Snakes Are Great!

Please tell me that you have days when your little ones just have NO interest in reading!!!I dread those days when my students lay across the reading table because they are "too tired" to read or ask "is this the right page?" to which I reply..."umm no dear, that is the front/back cover of the book." So what do you do to keep guided reading groups fun & engaging for those uninterested little darlings? Have you thought of using snakes?

One day I was browsing in my favorite teacher store, The School Box, and found these great little snake finger puppets for $2 for a pack of 10.  Now I am certainly not a fan of snakes, but I thought about using them as pointers for my beginning readers. Turns out they are fantastic! The snakes have their tongues sticking out so they make great pointers. You should hear those little ones begging to read now!


OK, so I am sure some of you may say "No way will I have snakes in my room!" I can understand that! So on another little visit to my favorite teacher store around Halloween time, I found these little monster finger puppets. We use these to have the monsters "eat" the new sight word before we read our new books.


Then guess what I found at Easter?!?! Little Easter Bunnies and Chick finger puppets. Turns out that those bunny ears make great pointers also! Now the chicks aren't as great but as long as the little ones are reading I can tolerate them. 


In this picture you will also see Magic Wands ($2 for a set of12 at Target in party section) that we use as pointers and "Whisper Phones" that my precious husband made for me using PVC pipes, PVC "elbows" and a $10 PVC pipe cutter. A total of $30 and he had made enough for the entire kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grade classes!

So these are a few of my "magic" tricks for keeping my little darlings engaged & excited about reading! Now please, pretty PLEASE share some of your "magic "tricks by commenting on this post! Even better...if you are a blogger, check out Charity Preston's challenge to become a 5 star blogger here!

Be Blessed & Share Your Blessings!



7 comments:

Rebecca said...

These are great! Even my third graders love these! I don't have any bunnies or chicks though. Where did you find those? My sweet hubby made my whisper phones years ago too...my hubby knows that it's a requirement of husbands of teachers to create and make things! lol Bless them! I'm proud to have earned my 5 star blogger badge too! Thanks for sharing!!!

Blogging Blessings from The Teacher's Chatterbox,

Rebecca

Rebecca said...

And I'm your newest follower!

:)

Michelle said...

Hi Kelly,
I bought some furry fingers (werewolf) fingers at the Halloween store. I introduced them when I did a "wolf" unit - a bunch of stories with wolves. My students LOVED them! You can also find "fingers" that little girls put on their fingertips that looks like long painted fingernails in the dollar/trinket section at Wal-Mart. It 's usually comes with "play" makeup. Another thing I do is make "secret decoders" to build interest. You tape 2 neon colored notecards together but leave a space between the 2 cards. The clear tape covers the line of words the students are reading and the notecards mask the words.

Michelle
Teach123

Michelle said...

Hi Kelly,
I bought some furry fingers (werewolf) fingers at the Halloween store. I introduced them when I did a "wolf" unit - a bunch of stories with wolves. My students LOVED them! You can also find "fingers" that little girls put on their fingertips that looks like long painted fingernails in the dollar/trinket section at Wal-Mart. It 's usually comes with "play" makeup. Another thing I do is make "secret decoders" to build interest. You tape 2 neon colored notecards together but leave a space between the 2 cards. The clear tape covers the line of words the students are reading and the notecards mask the words.

Michelle
Teach123

Charity Preston said...

Great post - definitely a 5-Star Blogger! Thanks for linking up!

Charity
The Organized Classroom Blog

Unknown said...

Totally fabulous idea! I'm on my way to PoundLand now...

I'm your newest follower and fellow 5 Star Blogger. I can't wait to read more of your posts.

Sue
www.sos-supply.blogspot.com

Theprincessandthetot said...

Cute blog!! I'm visiting all of my fellow 5-Star Bloggers, and I just love this idea!! I will be getting a few of these for my preschooler once he starts reading!