The Destitute Teacher

In my class we use Math and Reading rotation boards to manage independent work while I am working with small groups. It is an incredibly effective system, once you have got all your resources up and running etc. Writing is a little different. At the moment I have four writing groups. We start with a whole class lesson/ explicit teaching, then go back to our tables to write. My teacher aide (I get a small period of time 3 times a week) works with the 'slow starters', helping them get their ideas on paper. I work with another group on a teaching point. I then conference with the third group, and mark the last group overnight. Then it all changes the next day, enabling me to see as many students as possible. But there are always some fast finishers in our class who complete their tasks... and then what? First they are expected to edit their writing with a green pen, correcting capital letters and full stops. Some groups are beginning to use the dictionary or classroom resources ...

I spend hours on end, reading other people's blogs and being inspired by their brilliant ideas. Recently, I came across Story Stones TWICE in one day, on Red Bird Crafts  and on Fairy Dust Teaching . Fate, I decided, was telling me that Story Stones must be made . Fate was right. A pleasant trip to the beach followed, with a couple of zip-loc plastic bags stowed in my handbag (I always keep zip-loc bags in my handbag, just in case I can gather something for my classroom from nature). I collected a set of small, flattish beach pebbles to create my Story Stones. Once home, they were washed and dried, just in case of nasties or grit, which would prevent the smooth finish I wanted. I printed off a series of stock clip-art from Microsoft Word. They have some awesome clip-art, and to begin with I started with some standard fairy-tale characters- princes, princesses, etc, plus a few animal characters too. Each character was then carefully cut out and matched to an appropriately sized/...