Friday, May 30, 2014

Friday Freebie: My Favorite Book Banner

Every day we inch that much closer to the last day of school.  We are just 20 days away now.  Next week the reading teachers are helping administer our state science test, field tests for our state ELA and math tests, and our end of the year Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessments.  Go team assessment!

Knowing that I wouldn't see my kiddos for a while due to testing, we took a break for our usual routine yesterday to make a pennant/banner of their favorite books.  It was a great because I was able to use the same activity for all my students in grades 1-5.  I especially enjoyed seeing what my fifth graders did for their favorite books.  For my boys it was Gary Paulsen's Mr. Tucket and my girls picked some of the books they had gotten from me as incentives like Chocolate Touch.  All in all, it was a great activity. The best part was it was a low prep activity: just print and go!

Here are a few of the end products:




Since it's Friday, I wanted to share this activity with you as my Friday Freebie.  You can download the pages from my TpT store by clicking the photo below.  If you like this product you may be interested in the full product that is also available in my store.  You can click the second picture to be taken to the full product.  Happy Friday!

 Friday Freebie

 All About Me Memory Banners

Friday, May 23, 2014

Friday Freebie and a Memorial Day Sale

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Karla-Marano

I hope you will stop by my TpT store this weekend.  Everything will be 20% off 5/23-5/26.  Stock up on all your favorite Really Reading products including kindergarten, first grade, and fifth grade Journeys supplements, phonics activities for K-2, fun end of the year products, and testing treats.  You can find them all at Really Reading at TpT.

    
 


Thanks for visiting today.  In celebration of Memorial day, I have a graphic organizer and writing paper freebie for you.  You can find it here.



  


Tuesday, May 20, 2014

NYS School Budget Vote Day...Please Remember to Vote

It's school budget vote day here in New York State, and I'd like to remind you how important it is to vote.  Investment in education shows our commitment to the future and to the vitality of our communities.  Please take the time today to vote on your district's budget.  Your vote matters.


Saturday, May 17, 2014

FRIDAY FLASH FREEBIE a day late



Even though my kiddos are not the kind of kids that are involved in everything, it gets to be spring and life gets extremely hectic. Both boys are playing baseball this year. Our five year old is tearing up the field playing tee ball, (and I do mean that literally!) and our oldest is playing "real" little league where kids pitch the ball. Now I find myself out four nights a week. This is a big change for all of us and messes with our sleep schedule. Let's just say we all get a bit cranky when we're not in bed by 8 o'clock. 





So here's a Friday flash freebie a day late. I picked out my Lady Bug Alphabet pennants. If you're like me or my teacher friends, you are already are thinking about your classroom for next year. Pennants are a fun way to decorate your classroom.  I have several different styles of pennants and alphabets in my TpT store.  

Since I'm a day late, I'm planning on leaving this up until tonight. You can find the pennants here in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Feedback is appreciated, and I hope you'll consider following the store while you're there. Thanks! Have a great weekend!


Wednesday, May 14, 2014

It's not just a boy thing: Learning to blend and segment with cars

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This year more than any other it seems I have a group of kindergarten students that love to play with toy cars.  I go to pick them up for reading class and they're playing with their cars.  We walk down the hall and suddenly they're pulling them out of their pockets.  I knew I had to find ways to incorporate cars and capitalize on their beloved possessions.

We've done a few different things like using our cars as game pieces to drive around the track as we practice our sight words, letters, and sounds.  We've parked our cars in our sight word parking lots.  Then it came time to work on blending and segmenting.  The kids enjoyed the different themes I have for segmenting and blending.They dutifully moved their chips into sound boxes, but they really missed the cars.  That's when my Road Readers set was born.

I created task cards with little roads with cvc words segmented above them.  We started with cards with pictures, so the kiddos saw that when they put the sounds back together they made words.  These were a huge hit and really helped keep my busiest ones focused on the task at hand.  The pictures helped my students that had the most trouble.  Once they had the hang of it, we moved to cards without pictures.  

My Road Readers for Short A are now available in my TpT store.  It includes 
-15 full color segmenting/blending roads with pictures
-15 black and white segmenting/blending roads with pictures
-15 full color segmenting/blending roads without pictures
-30 black and white segmenting/blending roads without pictures
-3 center worksheets where students segment, read, then cut and glue a picture to match the word read.
-3 center worksheets segment the sounds in a picture and record the sounds they hear to write the word.





