Hello Mrs Sykes

Good morning, Sunshine!!  I hope you're off to have a fabulous day...  Here's a chart I made to help my green beans remember basic expectations when Responding to Reading .  Enjoy!!

Have y'all visited www.ReadWorks.org yet?  This site is one that you will recommend to your entire staff! www.ReadWorks.org  Here's my favorite part - the Close Reading and Paired Text comprehension units - including a demo lesson plan to help guide you as you begin teaching Close Reading strategies with your class.  Simply find a copy of the trade book, project or print out the paired reading from ReadWorks, and you're set!  Here's one I'll be using soon with my intervention students, after finding the book from the library: How do you find resources for Close Reading? Just a reminder - Click on the image to enter the Pin it to Win it for any item from my store!!  Remember to go to the post below to enter the contest!

Ummm, yeah.  I am that person.  The one who loves to read.  At the pool, at the beach, in the car, before I go to bed, you get the idea.   {source} Through all of the modeling of reading behaviors my kiddos get -naturally - a love of books.  The challenge with my kiddos is to keep them excited in new and different topics, since they love a "Reading Rut."  With that in mind, here are a couple of my "Go-To" lists of books to keep my own kiddos engaged all summer long!! 67 Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10 - Love this list!  Our family is working their way through this list.  Yes, even the Lord of the Rings.  My hubby and daughter read it together at bedtime.    Top Books of Bullying Prevention for Mighty Girls  - Love the empowering titles, and the reminder that all girls can be mighty girls. 100 Greatest Books for Kids, from Scholastic's Parent and Child Magazine  - This list was created by par...

Omigoodness, y'all!!  I am uber excited about this... RL Standards 1-10 for grades 3-5 For years, I worked with students and teachers in grades 3-5 in ways to cut through the "clutter" and simplify the structure we give students, so students can show what they know instead of how well they follow the directions of random, complicated tasks.  This packet follows the same philosophy - clear, straightforward, while having high expectations of referring to text and justifying their reasoning.   Perfect for the Upper-Elementary classroom.  They are Common Core aligned on each page, and all handouts are in black/white for crisp copies.  It doesn't hurt that they are "ninja-cute" (is that a word?) while definitely not  cutesy. Take a peek inside: What teachers are saying: For y'all, this packet is on sale all week for 20% off at my TpT store and my TN store !  Enjoy!!

Whew!  I finally finished the most recent addition to my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Rainbow Phrases !  I am super excited to share them with you today.  First, a bit of background... Y'all know I was a Literacy Specialist for years in my district, and I use this system (though it din't look so pretty then!) with my kiddos in grades 2-5 who needed fluency interventions and already knew their sight words.  Teachers in my district have been using Rainbow Words extensively for years, and I thought that Rainbow Phrases were the next logical step. My at-risk kiddos loved these!  They each got a "book ring" with their phrases on them, and as they passed each "level" they received more phrases in another color.  The parents (who were typically the ones who weren't sure how to help their child at home) raved about how easy it was to help their child learn their phrases at home.  Then I moved back into the classroom, and these fell by the ...

Missed y'all lately.  As I'm sure you could tell from my last post , I've been a wee bit overwhelmed at school lately.  I'm trying to get my assessments ready for report cards - I know some most of you are in traditional calendar schools, but I teach in a year round school.  (You can learn more about my crazy calendar here .)  Anywhoo, here's a quick little assessment to see how my green beans do with CCSS standard 2.RL.7.  Feel free to download for free from TPT .  Enjoy!! Download from TPT here.

I'm at the beach this week, but I thought I'd bring you a quick round up (in no particular order) of some Amazing Resources for Reading I found online.  Best part of all?  They are all free!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project has their Reading Assessments online! Reading Assessments You can download and print assessments to determine reading level (GR levels A-Z), Letter/Sound identification, and Concepts About Print.  I'll use this for those kiddos who hang out on a level for so long that they can read the book from our AlphaKids kit, even though they are not proficient at that level.  They also have writing assessments available. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author Mary Pope Osborne's Teacher Resource Center : Magic Tree House Teacher Resources  My second graders love Magic Tree House books, and here are teaching guides ...