I made it back from Chicago in one piece and with tons of ideas. I love to go to conferences, but I always find myself wanting to change a lot of things in my classrooms. I think the biggest thing that hit home for me was getting rid of leveled libraries in your classrooms. I have a lot of book buckets with themes, but I also have about 15 buckets that are leveled by guided reading levels. If students are picking just right books (which is taught in the Daily 5, but also enforced more through Café) they shouldn’t need leveled book bins. In the real world the library don’t categorize their books by level. This is number one on my list for Christmas classroom cleaning.
I am still in shock that we actually met the sisters and got to do this. If you have never been to one of their conferences or read their books you must put this on your Christmas wish list. We left the conference with tons of resources, DVD’s, books, and more. I actually felt like we were on Oprah’s Favorite Things, only the teacher’s edition. Any time they referenced a picture book that they loved we got to take it home with us that day!!!! We left with 2 DVD’s, 4 picture books, reference downloads, and a cute purple bag. Not to mention they were very funny and entertaining.
We have a very scattered week this week with the holidays just around the corner and out Thanksgiving feast, so I made a fun little filler math game. All you need is a copy of the free download, crayons, and a dice. I hope you can find some use in this activity. I have some fun display pictures that will be coming soon. I love Christmas, so be ready for lots of pictures!
Thanks for the turkey freebie. It's very cute! Careful when you change your library. I went to an exciting conference a few years ago and took out all my levelled books, too. And it's been driving me crazy ever since. I finally levelled a bunch of them again a couple of months ago. I know it doesn't work this way in book stores, libraries, etc., but I figure if it makes my life easier (and the kids' of course :)) then it's worth it. Just something to think about. Glad your conference was a great one!
ReplyDelete❀Barbara❀
Grade ONEderful
PS But you're probably much better at teaching them how to pick "just right books" :)
Love the pictures! I can't wait to hear more on Monday!
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