Literacy Cafe' Bulletin Board Headings

We have received overwhelming requests from members to make available downloads of the Literacy Cafe headings we use on the bulletin board in our classroom. So here they are!

This is the only component of our Cafe Menu Bulletin Board that is teacher made. All of the strategy cards are created by students. We used to make the strategy cards on our computer, complete with beautiful fonts and clip-art, but now we don't. We've learned over time that the person who does the most work does the most learning. We sure learned a lot that year we created all the cards. What we learned is that the students didn't actually SEE the cards when we created them. Students never used the cards or referred back to them when they were created by us. Now, the words are in their handwriting and they like looking at the pictures their classmates create to illustrate the strategies.

http://www.thedailycafe.com/public/297.cfm

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Tour our Pensieve (Conferring Notebook)

One thing our colleagues are most curious about is our conferring notebook, or as we have nicknamed it, our Pensieve. This tool holds all of our most important thoughts and notes as we work with our children via whole group, small group and one-on-one conferring.

In this video, Joan gives a guided tour of her Pensieve, or conferring notebook. Below you will find the links to the pages included in her notebook.

http://www.thedailycafe.com/members/277.cfm

Quick Start Guide #3 for Daily 5

This time of year finds us beginning Daily 5 with our students. To make finding all the videos and downloads easier, we have created Daily 5 Quick Start Guides. This is the third in the series and focuses on launching Work on Writing. We have posted all the videos and downloads for this on one page for ease of use.

For those of you who are wondering, we are also getting ready to launch Quick Start Guides for our Literacy Cafe Menu as well.

Design - Ginny's Classroom Map

It's hard for us to imagine that some of you have been back to school for weeks. Most of us here in the Northwest are just beginning our pilgrimage back to set up our classrooms in anticipation of the arrival of our children in early September.

Whether your classroom is up and going or about to be set up, we always love seeing what others have done with their space. Ginny sent us a map of her classroom that she created on "Publisher". Here is what she said, "I am attaching some plans/photographs of my room. I have been working on it all month and whilst it is a pretty direct copy of your ideas I absolutely love it... still missing the couch and cupboard curtains at the moment but well on the way to being a home away from home."

We want to thank Ginny for giving us permission to share this with all of you and hope it may give you the energy it takes to do those final touches before the children arrive.

http://www.thedailycafe.com/members/298.cfm

Until next week!