CAFE in the Classroom

As I stated in my Daily 3 post, in the intermediate grades this structure looks different than the sisters write about in their book (then again, it could just be me!).  Once (maybe twice) a week, usually on Tuesday, I introduce the CAFE strategy of the week.  We discuss it as a whole class, how we have used it before, how we can use it with our novels we are reading and across the curriculum, and why it is important.  Each student has the following four pages in their Reading folder and we fill it out all together.  We also create a card together to put up on our CAFE board!  I ask the students to come up with visuals that would help them remember and we draw them on our card and the student's draw them in their strategy box.  Once we fill in the strategy and why it is important, I have the students write what it means to them and when they are finished they turn to their shoulder partner or face partner and "teach" the strategy and explain what it means to them.  I do this for multiple reasons: it helps me to figure out who "gets" the strategy and who still needs help, reinforces what was just taught, and it is another way for students to view the strategy.  I love them having their own copy of the CAFE board close at hand.  It helps them decide which personal goal they want to work on and if they happen to forget, then it is right there for them to look back on and remember what worked for them.  If you click on the pictures below you can grab a free copy of the organizers!

 

We are currently working on a novel study, so every week the students will apply what strategy we are working on with our book and their own books they are reading.  Our county has implemented the Comprehension Tool Kit this year and the CAFE strategies go hand in hand with this series!  I love it!  I don't really have any specific way that I choose which strategies to work on and when.  I just look at our lesson plans and figure out which one will fit cohesively or one that I am noticing we need help with.  How do you run CAFE in your class?

Sabra

Daily 3 and CAFE in full swing!

Only 17 more days and I will have a large portion of my time back and devoted to teaching!  As excited as I am to be getting married, this planning and putting together is taking up A LOT of my time and this poor blog has fallen by the wayside.  I feel like all my posts have been starting with the same apology lately but its true!  I promise, once I'm a Mrs. I will be posting more frequently :o)

Now on to the real topic, Daily 3 and CAFE!  I started implementing the Daily 3 in my classroom at the beginning of this year and the kids are very independent with it now and I LOVE IT!  They know what is expected of them, their options, and how guided reading works during the sessions and how they need to be independent learners and thinkers.  I have noticed lately (and it's an all the time thing, not just during the Daily 3) that my students are becoming more chatty...  I know, you're thinking, "That can't be!?"  Well it is, so we are going to have to have another meeting where we review our I-chart and have some people give me examples of the correct behavior and incorrect behavior.  I know this seems silly for the intermediate grades, but believe me, it's effective!

Here is how it runs in my class:

• Read to Self
• Every student is working on their personal stamina goal
• Word Work
• Spelling
• Vocabulary
• Grammar
• Phonics
• Boggle
• Classroom Journals
• Writing Connection
• Literature Response Journals (one due every two weeks - they have a rubric taped inside their journals)
• Response Prompts
• Blogs (haven't moved into this yet but we will)

I designate anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour for Daily 3/Guided Reading Groups.  I'll be the first to admit, it's not perfect and I can't always get the scheduling to be what I want with everything we have to do but when we do it, they've got it :o).  I usually work with my guided reading groups for 20 minutes each and give the Daily 3 about 25-30 minutes during each session so they can have meaningful and in depth learning.  I can't expect them to use the strategies I teach them if I don't give them the chance!  When I am not doing a GRG I am walking around and conferring with students independently.

I am currently doing a 3 day workshop for Daily 5 through our county and even though it is geared more towards primary she spoke about implementing the Daily 5 in intermediate classrooms and how it would look differently and be introduced differently.  For example, I wouldn't teach the 3 ways to read a book, I would teach them text features, strategies, etc.  One thing she did say (and helped me feel like I was on the right track) was that intermediate grades would not get to all 5 in a day and our sessions should be about 30 minutes each.  It is going to look a lot different than primary, especially when incorporating read alouds and literature circles.  It's always nice when someone who has been trained and knows what they are talking about tells you, "You are doing exactly what you should be doing!"  Makes a girl feel all tingly inside ;o)

Tomorrow I will post all about CAFE in my classroom and attach the documents my students use to help them remember it all :o)  If you have any links to Daily 5 in the intermediate grades please post below!  I could still use all the help I can get, lol.

Sabra

Notice When You Lose Your Way

Does anyone else feel as if this is week 27 as opposed to week 7 of school?  It might just be our school but I have honestly never felt this stressed and slammed before, add in trying to plan a wedding... HA!  Needless to say, blogging has sadly been put on the back burner (even though my mind has still been going a million miles a minute with ideas).

