This blog post features a contraction anchor chart. Plus, two free concentration games are provided... one contraction game for lower elementary and one for upper elementary!

A set of assessment rubrics that can be used for Preschool or lower elementary special education. Rubrics for fine motor skills, interaction, math concepts, and letter/literacy. Useful tools for progress monitoring. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unporte...

Parents are the most important people in a child’s life. Did you know that a Kindergarten Aged Child’s brain is not developed enough for them to feel proud of themselves, without some feedback from

Picture this: You have your centers set up and your small group lessons are planned. The kids are working on their reading and literacy center tasks. You're focused on your small groups. You give yourself a pat on the back because everything is running so smoothly! At the end of the week, you collect their literacy folders, which hold all their written work for the week, and their learning journals. When you sit down to go through the folders and journals you notice the written work is uh . . . let’s say, not up to the quality you expect. You wonder, “What were they doing all week?!” Even if you’ve taught the routines and your literacy block runs smoothly unless you have high expectations and a way to keep kids accountable, what’s the point? That’s when center and reading tasks turn into busy work, and nobody has time for that. I have a few ideas for ways to hold students accountable for the high expectations you set. I firmly believe that expectations are pointless without the accountability. I’ve divided the tips or suggestions between the three reading tasks and three center tasks that I use during my literacy block. Every classroom is different, so feel free to take, use, or modify any of them to implement in your classroom. One other note, I've never found anything that works every year with every class. Each group of students is different. The accountability checks I did one year might not work the following year. As with everything else, teaching is about making adjustments for the students’ needs. My goal was always to foster independence and a habit of doing their best on every task. Once the expectations and accountability checks were established, I was able to focus more on the content of their work. 1. Journal Response One of the most difficult literacy tasks to check is independent reading. How do you know if they are really reading? One way is to have students write a short journal entry. The entries can be a short summary of what they read, a topic chosen from a list, or focus on a specific skill. For example: Write about the characters and how their words or actions affected the plot. You need to do a lot of modeling of the exact format you expect for the journal entry. Here's a free set of reading response stems you can use in your classroom. 2. Accelerated Reader (AR) Quiz I like this program for one reason -- it held my students accountable for their independent reading. It is NOT a great way to check a higher level thinking skills, but it is a good way to quickly and easily know if a student has read a book. I talked to each student at the beginning of every quarter to set goals. The reports made it easy for us to check progress. 3. Buddy Check-in In a couple of my centers, students read with a partner. Part of the expectation is that they keep each other on task. I choose the students for each partnership carefully so I can set them up for success. In my fluency center, the students write a comment or two about their partner's reading and this serves as the check. If there is a problem in the partnership, students can talk to me about the issue and I can help them work on a solution. Buddy Check-in is also a way to recognize students who are focused, polite or helpful buddies. 4. Discussion Monitor One of my reading centers has groups of 2-4 students reading an assigned text. As they read, they stop and chat about the text. The discussion is focused on a reading skill we've been working on in our whole-class lessons. Each student has a thinkmark with reminders about the skill. It helps them stay focused on the purpose of the discussions. One student can be assigned the discussion monitor for the day or for the week. The monitor makes sure the readers stay on topic and prompt students to give complete and thoughtful comments. At the end of the daily discussion, the monitor fills out a simple rubric/checklist about the group members' participation. 5. Switch and Check One of my favorite ways to hold students accountable for centers with a written task was to assign them a checking partner. When both students finish the task they switch papers and use an answer key to check the work. This worked well for written center work because I rarely took grades on this work. 6. Star Student I've seen this idea used in different class situations. I like to use it during literacy block because it's an easy way to give recognition to students who are doing what they're supposed to be doing. Sometimes I was looking for a student who had over-all good behavior during our literacy block. But sometimes we had a focused behavior for the day or week. During literacy block I make a mental note of students who are on task, working quietly, keeping their area neat and organized, helping others, etc. At the end of the block, I would choose one student to recognize as the Star Student for the day. I would write the student's name on a small display at the front of the room. Sometimes I would put the name in a jar for a drawing at the end of the month. Click on the image to download this Star Student sign you can use in your classroom!

