A FABULOUS Five for Friday!

Hi Friends!  We hope that you all enjoyed your week!  We are breathing a little easier now that it's Friday!  Today we are linking up with Doodle Bugs to share what we were up to this week!

 So, we really can't complain TOO much about our week because we had an exciting SNOW DAY on Wednesday!  I'm pretty sure the entire state of Massachusetts shut down once again.  My son and I spent a very lazy day watching movies and making Snow Ice Cream for the very first time!  It was so much fun!  I only wish that we had a jar of hot fudge and a can of whipped cream to top off our creation!  Unfortunately, I was too lazy chicken to brave the elements to pick some up at the grocery store.

 Speaking of snow, here is a cute picture of Colleen's class braving the elements at recess this week!  Nothing stops us New Englanders from giving our kids some much-needed exercise during the week!  Kids, throw on your snow pants!  We're going outside!!

 On the other hand, we stayed nice and warm in the Reading Room practicing 'y' as a vowel and 'y' as a suffix this week in our phonics program.  I was so excited to finally take the "Mirror Mirror on the Wall" card game off the shelf to play!  Thank goodness my mother is a habitual coffee drinker as she donated a trash bag of coffee cans to house some of our games.  All the cans neatly line a shelf which make it easy to grab and for teachers to borrow.  If you haven't downloaded this FREEBIE yet, grab it today!

If you are looking for a really fun read aloud next week to celebrate friendship and Valentine's Day,  Colleen and I highly recommend one of our favorite books by mother-daughter team Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton (yes....THE Julie Andrews).  The Very Fairy Princess shares how love and imagination can go a long way towards solving problems, even on Valentine's Day.  This bundle includes two Reading Response letters (boy or girl) and a fun comprehension game that aligns with standards:

RL.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text. 

RL. 2.1 Ask and answer questions such as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

GRAB IT THIS WEEK FOR ONLY $1.00!!

Finally, if you are looking for some fabulous ways to promote literacy and increase parent involvement in your classroom or school, our collaborative blog buddies at Adventures in Literacy Land  are sharing some dynamic ideas to improve the home-school-community connection!  

Enjoy your weekend, friends!  

December Five for Friday FUN!

Five more days....five more days....five more days!  Is everyone else chanting this in their head like me as I'm instructing my little friends?  Wow!  What a crazy week!  One down...one more to go!  Although my kiddos were a little "off" this week, we were still able to buckle down and get a few fun things done in the Reading Room.  Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for her weekly linky party to share what I've been up to!

 If you ever have a chance to see A Christmas Story the musical...GO!  I kept going back and forth about taking my little guy but stumbled upon some half-price tickets online so decided to take him.  Although our seats were in the nose-bleed section, we really enjoyed the acting, singing, and dancing.  It was really cool that the majority of the actors/actresses in the show were children.  Incredible talent!!  Logan was GLUED during each scene!  It really put us in the mood for Christmas!

 I have ONE MORE WEEK until my CAGS in Literacy class is over!  WHOOOOO HOOOO!  This month has been really stressful balancing life while pursuing a second degree.  I really enjoy my coursework but between work, holiday shopping, and caring for my family, I was SPENT this December.  Last week I went into a panic realizing that I did not have a single photo appropriate for the annual Christmas card.  Well, thank goodness I have a VERY talented blog partner that is a WHIZ with the camera!  THANK YOU Colleen for taking such beautiful pictures of my family!  She really captured everyone's personality, didn't she? 

 Since today was "Game Day Friday", my second grade groups got to play games that reinforced what we have been working on in our Fundations program.  This week we have been practicing suffix/inflectional endings using our Picking the Biggest Apples bundle.  This 27 page bundle includes 64 word cards, Board Game, SCOOT Spelling, Roll the Die Game and WEEK of reinforcing activities. I knew the Roll the Die game was a HIT, when one of my students said, "This game is awesome!  Can we play next week?"  Of course we can!!

 Speaking of next week, I'm probably going to pull out our new Grade 2 Winter Literacy Centers for us to play.  It will be like a “Snow Day” when my students practice their decoding skills playing the games and activities included in this bundle! This 30 page bundle includes FIVE literacy games and activities that are perfect for an ELA student center, small group RTI intervention, or whole-class activity.  Since winter has arrived early in New England, this bundle will be perfect as the temperature plummets!!  It was 19 degrees this morning!  19!!!

