can get in to see Santa, so Turkey has to get creative with his attempts to get to Santa! 

The candy cane costume is definitely my favorite! 

My students last year loved this book! This year I thought I would use it with predicting, so I created a little freebie to share with you guys! 

Just click on the picture above to get your copy! 

I'm linking up with Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars! 

Just Keep Working, Just Keep Working {Five for Friday}

Ever have one of those weeks where it seems like you couldn't ever finish what you started?

I'm feeling frazzled and that's unlike me. I usually have a plan, but with the way things have been this week who knows what may end up in this post!! At any rate, it's time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for some Five for Friday and see what happens!! 

Last Friday night I received a text message from my best blog stalker (a.k.a. sister) that said: No Five for Friday? I'm on time this week, Rach! 

Wow, am I ever glad to see Friday today and the start of a brand new month! I'm working hard to focus on enjoying this season and not rushing right into Christmas. (It is hard!!!) 

We worked on comparing fiction and nonfiction this week using these two books. 

If you're looking for a great nonfiction text I would highly recommend Spiders and Their Webs!

One of my students was reading this book during Read to Self and I was sucked right in! I'm hoping I can find this at the library this weekend so we can use it in class next week. 

Am I the only person in the world who checks out library books for their students to use through the week? I usually have somewhere around 25 checked out a time. Saturday is Library day for me and I've recruited my mom for help this time! 

Book It time!! Is your class participating? 

We had our first ever Trunk or Treat event at church on Wednesday night and it was so much fun!

My grandmother came to help me give out treats. Halloween is "our" holiday! 

Also had this handsome guy helping me out! 

Our adorable little kiddos! 

Bonus: If you're diggin' the pink leopard numbers you can pick them up for free at Digital Designs by Kristin. 

I hope you have a wonderful, restful weekend!