With so much to prepare as a new school year begins, getting a variety of good options ready to use for your early finishers is one of those things that unfortunately tends to slip lower and lower on your to-do list. After all, there's always "read a book" or "go on your Chromebook". But are those kinds of very broad choices the optimal use of learning time for fast finishers? It's not that they're not good choices, but every learner needs and deserves more! What do the strongest options for K-3 learners look like? * The best options reward students with the opportunity to choose. They have to think about what they'd like to do, think about what's a new choice or what they've already done and want to try again (or what they don't!). They gain confidence as they practice making choices. Choice requires thinking, choice is empowering. * Look for options that allow your students to take what they've learned in class and extend it, learning more, for example, about the social studies or science topic you're teaching. * Look for activities that your students can complete independently! Look for clearly written directions and activities in the same format as they've already completed as a class (color-by-code math pages, for example). Let's look at a few options you might consider preparing today, before there's a little sweetie tapping on your hip saying, "What do I do now?" :) 1. Draw and Write: Prep a set of task cards or a chart list of people and/or places. Students who finish early can choose one or more cards and imagine a situation that places them together. Then they'll choose whether to illustrate and write a few sentences about the situation, or take a graphic novel / cartoon approach, writing the conversation between the characters. Short on time and need some quick-and-easy prep task cards for this? Here's a set of 120 character and setting cards, available in both English and Spanish. 2. Reading self-selected books is never a bad option, but consider getting more learning power from this by offering a collection of books that echo what you're currently teaching, as mentioned above. Your school librarian (pleeeease tell me that you still have a school librarian!) or public library will likely be able to help with suggestions! For example, are you teaching the butterfly life cycle? Offer your early finishers choices from the books you've used as read alouds, or extend the opportunities to learn with something more advanced like a field guide to butterflies - there's so much to be learned from visuals, and pictures may be just what some students need to spark curiosity and learn more! 3. I mentioned color by code as an activity that works on repeat. Another activity that will be used again and again is this math variation on word searches - sum searches through totals of 20. Print your word and number searches on cardstock and laminate - they'll get lots of repeat uses and you won't be running to the copy machine! 4. Playing games is a fun and motivating way for early finishers (and ALL students!) to practice what they've learned. But it can get tricky if a student finishes and has no one to play a game with! Look for activity type "games" that can be completed by just one person, like matching and sorting. If you'd like to try one-player games that have built-in competition, here are some solo challenge math game collections at my TPT store. Curious how that works? Click the links below for a closer look! Addition Within 20 (Gr. 1-2) Subtraction Strategies, Counting Back within 120 (Gr. 1-2) Place Value Games (Gr. 1) 5. Offer a selection of puzzles and brain teasers that are so engaging that your students will think that they're playing, not practicing! One of my students' favorites was math riddle task cards, which are basically elimination riddles ... use math clues and critical thinking to eliminate all but one of the provided answer options. I have TONS of math riddle sets in my store! If you click on these grade level bundles, you can scroll down on each to see the single topic sets that are included. I hope these options will be helpful for you, and get you thinking of other choices that will be a good match for your fast finishers! Above all, make your options so enticing that they'll motivate all of your students to stay on task so they too can be part of the exciting activities that you've gathered! Happy learning!
Focus on fluency in your upper elementary classroom with these fun and engaging partner play scripts and seven fluency posters! Many free resources are included in this blog post!
Dollar store fluency finds for stuttering therapy? Yes, please! Who doesn’t love finding inexpensive therapy materials at the dollar store? I have several students on my caseload working on fluency enhancing techniques and it always helps to have visuals during therapy. If you haven’t heard, I have been periscoping about my trips to the Dollar […]
This packet is filled with verbal fluency activities for aphasia patients. Our exercises include ones such as word retrieval... or word choice!
This mega-packet for fluency is 56 pages long! You can find it in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store here. The speech tools targeted are: slow rate, full breath, pausing, stretchy speech, light contact, easy onset, and circumlocution. This packet helps your students in identifying their speech into 1 of 3 levels: bumpy, using speech tools, or smooth. […]
Finger Puppets, Flipbooks and Fluency Games…oh my! Over these past few months, I’ve been slowly updating my most popular products to make them the best they can be. I’m so excited to share the latest big update to my Fluency Finger Puppet Therapy Pack, which now includes a bonus Fluency Strategy Flipbook, Fluency Fear Rating Scale […]
Fluency tends to be a commonly overlooked skill, but you can change that by learning about strategies for teaching fluency with your elementary students!
With so many of my BIG KIDS struggling with fluency, I worked to make it a part of my daily work with students, a Tier 1 intervention that the majority of the class could benefit from. Reading fluency incorporates three main components: speed, accuracy, and prosody, which directly impact comprehension. While I have shared a great deal about incorporating 6-Minute Solutions, here are a few other ways I worked to make fluency fun for my 6th graders.
