Snowman Day Activities and a FREEBIE!!

Hi guys!
This is Laura from Where the Magic Happens and  I hope everyone is keeping warm and cozy during this crazy winter weather…

Speaking of winter

You know how our kids get all antsy when they can go outside and  get some energy out?

Well

If you know me, you know very well that I am always very intentional with every instructional activity that I design. However I always try to sneak in some fun because

let’s be real

having fun and learning at the same time is pretty awesome!

Have you ever read the book “Snowzilla” by Janet Lawler?

This is the story of a little girl who, with the help of her family, builds a gigantic snowman. The story goes on and on until the little  girl has to blog, text, email… to save her Snowzilla. I love this story because our kids can connect to it. I also love how the community works together to achieve a goal.

{Click HERE to get from my TPT store} 

This great Snowzilla mini-unit has these activities:

This is a great activity that can be done in a small guided reading group before you introduce the book. It can also be done independently in a literacy center to review and practice new vocabulary learned.
In this activity, the students put the puzzles together in a pocket chart. After the puzzles are put together, the students complete one of the three sheets provided. Each sheet is differentiated, from easiest to most challenging.

Oh and don’t forget!

Direct vocabulary instruction can be implemented using a research-based six-step process. {The Marzano Way!}
The six steps of the vocabulary instruction process are:
1.Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term.
2.Ask students to restate the description, explanation, or example in their own words.
3.Ask students to construct a picture, symbol, or graphic representing the term or phrase.
4.Engage students in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the terms in their vocabulary notebooks.
5.Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another.
6.Involve students in games that allow them to play with terms.

The activities in this section are designed to review the concepts of verbs, nouns, and adjectives.
I like the idea of “zooming in” in the evidence to look for language patterns… when our students look at characters, key details, settings, etc., their comprehension of any text is greater.
These activities can be done in a small guided reading group or independently (if your students have the command and strategies to problem solve unknown words).

These pages are designed specifically for a small guided reading group.
Young children need a lot of practice zooming in on the text and illustrations to locate evidence and then articulating their discoveries orally and in written words or pictures.
As with any type of writing, children will gain a better understanding of how to craft an effective response if they can watch you do it first. Then, based on this experience, work with students to develop a shared criteria so that they can self –assess their own response.
Each sheet is differentiated, from easiest to most challenging.

Who doesn't need some opinion writing to match standard W.1.1!

And my most favorite activity: How to build a snowman.
Ingredients
3 cups of baking soda
½ cup of white (inexpensive) hair conditioner
This amount makes about 4 snowmen
Mix all ingredients in a big bowl, and voila!
Use googly eyes, a toothpick broken in half for the arms, whole cloves for the buttons, and strips of felt for the scarf.
After making Snowzilla, guide your students through the “how-to writing.” Your kids will love this activity, and your classroom will smell glorious!
Because I heart you all, I am posting the how-to writing for free here! Click on the picture to download. I hope you and your kiddos love this activity as much as we do in room 208!

 Click HERE to grab this how-to writing for FREE!

Thank you for stopping by and happy winter!
Love and blessings,

Comprehension for Beginning Readers

Teaching students to comprehend during/after reading doesn't always have to be a quiz or written responses. The idea of comprehension is simply to process what they are reading and understand it. Even the earliest of readers can start to show comprehension skills, even it's just with drawings. The importance of teaching comprehension is so students understand what they just read, and they aren't just reading word without putting meaning behind them. 

Even at the beginning of Kindergarten, we start working on comprehension skills. For my higher academic students, we use this Decode & Draw worksheet bundle which have students read the simple word and then draw a picture to match. My goal is to see if students are able to know what that word means they just read. These worksheets are differentiated with 2 versions: words or simple sentences. 

These Cut & Comprehend worksheets are similar and differentiated as well, but students have to cut & paste the words to match the picture.  I told the students that if they couldn't read the word, then they could look at the beginning sound to give them a clue. I made both of these bundles with 2 versions for every month of the year. I can throw these in centers and students will know what to do with this activity all year long! 

