Successful Tips for Using the Beanie Baby Decoding Strategies

The Beanie Baby Reading Strategies have made a tremendous impact on my students' ability to successfully decode unknown words independently. If you didn't see Part 1 of my post in which I introduce the strategies, check it out here.

Since I have found these strategies to be highly effective with my students, I want to share my tips with you to hopefully help your students find the same success!

Steps for Introducing the Beanie Baby Reading Strategies

With all of the strategies, I use the following steps to introduce and practice the strategy.

1.     Model the strategy on a shared book or in the guided reading book for your lesson.

2.     Display the corresponding poster to use as a reference. (See picture above)

3.     Practice the strategy together.

4.     Encourage students to try it on their own while they read the guided reading book.

5.     Place the Beanie Babies on the guided reading table as the students read independently as a reminder of the strategies. (See picture above)

6.     Prompt students when they get stuck on a word to practice identifying which strategy they think would help. Support students as they attempt to use the strategy. Make sure they physically grab the Beanie Baby that they want to try using because it helps them take ownership of the strategy.

7.     After the students have finished reading the book, highlight the students who used the decoding strategies. Explain to the group how the student used the strategy to successfully decode the unknown word. Eventually through enough modeling, the students will be able to explain it themselves. I also like to hand students the Beanie Babies that represent the strategies they used. It is a tactile reminder of the strategies, but it also acts as a reward for students as they get excited to hold the Beanie Babies.

Other Helpful Tips for Implementation

• I sent out emails to my parents asking if they had any of the Beanie Babies at home. Luckily, I was able to get all of them that way! You may also want to check out Amazon, Ebay, or thrift stores to find yours. Having the actual Beanie Babies is a key factor to their effectiveness.
• The key is having a tool for the students to physically manipulate when they are stuck on a word. Even if you can't find the actual Beanie Babies, I strongly recommend having something to represent each strategy. (Another option are the strategy sticks as show above).This adds a hands on approach that helps students take more ownership of the strategy, thus enabling them to independently implement the strategy. 
• Once I've began introducing the strategies, I begin each guided reading lesson with a quick review. I ask the students to tell me what they are going to do if they get stuck on a word. They must tell me the strategy and not just the name of the Beanie Baby. Once they've identified a strategy, I toss them the corresponding Beanie Baby. This simple warm up activity gets them excited to read and helps build their confidence that they will be able to figure out any unknown words they encounter.
• It is important to constantly have students verbalize the strategies to you. They must tell you the decoding strategy and NOT just the name of the Beanie Baby. For example - they should say "I can stretch out the word" and not "Stretchy Snake." When they get stuck on a word, ask them to explain what they can try. If a student has successfully implemented the strategies to decode an unknown word, ask him/her to explain what they did. By having them orally explain the strategy to you, they begin to internalize it more. 
• The Beanie Babies are just a scaffold. Once my students can verbally explain to me the strategies and independently implement them, I no longer use the actual Beanie Babies. The posters remain up all year for students to refer to, but as a result of our extensive work practicing the strategies at the beginning of the year they rarely need to refer to the posters. 

Make sure you check out Part 1 of this post to get a more in depth introduction to all of the Beanie Baby Decoding Strategies! Click here to read Part 1!

Click here to get these posters for your classroom!

Want to Pin this for Later?

The Secret to Teaching Students How to Decode

If I had to name the one teaching strategy that has been the most effective in helping my students with decoding, it would be the Beanie Baby Reading Strategies! Hands down - without question! Because of these strategies, my students are able to verbally explain what to do when they're stuck on a word and independently make attempts at decoding unknown words.

Maybe you're already familiar with the Beanie Baby Reading Strategies or maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about. But hopefully by my sharing what has worked for me, you'll find some new ideas to try in your guided reading lessons.

The Beanie Baby Reading Strategies for Decoding

Before I tell you how I use the Beanie Baby decoding strategies, let me first introduce you to our friends! 

Here's a snapshot of our 9 Beanie Baby Decoding Strategies:

Introducing the Beanie Baby Reading Strategies to Students

I introduce one strategy at a time to provide students with ample opportunities to practice and remember the strategy. With Kindergarten and 1st grade, I typically introduce one strategy a week. This depends on their ability to start implementing the strategy independently. A strategy such as Eagle Eye, typically does not require as much practice. With 2nd graders, I'm able to introduce a couple strategies a week as it is just a review for them.

I always introduce Eagle Eye first. I explain to the students that he helps us by looking at the picture. We can use the clues in the picture to figure out the unknown word. He is the easiest one to start with since students naturally tend to look at the picture first anyway. 

Lips the Fish is the second strategy I introduce as it is also relatively easy for students to begin implementing. Lips the Fish gets his lips ready for the first sound of the word. We practice by covering up the endings of words to use the inital sounds to figure out what the word might be. I also refer back to Eagle Eye if they aren't able to decode the word with just the initial sound. This keeps the previously taught strategy fresh in their mind, but also shows them how the strategies can work together to help us.

Stretchy Snake is one of their favorite strategies! He stretches out the word and helps them sound it out. We practice by stretching out the snake Beanie Baby as we sound out CVC words. I also provide each student with a slinky to practice sounding out the word. Adding this hands on element helps the students internalize the strategy. It is important to remind the students that they must put the sounds together after stretching it out to determine the word (Say C-A-T: cat).

I always teach Meaning Bird next. In the past, I found that some students would overly depend on Stretchy Snake. They would sound out words but when they put the sounds together it did not make sense. As a result, I created Meaning Bird who reminds us to think about what word would make sense. 

Chunky Monkey is another student favorite! She helps looks for known "chunks" in the words. This can be smaller words within larger words (an is in can), blends/digraphs (sh is at the end of fish), or endings (-s, -ing, -ed). The students will quickly notice that these chunks don't always help them decode the unknown word. (Example: They may notice so and me in some but that does not help them read the word). These words are a great opportunity to teach students how the strategies can work together as well as remind them to think about what word would make sense. (The book There's an Ant in Anthony is a great tool to help with this skill). affiliate link

I typically teach Skippy the Frog and Tryin' Lion together. Skippy the Frog skips an unknown word, while Tryin' Lion encourages students to reread and try a word that makes sense and looks right. I tell students that these are buddies that like to work together. We talk about how we can't skip a word forever because then our story will not make sense. They must go back to reread and try a word that would make sense.

Flippy the Dolphin is the last Beanie Baby I introduce as it requires students to have a knowledge of short and long vowel sounds. Flippy the Dolphin flips the vowel sound. If the word is "pot" we would sound it out with the short vowel sound p-o-t and the long vowel sound p-o-t-e. Then we talk about which word would make sense in the sentence. When we flip the vowel sound, we literally flip the dolphin Beanie Baby as the hands on approach makes it more concrete to the students.

The final Beanie Baby Strategy is Helpful Kangaroo, which teaches students to ask for help. I honestly never introduce this strategy to my students because I want them to independently implement the other strategies and not rely on me to help them with the word.

As I introduce the strategies, I display the posters for students to refer to during guided reading.

Click here to get these posters for your classroom!

Want to know more tips and tricks to successfully use the Beanie Baby Reading Strategies to teach your students how to independently decode unknown words? Check out Part 2 of my Post!

Want to Pin this for later?