Tuesday, May 13, 2014

FLASH FREEBIE Get Word Work Task Cards Free!

I have put my basketball word work task cards out as a flash freebie today.  You can grab them in my TpT store for free today only.  So hurry on over and grab them!  Feedback is always appreciated and don't forget to follow my store while you're there!

 Flash Freebie

Saturday, May 10, 2014

New End of the Year Product

Now that our ELA and Math state tests are over, it's time to start thinking about the end of the year.  Even though our school calendar ends a week later this year, the last day will be here before we know it.  Both our boys are now playing Little League, so our days and nights are extra busy.  June 26th will be here in a flash!

Since I've had the end of the year on my mind, I decided to work on a new product: All About Me Memory Banners.  If you've visited my TpT store, you know I have small love affair with banners.  I really love how this new product turned out too.  It's low prep; you just print and go.  You can use one page or every page depending on how you want to use it.  You can make a class banner or have each student make a memory banner as a end of the year keepsake.  It's up to you!  You can find this product in my TpT store.





Friday, May 9, 2014

33 Fun and Educational Apps on Free App Friday

I love getting new apps for my own children and my school kiddos.  Free App Friday is a great way for both teachers and parents to get new educational apps for their kids.  You can head over to Smart Apps for Kids to see today's 33 free apps for iOS devices.  I picked up Second Grade Fiction Reading Comprehension.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Classroom App Free Today

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Day, Hooked on Phonics has the classroom version of their Learn to Read app for free.  It's normally $49.99, so this is a great deal.  I urge you to check it out in the App Store.  I can't wait to try it out.


Happy Teacher Appreciation Day, A Giveaway, and Sale!

Yes, it's Teacher Appreciation Day!  I want to thank all my wonderful teachers I had growing up, as well as my current colleagues, and my sons' teachers.  I appreciate all that you do each day for children.  Thank you for giving so unselfishly to help our students learn, grow, and prosper.

I wanted to give back today to my fellow teachers, so I've decided to run a new giveaway.  This time I'm offering the winner a choice of any product in my TpT store.  You have three ways to enter using the entries below: leave a blog comment letting me know what product you would like to win, leave a blog comment letting me know you are following my TpT store, and enter by becoming a fan of Really Reading on Facebook.  Make sure you go through Rafflecopter so your entries are logged into the system.



Don't forget that today and tomorrow is the TpT teacher apprecation sale.  You get 28% off all my products when you use the promo code TPTXO.  I hope your stop by!







a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Brand New Freebie and Teacher Appreciation Sale at TpT

Tuesday May 6th is teacher appreciation day and Teachers Pay Teachers is celebrating with a two day sale May 6th and 7th.  Many stores, including mine, will be having 20% off sales.  Combine that with the TpT code: TPTXO and get an additional 10% off for a total of 28% off your purchases.  I know my wishlist is filling up fast.  I can't wait to do some shopping of my own.


As a thank you, I'm also offering a new freebie in my TpT store.  It's a printable emergent reader called The Beach.  I also have a second freebie on my Facebook page that has coordinating center activities for this book.  You can find the book here and the center activities here.




I hope you'll stop by my store and my Facebook page.  Happy Teacher Appreciation Day to all my fellow teachers!

Friday, May 2, 2014

Favorite App Friday

I have to say many of my iPad apps are free ones.  If I have a paid app, it's usually after I've tried a lite version.  I like when you can try the app before you buy.  I've been disappointed a few times after trying an app that looks great based on the description, but it just doesn't live up to the hype.  

One of my favorite apps this year is one I paid for: Stick Pick.  I love it.  It's a digital version of the ole sticks in a can many of us have used to randomly pick students for a task.  

I love Stick Pick because in AIS I have classes coming and going all day.  One can of real sticks just wouldn't do it and multiple cans would be an organizational nightmare for me.  Stick Picks allows me to have as many virtual cans as I need.  I have one for each group.  I haven't used the more advanced features that monitor students responses to questions, but it's something I hope to explore.  I've used it to create random groups for peer projects, assign the order students will go in games, and for other times I've needed to pick students randomly.  It works great in my fifth grade group.  They are constantly asking to go next if I don't pull out the iPad and use Stick Pick.  To me, this was $2.99 well spent.



You can find Stick Pick in the App Store.