I recently wrapped up my Recorder Karate unit with 3rd - 5th grade. We had a recorder number of Black Belts this year and the students worked very hard. One thing I did this year that I hadn't in previous years was to create a bulletin board like this (obviously taken toward the beginning - I ended up putting a picture of each black belt in the red free space) in addition to announcing the students' names on our morning announcements: It looked very cute, if a little cluttered, with so many smiling black belt faces adorning it. The motivation was great and I got to thinking, "What if the students had something motivating to use when learning solfa?" All my kiddos are eager sight-singers, and many will often show their skills in front of the class, but having a reward-system in place can't hurt right? I could always use more data and more assessment opportunities also! So, I created the Solfa Dojo! WHAT IS THE SOLFA DOJO? I borrowed the progression of 'belts' from Karate and adapted it for the Kodaly classroom. The melodies of the "belts" mirror melodic structures from various songs the students already learn as we progress from Mi-So to Mi-So-La and to Do-Mi-So-La. Vital rhythms for these levels are also included in the "belts". The melodies use the keys of C, D, F and G so students can sing at higher and lower levels and view the solfa on various places on the staff. Level 1: 9 melodies using so/mi, quarter note/eighth note pair Level 2: 9 melodies using mi/so/la, quarter note/quarter rest/eighth note pair Level 3: 9 melodies using do/mi/so/la, half note/quarter note/quarter rest/eighth note pair Level 4 (updated 07/30): 9 melodies using do/re/mi/so/la, half note/quarter note/quarter rest/eighth note pair HOW ARE STUDENTS ASSESSED? Students are assessed using the following rubric (which you can go over with the students and it is also included in the music you can send home for them to practice). Each "song" has 8 total beats. You can address time signature, measures, bar lines, and double bar lines also. Students also receive and overview of which concepts are used in each level and a reminder about what steps to use when singing: HOW CAN I USE THE MATERIALS? You can use the materials in a variety of ways (and feel free to adapt what you need to for your own students' needs): 1. Individual sight-reading: Use this progressive assessment alongside your traditional Mi/So, Mi/So/La, or Do/Mi/So/La lessons (check out the links to the right for more information). You can use it as you progress through different keys or songs. During part of the lesson, while students are engaged in center activities, etc, call students over to your desk and have them follow the sight-reading steps (don’t allow them prior practice time). 2. Individual or Small Group Study: Equip each student (or small groups of students – 3 to 4) with a set of the songs. You can print these out on cardstock, laminate or put in page pprotectors, and clasp with binder rings or store in a binder. Red Belt Example Level 3 Students can either work alone in their groups, with a partner, or with the entire group to sing through the songs. Have a melodic instrument ready so they can play the starting pitches since these change. You can call groups or individual students to sing for you to “pass off” a belt. You can even send home music for the students to practice: Example of Level 2 Printable Music 3. Whole-class Study: You can project the slides for the class to sing (they can compete against other classes in their grade level). Have them follow the sight-reading steps. If they score high enough, you can select a student to color the belt on their class tracking sheet. If not, they can earn a chance to perform again later. HOW IS PROGRESS TRACKED? Included in each download are printable book-mark sized blank "belts". I suggest having two per each student, one in a binder where you record which level they earn (highlight or check off each belt) and one on a bulletin board that the student can color in (if they color, you don't have to worry about finding time to do it yourself). If you are tracking their progress as a class, you can put their homeroom teacher's name on the tracking sheet instead. WHAT REWARDS CAN I USE? For most students, the progression on the bulletin board will be enough. However, some more ideas for rewards are: 1. Class with the most black belts (or class that first reaches the black belt level if you are assessing the class as a whole) earns a music game day (students can play favorite music games). 2. Each students who earns a black belt gets a certificate, their name on the announcements, and their picture on the bulletin board. 3. When the unit is over, place all the black belt names in a drawing, and the "winners" (you can select how many you want) can receive music prizes (you can decided what those are - for example, these cute, but durable inflatable mics): Inflatable Mics from Oriental Trading WHAT ABOUT OLDER STUDENTS? I'm working on six more levels that will be appropriate from late 2nd through 5th grade - coming soon :)

The Giving Tree is the perfect story for integrating literacy and economics for first grade. We use this trade book to learn scarcity, cost, resources, and more!

This homophones examples and task cards activity includes EIGHT pages of common homophones along with 36 task cards for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade.