We continue our journey through the Comprehension Tool Kit with the mini-lesson: Notice When You Lose Your Way.  The kids were so funny with this one!  You should have seen their eyes when they realized that myself and other students felt the same way they did sometimes and we all lose our way while reading.  We made this anchor chart of reasons why we lose our way and how we can fix it when it happens.  Not necessarily how to fix that specific problem but the problem in general.

 

We followed this up by reading a scientific article (because that is when I lose my way, lol!) and read a chunk at a time and used three different strategies that we came up with from the chart above.  Also a great way to show the students that reading is cross curricular.  I continually refer back to this chart and it has a place of honor on our wall so students can always refer to it when necessary.  I am finding, as with most things, that the more I refer to the anchor chart the more they talk about it while they read.  During our guided reading groups they are the first to admit when they've lost their way and which strategy would be the best to fix it, without my support!  Loving it!!! 

 Sabra

My 50's Housewife Bridal Shower

I know, I know... it's not educational but darn it it was FUN!  (And it falls under the title category of "life's other joys")  This theme was chosen because I am an old soul and my whole life I was told I was born in the wrong decade.  My fiance also was apparently born in the wrong decade as well because when we first met he had this whole "50's housewife" mentality.  Don't worry, a few bad meals and wrinkled shirts later he learned real quick that while I loved that era, there was no way that was me (poor guy).  So this is a nice nod to all that.  Luckily, today we are celebrating our three year anniversary together and gettin' hitched in less than two months!

To the right is a picture of me (in the middle) and my wonderful maids of honor who have been my rocks for the past five-six years.  They went above and beyond with this shower and I loved every minute of it!  I'm telling you what, there is no way I could have survived back then.  The amount of time it took just to look like that was forever!  No wonder the women had to stay home!

Everyone showed up in aprons and pearls and we played some fun trivia (both 50's and bridal) games: Price is Right 50's Style, Sabra and Spencer go together like... and you had to match up famous pairs/couples, a bridal poem where you passed it around and never knew who it would land on, and the ultimate Do You Know the Bride?  My mom won that one!

Here are some more amazing pictures from the day!

 

The super cute invites and recipe card!



 

Welcome table! The favors are mason jars full of 50's candy and there were envelopes out for people to put their addresses on them so I could send them Thank You cards. Included in the invitation was a recipe card to fill out and bring to the new bride, so people dropped them in the box when they arrived.

 

 

So many wonderful gifts!!! I got amazing personalized items to use for the wedding day, a beautiful clutch with one of our engagement photos printed on the fabric inside, a "Good housewife kit" and "How to keep your Hubby happy kit."  Even Mr. S got a few surprises sprinkled in there!  People were so stinking cute and creative I wish I could give them all shout outs!

 

 

One of my bridesmaids made these AMAZING cupcakes that look like mini-pies!

 

 

 The whole spread! There was bottled Coke with red and white stripped paper straws, pigs in a blanket, a big cheese ball and crackers, cheese puffs, Rice Krispie treats, finger sandwiches, deviled eggs, fruit and dip, chocolate chip cookies, punch, cupcakes, chips and salsa and so much more!

 

Words of wisdom from "The Good Wife's Guide" article in Housekeeping Monthly: May 13, 1955.  If you have not seen this before it is hysterical!  A must to look up and read!



 

Me and my new maid Maud! A wonderful gift from my future mother-in-law.  She is made up entirely of house hold items that will come in handy!

 

I had an amazing time and could not have asked for anything better!  It flew by so quickly and I just love looking at all the photos over and over and remembering everything.  If this is what happens for just my shower, y'all might lose me for a little while when my wedding photos come back!

 

Sabra

First desk note of the year!

One of my favorite things to do to students is write them notes on their desk!  Usually it is a, "We missed you!" or "Welcome back," but occasionally when they leave a mess I like to leave the rant note, lol.  So this is the first one of the year!

 



Now this little darling has left all of this in his desk...  You might be saying, "Well it's his desk and he's a little messy.  So?"  NOPE!  In fifth grade they do not have desks since they switch classes.  Their backpacks are their desk and he shares this desk with 3 people.  So occasionally the desk fairy comes around and if it looks like a natural disaster in there I'll pull it all out for them to sort through and leave a little note.

If you have never left a note on their desk you should!  It is hysterical to watch their reactions when they come in in the morning and see that you wrote on the desk.  All you have to do is use an Expo marker for the writing utensil and TA DA!  It easily wipes off with a tissue but if you still have some smudges a baby wipe or Clorox wipe gets it all off.