Different strategies work for different students who stutter. This blog post goes into detail about teaching fluency strategies to help students.
Confession. My stuttering materials are extremely outdated! I’ve been in dire need of fresh new stuttering materials for years now. My fluency caseload is like a roller coaster! My first year I had five students who stuttered and ever since I usually have between 1-3 fluency students. Although, they represent a small portion of my ... Read More about Fluency In A Snap!
Here are some tips and strategies on how to teach reading fluency in your homeschool or in your classroom literacy centers.
15 fun and easy fluency practice activities to get your K-1 students reading at a just-right pace, with accuracy and expression!
Activities to help in your classroom TODAY to build Multiplication Fact Fluency across all grade levels. Perfect for Intervention
Math Board Games offer students the opportunity to build social skills, practice addition and subtraction fluency in a fun way, and offers teachers a nonthreatening way to assess students’ ab…
Tackle fluency therapy distance learning with these stuttering teletherapy ideas. Fluency therapy is often difficult on its own but these ideas can help.
Learn ten ways to improve reading fluency, and grab our free printable cheat sheet!
Phonics Based Decodable Readers
If you're working on reading fluency in your upper elementary classroom, check out this blog post! It contains 7 free posters focusing on the various fluency components, along with many other fluency freebies and ideas!
Stuttering treatment can begin after a child receives a stuttering diagnosis. The earlier treatment begins, the better the outcome.
Keep practicing math facts with these engaging games, apps and ideas for math fact fluency!
Building up your student’s times table fluency is so critical in helping develop their numeracy skills, but also in building confidence to become competent
Hi everyone, My little learners have been working SO hard on their reading these past few months and I am VERY excited to show what what they have been up to!
Hi all! I'm excited to write about a resource I started using/making graphics for last school year, but finally felt it was ready to share on the blog: The Fluency Toolbox for Stuttering You can find it in my TpT store here, and here's how I use it: I use the toolbox as a visual when I teach fluency strategies to my students. We aren't curing stuttering, but we are giving them a toolbox full of strategies that they can learn to use and apply to improve their fluency. When we learn a strategy, we add the tool to the box. At the beginning of each session, we choose a tool (or a combination of tools) that we are going to focus on for the day. The tool sits in front of them and serves as a nice visual reminder of what we're working on during activities. To give the kids ownership of their toolbox and express their fluency style, they can choose a toolbox in red, green, purple, pink, blue, or yellow! There are several strategies out there to target fluency. The strategies I included in the packet are some of the most commonly used across many different intervention programs (Healey & Scott, 1995).The strategies included and described in this toolbox are: cancellations pull-outs full breath stretchy beginning natural pauses rate control slow smooth & easy speech breath and speech together language planning talk in short sentences easy onsets & easy beginnings (same strategy just different lingo) light contacts continuous voicing preparatory sets & fake stuttering A printer-friendly black and white version is also included. The kids can easily color their own tools! Toolbox Assembly: Cut out the toolboxes Cut an opening on the solid black line to create the opening: Staple the toolbox onto an 8.5x11 sheet of paper Trim around the toolbox, removing the extra white paper Cut out the tools & add them to the toolbox as they are taught And that's it! Also included is an entire set of blank tools in my TpT product so clinicians can add any other additional strategies! And there you have it! What tools have you found helpful with your students? I would love to hear! Thanks for checking in! Mrs. Ludwig Reference: Healey, C. & Scott, L. (1995). Strategies for Treating Elementary School-Age Children Who Stutter: And Integrative Approach. Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 26, 151-161.
Tips for Building Reading Fluency in Young Readers Graphics by Creative Clips by Krista Wallden , Whimsy Clips , and KG Fonts Sinc...
Reading fluency is essential to overall reading proficiency; however, it does not always come naturally to students. For those students, there are many interventions and research-based activities that can implemented to improve fluency skills. An effective fluency intervention to use with your disfluent students is something called 'Cold Reads' and 'Hot Reads.' This quick and easy to implement intervention can be used to improve fluency, but also to monitor progress with specific fluency skills. All students could benefit from a sprinkle of fluency practice, so this activity could be used with your reading groups, RTI students, or entire class. What
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Reading fluency activities to help you focus on fluency in your classroom. Weekly fluency activities that can be completed in class or at home!
