Pizza, Cups, & Fluency

Student quote of the day: "I don't think Lily (pseudonym) is here today - Yesterday was her birthday.  She must have eaten too much pizza..."  :)  They always make me smile.

I came across this adorable game that can be modified to fit almost any skill, really.  It's called "Stack the Cups!"  I used it to review number identification to 100 with my Kindergartners.  They read the number on the dixi cup, then begin stacking cups to build a tower/castle (whatever you want to call it).  This not only reviews number ID, but also encourages problem solving, team work, & fine motor skills.  The kids are actually very good at creating the base first, before they can begin stacking cups on top of them.  They realized that you couldn't stack a cup until there were two cups below it as a base.  One student commented on his "fine motor skills:" "I'm trying, but my hand keeps shaking!"  They had a blast.

For the last couple weeks, my second graders have been focusing on FLUENCY!  I actually LOVE teaching fluency - there are so many ways to practice it that the kids love!  They just finished a reader's theater, "The Three Billy Goats Gruff."  We practiced for about 2 weeks before we performed it for a 1st grade class in our school.  Instantly, I can see a difference in their expression & smoothness!  We even used a step bridge & my green shag carpet (for grass) as props for the reader's theater.  Here is the script I used, as well as the mask template they used to decorate their character masks (they were so cute!). Thanks to, Have Fun Teaching, I was able to find several reader's theater scripts & masks to share with my kiddos!

  

Unfortunately, I only have a video of their performance; no actual pictures... :(  In addition to repeated readings with reader's theater, we've been using Tongue Twisters to practice speed, accuracy, & smoothness (this is quite a funny challenge for them)!  We do a few a day, & challenge each other to get more accurate and fast with each reading.  Here is the powerpoint I use on the SmartBoard.

I found these great "Fluency Posters," from the blog, What the Teacher Wants...They offer concrete visuals/comparisons of what different aspects of fluency mean.  I try to use terms such as fluency, accuracy, expression, and rate.  Why can't we begin teaching them these terms? - I feel that they give an actual word to the complex concepts, instead of trying to explain it every time.

Until next time, happy teaching!!  Only a few more weeks left!