The Fluent Reader: A Great Addition To Your Library!

I had to read this book The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension. Don't be deceived! The title sounds a little dry, but it's a super easy read and FULL of great ideas. My favorite part about it, is that all the ideas are so SIMPLE! They take little prep time and they are all research-based and common sense. I'm very glad I read this book.

Since I know that I could read all these ideas, just to forget them by October, I used Post-It notes to help me remember things I particularly liked in the book. This way, I don't have to keep track of another page with notes--it's all in one place. Plus, I don't have to re-read the book to find the strategies I want to use, I can just flip through and read the sticky notes. Obviously a highlighter would serve the same purpose, but I didn't want to mark in this one since it's my school's copy.

If you are looking for a quick, easy summer read that will motivate you to teach literacy, I highly recommend this one!

If you want to try it out, here's a link: Link to Purchase

Note: This is not a sponsored post.

How To Make Cute Binder Covers and Labels

I love browsing Teachers Pay Teachers but I wondered how everyone made those cute little products with all the great graphics. I found an excellent tutorial for using Power Point to make all these!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg8CKDogtBw (For some reason blogger isn't recognizing the address).

I found some cute, free fonts at the following websites:

Kevin and Amanda

Font Space

Miss Tiina

Unfortunately I can't provide these examples I am about to show you as downloadable since some of the fonts are for personal use only, not commercial. But definitely check out these sites if you are looking for some fresh fonts. Also check out CLKER for some cute graphics. I believe this site allows you to use for commercial use, but double check.

clker.com  

Here are a few screen shots of items I have made for my classroom using borders from Power Point and the free fonts and graphics mentioned above.

This is a binder cover for all of my math resources ( I made a few of these )

I am going to print these on cardstock and laminate them and attach them to 

boxes that will hold my classroom library. 

These signs will also be printed and laminated and I will put them on my whiteboard and

write the corresponding subject's daily objective next to it. 

If you are interested in learning how to make these check out the YouTube video linked above. She moves sort of fast, so I found myself pausing and rewinding parts but it's very helpful. Making these signs is WAY easier than I ever thought! Try it out!