Reading Vocabulary and the Smartboard!

I am loving my new stools that were donated by two generous families right before school started! We use our stools when we are working at the Smartboard. They are so easy!

I also love my platform so that my students can now reach the top of the Smartboard.  Before school started, I was talking to a fellow teacher and we were discussing the fact that my students had trouble reaching the top of the SB. I also happened to have a bookshelf that I was trying to decide what to do with when we realized that if I laid the bookshelf down it was the perfect size for a platform. I had seen one over the summer on a blog I was reading and loved it. I took it home to my husband and, "Voila!" he repaired it and made it strong enough to hold an adult. I use four stackable bins, two on each side,  to hold everything.  The two bottom ones hold the clipboards and the two top ones to hold the stools.  I usually have a student who is finished early set them up for me and then place a clipboard on each stool.  Then all my students have to do is bring a pencil.   

One of the things we use the Smartboard for is Reading Vocabulary.  I always ask them, "What do you notice?" about the words.  This was an idea that Kathy Griffin shared with me at an SDE Conference and I love it!  I couldn't wait to try this with my students and wasn't sure how well it would work, but I was so surprised!  They notice everything!!!!  They tell me how many vowels the word has, if the word is common or proper, they notice word chunks and anything else that we have been discussing. 

 Of course, when they "notice" something, they get to go up to the SB and either circle, underline or mark in some way what they notice.  While one student is marking on the SB, all the others are marking it on their papers.  We use pencils, markers, pens and highlighters to do our marking.

 My students always have a paper copy of what is on the SB so they can mark it up just like the   students are marking up on the SB. This way, everyone is engaged in the activity.

 My students LOVE reading vocabulary time. We have just started it for my class this year, but my last years class still tell me it was their favorite part of their day!