Text Rich Classroom

I have long heard of the benefits of a text rich environment but prior to this year never actually sat down to make a conscious effort in my room.  This summer I made labels for all the art and writing supplies in my classroom.  I put the labels on the bins and on the self where the bins go.  Along with words I made sure that there was also a clear picture.  My hope is that my students will start to associate the words, pictures, and meanings.  It's a little thing but it also helps a TON with clean up time.  The students use the labels to find out where everything goes.

QR Code Writing Prompts

If you haven't been able to tell I LOVE using QR codes in my classroom.  I just love the "randomness" factor for lack of a better word.  I was thinking about different ways to use QR codes in the classroom and loved the idea of using them for writing prompts.  The basic idea is that a students choses a card, scans it, sees a writing prompt and then write about it.  Since my students (kindergarten) are not quite at this level yet (although now that I'm writing this my brain is thinking of how I can modify this for them... more to come latter :-) I decided to make some that one of the older classes could use. 

I found a FANTASTIC site for writing prompts here: http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/page/55
This man has created so many wonderful, creative, and fun writing prompts.  Since they are all presented in a nice way (I hope he doesn't mind).  I clicked on the pictures of prompts that I thought would be best for the age group of kids I was working with (3rd, 4th, and 5th) and created QR codes to those pictures.  Then I cut them out laminated them (just so they could be used more than once without getting bad) and gave them to the teacher.  I think she uses them as a "I'm done now what" and has the students pick out one, scan it and then write.

 

If you would like a copy of the ones I made you can find them here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7rxkDqYdsHMZnB3b3B0ZDgyUlE/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

 

QR Sight Word Tic Tac Toe

I originally saw an idea like this on pinterest (sorry I can't remember the exact website).  Like every teacher, I tweaked it a bit to make it work for me.  The idea is that the students scan a QR code on the tic tac toe grid and if they can read the sight word on it they get to mark it. I wanted to make this more useful then just printing 9 QR codes on a grid so I printed off the blank grid and laminated it.  Then I made QR codes for ALL the sight words and laminated them. After I had everything laminated I put Velcro on the board and the pieces that way they could be interchanged.  Finally I put the board and a Ziploc bag in a report folder (the one with the clear plastic top and the 3 hole punch holders).  That way they could just the dry Erase markers on the plastic part of the report cover.  The Ziploc bag is to hold all the QR codes.

This is how the students use it...

1.  They take 9 QR codes out of the Ziploc bag and Velcro them to the grid (since they can't tell what codes they are taking it prevents them from only doing the ones they know)

2.  They place the plastic cover over the QR codes.

3.  They decided who will be X's and who will be O's.

4.  They take turns scanning a QR code.  If they can read the sight word then they get to put their mark on it, if not their turn is over. 

5.  They continue until a person gets 3 in a row or there are no more spots to go.

QR video links

I have written about our sight word journals before but this week I started another aspect of the journals.  I found on youtube some fantastic song videos (there is one for every letter and some for sight words).  My students LOVE them.  Because they are such a great learning tool I wanted to find a way to give my students access to them at all times.  Since they are on youtube, I was a little leery about making a straight link to the youtube video.  To avoid this I downloaded some of the videos off of youtube and put them on my dropbox.  I then made a QR code to link to the dropbox file of the video.  Then I just put the QR code on a sticky label and had the kids stick it to the sight word page.  This way when they are in the word work center they can use the iPads to listen to the sight word songs and practice them.

Spelling Cards

I will be presenting how to incorporate QR codes into literacy at a convention in February and although I have used them for many things in the past I am always trying to come up with new ideas.  This time I am using the QR code as a way for students to check their work when trying to sound out words.  I have made about 24 cards.  Each card has a picture of something, lines for the number of letters in that word, and a QR code that when scanned shows the correct way to spell the word.  I laminated the cards so the students can use dry erase markers on them.  The idea is that students try sounding out the word that goes with the picture, writes it on the lines, and then scans the QR code to check their spelling.

Sight Word Journal

Sight words are a big focus in kindergarten.  I am always trying new ways to help my student learn sight words.  This year I have started to have my students make sight word journals.  We just use plain notebooks (with lines).  Every time my students are introduced to a new sight word they get an activity sheet.  This activity sheet has about 3 things for the students to do with that sight word.

 Some of the things I have done are:
- Rainbow write the word (5 times with different colors)
- Color in the word
- Find the word in a magazine and cut and glue it in
- Stamp the word with letter stamps
- Trace the word
- Circle the word in a sentence
- Find the word and circle it in a word scramble
- Write the word in letter shape boxes

The students glue this activity sheet into the journal and write the sight word at the top of the page.

Then next day the students get a sentence with a blank spot.  They write the sight word on that spot to complete the sentence then glue it in and color a picture to match. 

Baseline Reading Assessments

I can't believe how fast the school year is going already!  We are already into our fourth week of school.  Over the past few weeks I have been doing baseline assessments on my students.  This summer I took an online PALS-K assessment class.  Since my school does not have an official kindergarten screening program I have taken some of the tasks from the PALS-K assessment and created my own to align with them.  After sitting down with each student I completed the baseline part of the assessment (I use the same packet for every subject) I took the "letter identification" and "letter sound" assessment and using a highlighter and a class grid sheet (I know very high tech) marked the letters or sounds that each student didn't know.  Now I have a visual of the needs of my students and can focus on those specific areas.

Here is the link to the assessment checklist I created: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7rxkDqYdsHMeURwUi1WNkZOdms/edit?usp=sharing