SWAP MEET - A PRODUCT SWAP, BLOGHOP, AND GIVEAWAY

HeyHey!! Do I have something fantastic in store for you!!

So I am participating in this fantastic hop, hosted by Christina over at Hanging Around in Primary and myself :) Although she is the TRUE brains behind this wonderful project!!

Christina is a 1st grade teacher, and she lives in Ontario. I "met" her through TpTing :) I started TpTing in or around August 2014, and a few months later started chatting with Christina through a FB group both of us belonged to :) Then sometime around September, she came up with this awesome idea of a product swap and blog hop!! And I was all for it!!

So when it came time to match up partners, I asked if her and I could partner up!! I love her products and work, and was super excited to use one of her products in my classroom for this product swap!

While searching through her store (which you can find here---->Hanging Around in Primary) I was overwhelmed with all her fabulous products! It was hard to choose JUST one! But after much thought, I decided on her Decoding Strategy Posters.

I am only teaching literacy this year to two groups of kiddos. And our school was trying a new instructional model, having the students grouped with 'like-learners' otherwise known as by ability. So my morning group has 14 kids (currently) and range in reading level from non-readers (stanine 1 on their concepts of print) to F&P level of D. My afternoon group currently has 21 kids (just got 3 new ones in there in the past week), and the levels range from F&P level of B/C to F&P level of E/F. So both my literacy groups I teach are considered 'below grade level'. So this factor certainly came into play when I choose the product from Christinas' store.

First I have to say that her product is fantastic!! There are posters to print and display on the walls, bookmarks for the kids, smaller cards to use in your guided reading toolkit, as well as the different reading characters to glue to popsicle sticks for the kids to use during small group.

 After I introduced each strategy, the students practiced the strategies in their text. After doing some formative assessments, I found that different students needed to work on different strategies. I was able to place the card in front of them while they read to help them remember the strategy and what to do when they came to a word.

 The book marks were also fabulous, and the kiddos went crazy for them! It was a very quick reference for them to have with them in their book bags, to utilize even when they weren't working with me at the small group table.

(As you can tell, this was during the month of October as we are using our 'witch fingers' to track the print :) )

My friends really liked using these decoding character wands! These were such a hit!! And I didn't even have the adorable stuffed animals to go with them, but they still loved them! I will have to get those stuffed animals for next year when I introduce these strategies and use them again!!

I really think this video is a true testament to this product! My kiddos were able to coach each other with which strategy to use!! One of the friends was having trouble with a word, and this lovely girl, said, USE the STRATEGY!! LOVE IT :) You MUST go get it now!! Go to Christina's store to purchase it!! Hanging Around in Primary


So now I have some great news for you!! Are you ready?!?! This product, along with the 15 other products including in this blog hop swap meet are a part of a GIVEAWAY!! There are so many great products from some AMAZING TpT authors!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway