Playdough and Tell

This is my favorite back-to-school getting-to-know-you activity.  It is creative and active.  It is detailed or abstract.  It is a positive experience for the quiet students and the talkative ones.  It is great for 4th graders because it is WHATEVER they want it to be!

Each table received a box of clay sticks (I get whatever Dollar Tree has in stock.  Sometimes they have 4 packs of Playdough, but this year it was 12 stick pack of clay). Students use the clay to create something that shows us about themselves.  It can be a specific item, like a football, or it can be a symbol that represents something, like a heart.  Then they create a display by writing a description on an index card.  They have a choice to write their names on the front or back of the card. I leave these displays out until Curriculum Night so parents can see them.

*I did not create this activity.  I read about it somewhere or saw it at a training, but after 26 years I cannot remember the exact person or I would give him/her credit.  

Cooperative Grammar

Grammar, grammar...blah, blah, blah. This topic can sometimes be very dull to teach. Please don't let it be! If you think it is dull, the students will think it is dull.  Teach like a pirate and hook them with what they like! I teach grammar using songs, videos and read alouds. We make Tree Maps and play charades. We do non-examples. We go on grammar safari hunts. 



My students love to draw and they enjoy being social, so the students in my Block 1 Literacy worked in groups to design posters displaying a location that contained nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Each student chose a slip of paper. There was a letter on the slip that correlated to one of the places--S for school, H for home, B for beach, M for mall, F for farm, Z for zoo, R for restaurant. Students who picked the same letter were grouped together. Brief directions for the activity were posted on the Smart Board after I showed them an example.

 

This activity required minimum prep work.

 

The students were creative and it allowed me to assess if students could distinguish between these three parts of speech.

 

Now we can move on to Common Core Standard  L.3.1 and learn about plural nouns, abstract nouns, irregular verbs, and comparative/superlative adjectives.

Flying Books

I want to be selfish and take the iPad cart at my school. I want to take all 30 devices and hide them in my classroom and never give them back!  My students were rock stars today!  They were creative and innovative and artistic and focused and successful.  You just had to be there to experience their joy. 

 

Today both of my literacy blocks created projects using the free app, Flying Books. I heard about this app from a fellow Twitter teacher. 

 

Students create electronic books by using photos, typing the story, and then narrating it. 

 

My students chose a piece of writing from their Writing Notebooks. Some students drew their illustrations and then photographed the drawings. Other students used peers and props from the classroom.

 

The students acted like movie directors when they used their friends to act out parts of their stories for the photos. The students worked on this project for about 90 minutes. Every child was able to share a finished product with the class.

Hooked on Art

I used the Picasso Hook from Teach Like a Pirate to activate my students' creativity during Reading Workshop. When they arrived at my Literacy Block, there were piles of yellow and black paper on their tables. They had glue and scissors in their supply buckets. I simply told them to create a bee. I did not give them patterns or examples. I made one too under the document camera so that my reluctant artists could have a model.

I had the students hang their bees on the cupboards to create a swarm. We talked about what a swarm of bees might sound like and then mimicked the sound. This led into my focus lesson on creating a buzz about books. Students learned how to share their ideas about what makes books so wonderful to read. We discussed how to recommend a book to other readers.

I think this hook was a success because the students worked efficiently and successfully. The most overheard comment was, "I can't believe we get to do art and it's not even Art class." This did make me sad. I know that I am so focused on the standards I need to cover and the student growth I need to show by May that I do need to remember they are only 8 years old and need to have fun. Teach Like a Pirate has helped me put fun back into my teaching!