Finger Spies--Guided Reading

Let's talk a little about Guided Reading.  I am all about making it fun for the kids if I can.  I have used the witchy pointer fingers, patterned tongue depressors and many others for pointing out the words as they read.  But I am always looking for new ways to get my littles excited about reading.

So a few weeks back I came across this post.  If you don't know Krista Wallden, you are missing out.  She makes the most incredible clip art!  I love all of her images, especially the "Put on a Happy Face" collection that she made to be put on an clip art!  Genius I tell you!  It is currently on my "Wish List" on TPT.

Anyway back to the post.  She found the cutest "Finger Spies" at the Dollar Tree.  After I read her post I literally hopped in my car and went to both Dollar Trees in town looking for these babies!  I was able to snag up 9 of them.  Enough for my small groups with a few left over in case they break.  Take a look at them below!

My littles just LOVE to use these things.  They are P-E-R-F-E-C-T for guided reading.  

I mean seriously.  How much cuter can it get?!

They come in a package of 1 and the package looks like this.  They were near the front of the store on a little stand in a box.  I thought I throw that in there because I seriously did laps around the stores before I finally found them!

At my school we don't use a basal.  We follow the Balanced Literacy Approach and it is basically up to the teacher to decide what they want to use.  We DRA our students at the beginning and the end of the year.  Based on the outcome this is how we pick our books for the kids to read during their groups.  We have an amazing book room that has oodles of books to choose from.  I have 25 students in my class and the differences between all of them are across the board.  So I have 6 groups.  I know it sounds nuts, but it is the only way that works for me.  My two high groups I don't meet with as often because they can do a lot of the reading and comprehension work independently thankfully.  I will send home 2 new books a week.  My kids always have at least 2 books in their book bags to practice reading nightly.  Parents are "supposed" to initial it nightly but that doesn't always happen.  I am never satisfied however with how I do my groups, and I am always wanting to improve them in a way if I can.

I am curious to see how other teachers do their guided reading.  What do you use for the readers?  Do you follow a certain plan?  I would love to hear from you friends!