Reading Stamina

I have to show you my favorite tool for reading stamina. It's just a little tool, with a big attitude. Okay, it doesn't really have an attitude, but it helped change my students attitude towards recording our reading stamina time. I like it for the following reasons:

1. It has a large magnet on the back and sticks right to the white board. The amount of time remaining is visible to the entire class.

2. The minutes are posted in 5 minute increments like a clock. I point this out to my students and it helps with learning to tell time.

3. It has a slight ticking sound that helps cue my students that it is time for reading. It just lulls them right into reading time. They become accustomed to the sound and even during DEAR time they beg to have the timer on. I love things that are cues for my students and help establish procedures.

I found this on Amazon.com.

As our class increases our reading stamina time, I write the number of minutes we have read on the white board next to the clock. I made this simple box to record minutes with. I just tape it to my white board next to the clock. Each day we add a few more minutes. We decide as a class how long we want to read for that day, and then write the actual minutes read in the box.

Click here to download a free copy: 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0tk6JUgU7jqNzFvc0lLSVZTWU0/edit?usp=sharing

My Students love taking turns being in charge of setting the timer and changing our recorded minutes. It's simple, but I love it and so do the kiddos.