Got Levels? Try Level It!

Got levels?  For those of us who level books in our classrooms to best meet the needs of our readers at their independent and instructional levels, we tend to rely on a few sources to help us level the trade books found in our classrooms and school libraries.  As a fourth grade teacher, I was constantly running to www.lexile.com in order to find Lexile levels for the chapter books that I was using in my book clubs and guided reading groups.

Lucky for me (and for those of you who level), the Level It app has made a solid and very useful appearance!  This app was designed for the iPhone and iPod touch devices, but it also works pretty well on my iPad.  

Not only am I able to find Lexile levels for a book, but a simple scan of the barcode also allows me to get Guided Reading levels (GR), DRA, and Grade Level Equivalency (GLE) levels.

I can also maintain my classroom library collection digitally and also check books out to students.  

There is a teacher feature that also allows me to recommend books to my students and their parents.  Again...very cool!

The app retails at the App Store for $3.99.  More information can be found at http://levelitbooks.com

So what are you waiting for?  Try Level It for yourself today!  

Nikki

Must Read Math Mentor Text Linky Partay!

Oh yeah...I love this linky party.  It usually results in me amblin' on over to Amazon to get me a book or ten, but...no apologies...I. LOVE. BOOKS.  Period.

Amanda and Stacia over at Collaboration Cuties have been giving us all a great spot to check out new books and I am fresh off of a Lucy Calkins Reading and Writing Project week in NYC, so I am inspired.  On fire even.

The question is...which book do I share out?  There are just so danged many!

After much thought and deliberation, I decided on this beaut:

Being able to truly conceptualize large numbers is very difficult for young learners.  Heck...it's also pretty tough for much more sophisticated learners!

Andrew Clements (Frindle, The Janitor's Boy, and many many other fine texts) and Mike Reed team up to create a book that addresses numeracy is such a concrete way.

It's a long way to a 

million, right?

Of course it is.

But do you really know

what a million looks like?

This book truly shows a million dots with a ton of other really great facts that are provocative enough to get even your most skeptical critics thinking and learning!

One word...MILLION!

Check it out!

Nikki

uncommontothecore.blogspot.com

Monday Made It...Live from NYC!

Woo hoo!  It's Monday Made It time and I'm in NYC!  Holy cow!  Can't believe it!  Really.  I.  Can't.  Believe.  It.

I have the fabulous opportunity to learn from the best of the best...Lucy Calkins...at Teachers College.  The August Writer's Institute looks like it is going to be the bomb-diggity!  I'm looking forward to so much new learning...my head is swimming already!

(In honor of the wonderliscious time that I am sure to have in NYC , I plan on putting out a boatload of ideas that I have for mentor texts.  Do check back throughout August to see what I've posted, won't you?)

Anywho...thought I'd pull all of the stuff I've been working on together so that I don't experience the backup of projects.  I tend to feel that my posts have been a tad overwhelming being that I just shifted gears and am starting to panic about everything...new grade level, new teaching partner, new room, new Writers Workshop Units of Study...everything is just so danged bright, shiny, and new...I'm totally blinded by it all!

So...here's what I've been working on the last few days.

The Customary Catsups and Metric Mustards for my Footlong Measurement Center/Station.  I put these together and a while back.  Click here to see the original post.  I've been asked by quite a few folks where I got this idea from.  I can tell you...it's my idea.  I've never seen these before...they were just something that came out of my warped mind.

I put together a few extra to give to my new teaching partner and my "favoritest" teaching buddy, The Wonderful Linda!

A new "Random Facts of Weirdness" for 2013-2014.  My enthusiastic 12-year-old put this baby together for me.  He did, however, spell Weirdness incorrectly.  I took the picture and am posting it, but do rest assured that this is now spelled correctly.  You can find out more about how I use this by checking out my link to last year's volume here.

I finished up my "Pop Your Top" station with QR codes for Perimeter and Area practice.  The original link to the FREE coaster templates can be found here.

Here's something new...and either a real low point or a definite high point in my creative life, depending on how you look at things...

SENTENCE KABOBS!

I know...great idea, but your kids are sure to poke their eyes out!  (I'm envisioning Christmas Story dialogue here!)

Well, I am picturing that this will need a great deal of instruction on the front-end as to expectations at a station such as this.  (Note that I am also taking the bamboo skewers and cutting the sharp ends off.)  However, you're the teacher.  It's your call.  You don't need the skewer to make great learning and potential danger happen in your classroom.  This could be done with unsharpened pencils, shoelaces or anything else really.  The sky's the limit!

It really just started with a few empty Pringles cans and these great foam blocks that have been in my stash for a couple of years.  The blocks came from Michaels and were only a couple of bucks. I covered the cans with some scrapbook paper and these funky labels.  You can access them here:  

RED   BLUE   GREEN

Then I put two bamboo skewers in each can.

Using one of the skewers, I "drilled" holes into each block and used a Sharpie marker to write words on each block.  The red blocks have assorted nouns on them, the yellow blocks have assorted verbs on them and the blue blocks have a combination of adjectives and adverbs on them.  My suggestion is to build your own word list using the words you want your students to access and be accountable for.  (I'm low budget here.  I want to be able to help put an idea in your head by sharing some of my creative process, but I want you to build in what your students need.  I'm funny that way...I don't want to sell you anything...I just want to give away a little inspiration!)

By throwing a handful of these blocks into the can, my students now have a portable sentence creation station.  I want them to grab a yellow, blue, and red block and then skewer them onto the kabobs in an order that makes sense.  From there, I'd ask students what other words are necessary in order to have their "Sentence Kabob" make sense.  This would be a great opportunity to talk about pronouns, conjunctions, or any other part of speech that is appropriate to your situation.  

I see lots of possibilities here.  How about you?

I'd have the students write these down in their word play notebooks or on a whiteboard...your call.  You know what works best for you!

As always, remember that "Sharing is Caring" and that your willingness to make and give a set of these to a treasured colleague, wonderful teaching partner or "brand-new-fresh-out-of-the-box" teacher is always appreciated!

I'd love to hear what you do with any of these ideas!  

Have a terrific week!

Nikki