Sabra

Comprehension Toolkit and a Feature!

First things first... the fun stuff!  Today Dana from Fun in 1st Grade is featuring my blog on her New Blogger Tuesday section!  I am very honored that she has given me this opportunity, especially since I have found so many new blogs through this post.  Head on over there and check her out!

Now onto the educational (but still fun) stuff.  This year our county has implemented Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis' Comprehension Toolkit.  I have used it a few times in the past and really liked it but this year we will be doing a new lesson each week.  I still use CAFE but I do that mini-lesson during our novel study.

Last week's lesson was Monitoring Comprehension: Follow Your Inner Conversation.  They do provide you with picture books for some of the lessons which is really nice except that they are the same picture books for third through fifth grade so that by the time they get to me, most of them have heard it.  Since a good amount of my kids had already read that book, I chose another one: Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco.  I love this book for multiple reasons and it works great with this lesson!



It's about a little girl who is having trouble in school, how her peers treat her and how she overcomes it.  It has a nice twist to the ending and a good life lesson, especially for the beginning of the year.  This is one of my favorite lessons because I love to watch the kids who are incredibly verbal try to hold it all in and write it down as opposed to shouting it out.  They scribble furiously across their sticky notes and never seem to have enough, lol.  At the end of the lesson when we discuss what we all wrote and share it with our shoulder partners they are always the first to say, "THAT'S WHAT I WROTE TOO!!!!"



The kids love getting to use the sticky notes during our novel study and use them to reference back when they are writing in their literature response journals.  If your school does not have the Comprehension Toolkit I highly suggest that you invest or write a grant for it, definitely worth it so far!

Sabra

Social Studies Interactive Notebook: Set Up/Sensory Figure

All summer long I have been researching interactive notebooks and a lot of people use them for math and science, which I love!  Except I don't teach math or science...  So my next best idea was social studies :o)  Now I have all good intentions of keeping this going and squeezing social studies into our reading block as much as possible but let's call it what it is, it's not always easy.  Our textbooks are a little outdated so a lot of the info we are compiling here is from a whole host of resources.

For those of you who are unsure of what an interactive notebook is, it is a notebook (composition, spiral, or even a binder - whatever you choose) that allows students to be independent and creative writers and thinkers.  Each notebook is specific to each teacher and there are many different ways to set it up. Take a look at some of these great websites for more ideas!

http://interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com/

 



http://mrsgannon.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/settingupthenotebook/

 

I set mine up where the left side is for learning and the right side is for the student's response or reflection.  I know this is pretty backward from what most others do, but I'm too OCD and like things left to right how we learn them, lol, and the matching letters (L-L and R-R) seem to help my students remember.  On the left side is where my students write notes, vocabulary, video notes, fill in printed off guides, glue in foldables that we create in class, basic questions, etc.  The right side I use as their reflections.  I'm starting off by telling them which activity to do on the right side but with their own input and ideas.  As the year continues and they become more familiar with the different types of activities for the reflections, I will let them pick their own.  Here are some websites with great right side ideas!

http://www.mrroughton.com/assignments-new

 

http://sciencenotebooking.blogspot.com/search/label/Right%20Hand%20Ideas



I use this activity table and have even added a few more!  I cannot remember where I found this, during one of my many Google searches, but if anyone knows the creator please let me know so I can thank them profusely and give them credit!  If you click the picture below it will take you to six pages of wonderful activities. :o)

The first day I introduced the notebook the students and I created the Table of Contents and numbered pages 1-5.  I didn't want kids to get too comfortable with the numbering and go ahead without me, so I'm taking it a chunk at a time.



Our first page in our SSIN was a Personal Sensory Figure.  A Sensory Figure is one of the right side activities where students draw a character from a story or a historical figure and then write down what they sense: feel (can do actual touch and emotion), smell, see, hear, taste, and even something they have done/accomplished.  The example I used with my kids was Harriet Tubman: she can smell the damp earth when  hiding in the basements of homes on the underground railroad, she feels hope for the future, she hears peoples cries and concerns and wants to help them, etc.  This is a great way for students to show you that they truly understand their historical figure or character.  For the beginning of the year I thought they could each draw a personal sensory figure because who do they know better than themselves?!   Here is my personal sensory figure (don't judge the drawing, lol)!

There is the beginning of my SSIN!  I will be posting all the pages and creations as I go so if you have any ideas to help along the way I would LOVE to hear them.  As you can tell from the Table of Contents we have already begun our Geography Unit.  Those pages will be coming soon but next up is European Explorers!

Sabra