Tried It Tuesdays {Post Its!} and Giveaways!

Wahoo! Monday has come and gone and...
It's Time for Tried It Tuesday! 

What have you tried recently at school or home?

My Tried It:

Post Its!
Sometimes I wonder how I ever taught without post-it notes! Having post-it notes (of various sizes and colors, of course!) makes learning so much more fun! :) I keep a stack of regular sized Post-Its and a pack of mini Post-Its in the supply caddies for each group.
We use post-it notes in many ways in the classroom, but one of my favorite ways to use them is with Post-Its graphic organizers by the amazing POST-IT NOTE QUEEN (and my BBB!), Joanne, at Head Over Heels for Teaching!
We have been working on Cause and Effect in my 4th grade classes. The Reading Non-Fiction with Post-Its pack includes three variations of Cause and Effect graphic organizers with Post-Its.
For this lesson, I used the "Frogs at Risk" nonfiction article from Read Works.

First, we read the first two paragraphs together and underlined any cause and effect relationships. Then, partners finished reading the passages and underlined more cause and effect relationships that they found.
The group discussed which cause and effect relationships were essential to understanding and summarizing the passage and recorded them on mini Post-Its.
The enthusiasm is always up a notch when we use Post-It notes with lessons! 
Oh, the power of a little sticky note! :)

I love how students could move the Post-Its if they had it stuck under the wrong column.
For example, many sentences listed the cause first but this sentence stumped some groups:
Their habitat is being destroyed as loggers cut down trees to make room for farms and roads.

For this lesson, I used this pack from Head Over Heels for Teaching. It is jammed packed with 33 pages of graphic organizers for so many skills!

Check out these other resources using Post-It note graphic organizers if you are a junkie! :)

Click on the pictures to see these products in Joanne's TPT Store!

Have you seen these BIG PAD Post-Its? I didn't know about these until Joanne gave me this when I visited her in sunny Florida! She truly is the Post-It note queen and gave me so many other Post-It note products that I am LOVING! I feel so spoiled. Are teachers the only people that get so excited over office supplies? :)

The Big Pad has super super sticky edges and a strip in the middle for sticking! It's amazing. They measure 11in x 11in. I am using these bad boys for an interactive cause and effect activity tomorrow involving If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. I will post pictures about how it turns out later this week. 

Before you check out other link ups, here are a few giveaways to check out:

My BBB, Diane, at Fifth in the Middle is hosting a March Madness giveaway (no basketball knowledge necessary to win!). Stop by to enter the contest and earn chances to win!

 Another BBB, Nick, at Sweet Rhyme & Pure Reason is celebrating his One Year Blogiversary! Check back at his blog beginning March 8th for a giveaway with many prizes!

Have you stopped by I'm Lovin' Lit's Follower Appreciation Week! OH MY!!! There are amazing prizes being given away each day until March 14th!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Workshop Wednesday {Reading Tricks and Treats!}

I am linking up on this hump day with my BBB, Jivey, at Ideas by Jivey for Workshop Wednesday!  This week's topic is Reading Workshop Tricks and Treats.

We recently started working on our poetry unit.

My ELA classes are reading Love That Dog by Sharon Creech.

Before we begin reading the novel, I have the students write some quick thoughts in their journal about poetry.  They can write anything that comes to mind when they hear the word "poetry".  I wish I had taken pictures of what they wrote because some were hysterical!  I will try to add pictures of this to my post tomorrow.  Here are some pictures of their thoughts:

Overall, they knew very little about poetry just like the main character in the novel, Jack (although they hadn't read about Jack yet).

Since fourth graders have such little background knowledge about poetry, I try to expose them to as much "fun" poetry as possible.  I spread out many poetry books on my back table and read from them as well as have students borrow the books to explore themselves.  Today, my students had to choose a couple of poetry books to read when they were at "read to self" or "read to someone" center time.  We only got through one center today and I have four stations, so tomorrow the other two groups who were at "work on writing" and "word work" will do read to self and read to someone.  

Here is a picture of some of the books at the end of the day today after they had been sifted through many times:

I gave each student a mini post-it note and had them stick it on a page of a poem that they like (name written on post-it).  I will photocopy that poem for them and they will try to memorize it to recite to the class.  We will recite our poems for a fun activity on Halloween.  It will be a "trial run" and students will be allowed to use their copy if they need to when reciting (most students will actually memorize it!).  After this "trial run", students will choose another poem and then be given about a week to memorize it.  We will have another poem reciting day.  See the post-it notes sticking out of the books in the picture below?

When I first started this years ago, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Could the students really memorize the poem?  If they can memorize words to songs so easily, why not poems?  I found out that they ABSOLUTELY CAN memorize poems and they love it!  They are so proud to choose a poem and then be able to show off how they have memorized it.  We practice using the right expression, volume, and tone.  It is so much fun that the students slowly start changing their attitudes about poetry.  

It is my hope that when my students see poems, they will think that this is something they CAN read and understand.  Actually "liking" poetry is half the battle and if I can get my students comfortable with different styles, it may just allow their minds to work more freely instead of "shutting down".  

I think I can...I think I can...goes a long way!!

Be sure to check out more Reading Tricks and Treats at Ideas by Jivey!

Spark Student Motivation: Reading Letter freebie

I am linking up with my super sweet friend, Joanne, at Head Over Heels for Teaching with a quick student motivation tip.  I have been all out of sorts this week because my six year old missed school all week.  She was diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday and has had a high fever since Sunday.  It has been a stressful week with my husband and I taking turns staying home and sub plans are always more difficult than just being at work.  

I was working on a letter to send home to parents today regarding my students recent STAR assessment which coordinates with Accelerated Reader program and I thought this would be great to linkup with Joanne.  Our school uses the STAR assessment for benchmark scores in ELA and math.  I am using the STAR assessment to set individual goals for AR points per quarter for each student.  You can read more about my motivational strategies for promoting independent reading in my classroom here and here.  I believe that a key component of promoting a successful reading program is frequent accountability and communication with parents regarding classroom expectations.  The letter I will be sending home on Monday describes my plans for using the STAR assessment to make an individualized goal for each student and then includes space at the bottom for me to write the AR point goal for the quarter, students' points earned to date, and the percentage of the goal reached to date.

 I added this handout to my facebook page as a FAN FREEBIE.  The text is completely EDITABLE but the background is not due to copyright.  I noticed that the text doesn't line up quite right when I view it in Dropbox, but after it is downloaded, it lines up on my computer.  If the text doesn't line up for you, it is editable anyway.  

Maybe this template will spark an idea for a way to track your students' reading even if your school doesn't use AR.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend! :)