And finally, tomorrow brings the one-year anniversary of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary.  As you are wrapping presents, finishing up last minute holiday shopping, or baking cookies, please say a prayer for those families hurting this weekend as the memories flood back of that horrible day. 

 

Have a blessed weekend, friends.  Hug your family and friends a little tighter and let your light shine so brightly that others can see their way out of the dark.

I Am So Thankful! Blog Hop Stop #17

 Congratulations! You made it to blog stop#17! If you are just "hopping in", you can go here if you missed some stops along the way. This is also where you will find the I Am So Thankful giveaway!!  Don't forget to collect all the delicious "pie clues" along the way to enter!

Speaking of pie clues, Colleen and I agreed that "NEW BEGINNINGS" really captures what we are thankful for this time of year.  Our exciting year began when the two of us started working together in the Reading Room when Colleen was my student intern.  Little did we know that our student/mentor relationship would blossom into something bigger.  We are so thankful that when our paths crossed, we decided to start our little ol' blog and begin to share our ideas with all of you.  The blogging friendships we have made in just a few months have been AMAZING!  Thank you, friends for sharing this journey with us!  It has been a very exciting time in our careers! 

 

To celebrate our "New Beginnings" and Thanksgiving apple pie, we are offering one of our favorite products, "Picking the Biggest Apples", as our I Am So Thankful FREEBIE!  Your students will have a blast learning suffix endings (inflectional endings) when playing THREE games included in this bundle!  It includes 64 word cards, Board Game, SCOOT Spelling, Roll the Die Game and WEEK of reinforcing activities. These student-led games are perfect for an ELA student center, small group RTI intervention, or whole-class activity. The reinforcing activities can be used to assess your student’s ability to decode one syllable words with suffix ending s, es, er, est, ing, or ed.  

Thank you for stopping by The Rungs of Reading!!  We hope you enjoy our "I Am So Thankful" freebie!  For updates on what is going on in Stacy and Colleen's classrooms, please like our Facebook page.

Now hop over to the next stop on your "I Am So Thankful" journey! 

Ripper Resources

Five for Friday and Big Birthday SALE!

Happy Friday, everyone!  We hope you had a great week!  I LOVE this time of year!  Settling into the school routine, still feeling that back to school energy and starting to notice the bright colored leaves make this girl very happy!  Plus, it's my "birthday weekend" so I am planning to celebrate and have some fun with my family!  Being the only girl in the house has its positives!
I'm excited to be joining Doodle Bugs Teaching again for her weekly Five for Friday linky party.  I love reading these linked up posts every week because they highlight school ideas as well as everyday life!

I had a great start to the week.  On Sunday my family had a chance to go apple picking.  The apples are AMAZING this year!!  Logan couldn't wait  to take a bite right away!  Delicious!  I'm going to try to squeeze-in time to make one of my favorite fall desserts, Apple Dumplings!  I love Trisha Yearwood's recipe from the Food Network.  It's super easy to make and delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!  I'm drooling just thinking about it! 















I was able to find some colorful baskets at the Dollar Store (SCORE) to finish organizing my books in the Reading Room.  I am very fortunate to have an eclectic assortment of titles to meet my student's needs and interests.  When I started the position four years ago, I decided to organize the books by guided reading level.  This makes it easy for me and my colleagues to quickly find appropriately leveled books for students.  Since every minute is precious during the school day, I think it's critical that I always provide my struggling readers with books they are able to read with success.  However, I also try to promote motivation by giving them choice in what they read.  Now that the books are arranged by level, I can offer them several baskets to choose from and still ensure their success.  How do you arrange your classroom library?  Leveled?  Genres?  Authors?

 

A second project that I was able to finish was a Story Retell poster based on a blog post from The First Grade Parade.   Cara explains how she uses sticky notes to record her student's thoughts while they retell a book.  This makes it nice to be able to reuse the poster again and again.  I made a mini-version of her anchor charts and put on a ring for my Reading Tutors to use during small groups.  These would also work great for students to use after "Read to Self" activities.  If you visit Cara's blog, all the resources are available as a free download.

 

In time for the start of football season, our new produce "Punted, Tackled, and Blocked" reinforces the three sounds of suffix-ed.  The bundle includes 3 different games and a week of reinforcing student activities.  I can't wait to put this together for my kiddos!  GO PATS!!





Finally, to celebrate my birthday, everything in our TpT store is 20% off this Friday and Saturday!  LET'S PARTY!

We hope you have a fun-filled weekend, friends!!  Talk again soon!