Wondering how to teach contractions to your child? Teaching contractions might seem complicated, but these helpful tips can make this concept easy to teach!
Since it is poetry month, I thought I would share a bit about how I teach alliteration. Teaching literary devices is probably one of my favorite things to do, but they can be tricky for the little ones! That means I provide a lot of different kinds of activities to help the concepts stick! Here are just a few of my favorites with alliteration. Tongue Twisters Tongue twisters are a favorite! I love sharing some with my students and have them try to say them three times fast to the class. We usually end up doubled over in laughter. :) Once students are familiar with tongue twisters, we set out to write our own. We publish them on the tongues of these cute displays! No template - we just trace lids for the circle faces and I free-cut tongues out of the large construction paper. Poem Practice We read the Jack Prelutsky poem, "Bleezer's Ice Cream" and I ask students to identify the flavors that alliterate, like checkerberry cheddar chew or cotton candy carrot custard. This poem is in the book The New Kid on the Block and it's an all-time favorite poetry book that I highly recommend! {affiliate link below} There are a few ways to access this poem online if you can't get your hands on the book. Here is a YouTube reading of the poem. You can also play the musical version of the poem being sang by Natalie Merchant here. After analyzing the poem, I put students in partners and let them create their own wacky ice cream flavors that alliterate! You can download the freebie below to do this activity with your students. {Download Freebie Here} Games Galore Games are so important in the primary classroom. We play games every single day. Multiple times a day. For alliteration, we play an old fashioned car game. It's great, not only for alliteration, but for listening and memory, too! The items being taken on the trip must all begin with the same initial sound as the destination. To play, I read the card, for example, "I am going to Paris and I'm taking a parachute." The next student in the circle would repeat my item and add one of his own, for example..."I am going to Paris and I'm taking a parachute and a piano." The sentence keeps getting passed around the circle with each student repeating it and adding another "p" word. They are amazed when it make it all the way around the circle! I also teach students how to play it with just two players - perfect for the car ride home from school (sorry parents)! One student starts it, and it keeps alternating until one player either can't think of an item to add or can't remember an item. What fun practicing alliteration! Clever Crafts Since we study literary devices during the spring, we love to decorate the hall with clever craftivities. For alliteration, we create "Alliterainbows." Students use planning pages and brainstorm parts of speech to alliterate with each color and then use these ideas to write their own sentences with alliteration on each color band of the rainbow. By now, they are amazing at alliterating! :) Story Surprises Throughout our study, I always throw in a couple of surprise read-alouds! These are a couple of my favorites for alliteration. The first book I read is The Little Book of Alliterations. It is a simple alphabet book with one phrase per page. It's perfect to read before having students write tongue twisters. The next book I read closer to the end of our study. It's called One Smug Slug and it is written in story format. The story uses as many "s" words as possible. They enjoy trying to figure out what the smug slug is climbing throughout the story and are always surprised when he is eaten at the end! But, their favorite part of the book is that there is a hidden "S" somewhere on each page - some are super tricky and they love searching for them. {affiliate links for books} I hope this post gave you a few new ideas for teaching alliteration!
It took me years of searching, but I finally found the BEST homeschool spelling curriculum! This spelling curriculum teaches spelling rules.
