Report cards and the Book Wizard. Mostly I mean Scholastic, but I'm a book wizard, too!

I have been such a bad blogger, but it has been a whirlwind since getting back from break!  First we had mClass assessments, which I loved, but took me 3 days, then finishing assessments and grading for report cards, then the actual report card process!!  I have missed my little blog!

So as if report cards weren't enough this week, I have undertaken the project of adding to my book shopping library.  My kiddos are really so impressive this year when it comes to their reading skills- and they really LOVE to read!  The problem is (and it's a good problem to have), that about half of my kids are wanting to check out 6 chapter books a week.  That's quite the undertaking to read 6 chapter books in 7 days as a first grader!!!  When I first started teaching, I never thought I would have that problem- I'm so proud of them!

Anyway, this isn't very conducive to partner reading or writing about their reading in Daily 5, so I've been working with my AMAZING parent volunteers to remedy this.  I've been trying to supplement with some picture books from levels J-P so that the kiddos are still challenged, but can continue to work on skills with their partners.  It's so hard to teach beginning readers how to summarize with a chapter book when they haven't yet mastered the skill in smaller books!  Of course that isn't to say that I don't want them reading chapter books- I really do!  How do you feel about this?  What are your kids reading?

Back in the day, I used a lot of my bonus points from Scholastic to buy Magic Tree House, Geronimo Stilton, A-Z Mysteries, Ready Freddy, etc., because they really inspired my kiddos to read.  They couldn't wait to get into the chapter books and once they found a series they liked, I couldn't get them to put their books down!  Now I'm going back and looking for popular characters in picture book series.  So far, I've got Piggie and Elephant, Skippyjon Jones, Pete the Cat, Pigeon, Froggy, Arthur, Franklin, and Berenstain Bears.  Oh, and Magic Schoolbus!  The boys are really excited for those to come in!  As one said, "It's fiction because there are characters, but nonfiction because it has facts."  You had to hear the enthusiasm in his voice when he said it!

After my report cards were printed, I went to work on a stack of books that were sitting in my basement, begging to be leveled.  24 hours later, I had leveled 160 books!  Some of these were books from garage sales, some from book orders, and some donated from wonderful families... tons of great books that I know the kids will love!  I will admit that I let them browse through the books on Friday before I was done leveling them so that they are all pumped about book shopping on Monday.

Here's my handiwork:

Sorry if you have to turn your head, but the picture is facing the right way on my computer till I upload it!  Anyway, that's 160 books, even if it doesn't look like it!  I was so proud after working till 7 on a Friday night, that I had to take a picture of it!

I have to say that I love Scholastic.  Not only do they provide some great deals on all of my favorite books, but the Book Wizard is awesome!  They've really expanded their leveled book database and I used books they had leveled to help me with some of mine that weren't listed.  If you haven't tried it before, you really should!

You can search by title (which is how I leveled), or you can search for books similar to a book your kids like.  What really helped me when looking for picture books at particular levels was searching by just that- reading level!  They make it so easy! 

Now I'm going back through book orders and searching for books to add to our collection.  If I can drum up $250 in sales, I can get 2500 additional bonus points!!!!  I noticed this before I sent in January's order, so now I'm sending it in along with February's- wish me luck!  Is it bad that I'm sending home December's book order again?  It had such a great selection and I want the kids to help me pick the books they want me to order!  Plus, December's book orders had the reading levels underneath to help parents and the February book order does not.

Is anyone else as crazy as I am when it comes to ordering books and using up every last bonus point?  How do you get books for your classroom?

I hope I didn't ramble too much!  It's good to be back!

Dice Domes... Greatest Invention Ever?! (Freebie included, too!)

I'm gearing up for my return to school after 17 days off that just flew by!  I'm excited to see the kids, but it's always hard to get back into the swing of things.  Though the break just didn't feel long enough, I know that when I get back it will feel like I have been gone for years, and I won't be able to find a thing!!  Anyway, I know it will be hard for the kids to be back, too, and I'm trying to find fun ways to get back into meeting those Common Core Standards.  We have report cards in two short weeks and I can guarantee those weeks will fly by even faster than the break!

On to what I have been dying to share...
Dice Domes!

Click on the picture to go see this product from Learning Resources!

The Dice Dome has three dice in it, two 1-6 numeral dice, and 1 die with three plus signs and 3 minus signs.  The best part... they are contained and QUIET!  The dice are made of sturdy foam and you barely hear them when they shake.  I don't know about you, but I cringe any time we are going to play a game with dice... not any more!  You can open these up and switch out the dice, too.  Oh, the possiblities...

Obviously, these are quite possibly the greatest classroom invention ever!  I've been wanting them since I first laid eyes on them, but talked myself out of buying them (how, I still do not know).  Guess what, though?  I got this for Christmas from one of my amazing first grade families...

An ENTIRE CLASS SET of Dice Domes!  So now I have to make sure I have enough activities to get lots and lots of use out of these bad boys!  I'm going to think out loud in the post, and if you come up with any ideas, please add a comment!

1.  Each student gets a Dice Dome and shakes.  Student must write a story problem to go with resulting roll. (math + writing)

2.  Students pair up, each with their own Dice Dome.  They roll at the same time and solve their equation.  The person with the highest result gets a point.  (Like War/Top-It).  To be more fair, you could ask students to ignore the sign and always add or always subtract, or just have it be the luck of the draw!

3.  Students use Dice Dome at word work, rolling and solving the equation, then writing the word wall word to represent the equation.  For example, if the student is working on the word "can" and rolls 3+4, the student writes the word 3 times in one color, then 4 times in another color and counts how many times he/she wrote the word total.  If the student rolls 4-3, the student writes the word 4 times and crosses out 3 of them.  (math + word work)

4.  Student rolls Dice Dome and then draws a domino/dot pattern to represent his/her roll.  We have been working on dot patterns and domino flashes, so this is a way for students to reverse the activity and help them start picturing these patterns in their heads, building number relationships.

5. Put 3 numeral cubes in the dome and have students roll and add three numbers together.

6.  Put three numeral cubes in and have students work on place value and number sense.  Using all three numbers, make the largest number possible, smallest number possible, etc.

7.  For higher ability students, put 3 or 4 numerals in the dome and 1 sign die.  Have them roll and add/subtract a 2-digit number with a 1-digit number or add/subtract two 2-digit numbers.

And for the grand finale of my post...

Click on this picture to go to the foam dice page on Learning Resources.  These would be good even without the domes!

Look at all of the options for filling the domes... I am in heaven right now!  I love the polyhedral dice for adding bigger numbers, dot dice for working on subitizing while adding two numbers together... ok I love them all!  There are also word family dice, too:



I have some Roll N Read games from Lakeshore, and while I love them, they are noisy and the kids lose the dice all the time!  With the Phonics Cube Set, they could play the same game, but I could select the dice I want in each cube depending on the word families/letters/blends we are working on!

Needless to say, I will be saving up to add to my dice collection now.  I am always super excited when I have an activity that the kids will love, especially when they can use it independently.  Once the kids know how to use these, they will be able to get them when they are done with seat work or during snack time and have some fun practicing math, and even writing or word work, too!

Here is the Roll and Read sheet I currently use when giving the kids free reign on the bigger letter cubes I have.  If you download it, please rate me!  Gracias!

Download a copy here!