Really Good Stuff sells these beach balls that are a fun way to work on comprehension after a read aloud. Throw the ball to a student, have them pick a question and respond to the answer. It's a fun way to engage students, as well as see who was not only listening to your read aloud, but also was processing what you were reading.

Once we start getting our book baskets and attempting to do picture walks and read words, I use these Interactive Reading Responses. Since not all students are on the same level, I can differentiate the pages each students gets and whether they draw or write out their answers. I worked with this student 1 on 1 to discuss the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". He understood the idea of sequencing, but isn't quite ready to write sentences or words yet. I told him he could illustrate what happened in the book and tell me about it when he was finished. Can you tell the letters are falling out of the bent tree...so cute!

The story starter pages in this bundle come with dotted lines and regular lines, depending on what your students need. In the past at my listening center, students would just write and draw about their favorite part. These responses get the students to think more about the book and find ways to connect to what they read. 

 

Here are a few more examples of the interactive pages. Having these fun response sheets available will make your students pay more attention to these skills during their story.

There are over over 20 pages of reading responses to help your students work on comprehending what they read. You can find this bundle in my TPT store here. 

Mining for Spelling Patterns

Happy Saturday!  I'm Pamela from Hedgehog Reader, and I am here to share a fun way that students can play with letters and words to discover, practice, and reinforce spelling patterns.

Have you ever played Word Mines?  Maybe you've called them something else...  Basically, here is how Word Mines go:

You are given a word (or sometimes a phrase).  To play, you form as many words as possible in the given time using only the letters presented.  (If there is one R, then R can be used only once in that word.  It can be used once again in another word, and so on.)

Call me a nerd (believe me, you won't be the first!), but this has been one of my favorite pastimes for as long as I can remember.  So it was a natural thing for me to develop Word Mines for my students, because I knew it would be a fun way to identify, discover, and play with spelling patterns!

How to Start:

Although it doesn't take long for students to learn Word Mining strategies and procedures, it does require at least one session of whole class instruction to ensure smooth sailing ahead:

• Students are ready for Word Mines when they have started to develop phonemic awareness, and have begun to identify common spelling patterns.  They should also have some sight words under their belts.
• Make sure that any word you give students to "mine" is one that holds plenty of words within it.  Not all words are suited to this activity, so my best advice is to try it yourself first.
• It's fun to use seasonal words or vocabulary pulled from content areas of current study.
• I find that controversy is avoided by declaring the following rules:  *No proper nouns   *No foreign words   *No contractions
• I begin by projecting the word to be mined.  (I've created cute seasonal Word Mines so that I could put them under the document camera, but you can also simply write it up on your board.)  Although traditional Word Mines are done with a word or phrase in its original form, I always scramble mine so that students get the bonus activity of solving the "secret word."
• Depending on the age of your students, it's often helpful to begin with letter tiles, one for each letter in the scrambled word.  This allows students to physically manipulate the letters (concrete reasoning), until they are ready to move into mentally manipulating the letters (abstract reasoning).  This also ensures that letters are only used as many times as they are found within the word.
• I model my thinking aloud as I "solve" the projected puzzle.  I make sure to demonstrate how patterns can help.  For instance, if I see the pattern ALE, I will play with each consonant and blend to see if it fits with the pattern to create a word.  Then I move from ALE to EAL and repeat the process.
• Normally after one such session, students are ready to mine for words on their own, with a buddy, or in a team.

Use Word Mines as a Whole Class:

Once students have a grasp of how to work with Word Mines, these make a great Morning Work activity or sponge activity, either individually, in buddies, or as teams:

• Students stay even more focused if they know they will have 3 minutes for team consultation to tally up total words once the time is up.  It only takes a moment or two to quickly go through how many words each team came up with  (I am not picky, and the students do a wonderful job holding one another accountable for following the rules), and points are awarded for order of most words found.  For instance - If you have 6 teams in your classroom, the team with the most words earns 6 points, and then work your way down to 1 point for the team with the fewest words - so everybody earns something!

