Sunday (Monday) Pass Along! Fluency, Math, and More!

I keep thinking it's Sunday. But nope, it's MONDAY thanks to a glorious three-day weekend. It comes just in time after two solid weeks of the back-to-school frenzy. I love how each year brings unique kiddos and challenges and is so different from the last. There is never a boring day!

Now that I am semi-caught up, I have some time to lounge in my jammies and read my blogs!

One of the beauties of having this little ol' blog of mine means that I can pass along awesome blog posts straight to you and you get all the goods! I'm hoping to keep this little tradition of the Sunday Pass Along going (even though today is technically Monday).

Here are some awesome posts I found while browsing my feed that are usable for me tomorrow!!

Parent Brochure from The Thinker Builder

This post from Michael at The Thinker Builder is fantastic. Well-written and comes complete with a free downloadable brochure for parents! I love his language and how relatable he is. You will definitely want to check this out! I will be handing these out to parents as I meet with them individually.

The Reading Strategies Book 

This is seriously the most amazing find ever. EVER! I was eventually going to do a post on this book, but luckily Megan at I Teach, What's Your Superpower already did! This post gives you a peek inside the book and outlines why it is just so amazing. This year I have students on levels C-M. This book is perfect for me because I have concrete strategies to use with each and every one of them. Megan does a great job of explaining everything this great book has to offer. Get your Amazon account open!

Intervention Folder Idea

I love, love, love Cara's (First Grade Parade) idea for keeping track of the concepts students need to work on. It's visual, easy to manage, and you can see everything at a glance. When you click on the post, it's tip #2. As soon as I've had my second cup of coffee, I'll be heading to my room to make one for myself! Click on this post to read more of her sanity-saving tips!

Partner Plays for Fluency

My group this year is going to need LOTS of fluency practice. I mean, LOTS! I've been looking for fun and interesting way to practice fluency and these partner plays from Christina at Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge are going to be perfect! I love my Partner Scripts from Lakeshore, but they are actually a little too challenging for my students this year. These partner scripts are perfect because they have a nice balance of text and engaging topics. Plus, she has them on sale right now!

Amazing Race Number Decomposition 

Greg at Mr. Elementary Math offers some amazing and fun number sense routines as well as a free download for decomposing numbers. There is space for a number at the top and then circles underneath for students to record each way they can decompose the number. He offers two versions- one with more circles and one with a smaller number of circles so you can differentiate as needed. This is exactly what I need this week as we work with decomposing numbers! He also offers a bonus freebie in the post, so be sure to read the whole thing to get that goodie!


I hope you were able to find something useful and maybe even a new blogger to follow. I'm going to enjoy the rest of this lazy three-day weekend and prepare myself for another awesome week!

I'll be back tomorrow to share some place value resources with you so be sure to check back then!

Happy Sunday! Monday!

Data Binders and Student-Led Parent Conferences

Happy Sunday! Did you remember to set your clocks back?? The sun - yes, the SUN!- woke me up at 6:30 this morning. Eesh. I'm going to have to get used to this! 

I wanted to pop in briefly and share what I did for my parent conferences this year because I absolutely loved it and it made the conferences a breeze!

I've been wanting to have student-led conferences for the past few years and this year I finally pulled it off!

Each student has a data binder that holds their important tests and assignments for math and reading and a section in the back for work that they are especially proud of.  I haven't used binders like this before, but I am loving them! The kids feel such pride looking through their binders at all of their hard work.

Based on their performance on the tests housed in the binder and other class assignments, each student and I filled out an assessment profile together that gave information about their strengths and weaknesses. These assessment profiles listed the TEKS we have covered so far this year and whether that objective was developed or if they were still developing. There was also a section for comments if any were needed. At the bottom was a section for goals. On the math page I also included a little section describing mathematical behaviors to provide information that may be pertinent to why they were making mistakes in math (sloppy handwriting, misaligned numbers, you get the picture!).

If you would like a copy of the assessment profiles, click the link below. One page is for math and one page is for reading. I'm leaving it as a PPT file so you can edit it as needed.

Assessment Profile

Here is the beautiful part- at the conference, the student led! They sat in my seat at our back kidney table while their family members and I sat on the other side. They led us through their binders starting with their assessment profiles and explained what their strengths and weaknesses were in each subject as well as what their goals were. I was so proud!!!

They also showed their parents each assignment in the binder and explained why they missed certain questions. After the student was done, I opened it up for questions from the family and had a few last comments.

This year I can honestly say I had the best conferences ever! It felt so good to see the kids be independent and aware of their academic performance. We will continue to add to the data binders all year long and I will definitely continue with student-led parent conferences!