Finger Puppets, Flipbooks and Fluency Games…oh my! Over these past few months, I’ve been slowly updating my most popular products to make them the best they can be. I’m so excited to share the latest big update to my Fluency Finger Puppet Therapy Pack, which now includes a bonus Fluency Strategy Flipbook, Fluency Fear Rating Scale […]
In case you missed it, I did this guest post for Kristine over at Live Love Speech a while back! Some simple DIY ideas for fluency intervention :)
Fluency is an important components of reading, yet it is often neglected. What type of activities could I plan that were NOT teacher directed? To improve fluency, students need to read over and over which takes time. Time is in short supply for most teachers. Some parents listen to their children read at home, but not ALL. How could I fix this problem to ensure ALL of my students were getting enough practice? The answer was partner fluency checks. You can try a free partner fluency check. Teachers who downloaded the file above asked if I had more activities like the ones in the file. I recently made a Kindergarten-1st grade Fluency Check file and a 2nd-3rd grade Fluency Check file. Color Code the fluency cards by reading levels so you can quickly see the difference without looking at the bottom of the card. Punch a hole and put the cards on a ring for easy storage. The reading passages come in two formats - fluency cards and comprehension printables. More formats means more times reading the same passage which improves fluency. There are also comprehension signs. Punch a hole and put the signs on a ring. Use them to ask questions after a read aloud or with your small group. Comprehension signs are perfect for quick checks after a read aloud. Put the comprehension signs on a ring. Keep the ring where you read to your class. Set up a literacy center using the signs and comprehension passages. This is a quick center to set up. Reading the passages in different formats will improve students' fluency. Partner fluency checks and literacy centers are NOT teacher directed activities. Perfect fluency activities for busy teachers! I currently have the following Fluency Check files available: Kindergarten and 1st Grade Fluency Check Fluency and Comprehension Passages Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Christmas themed passages Bundle - Volume 1 & 2 2nd and 3rd Grade Fluency Check Fluency and Comprehension Passages Volume 1 Volume 2 Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
It's hard to contain my excitement and enthusiasm when it comes to Guided Reading and having a 1:1 classroom. Mastery of district curriculum and essential objectives is what it is all about. I now have unlimited opportunities for students in my classroom. Our guided reading block is every afternoon for an hour. Differentiation of instruction, individualized and small group instruction, and student engagement happens at its best on a daily basis! I feel I am meeting all students' instructional needs each day. Daily Five and a 1:1 Classroom I have created a 1:1 iPad Menu for Guided Reading. Being new to a 1:1 classroom I continue to tweak it according to student and curriculum needs. Below is an example of a menu my students receive at the beginning of each week. Click below for a copy of the 1:1 Menu that will allow you to edit as you wish. 1:1 iPad Menu for Guided Reading There are several apps that I use that tie in with essential learning and our district curriculum. RAZ Kids Raz Kids is a leveled reading program. Each of my students have their own book room at their specific independent reading level. After each selection they read, students complete a comprehension quiz. In addition to using our district curriculum and Fountas and Pinnell, the information gathered from Raz Kids helps plan future instruction and RTI groups. Raz Kids not only ties in with common core, but gives teachers access to each student's activity report, assignment progress, assessments, and a skills report. RAZ Kids and Common Core My students use this recording sheet when they read a new book from their book room. They write the level of the book which correlates with the reading levels of Fountas and Pinnell, the title of the selection, and the score they earn on their quiz. The skills column lists what particular questions they missed and the skill they need more guidance and instruction on. It is easy to see patterns on missed questions. Recently one student, on three consecutive books missed Main Idea and Details. So I was able to pull a small group and focus on this particular skill. Storia I have just started building my Storia library through Scholastic. It is eBooks created for students. Books are leveled for students' independent reading levels. A teacher can have a personalized bookshelf for each student and assign specific books. There are read to me audio books, enriched eBooks that provide learning activities which help foster reading retention and comprehension, and a Storia dictionary that helps enrich student vocabulary. Storia also provides reference tools, reading reports for teachers, and students also have access to Storia at home. Forty students have access to the same book at any given time on my specific shelf. One of my main goals is to continue to add and purchase eBooks for my students. I would love to eventually have all the books my students read available on their iPads. audioBoo My students and I love audioBoo. Students record themselves reading a selected passage. After they save the passage on audioBoo, students label what they read and include the date. After students record their reading, it is saved to their "My Boos". Students then listen to the audio recording and complete a self-evaluation on their reading. My third graders then set goals for fluency, expression, and automaticity. Fluency Station that I use Free from Teachers Pay Teachers Record of Reading App Our district uses Fountas and Pinnell. The Record of Reading app can be used for students' running records. It can be saved as a file or emailed. Stick Around Like I stated in my previous post, my students love the Stick Around app created by +Tony Vincent! It is a wonderful app for students and