Guided Reading Gadgets

This week, my Guided Reading groups officially started!

My school runs a "Power Hour" in addition to our Phonics, Language Arts/Vocabulary, and Comprehension blocks.

 

Our Power Hours consists of small groups meeting on-level. I'm working with all the 1st graders currently on Guided Reading Level (instructional) D. Last week, we established routines and learned about the new centers (freebies alert - here & here). I can't believe I forgot to snap a pic of my rotation board - I will tomorrow!

 

This week it was so nice to hear my lil' ones read - they are such hard workers! I'm primarily using Reading A-Z so that I can send home a copy of the leveled book each week. I follow the provided lesson plans pretty closely ( ♥ them!) and add differentiation as needed.

 

I also like to use a few "gadgets" to encourage the students to reread & dig a little deeper into the book.

Some of my tried & true faves are: 

magnifying glasses

 

Mine look a tad different...I picked up a class set from Target a few years ago & they are super-cute! I also love pointers  - I make them out of ribbon, pom-poms, etc. & unsharpened novelty pencils (because they don't seem to write AT ALL!).

My all-time favorite tracker is:

 

 

Monster fingers!

 

This year, I added a few new things to my GR box:

 

 

decorated reading glasses!

 

& "reading beads" - with expectations of what Good Readers do when they are wearing them, of course. Very sad news - someone already had to return their beads this week...luckily they soon earned them back :)

 

 

What's YOUR favorite Guided Reading gadget? Please share by leaving a comment!