Inside you will find: * 6 Read and Color pages. * 4 Read and Draw These comprehension activities are ideal for students in kindergarten and first grade. Use this as a listening comprehension activities for your kindergarten students, or have your first graders read the passages and work independently. These are perfect for literacy centers, independent work, morning work, fast finisher, homework and more. Check out the full packet here: Reading Comprehension Activities (THE BUNDLE) This set goes well with my: Reading Comprehension Check (The Bundle) Check out the freebies here: FREE Reading Comprehension Check You may also be interested in: Reading Comprehension THE BUNDLE Reading Fluency and Comprehension THE BUNDLE If you have any questions, please email me at: [email protected] before purchasing *************************************************** Follow my stores for more AWESOME FREEBIES and GET UPDATES on my NEW PRODUCTS!! Connect with me: Teaching Biilfizzcend Instagram Teaching Biilfizzcend Pinterest

Let me show you the research-based Reading Interventions Program and offer you a FREE SAMPLE in EVERY LEVEL RANGE!!! Out of this World Literacy

Use this free listening map of Astor Piazzolla's Libertango to teach timbre to your elementary music students.

Compliment your article key experience presentation by making a grammar symbol booklet. This extension is perfect for children to review the article grammar key experience. This resource is ideal for lower elementary students who are beginning their studies of the different parts of speech. This booklet contains a quick preview of the word etymology and definition in a child-friendly language. Children will also have the chance to check their understanding by completing the quick exercises. Display the grammar symbols as you review each key experience. You will enjoy the ease of the ready-to-print pages and answer key included. Featured within this resource are the following: Black and White Outlines Answer Key

I love this time of year in my classroom because it signals the beginning of a delightful string of holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! The music of Halloween is especially fun̷…

THIS IS THE COMPLETE GRAMMAR BOOSTER PACK WITH ALL THE GRAMMAR GOODNESS INSIDE!!!!!!!! THIS PACK IS OVER 1200+ PAGES AND HAS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO REVISE GRAMMAR CONCEPTS FOR LOWER AND UPPER GRADES! Enhance the writers of your classroom by BOOSTING their growth against their Grammar Goals! This Pack focuses on key concepts that are essential to be a great writer of all elementary ages: - Nouns & Noun Groups/Phrases - Verbs & Verb Groups/Phrases - Adjectives - Punctuation - Agreements - Paragraphs - Articles - Shades of Meaning (Vocabulary Building) - Sentences - Verb Tense - Editing - Adverbs & Prepositions - Text Connectives - Speech/Quotations - Pronouns - Clause & Voice - Creative/Figurative Language - REVISION BONUS PACK! Please download pack 9. EDITING and pack 16. REVISION from the bonus files :) If you would like anything added to this pack - Please email me [email protected] - I am always looking to improve my Booster Packs to make them more helpful to you and your students! ALIGNED TO ACARA & CCSS & New Zealand Curriculum THIS BUNDLE INCLUDES ALL 32 GRAMMAR BOOSTER PACKS! Please read the individual product descriptions below to know what is in each pack :) HAPPY GRAMMAR BOOSTING, FRIENDS! If you love this resource, you would LOVE my other Booster Packs: Reading Booster Pack Maths Booster Pack Grammar Booster Pack Time Booster Pack Feedback is greatly appreciated :) Ally The Young Educator Follow me on Instagram to keep up to date with my latest resources! Join my VIE (Very Important Educators) Club to get my EXCLUSIVE FREEBIE Resources!

This versatile read & sort suffix resource can be used for guided groups, as an assessment tool, independent or partner practice, remediation, reading ladders, and more. Suffixes Included y (fly), -y (rainy), y (baby), -ly (slowly) -ed (wanted), ed (played), ed (looked) -able (table), -ible (responsible) Thank you! Have a blessed day. Michelle McDonald B.A.E. Social Studies Education, K-12 Elementary Education K-8 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Connect with Me: Find me on Pinterest Find me on Instagram Find me on Facebook * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you’re ready to dive into a science of reading (SoR) aligned curriculum and trying to figure out how to structure your literacy block, we have recommendations for a strong science of reading classroom schedule!