teachers. My third graders have been creating puzzles that tie in with our language arts curriculum. They have created puzzles for main verb and helping verbs, as well as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. My advanced students have worked on puzzles for Greek and Latin roots. We have also used it for a science essential objective where students had to label the parts of an ear. We will have endless opportunities for learning next year with Stick Around when our district implements Words their Way. Tips for using Stick Around The amazing aspect of Stick Around is that puzzles can be shared. Currently, one of our district tech coaches, +Brent Catlett created shared folders for our teachers. We are now putting the puzzles we create in shared folders so that all teachers have access to them. Stick around can be used in any curricular area. Notability is the go to app for Guided Reading! Thanks to +Matt Villasana for his wonderful post on using Notability in Guided Reading. Using Notability for Guided Reading Pads in CPS One of our reading/language arts essential objectives in third grade is to present speeches throughout the year. For the E.O., I paired up students so they could videotape each other presenting their speech focusing on their favorite dessert. After all the speeches were presented, each student watched his/her speech on their iPad and completed a self-evaluation using the district reading rubric. Some of my favorite apps to use during guided reading are Tellagami, Spelling City, Story Me, Explain Everything, Puppet Pals HD, Sock Puppets, Dream-X, and 30hands I also love PBS Kids. Example of how we used Tellagami with our Reading Vocabulary Examples of how we used Explain Everything with our Reading Focus Skill of the Week Focus Skill-Fact and Opinion Focus Skill-Author's Purpose Example of how we used 30hands with our Reading Focus Skill - Summarizing Examples of using Story Me with our Reading Vocabulary Examples how we used Dream-X for Language - Contractions Tips for using PuppetPals Tips for using Story Me Using Tellagmi with Common Core - Scholastic 30hands Resource Guide Spelling City My students are looking forward to using the Mad Libs app to review parts of speech. The International Reading Association has some great free apps for Nonfiction and Fiction Text on readwritethink. One of my favorites is the Venn Diagram used for comparing and contrasting. Comparing and Contrasting Santo Domingo and Maine from our story Cocoa Ice. Let's not forget Kidblog! Students not only practice their writing skills, but they can reflect on their learning, connect with other classrooms from all over the world, and create a portfolio of their writing. Our classroom Kidblog site is Mrs. Evon's Fourth Grade Team. Our third grade team is currently participating in a Global Blog Challenge thanks to +Janine Crain who set it up! Thousands of students would love comments! To follow along on Twitter go to #2014gbc! 21st Century Guided Reading at its Best!
Learning multiplication facts can be such a chore. Make multiplication for kids fun and engaging with this simple card game! Only takes 2 minutes to set up.
Does your school use the Dibel's test? After giving the Dibels, I found that I needed to strengthen my students' fluency skills. My schedule already seemed completely full. Where would I find more time to give my students practice reading so they could become more fluent readers? One thing I found that helped with their fluency skills was making fluency centers one of my standard centers. I knew I wanted this center to have the same format each week so I wouldn't have to explain the direction. This saves me valuable class time. Plus, the center had to work with students on a wide variety of reading levels. The answer was my Sentence Shuffle Centers which I have for reading levels K-5. To honor our mothers, my Mother's Day Sentence Shuffle Center is FREE. I also have a Fluency Check Center that is FREE, too Click on the picture above if you'd like to see more Sentence Shuffle Centers organized by reading levels. Would you like to read more of my posts about fluency? Post #1: Fluency centers are great for teachers with small classrooms. Post #2: Fluency with r-controlled theme. Check out my A+ May Pinterest Board which has more fun ideas. Fern has a few tips to share with you, too. Hop over to her blog! Each week, Fern and I will share a teacher tip. We love to read teacher blogs and the latest teacher idea books and hope you do, too! Stop by Fern's blog and my blog each week for our latest tips. We hope you will share your ideas, too. How do you incorporate fluency lessons during your day? Looking for more ideas? Click on the pictures below. An InLinkz Link-up Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
Confession. My stuttering materials are extremely outdated! I’ve been in dire need of fresh new stuttering materials for years now. My fluency caseload is like a roller coaster! My first year I had five students who stuttered and ever since I usually have between 1-3 fluency students. Although, they represent a small portion of my ... Read More about Fluency In A Snap!
Build word family and sight word fluency with these fluency passages for early readers. They are perfect for Kindergarten and 1st grade!
Here in third grade, we practice fluency daily with: -Word Lists -Phrase Lists -Passages/Running Records My Mental Journey I have had a love-hate relationship with fluency. As a third grade teacher, my students are subject to end of year, high-stakes testing for the first time. Fluency is not tested on these exams, students have
Building up your student’s times table fluency is so critical in helping develop their numeracy skills, but also in building confidence to become competent
Use this FREE tool to take concrete numerical data on your student's fluency from a language sample. This form is best used to monitor progress over the course of your student's therapeutic services or to compare fluency across a variety of contexts (e.g. in front of peers, during a reading task, in...
Ever wish there was an easy way to track student progress and manage multiplication fact fluency? We've got you covered... for FREE!
