Tricks and Treats Blog Hop

Happy Fall Y'all! I swear, I never get tired of saying that :) I am joining up with the fabulous crew from The Elementary Entourage and am so excited for...

Ok, so be honest, have you already been eating Halloween candy? I have (guilty!)! Of course I have an excuse :) It was on sale at CVS, so I felt like I had to get it!! And of course the hubs and I have eaten it all!

Ok, so let's talk about some tricks! I had my 1st formal observation of the year this week--it was Monday in fact (like really, who signs up to get observed on a Monday---yep this girl!). So with being a literacy teacher in 1st grade, I teach reading, writing, and small group to the 2 lowest classes of 1st graders. I absolutely LOVE it, but I really struggled with planning my lesson and incorporating all the things that "the Charlotte Danielson" model distinguishes me as a decent teacher.

Anyway, with talking to my special ed teacher, she told me about a website that she heard about at a special ed conference. The website is www.tarheelreader.org. You can go on that website and students can choose books to read by other students (or the computer will read it to them). You can even go on there and the students can create their own online books! Now my kiddos aren't able to do THAT yet, maybe your student are!! Here are some pictures from my lesson that my principal took!

The kids loved it and I did pretty well on my observation too!

Now a treat for you!! So with teaching the lower students, I have noticed one thing in common between them-- The phonics program we teach is not working for them. So after speaking with one of the district administrators, she came in and modeled a very simplistic and quick way to build their confidence as readers. So the idea of ROCKIN' READERS was born!

Now you can use flashcards and they would work just as well, but in the pack I have also included word work and printables to go with the words you are working on to reinforce it for the student.

I knew there were struggling readers in every grade level. So my administration had me show this simple idea to the K and 2nd grade literacy teachers that have the lower level students as well. So I figured there were other students in other school and states that were frustrated and had no confidence, so I put it up on TpT. I love this product and believe in it! So far out of the 13 words I have introduced to the 13 students in my class 11 out of the 13 students have been able to successfully and independently recognize and read all 13 of the words. Now that is AMAZING for those kids :)

So this freebie is just for you in time for Halloween! You can find it by clicking on the image.

I am also having a sale Friday October 16th through Sunday October 18th, to celebrate the 3 day week, my observation being a success, AND reaching 1400 followers on TpT-- so make sure to stop by!