N.O.T.E.S.

I wanted to share the ONLY thing I have for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers, ha. :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it for taking notes on testing or any thing read, really.

Each letter of the word NOTES, stands for a skill of "close reading".

--->N.O.T.E.S

I like the ease of having them separated, though many classrooms at my school used the poster just put together.  I separated mine to have the ability to teach closely one skill.  I pull down the S and say, today, I'm really looking for those quick simple sketches that help me see you understand the story.

In case you don't want to buy it and make your own - and honestly some of the best ideas are the ones we share here is what they mean:

N. NUMBER your paragraphs or sentences.  This will make it easy when citing work or having to go back and look for an answer in a specific paragraph.

O. Circle or Box words and sentences that are crucial for understanding.  In the beginning they circle too much and not the right stuff, but they have gotten SO much better over the past three and half months.

#hasTag.  This is the best, especially in third grade.  They think it's a riot.  #what?!  #thisiswrong #money!  You can see in the photos hashtagging is a BIG hit and the kids love it!

E. EXPRESS your own ideas and thoughts.  Make a connection to the text understand by connection.  "Me too" or "Not fair!"

finally everyone's favorite:

S. SIMPLE SKETCHES  Quick drawings that help you understand what you read with a quick glance.  They kids eat this one up.

Here are some student work samples of "marking" up their READING before they answer questions or produce a writing sample.

I especially love seeing them take standardized testing and watching them write down this strategy to use. :)

At this point in our year, I don't even say start with NOTES, they just begin numbering their sentences or paragraphs and circling key words.

#icouldjustdieiloveherhashtags ;)

If you haven't guessed, their favorite part is #hashtagging everything.  Some of them are more successful than others.

Read

The holiday season has reached 115.

Many families at our school celebrate Christmas.

I happen to not be one of them (I mean, we rock those 8 crazy nights.)

;)

Regardless of what we celebrate, I want my entire class to be knowledgeable.

On customs around the world.

Not just in our neck of the world.

One great way to do this is to read books.

So.

My very first year I started collecting books.

Some were gifts to me or my class, some I picked up because I knew we needed them.

Kwanza, Christmas, Hanukah, Winter Solstice, and Winter theme books abound.

By December 1st, I wrap up one book for each student.

Not to give as a gift.

But to add to our classroom library.

They are all AR books, all levels.

Each school day I pull 1 or 2 numbers of a student.

That student opens the book.

I have a strong group of third graders this year, so when they open the books they also take my seat and read it to the class.

Two years ago, I had a third grade group that wouldn't have been successful (slash we tried one and it was pretty painful for that students, so I opted to read from there on out).

Still fun, still exciting.

And then best part is it's technically free.

I don't buy new books every year, I wrap up ones we already have!

Then once they are open they are back in the library.

My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

Some of the books, especially the ones about winter will be kick off points for us for a winter activity.  The best part of that it is - I don't know which ones they will choose. 

It does take a little planning, but it's really fun.

I have all the activities ready to go, and when they are reading the book, my co-teacher and I get the activity ready.

Little Miss G. picked a poem book on Friday about a boy who wonders if the next day will be a snow day (even though it's summer).

The kids do a cute writing activity about if tomorrow were 100 degrees and it was a "sun day" instead of a snow day (we live in New England so snow days are much more likely.)

We served lemonade with a beach umbrellas while the kids worked.  They loved it!

Adding a little magic to the season is always my goal.

This year we added MAP testing Benchmarking and AR Benchmarking to the month of December, that's a lot of testing before  Winter Break.

I hope you can find time for a little magic in your classrooms this holiday season.

Our FAVORITE HOLIDAY reads:

Simon and the Bear

Winter Solstice

Lil' Rabbits Kwanza

The Night of Las Posadas

Totally Polar