Captured Lesson - Idioms Skit "Act It Out"

This week was super busy! I finally got my students back in my class after weeks and weeks of testing. I had a SIOP video observation, and yesterday was our Destination Imagination Tournament. I won't say whether I did or did not oversleep one morning last week, but if I had, I think it was justified. 

Having my students back now means that we're going to be doing a lot of spiraling, a lot of reading practice using the UNRAAVEL strategy, and much more pep talking in preparation for the CRCT. I was pleased that I had my SIOP observation; I'm also pleased that I completed the task and got my videos published on YouTube for my observer.

For my observed lesson, I chose to review idioms and figurative language. I created these skits for my students. For ESOL students, and honestly many students, watching and listening people use figurative language in context is more helpful than just reading it on paper. For SIOP, it was great, because this was a tremendous way to bring in all the language domains - reading, writing, speaking, and listening. I'm working on a video of the students acting out the skits, but I will post that later. Below, find the links to the "Act It Out" packets. One's a teaser, so I'm making it a freebie. Yay for FREEBIES!! For more skits and differentiated answering sheets, please get the full set.You won't regret it! The students will love it every time they see these waiting for them, especially if you have some popcorn popped, too.

My students loved this. I have a director's clapboard, too. Make it authentic for them, they will sure to be engaged!

          

Captured Lesson - Tapple Rocks My World

An earlier blog of mine covered some of my classes' favorite games. Click HERE to read about and get links to those games and to see how I was dying to acquire TAPPLE. Well, good news! I got it this past weekend. I finally got to hold classes today because of FTE (don't ask, I don't know what it means other then see your kids when you're scheduled to), so we got a break in testing. I decided today was a games day. Did we learn? Of course, we did, but I like when the kids forget they're learning.

I used Tapple with my 5th graders the way the instructions said. They simply drew cards with topics on them as other groups used computer games and the Make-A-Monster game. For my first graders, I used some creative muscle to fit the game into my unit plan.

We will be starting an animal unit when we meet again regularly, so Tapple helped me with a pre-assessment opportunity. In the video below, you'll see the steps we followed to complete our small group lesson 

1. Our group of four broke into teams.
2. Each group took turns completing an addition/subtraction problem using die domes.
3. Once they found the answer, they found the corresponding number on the sheet. The sheet had 12 categories.

1. Part of an animal (nouns)
2. Animals that are bigger than you (nouns)
3. Animals that are smaller than you (nouns)
4. Words that describe animals (adjective)
5. Animals in the zoo (nouns)
6. Animals in the circus (nouns)
7. Scary animals (nouns)
8. Soft animals (nouns)
9. Where animals live (nouns)
10. Things animals do (verbs)
11. Pets (nouns)

4. Depending on the number we got, we started with the student who rolled the dice. After him, we went around with the hope that all four would answer correctly before the buzzer. 

5. After a successful round, the other team would roll their die.  

6. The cycle continued until time was called.

One fun part, if we happened to get the answer of 0, they each had to make an animal sound! I had such a blast today. Having a great lesson, smiling kiddos, and a great way to integrate math or any subject makes for a great day in teaching! I can't wait to post again. I'm so pumped!!

Learn / Play Flash... Introducing Tumble Towers Review Game

Alright, readers, this is the first of many! I finally got around to making the product for a review/game that I created for my classes. I began, first, using JENGA for sight words. With 54 blocks, even using both sides, the same ol' sight words JENGA didn't make the rotation for centers too many times. Kids were bored, and I couldn't come up with enough extension exercises for them. That's when I threw out that box of JENGA and came up with a more sustainable option. This is my new method. I was teaching every grade accept for third last year. I had to get creative so that I wouldn't have five different JENGA sets.

Here you have it, ladies and gentlemen! I numbered the blocks!!! I then created a set for each class for whichever subject I was teaching. Now, I will say the first evolution of questions was front and back of 8.5x11 paper.  For this round, I've decided to make cards. My stock paper sheets got bent too often, and cards are kid-friendlier. 

I hope you will have patience to hang in there for upcoming products if 5th grade ELA doesn't suit your current needs, but that's what I have up, and I hope you grab your own copy. Review of any kind is great for our students, but you'll see that games and interactive activities are sort of my thing! My hope for you is that getting a JENGA set and labeling the block is simple enough. I tend to overdo it sometimes, so I'm glad to offer something pretty simple for you. 

Have a blast with this product, and as I said... Stay tuned. =)

UPDATE: 
Third grade ELA review is available now.  Click on the cover image to get your copy today.

ANOTHER UPDATE: 
Fourth grade ELA review is available now.  Click on the cover image to get your copy today.