Use Word Mines in a Literacy Center:

Word Mines make a great literacy center activity:

• Glue a puzzle to the front of a file folder or manilla envelope.  Hide an answer key inside.  Provide a set of laminated letter tiles.
• Students can record their answers on notebook paper or whiteboards, or on prepared worksheets.
• It’s best to use only one puzzle at a time to prevent confusion; puzzles can be changed out based on your students’ need.  

I've created this FREEBIE for you to try out a Word Mine with your students!  (I have various seasonal and thematic Word Mine resources in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and I add to my collection often.)

Have a wonderful year with your students, and thanks for reading!

Shower Curtain/Tablecloth Games

I don't know about you but my bag of tricks is getting pretty low on ideas by this point in the school year. One of my last ditch efforts to refocus students on learning is by tricking them into it of course. I'm talking about Shower Curtain/Tablecloth Games!

I am here from K's Classroom Kreations to share with you a simple and inexpensive way to get learners up and engaged. Shower curtain games work great all year long, regardless if you are introducing new skills or reviewing some that were previously taught. I purchase plastic tablecloths or shower curtains during end of season sales and at my local Dollar Store.

I like to create generic game boards that can be used for many different games. For example, this round tablecloth was cut in half and turned into two matching garden themed centers. First I hand drew a few flowers onto the mat using a permanent marker. I used a die-cut machine to punch out some circles and laminated them. I also traced the petal shape onto construction paper and laminated those too. Now I just use a dry erase marker to write on the pieces. When the center is complete I can wipe off the pieces and use it all again later.

*Ideas to try:

- Number Representation- Write the numeral in the center. Have 1 different way to represent the number on each petal (tally marks, tens frames, addition, etc.). Students sort the pieces like a puzzle and put them on the flower they belong to.
- Word Families- Write a different word family on each center piece (-ap, -ing, -en). Write words or attach pictures to each petal. Students will sort and match pieces.

Here is a simple Blends Board. I have played this game several ways. The first way is to have students stand around the edges and throw a koosh ball onto the board. They then need to come up with a word containing the blend they land on. An alternative is for the teacher to call out a word and to have students move to the correct circle after listening carefully for a blend. Young readers could also search books for words with the pattern, record on sticky notes or index cards, and set word cards in the correct circle. The options are endless!

Another generic game board is in a Hopscotch format. I suggest using the tablecloths with backing for these games and also taping the board to the floor to prevent slipping and sliding. I like using this game board with phoneme or syllable segmentation. I call out a word and have students hop to show the correct number of sounds or syllables. They love it! For a math twist have students skip count by a certain number as they hop along the board.

Lastly, here is a little piggy game. Let me start by saying I AM NOT an artist (although my firsties think I am). I hang the curtain on my smartboard and trace out whatever image I would like in the center. It's a simple way to make custom boards without your little ones learning your true art abilities ;) Have students answer trivia, math facts, comprehension questions, etc. and move along the board from start to finish. This blank board can be used in any way that you choose.

I hope you were able to find a new game idea to help get through the next few weeks!! If you like what you read please be sure to stop by my blog or Instagram page to see the ideas in action.

Have you used shower curtains or tablecloths before to create games? What are the favorites in your class?

Want to put this idea in your bag of tricks for later? Pin here:

Figurative Language

Hi there!! I'm Neetu from Cinnamon's Synonyms! If you follow me, you may already know that I teach in a school with a very high population of ESL learners... this means I'm always striving to come up with creative ways to make learning a bit more visual so that my students can easily grasp new concepts in a FUN way!    Studies show that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is VISUAL.  Also, visuals are PROCESSED much FASTER by the brain than text! Whether your students are strong in English or new to the English language, using visuals just makes sense! 
Sooo, I have gathered some engaging visuals to help you teach figurative language!!   Using video is a great way to teach figurative language, not only because of the audio/visual component (the more senses involved, the better!), but because it helps students see how figurative language is used more often than they might even realize (ie. in their favorite shows and songs)! 
Hyperboles:

Figurative Language in songs:

Onomatopoeia:

Another way I like to teach figurative language is through my Spot It & Steal It games!!! Here's how you play!

