Yes...a couple of years ago, I jumped on the Beanie Baby train and started teaching decoding reading strategies with them. I found the idea on Pinterest and had most of the actual animals at my parents house from when I was a kid, so I thought that I would give it a try. I was actually a little bit skeptical at first, because I was thinking they might just be distracting toys or even too childish. I had used other strategies and the CAFE book to guide my reading mini lessons before, but the addition of these surprised me!! They offered an extra visual reminder in our classroom and the kids love them so much that they seem to remember the strategies more than before I had used them. They were the perfect addition to our classroom reading helpers! I used strategy posters that I found on TPT but I wanted to make my own (partially because I'm a perfectionist and I wanted each kind to match :/) but also because I wanted to expand on them a bit in a few different ways...
In my 1st Grade classroom, I have a bulletin board with only decoding strategies with these posters on it. They are added to it as we learn them. They are also reviewed and modeled often.
These are the Comprehension version of the Strategy posters and they can be found here.
I use these regularly in my 1st grade classroom as well. I do post all of them though. I use these posters when I introduce them and we frequently review the most common ones useful at the 1st grade level. I keep a copy of them at my guided reading table to use with groups as they fit. I also have been working on individual activities using these for some of my higher level kids to show their understanding as they read to self or someone in their group.
These are the Fluency posters that I created to go
with the set. I use each of these posters when we discuss and practice
fluency in our class. They can be found here.
There are only 4 posters in the set, but I
find them to be great visual reminders! I use them as I introduce the
concepts and when we review them. I also keep the Good Fit Giraffe poster
in our classroom library at all times with our anchor chart that we create in
the beginning of the year for choosing a Good Fit Book. Good Fit Giraffe goes great with the Daily 5 Shoe lesson. :)
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Each week, we have at least one featured strategy
that I use the posters to display. We spend a week to learn each strategy
and we review them all often, depending on what strategy fits with whole group
mini lessons. In addition to the featured strategy each week we
also have a featured “Chunk” of the week (or Phonics word part) that we are
either learning or reviewing. All of these resources are great visual
reinforces to post in the classroom after learning them. Chunks can be
found here.
This could possibly be the biggest reason that I
wanted to make my own version of these strategies. I really feel like one of the best tools to
have with any reading strategies that we teach in our classrooms is a “take
home format” for parents to be able to use with their kids at home as
well. The consistency between teaching
at school and using at home is crucial, I believe. I created a sheet of decoding strategies (which
I keep in every students take home folders) and comprehension strategies (which
I begin sending home with kids throughout the year) to reinforce these skills
at home. I also keep a laminated set of
these sheets on hand at my guided reading table so that kids can use them while
we meet in groups as well. These have
proved to be a great tool in our classroom and at home for parents. If you would like to use these Strategy Helper sheets, they are included in the "Reading Homework Packet - Guided Reading Strategy Tools" available here on my TPT store.
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This is the Classroom CAFE board in our 1st grade class. I still think that it benefits my kiddos that they create their own cards or sign under each type of strategy.
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