Although we may only think of using fables in lower grades, using fables in upper elementary can be very beneficial. Not only are fables an excellent genre for teaching morals and themes in stories, but because they are short, they are wonderful to use when comparing and contrasting the treatment of similar themes and topics. Using these short stories can be both beneficial and fun, even for our older students. Finding Free Resources Finding free resources for teaching fables is easier than you may think. One wonderful resource can be found at Library of Congress. This website contains a list of classic Aesop fables that you can print or display with your overhead projector for your entire class to use. Another website is Aesop's Fables that also contains a large list of fables. A Fun "Fable Strip" Activity Recently, my students read a variety of fables that I printed from Library of Congress. The students discussed the morals of each fable, compared fables, and completed a fun writing activity. For the "Fable Strips" writing activity, students worked in groups and chose a favorite fable. Then each group collaborated together to create a comic strip style "fable strip" to display. Students sketched and planned three or four scenes about the chosen fable. Once the "fable strip" was planned, students continued working in their groups to draw and color each scene on white paper. Then they cut out each one and used a speech bubble to write the dialogue. Each group created three to four scenes for their fable strip that were then displayed on the bulletin board. Students wrote the moral of the fable on a yellow strip of paper. The moral was then placed below each "fable strip." The final result was this fun fables bulletin board. Graphic Organizers If you follow my blog, then you are not surprised that if I'm discussing reading, I must include graphic organizers. I am a huge fan of using graphic organizers to help students write about their reading, to help them increase their thinking, and to help improve comprehension. This graphic organizer is one of three that are designed specifically for fables. All three graphic organizers can be found HERE in my best selling Reading Graphic Organizers for Literature. Plan a day or two for your students to have fun with fables. They will love it! Thanks for stopping by! Connect with Me: Blog TpT Store Instagram Facebook Pinterest

Storytelling for Kids! Try this hands-on class for your homeschool co-op.

Let me show you the research-based Reading Interventions Program and offer you a FREE SAMPLE in EVERY LEVEL RANGE!!! Out of this World Literacy

Students in 4th and 5th grade still need decoding strategies and instruction. This post shares my go-to decoding strategies with activities.

Here you will find read alouds for upper elementary students that can be used for a variety of occasions in the classroom+ FREE printables!

Struggle with making the library fun and engaging while keeping everyone on task? Try these 5 tips for school library classroom management.

I’m Wendy, aka “Elementary Library Mama” and I’m so glad you stopped by! I live in the Midwest and have been an elementary library media specialist for several years. I have a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and a Master of Arts in Library Information Science. Prior to becoming a media specialist, I taught […]

As a teacher, one of the things I get asked the MOST about is teaching kids to read. For some children, it comes so quickly and naturally. And for others... it doesn't. So this post is for the mama of one of those "others" (and I say that in a kidding and kind way, of

Many thanks to the members of our Learning Librarians Facebook group for sharing great ways to reward and celebrate library book returns, especially at the

Literacy centers in the classroom should be simple, easy, and fun! Using no-prep or low-prep ideas helps with time management, lesson planning, and easy weekly setup. Throughout the years, I have tried a plethora of ideas for my literacy centers. Some worked okay, and some did not work at all. Finally, I realized I was overthinking and making center time WAY more complicated than it should be for both myself and the students. Once I realized that the simplicity of the centers was what made them work, everything else clicked into place. Using five weekly centers in your classroom each week makes things easy. Having a group of 4-5 students in each group rotate through only one center each day keeps it simple for the students. The no-prep or low-prep activities keep it fun and SUPER easy for you! Five Literacy Centers for All Year Set up these five literacy centers at the beginning of your school year, and use them all year long! Center #1: Technology: Use any activity that you have on hand. This can be computers, Chromebooks, iPads, etc. Students can play online games or you can assign a digital activity via Google Classroom to your students for this center. Using digital task cards or interactive digital games for practice are great choices. Center #2: Writing: The activities change in this center weekly, but the supplies remain the same. Any activity that you want your students to use for a focus on writing can be used. Add a word bank, thesaurus, dictionary, writing tools, paper, etc and give your students a weekly writing prompt. You can also use one of the writing activities from my No Prep Literacy Centers units. Print the center directions on color copy paper to grab the students’ attention and place it in the same place in the center from week to week because students need that routine and dependability of knowing where to find the directions. Copy the other pages for the activity on regular copy paper to add to the center. These activities are sometimes longer in length, and students might need two weeks to complete. On those weeks, do not change out the materials. Center #3: Reading: It is especially important to give students multiple opportunities throughout the school day to read independently from books of their choice. For some, school might be the only time they are exposed to books. During this center, give students comfortable seating choices throughout the room so that they are not in a group and disturbing other students or being disturbed. Students can have individual book bins that contain books they have chosen to read. By having their book bins already stocked, students are not constantly moving around the room to visit the classroom library during this time. Use these Digital Reading Responses for students at some time during the week to add a writing component. Center #4: Word Work: This center can look vastly different weekly. I always use an activity from my No Prep Literacy Centers. Students might be manipulating letters to create words one week, and the next week, they might be playing a word game from the same unit. Another week, they might complete the monthly “Put It in Order” alphabetical order activity included in each monthly unit. For the last week, they might do a part of speech word sort from the unit. Adding some of these activities normally used for Morning Tubs can add a lot of fun to your literacy centers as well. Center #5: Miscellaneous: This center can include anything related to what you are currently studying in reading or grammar or a review of previous learning. One week students can move around the room on a scavenger hunt, while the next week has students reading an informational passage and answering questions. This center allows for flexibility and might include task cards, sightwords, or even an activity from my early finishers unit. Adding any kind of game that you already have in your classroom is a simple and fun activity for this center also. (Click here for a list of ten easy activities to add to your centers using items already in your classroom.) Using these five simple, easy, and fun literacy centers all year will help you keep your sanity. The prep time is 15-30 minutes on a Friday afternoon, helping me get out the door and home to my family. Grab FREE Math and Literacy Centers when you sign up for my emails. Keeping literacy centers simple, easy, and fun is just... My Kind of Teaching

