Great Guided Reading idea and Mentor Text Activitiy

So I am finally getting around to organizing even though this is the end of the year! lol I did want to share one thing that has worked really well for me though. This is a guided reading file folder of all of my reading levels. I got this great idea from my friend Katie who saw it on Pinterest from What the Teacher Wants.  I immediately decided to try it to see how it worked for me. I always have to to try to remember or write down all of my reading levels when going to the book room to pull books. I have a guided reading log that I use but I am constantly editing it because the students move levels so often. So I thought this would be perfect and it was! The only thing that you need is a file folder, velcro and some cute labels and paper.You can even use some decorative letters. I took some names off for the picture and covered the rest.

I put on the adhesive velcro strips on the folder and added velcro to the back of the paper strips with the names on them. I wrote the names on all of the rectangles with a sharpie. I added the DRA levels with the sticker letters and I also wrote in the number equivalents. It fits right into my plan book and is easy to grab and move students around when necessary.This is definitely one to try!

Also we just finished a mentor text lesson on Duck on a Bike and inner thought. My kids love this book and it is a great way to teach inner thought. This is a great way to make their writing way more interesting!  We point out examples of inner thought in the book and make our own using the included graphic organizer. We also wrote new stories and did the reading comprehension activity on using inner thought also. The students really wrote some great stories. I was surprised at how well they were able to incorporate inner thought into their writing after this lesson. The ducks were the best part, so cute!  I will post more pictures when we are all done!

You can check it our here! 

And check out one of our mother's day activities. We made cards and
portraits of our moms and wrote some wonderful letters! We also used
adjectives to describe these wonderful women! They turned out great!