Reading at Home: My new incentive chart this year!

Well...With just 2 small weeks until the start of school, I have broken into my classroom and started setting things up and getting it ready for my new kiddos! Many of my classroom management systems from last year have stayed, but there were a few that I knew I wanted to change this summer (usually because I didn't like how they worked last year).

One thing I am changing this year is the way I keep track of students' reading progress with their home reading assignments. My 2nd graders are assigned 20 min. of reading at home each night and are given a new Reading Log every month for  a parent to write down what they read, how many minutes, and circle whether it was read to self, read to them, or read with a parent. I like to see what my kids are choosing to read at home because it lets me know what types of books interest them and also whether they're reading at all! Their faces light up when I ask them about the book they've been reading at home and they love to tell me all about it!

Last year, I gave my students 1 sticker for every 100 minutes read at home (one week of 20 min per night). By the end of the year, {most} had a bee hive chart full of stickers and were proud to take it home. There was no reward...and surprisingly, just the act of putting the sticker onto the chart each week when I checked their log was reward enough! They loved it. This year, I am just plain tired of using stickers...and I happened to have this adorable tree pocket chart that was unused!

I decided to use the pocket tree as a level-up system for my readers! Every 100 minutes read at home, students earn a bookworm (so.cute.) and move their bird up one more branch! They get a nice visual of how much reading they have done throughout the year and can really feel proud about their hard work. I am loving it! We'll see how it goes. Do you have other ideas for tracking the reading your students do at home? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Back to School Prep and Desk Helper/Name Tag Freebie!

Well...it's August! Which means every day feels like a Sunday from now until the ACTUAL first day of school! Where does the time go, people?! I know many teachers will be going back to school in the next week or so, but here in New York, we usually don't begin until early September. So I still have time. However,  I am of course planning, preparing, and getting excited (in a way) for the first day of school!

One change I am making this year is an update to my desk name tags. I made them myself last year and they worked out well except that they were not multitasking as much as they could be. They simply had the students' name and a print alphabet. Simple is good, but I found throughout the year that I was adding things to my kids' desks because I wanted them to have more visual reminders! I added a cursive writing helper, a few math visuals, and I often had to bring out the number lines for kids who needed them! I know that you can buy desk helper with all of these things...but what's the fun in that!? They aren't even cute! See my new and improved desk helpers and name tags below and click HERE to download and print your own for free! I apologize, but they are not editable. You will need to hand write the names after you laminate the tags :)

Another change i'll be making is going back to keeping those pesky name tags on the desktops. Last year, I tried keeping them on the back of student chairs with velcro. It was nice because they were removable if a student needed to look at them, but not a distraction during lessons. Now that my kids will be using them more as a math/writing visual, I think I will go back to just taping them using packing tape. I know there will be picking, peeling, and sticky dirty spots on the desk (yuck)...but I have yet to come up with a better solution yet!  I'll keep you posted on that one. Any suggestions?

What updates and changes are you making to your classroom this year? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!