So.... it's been a while!! For most of December and the first two weeks of January, our house was riddled with germs!! And in a house with four small kiddos, this meant lots of children's Motrin, fever checks, tissues, sleepless nights, and filling humidifiers! It's been exhausting, but I am hoping healthier days are ahead!! * * * * * * * * * * Lots going on in my classroom! My students have been working away on our argument unit, and I have to say, they LOVE it! Like, love it so much they want to talk about it the entire walk to specials! It KILLS me to have to "shh" them (I'm a stickler for quietly walking in the halls!) because they are just so spirited about this unit! The kicker are these debate cards that I'm using. I spent the summer Googling like crazy trying to find some refreshing hot topics for the kids to argue over (I was just so over the school uniform and longer school day debate!!). I came up with a GREAT list and created a set of task cards. Here's a sneak peak at a few (the full set of task cards are available in my complete argument writer's workshop available here): Each day, I randomly distribute a few of the topics and give the students five minutes to jot down their gut reactions to the card. I also ask them to brainstorm some potential opposing arguments. Then, I have them find everyone else in the room with the same card and together they discuss/debate. I do have them use a "talking stick" (we use the super-fancy highlighter :) to keep the overly-enthusiastic voices from drowning out the students who are on the quieter side. Basically, I give one person in each group the highlighter and they "begin" the discussion (usually they will start by reading the gut reaction they had when they first saw their topic). If someone wants to respond, they can raise their hand for the stick. Otherwise, it just gets passed around the circle so each kid gets a chance to speak. If a group is struggling, I will go over and raise my hand for the talking stick. Typically, when I throw my two-cents into the mix, it will get them going for at least another few minutes! After 15-20 minutes of talking, students go back to their desks and draft their argument. Typically, I give them 25 minutes (there is absolutely NO TALKING during this time!), and believe me, their hands are FLYING across their notebook page!! Almost always, every single student finishes their essay in that time! It is absolutely amazing how the "talk time" prior to writing gives even the most reluctant writers plenty to say. So far, we've completed this activity three times (students get a different prompt each time), therefore, every kid has three great first drafts in their notebook. And we will probably do this activity two or three more times over the next week. Then, students will be able to take the draft they are most excited about, do a little research on the topic, and turn their draft into a full essay. These debates have just been so much fun. I am eager to see how the final drafts of their essays turn out! Any tips and tricks for teaching argument writing? I'd love to hear about them! Happy Teaching!!
I'm linking up again for Five for Friday with Doodlebugs Teaching. This week was all about the Earth. 1. We learned about landfor...
Discover the 7 key features and benefits of the Orton-Gillingham approach for teaching reading and spelling and download our free e-book.
These engaging strategies to incorporate movement in the classroom are perfect for the fidgety students & kinesthetic learners in your class!
Teaching elementary music? Learn all about classroom management strategies to control those fifth graders in the blog post!
Struggling spellers. If you teach one, you know exactly what I’m talking about. And you know how frustrating it can be for you and the student. Today, I’m sharing 5 things struggling spellers need. Before I get too far, I just want to say that every child is different. There isn’t a single solution that will ... Read More about 5 Things Struggling Spellers Need
Homophones can cause a lot of confusion when spelling. In this post, Marie Rippel shares her best tips for teaching homophones plus FREE downloadable PDFs!
In our classroom we have been learning all about prepositions. I usually hate teaching grammar, but these hands-on reading units have made it so much more fun! Pinterest I started off by introducing prepositions with a song… These songs were PERFECT!! If you play them, be prepared for a classroom of little singers that will […]
{Affiliate links used} I have been using an activity that I named "Card Talkers" with my students to get them to ask and answer questions in Spanish. The activity also doubles as a cultural lesson because you can teach your students about how the deck of cards are different in Spanish-speaking countries. In order to do this activity you need a set (or several sets for a classroom) of Spanish Playing Cards {La Baraja}. La Baraja is the name of the deck used in Spanish-speaking countries. It is smaller than the English version containing only forty cards in all. It also has different suits: oros (coins), bastos (clubs), espadas (swords), and copas (cups). Traditionally, each of the suits represented a different part of medieval society. The oros were merchants. The bastos were the peasants. The espadas were the military, and the copas represented the Church. The face cards are also different. There is the sota (like our Jack), the caballo (horse/knight), and the rey (king). Interestingly, there are no cards with the numbers eight and nine on them. Once you have the cards, you can print out the files below. The first page is more basic while the second page is for advanced students. To use the cards and the questions, just shuffle the cards and put them face down in the middle of the group (no more than five students). One student picks up a card and finds the appropriate question based on the suit and number of the card. He or she then asks the person next to them the question. That student answers and then picks up a card to ask the next student and so on and so forth. I find that this activity works well at the beginning or end of a lesson. It doesn't take a lot of set-up especially if you have the decks on hand. I have laminated my question sheets so that they can be used again and again. All you have to do is pull the materials out and get your students talking! You can download the Basic Card Talkers here. You can download the Advanced Card Talkers here.
