Reader's Theater, An Overlooked Powerhouse!

Happy Summer!  I hope that everyone is taking a little time to catch some R&R while summer is still going strong.  Above, I am dropping my soon to be 4th and 5th graders off at church summer camp (sniff, sniff)!  We have never done this before and I don't know who was more nervous me or them?!  Poor baby girl was heart broken because sisters aren't around to play with her...good thing mommy is!  I have played barbies, read a million books, and played beachball volleyball...all before lunch!  Good thing I am a Plexus Powered mommy, cause I wouldn't be able to keep up without it!  These all natural products give me the health and energy to keep up with the demands of life!

I am a huge proponent of Reader's Theater in the classroom!  It does take a little creativity and organization to fit it into the elementary day.  I committed about 10-15 minutes each week and it was WORTH every minute!  The pay offs are BIG!

Powerhouse Pay-Offs

-Kids are excited about reading!

-Parents get involved, are excited, and supportive too!

-Poise, intonation, ennunciation, and authentic fluency and voice are learned through practice, repetition, and peer demonstration!

-Kids are empowered and aquire greater self-esteem about their abilities as a reader!!

These are huge benefits because kiddos who believe they can read are more willing to take risks and push themselves to become better readers!  What teacher doesn't want that for every student who walks through their classroom door?!

How it works for me:

In my classroom I dedicate a roster strictly to keeping track of who is assigned to what script.  This helps ensure that NO one is left out and keeps track of what scripts I have used that year (I try REALLY hard not to repeat).  In the beginning, I try to pick scripts by flexible reading groups.  This allows me at least 1 initial lesson to go over my expectations of a Reader's Theater presentation.  It allows the group to learn to follow a script, ask questions, etc.  I initially did this with 1st graders and it worked just as beautifully with 2nd---I have not yet braved trying this with my preschoolers.  Not sure how it would go or how to modify.  If you have ideas, PLEASE share!!  Our initial lesson during group time would also give me a chance to go over intonation and voice with my kiddos.  We discussed how it was important to read through and understand what your character was like based on their actions  (super authentic reading lesson!!).  We would also discuss what props they might be able to look for at home to help support their role as this character.  (in my letter explaining the scripts to the parents it is noted that they are NOT to go out and purchase props.)  Props are a lot of fun and add to the experience, but I had many students who never got into that sort of thing and that was perfectly fine.  Props were completely optional. In my experience, as the year went on and the kiddos grew more confident, I saw more and more props.  I had to eventually make a rule, that if you brought a "costume", you had to be able to slip it on over your school clothes---no running to the restroom to change!  (great problem to have to solve in my opinion--kids so excited they are willing to go the extra mile to present their script to their peers.)

The Schedule:

So a typical week would have been that I handed out the scripts with explanation letter and part attached on Thursday or Friday.  This would give them the weekend to begin going over their lines.

The next Monday or Tuesday I would utilize 1 reading group time to meet with my theater performers.  This lesson is essential in the beginning to "set the stage" so to speak.  If you have high expectations, like I do, it is necessary to ensure they don't get up their and read like robots or stumble over all their lines.  I'm not talking perfection---but I AM talking practiced.  In fact, in my class I told them that if they could not read their lines then I would become their character.  No one likes to have to struggle in front of their peers.  (this only happened once or twice, Reader's Theater is a pretty strong motivator!)

Then depending on our schedule that week we would present to the class on Wed or Thursday.  I would take pictures that I would post to my website, there was applause and bowing, and then we would have comments.  I would call on 3 people from the polite audience who had a compliment for the group.  Then I would call on 1 person who had a thought for something the ENTIRE group could work on.  (this takes training...if your kiddos are new to this type of feedback sharing, I would let them do the complimenting and YOU do the "work on" part.  Eventually they're coming up with ennunciation all on their own!  Easy, right?!  

I have such fond memories of our Reader's Theater times!  Here are a few of the pictures I dug up from years past.

sometimes I would use the smart board to project an image.  Especially if we were doing a nonfiction Reader's Theater!  The kiddos LOVED this!

 Can you guess what we need to work on here?  If you guessed eye contact and not hiding behind your script, you are right!  Always an unending battle!!

 Before our first few presentations we would always review what appropriate "audience" behavior looked like and sounded like.

Eventually if I did not have an image that needed projected.  I would just project the stage template found in the images on notebook software.

