NEW blog design and March Reading Contest update

A HUGE thank you to Alicia at Dreamlike Magic for my super cute new blog design!! I LOVE it!!! If you're looking for a design or want to freshen up what you already have, go check her out. :)

So, my students have until next Friday to read, read, read those books! Our month-long reading contest will end and we'll see who gets a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Since I didn't do the contest in February, like I usually do, I used shamrocks to keep track of the kids and all their books read.

Here's what the wall looks like where we're keeping track.

Each shamrock has a student's name on it. (28 in all!) As kids turn in their reading logs, I give points for each book read. Chapter books are worth 2 points. Since I'm in first grade this year, points can be earned by reading on your own OR being read to. (In 2nd grade, kids had to read the books.) Under each shamrock is a strip of paper with stamped shamrocks. Each strip has 10 shamrocks. In the picture below, you can see Connor has read 71 books and Medina has read 11. I can't wait to see how many books will be read as a class!