Shhh! Whisper Phones!

Five years ago I taught first grade for the first time. One of the ideas that came from my Master Teacher was Whisper Phones. At that point, the school bought these cool little headsets for the students to use. They worked. The class whispered when they read and I couldn't hear all of the chatter in the room when I was doing small groups.

When I left for the green pastures of 3rd grade, I had to leave those babies behind.

Now that I am going back to first grade, I thought about those cute little whisper phones. I knew I had to find a cheaper way to do whisper phones. I finally found out how to make whisper phones with PVC pipes.

First, my trip to Lowe's...I bought 2 pks. of 3/4" PVC elbows, a 5' PVC pipe 3/4" in diameter, and decorative Duck Tape. We tried to get the people at Lowe's to cut it for me, but they said they couldn't (even though I know that they can.) Enter my father-in-law, contractor by day, superhero by night. He cut the PVC pipe in 4" sections for me. So now I have a 4" sections and 2 elbows to make my whisper phones.

Now is the easiest part of the entire project. Just snap 2 elbows on each end and you're done. You could hot glue the ends on, but I chose not to. They are pretty snug.

I put this decorative Duck Tape around the handle to hide the ugly writing on the pipe. This was the hardest part of the project. That Duck Tape did not want to cooperate with me!

 It matches my classroom which is decked out in animal print.

And I can't forget this cute tub that I am currently storing them in! Compliments of my wonderful sister-in-law.

I can't wait for my little ones to use these whisper phones this school year. What are you working on or creating for the next school year?

Words, Words Words.

Today was a long day. My son's daycare is having a 4th of July party and we are bringing blueberries. I decided to be smart and pick my own blueberries. I found this little place called Blueberry Hill nearby. It started to rain while I was picking my blueberries, but I still had fun. And it was low-cost so I that made me happy.

Anyway, once I got home there were many questions about next year. Since summer school is over I have plenty of time to think about next year. Since I will be teaching 1st grade again, I wanted to think about ways to help them with fluency. I want them to have lots of practice.

I started thinking about an activity I learned about back when I was teaching 3rd grade. Before I go any further I have to say that most things I use in my classroom are the ideas of others and I just adapt them for my own tastes. I learned about this at a conference with a reading interventionist named Jamie and her workshop was AWESOME! This activity came from her using this guy:

and these guys:

Each student gets a file folder with the first Fry list and a graph. When I first begin this I have them work in partners. I guess for older students you could have them just do this solo. I give them 1 minute to read the list. Partner 1 will read the list as fast as he/she can without making a mistake. Partner 2 just listens for mistakes and write down the number missed. At the end of the minute, the students counts up how many they got correct and colors it in on the bar graph. Then the partners switch roles.

 I like this activity for several reasons. 1: You have instant data about accuracy and fluency. 2: Student hold each other accountable and they are able to become a little more independent as well. 3: As students complete each 100 list, the next 100 is added. That means this activity is differentiated and can keep students engaged. and 4: Students build fluency and a bank of known sight words.

So what activities do you use to build fluency?