I hope this helps to either affirm or inspire YOU to utilize the reading powerhouse of Reader's Theater in YOUR classroom!

Tuesday tech tip

My daughter wanted to write a story the other day and so I decided to have a little fun and discover some new technology.  I found a great little program called Story Board That . It's an online and app based ( for all you lucky peeps who have chrome books ) program that allows the writer to create story boards with a variety of characters, backgrounds, etc. You can even upload your own pictures!!

My daughters spent their beautiful Saturday creating stories.

Manipulating the character's hair, eye, and skin color. Placing them into the scenes they wanted for their storyline. Adding text in either text boxes or a variety of speech bubbles.  ( remember, this is all on the first real day if spring break!!)

And, the kicker is I had even turned on a movie (planes) just to see if I could pull them away!!  Talk about a teacher's dream come true!!  I actually had to kick them off and tell them that they had worked long enough for today and promise them they could work on it tomorrow.  This has gone on for more than 3 days now!! So.... 

I'm thinking, no!! I'm wishing that I had a classroom to try it out in!!  The motivation is obvious.  The teacher aspects are even better. First of all, the program is EASY to use!! If my 4 year old can do it with little help then any grade school child or partner pair would be able to navigate through(obviously she can't type her story yet). Hmmm I wonder if you can record??  

I absolutely LOVE the teacher dashboard!  Logged in as a teacher, you are able to see the storyboards of all your students at a glance.  In a moment you'll be able to tell whether Suzy Q. is really hard at work on her story, or hard at work creating an imaculate picture. 

 You are also able to present student's storyboards from your dashboard.  I would utilize this mode for group editing mini lessons.  Simply select the desired student's storyboard from the teacher dashboard page and open.  Then located at the bottom of the storyboard are buttons with options, such as "make visible to classroom".

If you are needing an actual product or would like to share with others the work of your students you are able to print and download a powerpoint of the storyboard.

Another fun feature I have discovered while playing with this program is the ability to create a storyboard and save it as a template for your students to use.  I can see this being extremely beneficial for younger classes or faster paced assignments. I could even see using it as an evaluation of recently taught grammar lessons or writing techniques.  The possibilities are endless!

Well, even though it's late....I believe it's a good one!  I hope you have enjoyed this Tuesday's Tech Tip!  

It's Monday...err...Tuesday and time for a Tiny Tech Tip!

It's Monday and my kiddos are home because there's like a millimeter of ice on the road.  Now for all you northerner's, it's hard to believe, but in Texas a tiny bit of snow shuts down the city.  Seems strange, but it's true.  I guess when you don't have salt trucks and rely on sand it really changes the ballgame.

Anyway, I have been making a strong effort to post once or twice a week.  Why have a blog if you're not going to share right?!  The truth is I have all these ideas and cool activities that I do in class but, I am TERRIBLE about remembering to take pictures BEFORE I send them home!  So, yet another thing I am working to get better at!  I have finally found a picture editing program that I like (mainly because I've figured out how to use it and it requires very little effort).  It's called pizap so if you're like me and have struggled to find an editing app that you like, give it a try.  It's quick and easy, lemon squeezy!  Plus, you can use it on your phone for all those who are always on the go!  Pizap has a bunch of easy to use frames, stickers, and my FAVORITES are the funny faces and glasses which are featured in my pics below.  These are a MUST for disguising your kiddos in the pics you want to post AND much more appealing than just blocking or blurring out the face.

fun with borders, cut out tools and more!!

My days at school for the past few weeks has been filled with evaluating skills as we ready ourselves for spring parent conferences in preschool.  This is my first year with this school and it has been a LONG time since I have been in the preschool setting, so I have just tried to go along with the flow.  As we evaluate I am reminded of a training I attended long ago that stressed the old saying "begin with the end in mind".  In retrospect, how I wish I would have had this assessment at the beginning of the year.  Sure my team has been great with team planning and lesson sharing, but there are little things like teaching opposites(!) that may have been left unsaid.  My poor kiddos!  At least I have something to focus on besides letters and sounds for the next couple months. Here's a little peek at what my room has been looking like during all this evaluation.  We've been serious about evaluation (not!).

Fun with one to one correspondence. He looks pretty excited about this job!!

Show and Tell is a great way to evaluate oral language skills! Great Questioning strategies, listening skills and super for the self esteem!

