Reading Rocks!

I am so excited to be a part of this FABULOUS blog hop!!  There are so many great bloggers with so many great ideas.  I hope you are having as much fun as me finding new and bright things to use in your classroom.

Here is one more.  This is my bright idea for using those stones you find in the floral department of WalMart, craft stores, and even the dollar store. 

The clear stones have the amazing ability to magnify.  That makes the clear ones great for reading.  Place the stone on a word and you can still read it!  Not only that, it makes that word a little bit bigger.

I use them with "regular" books and paper books too.  We find a word, or a punctuation mark, or just follow along reading each word.  The stones help students to focus. 

I also made magnets with some of them.

I have them with both letters and numbers.  You can read how I made them here and here.

We started the year using them to spell our names, and climb the coconut tree (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom).

  Then I made this tree out of scrapbook paper.  Now we are using them to spell words.

 And we are using them with our chalkboards.

There is just something relaxing about the feel of the smooth surface.  Not only when you are reading...but they are great for counting too.  I like to use the smaller ones for math.

Are you ready for another bright idea?  Next up is Jen Bengel from Out of This World Literacy.  She is going to tell you about a topic near and dear to my heart....using picture books in the upper grades.  Since my mom is a children's author, I have always had a great appreciation for picture books.  I could go on and on with my reasons, but I will let Jen tell you all about it.

You can also check out a topic of your choosing by clicking on one of the links below and move along to any other blog on the blog hop.

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up