In an effort to clean up my freebies page and to make different types of freebies easier to find, I have made this page for CENTER FREEBIES. Click on the picture or the link below to access them. Many of the freebies are Google Docs, but you don't need to request that I "Share" the document with you in order to download a Google Doc from me. All you have to do is click on the download button at the top of the screen and save the file. The download button is circled in the picture below. Hope you enjoy! Get Wild About Reading Library Centers Freebie I Spy Library Words Freebie Super Reader Library Centers Freebie Winter Library Centers Freebie Check out more freebie on my other freebie pages!

Looking for free elementary library lesson plans? Check out this blog post, with eleven sources to help school librarians and media specialists.

Happy New Year, everyone! If two of your New Year’s resolutions for 2018 are to save money and to treat your students to brand new resources in your school library, you definitely found the right place to start! I wrote a post a few months ago with links to over 40 free downloads from Teachers … Continue reading "(More!) Freebies for Your School Library on Teachers Pay Teachers!"

Reading these four must-read books will give you great ideas and strategies to use in the future as you being homeschooling in the language arts.

Library musical chairs is a terrific game to promote reading and incorporate technology with Google Form surveys.

Being a brand new school librarian is both exciting and scary. All summer, you’ve planned for your new position, but today, you're feeling pretty lost.

Are Students Missing Strong Reading Foundations? Phonological, and phonemic awareness skills are the foundations for competent readers. If students are memorizing text, reading without fluency, reading words incorrectly, it might be a sign that they are missing some foundations. These missing foundations are often present in the phonological awareness continuum. Many times, our assessments target […]

In This Blog Post: Wondering what is the science of reading? Find out what it is, what structured literacy looks like in a classroom, and easy ideas you can implement today. There has been a lot of buzz around the science of reading lately. To many teachers, this is something they’ve never heard of before […]

In 2017, I wrote a blog post titled "12 (mostly cheap) Teacher Tricks that Work in an Elementary Library." What I did not realize when I wrote that post was the positive response it would receive. The goal was to share simple, but effective strategies that I have found helpful when working with students in

Ideas and toolkits for getting students back on track after a break in the elementary school library through re-establishing library rules and procedures.

Structured Literacy is an approach to reading instruction that is explicit and systematic, with a focus on the structure of the English language.

Find freebies on Teachers Pay Teachers for school librarians!

Keep a great substitute teacher coming back with these easy and engaging ideas you can leave for a sub.

Introduce and review how to use the Destiny library catalog with these worksheets and task cards.

Library Orientation can be engaging and fun when you choose the best picture books to share with your elementary school students! Read this blog post to learn more!

I’ve stressed this from the very beginning of my blog writing days and I will continue to do so! It’s so important that readers feel like they are part of a reading community in your classroom. This not only builds confidence and excitement, but it also creates lifelong readers. I’ve come up with a new […]

Currently, the debate is between the Science of Reading and Balanced Literacy. People argue that there’s a disconnect between research and classroom practices.