Book Finds for Struggling Readers in Upper Elementary {Tried it Tuesday}

A couple months back I was having trouble finding books my struggling 4th grade readers would enjoy. This particular group is reading somewhere between a low 1st grade (with a few lower) to high 2nd grade range, so I was having a tough time finding things that look like they were "big" enough to be cool and keep them interested. 

I made a big order, thanks to my principal, on Scholastic and we've really been enjoying our new books. We've had the books about a month and the kids have definitely picked out some favorites, so I thought I'd share them for my Tried it Tuesday with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper. 

Sorry for the major glare on that last book. School lighting just doesn't cooperate for pictures sometimes! 

We love Fly Guy! I can't get enough of those books to satisfy my kiddos! I'll have some kids with 3 in their book bags at a time. These are perfect for some of my lowest readers.

Magic School Bus is a classic, of course, but this version is a little easier to read and the kids are starting to discover how much fun they are. 

The Weird School series by Dan Gutman is the perfect chapter book series for those 2nd/3rd grade level readers. 

What parts I've read of Roscoe Riley Rules are hilarious! I'm actually planning on doing this one as a fun read aloud with the class in the next few weeks. It would be a good chapter book for beginning or middle 2nd graders. 

I ordered several books in the Rookie Biographies series and I was pretty impressed. They definitely have a lot of great information and are very readable. They have about a paragraph on each page, which is nice for some of the more advanced readers because they don't zoom through them so quickly!

The Boris books were so popular that I couldn't even find one in the library to get a picture of! It seems like every day I have a kid tell me he's finished with his Boris book and needs a new one. This series has been especially popular with the boys and that is usually the toughest crowd!

These books have literally changed my reading class. Everyone begs for silent reading time and they are just devouring these books because they are interesting on their level. I'm thrilled with the progress we're making and how their attitudes about reading have changed! I'm just hoping I can keep enough books to keep their interest up! 

What other books would you recommend for my reading friends? 

Cause and Effect, Pin It to Win It, and a Sale

Truth time: I hated disliked teaching cause and effect up until this past week.

Why? Because it is a confusing concept and when I have 20 children yelling out, "Cause, no effect, no cause, effect," I no longer even know the answers to the questions! I'm just keepin' it real here.

I've always taught my students that it is easier to find the effect, or what happened, first and then think about why it happened. This worked okay, but was still a little confusing for me the kids. I was determined to come up with a better way to teach this!

The breakthrough came on Wednesday while we were working in our interactive notebooks. I decided to take a different approach and, instead of asking what happened, we started by asking, "What caused something to happen?" It was truly a breakthrough and the answer to one of the greatest mysteries in all my teaching career!! LOL It was such an easier way to do things.

I guess I'd just never really thought about how to formulate the question so that the kiddos could find the cause first. Where have I been!?! Teaching in a cave, apparently!

Things went much better after we made this little discovery and the kiddos agreed that it was much less confusing and easier to identify the cause and effect this way.

Now that we've gotten through my little "moment" and how I explain things to my kiddos, I thought I'd share some of the activities we did during our lessons this week.

We read this book and created an anchor chart. 

We used this free worksheet from Super Teacher Worksheets and another sheet where students were given the cause and had to come up with the effect. That one was challenging for some of my students!

On Wednesday the fun and breakthroughs really started! Half the class did a scavenger hunt in the hallway and the other half worked in the classroom with me in our interactive notebooks. 

The Cause and Effect Scavenger Hunt was from Anna Fausnight on TPT and was so much fun!! My kiddos loved getting out of the classroom and wandering around the hallways! I put the cards up before they came upstairs on Wednesday morning and just the sight of the cards got everyone excited about class! 

The kiddos inside made what we nicknamed fry boxes for our interactive notebooks. 

I teach 3 different ELA classes, each with a different ability level, so I created 3 different versions of this activity. All of my classes had a lot of success with it, too! Every time I use IN's I fall just a little more in love. Aren't they just great?!?

After we got everything glued in our notebooks and the sentences sorted, I pulled them up on the Smarboard and we look at signal words for both cause and effect. We added the signal words above the fry boxes and some reminder questions below. 

This is a picture of a notebook from the below level group and he did such a great job on it!! I really liked how he made the divider on the page! 

