Reading With Beanie Babies????

Never one to stop checking out new reading ideas for children, I came across an article at Real Classroom Ideas not too long ago and I think it is absolutely genius!!!  Beanie Babies have been around forever and some very creative person put them to great use in teaching decoding and reading strategies to students in Kindergarten and First Grade.  I couldn't wait to share the idea with my teacher friends....so here's the article!!! This would make a great Donor's Choose project!!! Let me know what you think and if you decide to try this, please keep me updated!!!!

Beanie Baby Strategies

(taken from Real Classroom Ideas)

I absolutely love this idea. Collect the following beanie babies from friends and garage sales, or visit Sprout for a great selection. Create a bulletin board using the following posters, pass out the bookmarks and use the animal examples in your reading workshops. I'm collecting several of each animal, so students can take the animals back to their reading area when they are practicing the strategy as a reminder of what needs to be done. Love it!
The best place to find the beanies are at garage sales. I picked up four this weekend for a quarter a piece.
Decoding Strategies Overview Poster
Decoding Strategies Posters
Decoding Strategies Bookmarks
Comprehension Strategies Posters
Comprehension Strategies Bookmarks

 

Box Labels- I picked up 14 small, stackable crates at Walmart the other day to store my beanies in. Each crate holds about 5 beanies, and they were 97 cents each.
Decoding Labels
Comprehension Labels

 

Decoding Beanies: 

Stretchy Snake

Chunky Monkey

Helpful Kangaroo

Lips the Fish

Tryin' Lion

Skippy the Frog  

Eagle Eye          

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Comprehension Beanies:
Spinner Spider
Questioning Owl
Rocky Raccoon
Digger Dog
Iggy the Inferring Iguana
Jabber the Reteller (Parrot)
Fix-Up Bear

I also found some other links that would be useful.  Here is a video of how the decoding strategies are used: http://www.schooltube.com/video/63f59fca8170d60cb8b8/Reading-Strategies-First-Grade. 
There is also a Second Grade teacher who uses Beanie Babies totally for comprehenion and writing strategies.  Her list is different from the one above and she has a site to buy the posters she uses; I added her link because some Second Grade teachers might be interested: https://www.teacherweb.com/FL/SextonElementarySchool/MissLak/apt8.aspx.

Stock up on reading strategy beanie babies at Amazon.com or SproutClassrooms.com!

'R' for reading, of course! ;)

Pete the Cat!

As a kindergarten teacher, I loved finding new books, videos or songs I could introduce to my students each year.  So....I've found a new book which has a video I think is awesome for preschool and kindergarten children!!!  If you aren't familiar with "Pete the Cat"...check out the video.  It will have your toes tapping in no time. :)

  

Rockin' In My School Shoes

Here's more information about Eric Litwin, the author of Pete the Cat:  http://www.ericlitwin.com/#!.  Oh, Pete the Cat has his own website too:  http://www.petethecat.com/.