Reader Response {Freebies}

Happy Fall, Y'all!

My adorable pumpkins are falling in love with books.  That's one of my favorite parts of teaching 2nd grade - seeing my little guys discover their love of literature.  So here are a few freebies for reader response.

After reading a fiction book or story, any of these poems can be written about main character.

Poetry Pattern Book Reports


This book investigation can be wonderful as an enrichment activity and it's amazing to see what your students can create!  It is designed to be used with a nonfiction book or article.

 Book Investigation


My students use these spinners, and they LOVE them!  All they need is a pencil and a paper clip to make the spinner.  I tell them to spin it and write the answer to the question in a notebook or on a piece of paper.  If they land on the same question more than once, I instruct them to simply spin again.

Comprehension Spinners


To be used with a fiction piece, this Book Scavenger Hunt is a student favorite.

Book Scavenger Hunt

Enjoy!

Leaving Tracks of My Thinking

My 2nd graders have been so busy practicing their reading strategies, and I am so proud of them.  It is so exciting to see them THINK while they are reading.  This year we have been utilizing The Comprehension Toolkit by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, and the results are truly amazing.

Recently as we worked on leaving tracks of our thinking, we focused on making text-to-text connections.  My team and I also wanted to challenge our budding readers to compare and contrast two different genres of text, so we read a fiction story on one day and then a poem on the next day.  For this reading experience, the key to picking out the poem was to choose one that had story elements.  It worked out perfectly and we were able to reinforce the elements of a poem at the same time.  Score!

On each day, we filled out this page where we did some parts together, some parts in pairs and the rest individually:

Then on the third day, we used each page above (previously filled out) to complete the page below as we compared (similarities) and contrasted (differences).  Again, we did one similarity and difference for each together as a whole class, one in pairs and then they tackled one on their own.  It completely stretched their thinking and they LOVED it!  I forced them to think of similarities and differences that were somehow related.  That's what made it challenging and a lot of fun.

In the rounded rectangles in the "Story" area is where I asked them to draw and color a picture of their favorite part of that story/poem.  In the shaded "My Connection" area is where they made a self-to-text connection for that story/poem.

I was blown away by some of the ideas my kiddos generated and I can't wait to do this again!!

Literacy Centers {free printable}

Last year my district started using McGraw-Hill's reading series.  While the station ideas for each week's main selection are good, sometimes I find myself spending a lot of time explaining the directions.  After reading The Daily 5, I decided to create some generic literacy centers that could be used with any story/selection.  So, drum roll please...I present to you a set of 16 centers that can be set up in your classroom with just a few materials that you probably already have on hand.

I created a few stations for Words, Reading, and Writing.  Here's what is in each category:

Words:

• Making Words

• Making Words Recording Sheet (The title font is called Grilled Cheese.)

•  Spelling Activity

Spelling Activity Cards can be found {here}.

• Dictionary Dig

Reading:

• Poetry (lots of resources {here}, and {here}).

• Partner Reading

• Read & Respond (lots of graphic organizers found {here}, {here}, {here}, and {here}.

• Comic Strip Story

• Listening to Reading (a couple of online story sites {here} and {here}.
  
  
  

•  Read Time for Kids

• Art (My thinking behind this center is to have seasonal art projects or other art projects that compliment the curriculum.)

Writing:

• Top Ten List

• Squiggle Story (Go {here} to see how Squiggle stories can be used in 1st & 5th grades.)

• Making Sentences

There are 10 sets of sentence cards.  Just print on cardstock and cut out.  Put each set in a zipper bag.

• Write a Letter

• Journal Writing

Tons and tons of journal prompts {here}, {here}, and {here}.

• Super Sentences

30 sentence cards in this document

You can find some other great literacy ideas {here}.

What's your favorite literacy center activity?  Make a comment or share a link in your comment.  Go ahead and download these literacy stations {here}.  As always, if you'd like an editable version, just leave me a comment with your email address.

Name Calling!

Creating a Wordle is so easy and fun!

In my humble opinion, the most powerful word in any classroom is a student's name.  I'm not talking about using it to redirect misbehavior or to call on a student to answer a question (although those circumstances are necessary).  In my experience, using a child's name in a positive tone of voice reflects love and care which can lead to a deeper level of respect in that relationship.  I try to use a student's name in the middle of our conversation, and the big smile I see lets me know how warm and fuzzy she/he feels.  It just goes to show what Dale Carnegie says about names is true: "Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language." It reminds me of Proverbs 16:24: "Kind words are like honey--sweet to the soul and healthy for the body."  So, be a name caller!

Quick ideas to encourage name calling:

• Kids can draw and color a self-portrait at the bottom of this poem, "Everybody Has a Name."  
  
• The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi is a wonderful book to read to your class at the beginning of the school year!
• Check out Scholastic's Fabulous First-Day Ideas.
• Go to TeacherVision to grab some tips for learning students' names quickly.
• Have your kids create a Wordle using their names.  (I made a sample Wordle using my dog's name above.)