You can also use the "Picture Cards" from the game to create a visual display.  A bulletin board display can serve to remind students to use similes and idioms etc., to enhance their writing!!  The picture cards are also great for creating an engaging anchor chart when introducing the unit!    (So you see, the game cards have multiple uses). Each game includes 3 printing options too! This means if you want to save on ink, you have the option to print the game with or without the colorful background... plus all the games cards come in black & white too!  Here are all my figurative language games in one big bundle!  Click HERE to take a closer look at each game in the pack.
Well, I am as hungry as a wolf... time for lunch!! Ahh-oooooooooo

 

Tackling Tricky Sounds ~ Silent e & Bossy R

I introduce r-controlled vowels as "Bossy R" because the R always bosses the vowels around. In Kindergarten, this idea is much more fun than calling them r-controlled vowels. :) I found this video on YouTube by Preschool Prep Company called Controlling R Song. It's has a catchy tune for the kids to pick up on and remember what the job of Bossy R is. I use this video when introducing this concept. 

Since this is a difficult skill, especially in Kindergarten, I decided to make up my own Bossy R Bundle full of games. I used these cards in my pocket chart when working as a whole group on Bossy R.  I passed out the word cards, students had to read them, and come up and match it to the picture in the pocket chart. Now they can play this game independently at centers or they can turn it into a memory game. 

To see if my students are actually reading Bossy R words, I made up this worksheet so they have to draw the picture after they read the word. I have a lot of kids that love to draw, so this way I can incorporate that into their literacy time. 

I put this game in centers for students to practice reading the Bossy R word or saying what Bossy R sound they hear in the picture. They can then roll the dice and move around the game board. 

To work on filling in the correct sound, students would use these popsicle sticks and place the correct sound in the middle of the word. I put the answer on the back, so these can be self-checking. 

When introducing silent e (as I call it), I tell them that silent e has to remain quiet, gets mad that he can't talk, so he pinches the vowel and makes it say its name. I found this Silent e Song on YouTube also by Preschool Prep Company. It's another fun way to teach students that the e at the end of the word, makes the vowel say it's name.

I also made a Silent e Bundle to use in our literacy centers as well. Many of the games are very similar to the Bossy R Bundle, so students will already know the game format. For the game below, students have to read the word before they can roll the dice and move around the game board. 

We used these cards in our pocket chart as a whole group, just as we did for Bossy R. Now they are in centers as well.

My students have a lot of fun using these pointers to turn CVC words into CVCe words. 

To get some more practice with Silent e and Bossy R, I use Starfall's "Learn to Read" page that has games for both skills! These games have students fill in the missing sounds to spell the word that matches the picture shown. 

You can grab the Bossy R and Silent e Bundles in my TPT store by clicking the pictures below! 

  

Keeping Kids Active

Hey friends, it Brittany again from Tickled Pink in Primary. Are you looking for ways to get your kids moving AND keep their brain working? I've created many games called Fluency & Fitness that help your students review needed skills, gives them a brain break, and get in a little exercise. My students have so much fun with this and even ask me if we can do it!

To play Fluency & Fitness you simply project one of the slideshows onto a big screen and flip through the slides as fast or slow as you think your students can do the skill. When they see an exercise slide, they have to do that exercise until you click to the next screen. I like to tease my students and stay on the exercise screen for a while. ;) 

One of my first grade colleagues videoed her class doing the number version. It's funny to see how excited they are for the push-ups.

Here's an example of the Missing Numbers version which would be great practice for mClass math assessments. 

Below is an example of my Dolch Words bundle. I have all the Dolch words in this packet from pre-primer to 3rd grade, or you can visit my store to buy just the sight word sets you need.

Fluency & Fitness doesn't just have to be a slideshow for whole group practice! I printed multiple pages per sheet to make these cards smaller. Put them in a cute container and voila, you have a great literacy center activity!

Click here to see all the different versions of Fluency & Fitness that I have.  I'm getting many requests for games, so keep an eye on my store for new activities!