All about the schwa sound, including how to teach it, schwa word activities, and a free schwa words list pdf download.
Fun and useful activity for young students and adult language learners to practice talking about health, body parts and symptoms. One of the most widely shared resource I've created on my website. Teaches cooperative learning, vocabulary development, reading skills, and how to distinguish body par...
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in THIS post how I would be taking a giant step forward in “stepping up” my sight word instruction this upcoming year. Not that I need to “teach” sight words any differently, but offer continuous and hands on ways for my kiddos to practice them. Another area I will be offering […]
My favorite thing to teach about multiplication is all the neat things you can do with the nines! I mean, you can line them up and see patterns like this: There are all kinds of fun patterns and sho
Let's face it: It's HARD to teach grammar! Make teaching verbs fun with verb worksheets and activities that are relevant and engaging?
Here is a great game for centers or fast finishers during those first few weeks of school. All you need is a set of Jenga Blocks and these question prompts. Kids love this game! Happy teaching, Rachel Lynette You Might Also Like:Zoom into Cause and Effect!Science + Community Service = Holiday Fun!Snowball OlympicsTooth fairy day
This product is jammed pack with activities that will help students master the different syllable patterns. The activities in this product give young students many opportunities to practice how to divide and separate words into syllables. In this product students will practice identifying open and closed syllables, v/cv, vc/v, and vccv patterns, and c+le syllable patterns. Also included are dividing syllables by prefix and suffix. Colorful syllable posters will help guide students as they practice dividing words into syllables. No prep is needed! Just print and go. Related Products: VC/V and V/CV Syllable Patterns Word Work! - No prep! Consonant + le Syllable Pattern Word Work! Turtle Words! No Prep VCCV Syllable Pattern Word Work! Rabbit Words! No Prep
I am so excited to bring you Tech Talk Tuesday! I just got back from attending the Georgia Education Technology Conference (GaETC) and I am in a techy mood! I am inviting all my educator friends to link up to discuss something you love pertaining to technology in the classroom! Maybe it is a teacher tip, maybe a student tip, or maybe it is just something amazing you hope to do one day! Either way, check out the links below and join the party!
It's hard to talk to students without making it a lecture. Empower students while you teach them about respect using hands on activities
As you probably know, phonics is an essential component of reading instruction. Before you read this loooong post all about how to teach ph...
What is Bite-Sized Learning? The world of education is changing. Attention spans are getting smaller. Digital screens are replacing paper pages. Personalized plans are for everyone. Self-paced learning is sweeping through classrooms. When all that
Click on the picture for free download from TpT.I've been thinking a lot about formative assessments lately. Formative assessments are all about gathering information from your students - during inst
Why do we double the final consonant when we spell words like "cliff," "glass," and "bill"? The answer is easy, and we call it The Floss Rule.
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
All about the schwa sound, including how to teach it, schwa word activities, and a free schwa words list pdf download.
Try these fun angles activities in your maths classes to make geometry lessons more engaging!
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in THIS post how I would be taking a giant step forward in “stepping up” my sight word instruction this upcoming year. Not that I need to “teach” sight words any differently, but offer continuous and hands on ways for my kiddos to practice them. Another area I will be offering...
Teaching area is engaging and authentic with this hands-on applied math activity! Students arrange furniture to find the area and perimeter of their house.
Learn about how to put cooperative learning structures in place to facilitate teamwork, focus and reinforced group interest in a variety of disciplines.
In first grade reading comprehension is something new, challenging, and difficult to teach because even though they’re all 6 or 7 they’re developmentally so different. Head over to my blog to get this comprehension page. Depending on what grade you teach it’d be great for: homework individual assessment small groups partners intervention challenging gifted students ... Read More about Reading Comprehension
Teaching fluency in reading is much more than just pace and accuracy. Help your students learn about expression in fluency with these engaging ideas!
Need free entrepreneurship curriculum, lesson plans, and projects? Here's entrepreneur lesson plans for high school, middle school, and elementary.
Research based teaching strategies you can use today with a free printable chart.
I created this reading comprehension for my ESOL learners who are working on the theme ' Going to Hospital'. There questions to assess the learners' understanding. - ESL worksheets