If you'd like to win a copy of this activity just pin the image below and leave a comment with the link to your pin. I'll choose a winner on Monday evening! 

I've also got everything in my TPT store 10% off through tomorrow and you can use the code FB100K for an extra 10% off!! 

Anyone else think Cause and Effect is a difficult concept? What tricks do you use to help make it easier for your students? 

Writing, Notebooks, New Bulletin Board, and Class Meetings {Five for Friday}

It's an especially Happy Friday today because my sister is in and after school we are leaving for a little girl's weekend getaway! So, it's time for the weekly rewind with Doodle Bugs Teaching. 

1. Finally got all of our popsicle writing craftivities (from Forkin' 4th) up and on the wall. This adorable activity was a bit of a stretch for this group of kiddos right now! 

2. We started on our first interactive notebook lesson. Of course, this one went a little slower since it was our first time, so we are still working on getting it all put together. Hopefully I'll have a full post about these lesson soon. 

3. I'm so excited with all the products I bought during the big TPT sale. I've got Ashleigh's Word of the Week bundle ready to go for next week. I'm LOVING this set! 

Aren't those graphics just too cute?!

4. We had our first class meeting. Our school participates in the Olweus bullying prevention program and regular class meetings are a big part of the program. I really enjoy the time it allows me to spend getting to know my class outside of an academic setting. Here are our class meeting rules. 

Just puttin' it out there like it is! I love anchor charts, but they are never anything fancy. I'm all about something that is practical and useful when it comes to that! 

5. Did I mention that I'm off to a little getaway with my sister?? I'm so excited!!!! Love her so much and now that she lives 5 hours away we don't get to spend near as much time together, so this getaway will be extra special. 

Guided Reading Area Tour

Hi everyone! I changed up my Guided Reading area and thought I'd share a few pictures with you. Since I'll only be teaching ELA this year I knew I needed to revamp where I meet with my groups and make sure the space was comfy and had everything we would need!

Here is the new location. The grey cabinets on the left house my leveled readers. The blue hanging file folder will help keep my materials for each group/individual organized. 

This book shelf helps keep all of my materials at hand. The top shelf holds books for read alouds and games. The middle shelf has task cards, flash cards, and dry erase boards. The bottom has our leveled vocabulary readers and reference materials for our small group. 

Now, I need some help from you guys! I'm wondering what to do with that blank wall behind the table? I'm thinking maybe a whiteboard? What would you suggest? 

I'll be storing anchor charts in a different place in the room, so I'm not sure I'd want to leave the space free for those. However, I am willing to wait. I don't have a problem at all with blank wall space at the beginning of the year. I always tell my students to take a look at all that space because THEY are going to help me fill it up! 

My America and Dear America Series {Must Read Mentor Text}

I'm happy to be linking up with Collaboration Cuties for another great round of mentor texts. This week is all about Social Studies. 

Instead of just sharing one book today I thought I'd share two similar series that I have found my students really enjoy: My America and Dear America. 

These books are written as young girls' diaries during various time periods throughout history. The diary format makes them easy to read aloud when there is a few extra minutes during class. I really like the historical connections in the books and have been very impressed with all those I've read so far. 

A few years ago I read My Brother's Keeper: Virginia's Civil War Diary  aloud to my class while we were studying the Civil War. It was a very engaging way to extend the history and get some extra practice talking about the "sides" of the war and the different issues. My students were very interested in the book! 

The book was also the perfect way to study the Historical Fiction genre. Since we were studying the Civil War in history we were able to pick out the historical events from the fiction pieces. I think it really deepened my students' understanding of Historical Fiction. 

I always recommend these books to my students who are interested in Historical Fiction and to those who seem to be particularly taken with a specific period in history. 

I just learned that Dear America has been relaunched with a fresh look and I discovered a pretty neat feature on it on the Scholastic website. It is certainly something worth checking out! Click on the picture if you'd like to see more - there are scrapbooks for each main character with crafts and recipes. 

Wow! Writing this post has certainly been informative! I also just learned about another spin off of this series for boys called My Name is America and all written from a boy's perspective. I've never heard of these books before so now I'm going to be adding some of those to my cart! This could be bad - adding books to my own cart before I even read any of the other posts from the week!?!