Manipulatives and Number Cards to show Number Identification.  You can use anything you like for this.  I like to vary according to the kiddo.  This guy loves things with wheels, but dinosaures, gems, or even polly pockets would work.  Use your kiddos to drive your instruction.

Self correcting puzzles to practice sequencing; First, Next, Last!  They don't even realize they are learning!!!

Evaluation and Assessment is so much more fun at the Preschool Level!!  Below is the template I made for our spring conferences that are this week. 

spring conference template  or spring template as a google doc

Let me know if I did this right and you are able to download and edit.  If not, sorry I am still learning as I mentioned earlier.  Sharing docs is a lot easier on a website than a blog.  Please share if you know a better way...like I said, I LOVE to learn and am always open to help from my bloggy buddies!!  Well, that's all I've got for now!

                                                       

Five For Friday

Keeping my weekly posts going by linking up with Doodle Bugs for their 

 

Dino Scavenger Hunt!!  

We had a mini unit on dinosaurs at school and needless to say it was an absolute HIT with my 90% boy class!!  I decided that we needed a fun station that embodied the curiosity and adventurous spirit that prevails in my classroom.  I found dinosaur pictures on the web, made 2 copies and presto....instant sustainable entertainment for several weeks!!  I also threw in a couple pairs of yoplait binoculars...probably could have added some vests and safari hats...but I didn't have any on hand.    I printed one copy of the set of dinosaur pics for my clipboard and laminated so that the kiddos could use a dry erase marker to check off the dinosaurs as they found them.  Then I cut apart the other sheet of dinosaurs and had my daughter place them around the room in various places.  The kids had a blast going dinosaur "hunting" time and time again!  So much fun that I am trying to think of other ways to use this in other units that will not seem redundant.  Any fun ideas out there?  Below are the picture cards I used.  I printed and laminated 2 copies.  One I used as a check list and the other I cut up to place around the room.  Be sure to put some under the tables to really throw them for a loop!  My kiddos loved that they had to crawl around to find them.  Happy Hunting :)

 Are we ready for kindergarten???

The all important question as we approach the end of the year.  Parents are faced with making the decision to enter into "big kid" school or place children into a "bridging" or "transitional" program. As teachers we do our best to present parents with the skills their children posses and strong information for what schools expect.  Ultimately it comes down to individual families and the many various factors that will be at play.  Check out the preschool Evaluation my team uses here, preschool eval spreadsheet

 

Really?!

I know that I am probably one of the few to finally try a pocket laminator and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.  After having worked my way through college at a laminating and binding company....you could say that I am somewhat of a laminating "snob"...or picky would be a nicer way to put it.  I don't like bubbles, I hate it when it's run too fast and therefore doesn't seal, and don't even get me started on curling!!  So, you can understand my reluctance to try something like an at home laminator.  But, I of course waited until the last minute to complete parent valentine's gift and lo and behold...we were out of lamination!!  I had no way to get to the teacher store before it would close so instead I bit the bullet and stopped by my favorite Target store and purchased my very own scotch 3m laminator.  I can honestly say I am glad that I did.  It did a great job and saved me from having to send home their sweet little handprints unprotected.

  Birthday fun

So spring is a crazy time in our family!  We have 4 out of our 5 birthdays in our immediate family in the a span of 30 days.  So what's a girl to do?  Let's get the party started!!  Since I have 2 ladies who have birthdays within 10 days of each other, we decided to combine the party.  Now, we are not big proponents of the over the top, outlandish birthday parties that I have been privy to (you know, the petting zoo, the pony rides, the ice cream truck, etc.).  Sure we have had our share of parties, but I limit my girls to a friend party every other year and we have put limits as to how big.  So, needless to say this year (being that we have moved and my gals are attempting to form new friendships) we have decided to have parties.  My girls love art so we are having it at one of those fun little paint shops where they give a lesson and the kids get to paint and take their painting home. I found a sweet little art studio that will do just what we need and it's geared for kids. We even get to pick the painting the kids will do!  My daughter is thinking she might like to do a famous painting...like Starry Night....hmmm we shall see what they choose and how it goes.  If you live in my area check it out  Art House

Seeing Stars

Just bought tickets for the Hubby and I to celebrate his birthday at our first Dallas Stars Game!!  So excited to celebrate with a night of adult conversation and sports fun!!  And that's the News, Views & Stews of my week!  What did you do?  Link Up and Share!!