That Time of Year - Test Prep!

We have been extremely busy creating more and more test prep materials to use with our students and to share with you.  Included in our resources on our Teachers Pay Teachers store - A Love for Reading are the following:
3rd Grade Reading Review
4th Grade Reading Review
3rd Grade Reading & Test Prep II
3rd & 4th Grade Word Analysis Test Prep
Vocabulary Scavenger Hunts (works well with common vocabulary on test, and with classifying & categorizing standards)
Dot It, Doodle It, Define It Spot & Dot Booklets - Working with Academic Vocabulary, etc.

There are lots of other resources out there, but these are a few that I wanted to make sure our followers knew about as the end of the year testing rolls around.

Hope you find all of these helpful as you review & prepare your students for end of the year testing.

Let us know what you think about them.  Thanks!

Susan & Jessica

Spot & Dot - Helping our Students with Words!

Several years ago, when Jessica and I were in grad school, we heard about a wonderful strategy called - Spot & Dot.  We were told about it, and it really peaked our interest, so we begin using it with the little bit of knowledge that we had acquired about it.  Since that time, we have researched and tried to find out more about this strategy, but there is nothing out there on it at all.  So, we begin working on different aspects of this strategy with our students, and really begin to see difference in how they could attack words, spotting the vowels, realizing each syllable must have a vowel, learning phonics rules, boxing prefixes and suffixes, and breaking words apart.  It is just amazing to see the kids that we have worked with on these strategies for several years.  We just have to wonder what it would look like if an entire school decided to do this from the ground up and build on it each year.  We truly think that the results would be phenomenal!

Seeing results and thinking about the power of Spot & Dot caused us to start developing resources to support our love.  Thus, we have created a Spot & Dot rules packet, as well as just this week, created our first Dot It! Doodle It! Define It! Spot & Dot books working with vocabulary.  Both of these books are now available on our TPT store - A Love for Reading entitled Working with Academic Vocabulary and Working with Feeling Words.  We are extremely excited about these new products and can't wait to hear what you think.

Cool Way to Get Your Students Using Graphic Organizers!

Are you tired of the monotony of using graphic organizers on paper and even on your Smart Board? Do you want a cool way to make them fun & interactive for your students?

Make the hallways of your school come alive with graphic organizers!  Use colorful duct tape to create graphic organizers throughout the school, and take a reading field trip to the different graphic organizers located around the school.

Use sticky notes or index cards with velcro dots to let your students get involved in creating the information to complete the graphic organizers.

Also, continual exposure to the graphic organizers throughout the school keeps them fresh in their minds for end of year testing!

**Be sure to include the title of the graphic organizer and suggestions for use.

Have fun creating these throughout your school!  Share feedback with us.  We look forward to hearing from you!

-Susan-

Goosh - Making Inferences with Nonsense Words!

At our presentations in the fall, we shared our Goosh strategy with those in attendance.  I have continued to write new ones.  I am working hard to develop a lot more seasonal ones, as well as some general everyday use ones.  I have recently added Valentines, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter.  Keep watching our Teachers Pay Teachers store for more stories as the seasons roll around.  I really hope that I can develop some stories to follow curriculum units for Social Studies and Science also.

I have always enjoyed writing, and this is just one of the ways that my passion for writing can be used to help our students, and also motivate them to notice context clues, and make inferences.

I hope that you enjoy using Goosh, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me.

-Susan-

Life Has Been Busy!

Sorry for the lack of post lately.  We have both been very consumed with adding products on our Teachers Pay Teachers store, and with our everyday life as teachers, mothers and wives.  There have also been some other exciting developments with our presentations, and life has gotten rather busy! Hopefully now we can get things back on track!  Thanks for continuing to follow us.