Thursday, May 16, 2013

Reader's Theater Fun!

About two weeks ago I introduced 2 of my reading groups to Reader's Theater. I really didn't have any expectations when I introduced the cute little 'plays', I just thought this would be something different for reading groups between now and the end of the year. 



Well...leave it to students to go above and beyond! My kids loved everything about these! 

They chose a partner and then found a spot around the room to practice reading. Their goal at first was just to become more fluent.
The same day I introduced these stories to my kids, they decided to spend their 'free choice' time making puppets that went along with their 'play'.  
Keep in mind...this is probably only a fourth of all of the puppets they made...for 3 different shows!
Well, these little puppets brought Reader's Theater to a whole new level! The next day the kids were practicing their play behind the theater. This created some new goals for my kids...they had to learn how to use the puppets at the correct time, they definitely needed to practice reading louder, and they needed more expression! So this was the perfect opportunity to model these to them.
By the end of the week my kids had pretty much mastered all of their new goals :) They were totally ready for a real...live...performance!! They were SO excited!! I set the chairs up, had them quickly practice introducing themselves, and they were ready to go! It was the cutest thing ever!!
I was so proud of them! Almost before they could even take a bow, they asked me if I bought more printer ink so I could print more plays for them!! 
Thank you Kristin for creating such a wonderful pack for my kindergartners to use!! 
Between you and me...I already asked her if she was going to make more of these gems and she said yes! I would just LOVE some that are a tad easier for my beginning readers!! Yipppeeee!!
You can find her pack by clicking on the image below.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Mother's Day Crafts

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful moms out there!! I hope you are enjoying your day with your family!! 
I am SO lucky to have the most amazing mother in the world! I love her SO much!!
In class, we made Hadar's cute Mother's Day purses and I just love how they came out! So super perfect...and easy!!
I prepped the purse for the students and they filled out the pages... pretty much independently!! They did such a good job! 
The kids also had a blast making this craft for their mom from Cupcake!
Cupcake includes so many different 'sprinkle' options and it was the cutest thing to watch the kids pick out which ones they wanted to include on their ice cream cone.

Enjoy the rest of your evening :)