Have you ever used any of these series in your classroom? What'd you think?

Great Resource for Reading Activities and a Favorite Summer Read {Book Talk Thursday}

I'm back for one last link up this summer with Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars. I've really enjoyed all the professional books, novels, and kid's lit. everyone has been sharing on Thursdays. 

I ran across this book while reorganizing my classroom and knew it would be the perfect one to share this Thursday! It is a book I picked up several years ago from Scholastic. 

When I started typing this post I was sad to see that Scholastic no longer carries this book in the Independent Reading Management Kit series. However, Amazon came to the rescue and they have some reasonably priced used copies. 

This book contains a variety of activities designed for students to complete independently. I like the fact that it is really an activity and not just another worksheet for students to fill in. When I need a quick idea for planning this is one of my go to books. 

The book has sections with activities for the following genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Adventure, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Realistic Fiction, Biography, Science Fiction, and Nonfiction. Of course, each activity can be completed with any book students are reading.  

I would highly recommend this book. I have a whole shelf full of professional books like this one and most of them rarely get used, but this one is the exception. I noticed that Scholastic has some other books in this series so the next time I order I think I'll check out a new one! 

I also wanted to throw in a very cute, quick summer read that I am still thinking about! Right at the beginning of summer I read Flat Out Love by Jessica Park and I loved it! It's just one of those stories I can't stop thinking about even though I've finished the book. 

What has been your favorite summer read so far? I still have 7 days of summer left so I can squeeze in another good book or two!  

Status of the Class {Tried it Tuesday}

I'm glad to be linking up with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for another great round of Tried it Tuesday. 

With all the talk about workshops last week I started thinking about things I did in my reading workshop that I want to continue doing again next year. One of the first things that came to my mind is Status of the Class. 

Status of the Class is just a quick, simply way to keep tabs on what everyone in your class is reading. I call out a student's name and he or she tells me the name of the book they are reading and what page number they are on. 

Why do I love Status of the Class? I know what everyone is reading and how quickly they are moving through a particular book. I encourage my students to stick with the same book at home and at school, so if they haven't progressed through enough pages from one day to the next I know there isn't any reading going on at home. 

I can't meet with everyone every day to discuss the books they've selected to read, so this also gives me some indication of who is reading a just right book and who needs to pick again. If I find that a student is really moving slowly through a text I'll jot a note to have a conference with him or her the next day and discuss whether the book is a good fit for them. I'm always surprised at how honest kids are in telling me they dont like a book, yet they were continuing to read it! 

My kids are always excited to tell me what page number they are on. In the beginning of the year Status of the Class is a huge motivator to get kids excited and talking about reading! I've had kids stop me out in the hallway before to tell me they were on page 65! 

The tough part for me is staying on track with this! Even thought it is only a few minutes each day it is so easy to get caught up in something else and forget it! We've had crazy weeks (and even months) where it seems like every class period is shortened for some reason and Status of the Class gets pushed to the side. 

One of my goals this year is to make Status of the Class an even more consistent part of our daily routine. 

Have you tried Status of the Class? 

Tuesday {Must Read Mentor Text}

Happy Sunday! I'm happy to be linking up with the fabulous ladies at Collaboration Cuties for another great round of Must Read Mentor Texts. 

I made a leisurely visit to the library with some of my cousins and we ran across this great book by David Wiesner. Right then I knew it would be my next MRMT because this is a book I always get so excited about sharing with my students.

This is an almost wordless book that leaves my 4th graders excited, interested, and full of questions. 

The book documents the very unexpected events of what appears to be an otherwise normal Tuesday. Frogs leave their pond riding lilly pads and fly through a neighborhood leaving a trail of trouble behind them. 

The illustrations in this book are wonderful! We always go back through the book again just to take a closer look at the book and see what we missed the first time. 

There are so many different skills you could pull from this book. I always seem to gravitate toward it when I'm teaching predicting. I have my students make predictions along the way as we read the book. The last page in the book shows a picture of next Tuesday at the same time and pigs are flying. As a response to the reading I have my kiddos write what they think will happen next Tuesday. 

Do you use Tuesday in your classroom? What skill do you use it for? 

