Shedding a Little Light on Reading!

I have an awesome find to share with you!  I was cruising the toy isles at Wal-Mart when I spotted the coolest little lights.  They fit on the ends of your fingers and the best part is...there were 4 for only $1.50!!!

I bought eight packages of them so that I would have back-up when some die.  I put them in a little basket on my reading table.  Perfect for tracking words early in the year!  I used these with my guided reading groups by challenging the kids to light up our focus sounds on the pages in their books.

Here are some other ideas for ways to use these lights to enhance reading lessons:

• Find punctuation then read sentences with proper inflection
• Finding contractions
• Compounds
• Sight words
• Highlighting the evidence in text
• Text features
• Main idea and supporting details

I have seen a really fun picture on Pinterest that shows "Flashlight Fridays".  The kids read in the dark with flashlights.  I think this is TOTALLY fun, but flashlights are expensive and I honestly don't have a space for 24 flashlights. (I have A LOT of stuff in my little room!) Don't get me started on batteries for 24 flashlights!  These little babies are PERFECT for this!  No batteries, no replacing bulbs, VERY easy to store, inexpensive! I am planning on buying more of these to keep as back-up, because I love them so much and know they won't last forever.   My kids were SO excited to use these little lights during reading.  I was able to give each one of my students a light, turn off the classroom lights, and let them read their good-fit books in the dark.   We had a little talk about what we should and should not be doing with the lights.  There were no troubles at all.  These lights are so much fun, but I think I am only going to use them a couple times a month so that they don't lose their novelty.
 I hope that this gives you some ideas for ways that you can light up your reading!  Have a terrific week!