Friday, January 11, 2013

Lightbulb Moment!

Clipart: Wizard of Boz

Ever have one of those lightbulb moments?  Or maybe it's called, duh-why-didn't-I-think-of-that-before moments.  You decide.  Either way, I had one of those moments this week.

The Common Core stresses (reallly stresses) Non-Fiction reading.  Unfortunately, children's book publishers don't as much.  I really struggle to find non-fiction books that aren't too simple for my students but aren't too challenging either.

I realized that Scholastic News (as well as Weekly Reader) puts out a Non-Fiction "newspaper" for students every week!  Some weeks we read them as a class, some weeks we read it in partners and some weeks we don't get to the Scholastic News at all.  I thought, why not laminate them so that the students can keep them in their book bags?  Lightbulb Moment!  I laminated two of each volume so that the students can read them in partners, as well.

Scholastic News distributes different ones each year, so I can continue to build my non-fiction collection.

The Scholastic News bucket in my library (it needs a label!):

These are the small ones that are cut apart and made into books:


And these are the normal size Scholastic News:

The students will each have on in their book bag along with their fiction books! 

Happy Friday!



9 comments:

  1. Hi Sarah - I really like the idea of including the booklets in the book bags. Thanks so much for sharing :)

    Catherine
    The Brown Bag Teacher

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  2. When we started looking at our nonfiction unit we Thought the exact same thing! I have a bunch of old ones laminated that my students read and As they come in this year I am laminating the extra ones!

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  3. Great idea!

    This is definitely one that I would be able to use. I love that the kids can share the same resource too. It would be fun to have the kids use Vis-a-Vi or Expo markers to find non-fiction text features or mark specific traits.

    Your newest follower,

    ❀ Kate
    Purely Paperless

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  4. I do the same thing with my Scholastic News/Weekly Readers. One of my teammates write questions for each booklet. The older ones also make for a good comprehension center when in a pinch!

    Christina :)
    Apples, Books, and Crayons
    applesbooksandcrayons@gmail.com

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  5. Great idea! We subscribe to Scholastic news at our school and I never thought to add it to my library. Thanks!

    Jennie
    Northside Shining Stars

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  6. Fabulous idea! We were able to get our principal to order these for our grade because of our need for more informational text on grade level. With the digital copy online as an added tool, we've been able to cover much of the common core for informational text.

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    2. Kynda,
      I did not realize there was a digital copy online. We get a subscription from our principal each year. I will have to check that out. I hope your principal provides this for you and thanks for the "heads-up".
      -Susan
      3rd Grade Grapevine
      Mrs. Hardin's Class

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  7. Great idea Sara! Just like you, I have so many Scholastic News we haven't used and I feel too guilty to thrown them away. This is a great solution! I have always laminated one for my file, but laminating a few to put out for student selection is super. I think I may even choose a few to laminate enough for use in my guided reading/strategy groups (maybe 6). Thanks for this awesome idea! I am your newest follower.
    -Susan
    3rd Grade Grapevine
    Mrs. Hardin's Class

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