The Library Dragon {Back to School Mentor Texts}

I'm very excited to be taking part in a special edition of Collaboration Cuties' Mentor Text Linky. Today is all about Back to School books. Yay!! I'm loving all the ideas I've already gotten today and Amazon is going to love me this week...

Since I am a little late on joining the party a few of my favorite Back to School books have already been "taken" and I don't want to be repetitive, so I'm going to share one of the first books I read for Reader's Workshop - The Library Dragon. 

This adorable little book tells the story of an elementary school that gets a new librarian, Ms. Lotta Scales. She is a little overprotective with the books and the children are missing their story time. It is full of rich language, beautiful pictures, and close encounters with the dragon kind! 

School for us typically starts back on a Thursday and the first two days we aren't into a regular routine, but by the beginning of the first full week I am ready to launch the workshop and I usually read this book on Tuesday or Wednesday. By that time everyone is really excited to check out books and it is a great lead into library procedures and caring for our books. 

I like that it is a playful way for me to show just how serious I am about taking care of the books in our classroom library. Throughout the year if we discuss taking care of our books and the library I'll make a reference to being a library dragon. I've even had kids do the same thing...lol! 

What are your favorite Back to School reads? Head on over to Collaboration Cuties and link up. 

Don't forget to enter the Show Us Some Bloglovin' giveaway! The contest ends at midnight and I'll be announcing the winner of the $10 TPT gift certificate in the morning! 

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Reusable Graphic Organizer and Word Walls {Workshop Wednesday}

Its Wednesday so that means time to link up with Jivey for another edition of Workshop Wednesday! I'm loving all the great Pinterest ideas I've been getting so far.

Since I've started blogging I've noticed that my Pinterest habits have changed. Blog reading has become my new Pinterest. I do still visit Pinterest to browse from time to time, but I seem to do most of my pinning from blog posts I'm reading. 

Speaking of that, the first pin I'm linking up today is from the fabulous Amy at Eclectic Educating. 

Source: eclecticeducating.com via Courtney on Pinterest

This great idea is a reusable graphic organizer of sorts. Students use sticky notes to add ideas to the organizer and move their ideas around as well. I think the misconceptions piece of this organizer is possibly my favorite because so many times kids do have misconceptions about a topic and this allows them to move their thoughts from what they know to a misconception. 

These folders are definitely on my list for the summer. I'm thinking of even starting out with just a few for small group use to begin with and then go from there. I like the simplicity of these folders and think they would be great to pull out in a pinch and they're reusable! 

Next up is the personal word wall. Does anyone else use these? 

Source: heidisongs.blogspot.ca via Courtney on Pinterest

Confession time: I have had a word wall in my classroom because I've read that I should have one and no matter what kind of strategy I use I just can't seem to get my students to utilize it like I want them to. I'm hoping creating an individual word wall will help motivate them to use it more. 

What great ideas have you been pinning lately? Head on over and link up to join in the fun! 

Raymond and Graham Rule the School {Must Read Mentor Text}

I'm linking up with Amanda & Stacia at Collaboration Cuties for their Must Read Mentor Text linky. This week the linky is all about Language Arts and I'm thrilled to share my favorite read aloud with you! 

When the school year starts I always like to hook my reluctant readers with a funny book. A few years ago I discovered Raymond and Graham Rule the School and its been my go-to ever since! Even though I've read it many times I still laugh out loud 'til I cry at certain parts! There are aides who've heard it once and always come to me wanting to know when I'll be reading about "the prunes" so they can come listen again.

The main characters are two fourth grade boys who are now the "top dogs" and are ready to rule the school. They have all these great plans and ideas about how this will be the best year ever, but things don't really go as planned. This book is packed with fourth grade humor. One of the boys discovers the power of prunes and they also have a little mishap with a razor.  I don't want to give too much away because you've just got to experience it for yourself! 

This book hooks my reluctant readers every time. Some kids even say they never knew reading could be this much fun and they beg me to read one more chapter. The best thing about this is there are 3 other books featuring Raymond and Graham, so students who really get interested automatically have something on their "read next" list. 

If you've got some extra reading time with your fourth graders before the year ends I'd highly recommend this one! 

If you get a chance stop by Teaching Special Thinkers. Gabrielle is having a CrAzY good giveaway!