Reading Wreaths and Mystery

What day is it?  Is it REALLY only Tuesday?  I think the weather out here in Chicagoland is messin' with my head... the past two days have been in the upper 60's -- it's DECEMBER!  Usually by now we've had a snow day so I'm all confused! :)

 

I introduced our reading wreaths today! I absolutely LOVE this project.  I tie it to "Voracious Reading" in CAFE.  I find that this time of year they need a little bit of a push and some incentive to keep reading.  That is the beauty of the "reading wreath!!"

 

The kids cover the wreath with a leaf after they read a book.  The books they love the most get a berry on it.  I love how their noses are in books READING!!

These make our room look so festive!!

 

 Using our iPad- I love STORIA!!

 

Adding the leaves- she was dying for me to take her pic :)

 

Look at them go!! :)

 

The wreath along with many other fun December activities are in my new Holiday Time pack found {here} :)

 

We are also having fun with mysteries!!  We have been reading a few of these:

Nate the Great is a perfect level for my second graders at this point in the year.  Plus they think they are reading a "chapter" book~ which they are just with short chapters!  ALSO have you found the Young Cam Jansen series??  They are GREAT for second graders who want to read a chapter book but are not yet ready for the lengthy books!!

 

Once the kids finished reading one of these books during guided reading, we filled out a comprehension sheet that spells out the the word "MYSTERY."  They had fun cutting the word out and decorating around the word (I learned quickly that they also needed some help spelling the word too!!)

He spent a LONG time cutting that fringe ;)

 

If you are interested in this activity you can click on the pics below:

 

So, this year I found the cutest detectives from the amazing Amy Lemons' {Mystery Unit}~ make sure you check it out as she has some really fun things in this unit.  Here is the finished display in our hallway:

 Detectives are from the AMAZING Amy Lemons!!

 

 Hehehe... I love how this guy turned out!!

 

 

On the magnifying glass we wrote about nice things that we "detected" our classmates doing.  I love how the magnifying glass is as big as the detectives! :) :)

 

I don't have a sample of the magnifying writing paper, however, I'd be happy to make one for you if you want...just email me!

 

Have a great Wednesday!!