Story Chimes: Interactive Book Apps

Story Chimes are one of my absolute favorite apps for reading. Story Chimes are interactive children's books that are brought to life with narration, music, and activities. They are perfect for teachers that integrate technology into their classrooms because the books can be played on an iPod Touch or iPad; they are also available on Androids. What a great idea to engage students during literacy center time! Kids have the option to read independently or read along with the narrator. Best of all they have tons of FREE full version books that you can download (with ads). If you want the ad free version then most of them are only $0.99. I think I have pretty much downloaded every interactive app they have on the App Store. Now, every time my 5 year old niece stays with me I let her choose a story for us to read at bedtime. She is always asking to go back and reread them! One of our favorites is The Princess and the Pea.

You can search "Story Chimes" in the iTunes App Store or Google Play to see all the different interactive books available for download. Here are a few titles that I took a snapshot of from the iTunes Store.

If you haven't discovered the interactive books already, I recommend checking a few of the stories out!

Reader Response Prompts FREEBIE!

Reader response prompts go along great with the balanced literacy classroom. Sometimes students just need a little assistance getting started when responding to literature. The prompts can easily be posted around the room so they can choose one to respond to in their reading journals. My bilingual partner Christina L. helped me create a dual language version because our district implements the Gomez & Gomez model. The English text is in blue and Spanish text in red to fit the model. I hope you enjoy the freebie and feel free to share it out!

Click on an image to download the 12 reader response prompts.

To download the dual language version, you can click on one of the below images. There are 11 different prompts with the Spanish translation.

Author's Purpose Freebie!

As I was visiting classrooms the last few weeks, I noticed many of the teachers had anchor charts or signs posted for author's purpose. However, not many used the catchy phrase, It's as easy as PIE". So I decided I should make my own printable signs for them so I could share out with everyone. It's a fun way for students to remember the author's purpose: persuade, inform, and entertain. I know there are lots of other versions out there but if you would like one more, click to download the freebie!

Good news! This also prompted me to finally setup my TpT store so please check back often because I'll be uploading and giving away lots of other freebies in the future.

Reading Bear

I hope everyone has gotten off to a great start of the year! It's been crazy busy for me lately so I'm a little behind on posting. I started my new position as a literacy specialist and so far I'm love it! I think what I like most is being able to observe so many different classrooms and grade levels. There are a lot of awesome teachers out there and I love picking up and discovering new tips & tricks while visiting their classrooms. One of the main focuses in the district's literacy block is finding time or activities to support our Word Work lessons. So, I thought I would post about a website that would support and be engaging for students to learn phonics and word work skills.

Reading Bear is a fun, interactive website that helps students learn to read. It reviews all the main phonics rules and guides students through hands-on practice. You could have students practice with Reading Bear during center time, or use it whole group with your interactive whiteboard. It doesn't replace your lesson but it can provide scaffolding, especially for your struggling readers or ELL's. The most important question...is it free? Yes, it is completely free to use. You may also choose to register for an account that will allow you to save quiz scores and track presentations, but it is not required. If you are looking for interactive phonics lessons, center activities, or just an alternative to Starfall, you might want to check out Reading Bear. Hope you find it beneficial :)

Roy the Zebra

I came across Roy the Zebra a few months ago and thought it was a wonderful website to use with students to reinforce their reading skills. It has a lot of reading games that can be used on the interactive whiteboard or as an extension to support your reading lessons during computer time. 

www.roythezebra.com

Some of the skills Roy the Zebra reviews is alphabetical order, long vowel phonemes, words that rhyme, consonant blends, and high frequency words. A lot of the interactive games are free but the website does have a few that are paid. Of course, I only use the free interactive games because there are plenty of good free ones where it isn't necessary to purchase anything. It is still worth checking out because the games are user-friendly and the students will love them.

In the activity below, students help Wellington the turtle clean up the sea by matching the correct double consonant blend to the beginning of each word.

  

Roy the Zebra mainly focuses on high frequency words such as days of the week, months, and colors. Students can help Tom get ready for bed by clicking and dragging the days of the week in the correct order.

Students can choose rhyming words by hovering over the apples to reveal a word. If it rhymes with the given word, they can drag the word into Belinda's house.