Quick post for Tara's Monday Made It!  I look forward to this linky every summer :)  For Father's Day I always have the boys make a craft for their dad.  Thanks to Pinterest I found this idea and made it our own.  My husband loved it and is hanging it in his office today!

 

While making this I sadly realized how quickly my boys are growing.  Next year we will need a much larger canvas to fit their hands.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for my Phonemic Awareness post for my Summer Blogging Series.  I am also looking for anyone who would like to donate a Phonics product for an upcoming post and giveaway. If you are interested, please comment below with your email.  Thanks!

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I {Heart} Recess

I'm linking up with Kreative in Kindergarten and Keeping up with Mrs. Harris for their planner linky.  I'm new to EC planners, I know shocking right! I'm even newer to the idea of using stickers and cutesy planners!  Who knew decorating your weekly plans in a planner made life even more exciting!?!

  

Etsy has a plethora of sellers for EC or any planner stickers.  My favorite is Libbie and Co., lover her colors and quality of the stickers.  I also have stickers from Glam Planning and a few scrapbooking stickers from Hobby Lobby.

This week starts off pretty busy for my family, boys have VBS and I am in a three day workshop.  I also start an online class tomorrow.  I'm starting back on a healthy eating plan this week and going to try to keep up on my water intake (water bottle stickers will help with this).

 I love quotes!  I've started to add them to my weekly planner to help motivate me, keep me focused, or just for encouragement.  This week I want to focus on my kids this week and try not spend so much of my time doing other things.  I used the EC stickers to keep up with my meal planning for the week.

 

I need to find better pens, I don't really care for the ballpoint pens that I've been using so if you have any suggestions please share your favorites!  Last week I was in a training and sitting in the front row (not by choice) and the presented noticed my EC planner.  She brought me hers and asked me how I use mine because she only used the monthly layout in hers.  My advice was to make it cute. :) Spending the time to plan and beautify my week helps me accomplish all the things I have planned. :)

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I {Heart} Recess

I've joined the TpT {Seller} Challenge this summer and hoping it is just the thing I need to get back into the habit of blogging and creating again.  It's amazing how school can drain you :)

 For this week's challenge I made over one of the first products I made.  These task cards are perfect for Back to School!  I use these at the beginning of the year to see what my students retained from the previous year.  There is a set for 4th grade and a set for 5th grade.

These cards are CCS aligned and have the standard at the bottom of each card. I also used the 5th grade set as an end of year review for my 4th graders. 

This was a great challenge to start with and helped to motivate me to revamp some other products in my store.  I can't wait to see what next week's challenge is!

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I {Heart} Recess

Over the past 8 years of teaching I taught grades 3-4, with most of my time spent in 4th grade. I taught at a school where the majority of my students came from families who were very involved in their child's education, and were great readers.  Over the years I did have several students who struggled with Reading, but more in the area of comprehension rather than phonics.  This year I switched schools and the students come from very different backgrounds.  I saw students who were reading well below grade level and struggled with other components of reading rather than just comprehension.  As the Instructional Coach I felt I wasn't as strong as I should have been in this area to help my teachers, so I am spending my summer freshening up and reviewing the complex process that reading is.

I plan to share what I learn, rediscover, or reminded of with you!  I think going back to the tried and true information in education is more powerful than the latest trend or educational craze.

Reading is complex and consist of several components.  These components cannot be taught in isolation, but are interlocking components that depend on one another. When one or more component is missing the interlocking system of reading is weakened and unable to function for lifelong use. Simply put, no component can be missing.

The Five Domains of Reading:

1. Phonemic Awareness
2. Phonics & Decoding
3. Fluency
4. Vocabulary
5. Comprehension

Some researchers have a sixth component...Higher Order Thinking.

Reading is an easily learned skill when taught from good teachers who model balanced literacy instruction. What is "balanced literacy"?  We hear this term a lot in education and the definition may be different from school to school or district to district. The common definition I have found is where literacy instruction includes explicit teaching, holistic reading and writing that is combined to create more capable readers. As educators we know that children do not all learn the same way and need a variety of methods and strategies that help build their reading skills.  Within the balanced literacy a good teacher will use a variety of strategies during both explicit and holistic instruction.

Over the next several weeks I will dive deeper into each domain of reading, including Higher Order Thinking.  I hope you stop by to sharpen your understanding of the complex process of reading. :)

What is something you hope to learn about reading this summer? Or what are you working on this summer to help next year be more successful for you?

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I {Heart} Recess

Can you believe it...I'm actually posting!?!  It's been a few months since my last post, thanks to a hectic end of the school year.  No better way than to come off of a blogging break by linking up the Primary Peach for their Organizational Tips and Tricks linky!

 These pictures are from about two years ago when our district switched over to the Common Core Standards.  I needed a way to organize my files to the new standards. The picture below is just half of the stuff I kept, teachers are just organized hoarders :)

I typed up my labels which you can find here for FREE in my TpT store.  On my labels I added a "cliff note"of sort so I could quickly find and sort my resources.  Plus memorizing ALL those letters and numbers will take me forever and by the time I did memorize them it will change.

 *Note you will need Avery Labels 8593. I found mine at Wal-mart.

I started with a stack of papers and began sorting them into each strand.  I had already created folders for the Big Idea, but sorted them into each individual standard (for example 4.NF.4 a).

I laid out a few folders and using my "cliff notes" I was able to quickly sort my resources.

Finally, nice and neat files :)  I also created files for Language Arts, Writing, Reading Literature, Reading Informational, Science, and Social Studies.

I am so glad I did this a few years ago!  As an Instructional Coach these came in handy for when assisting my 4th grade team.  I was able to quickly grab my file and resources for them!  I am currently working on labels and files for third and fifth grade.  I will post those labels once they are completed.

*I hope you stop by later in the week for my Summer Blogging Series

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I {Heart} Recess