Card Games

Once again my trusty (colorful) paint sample cards come in handy. I am sure I am responsible for the badly predicted paint sales at Lowes and Walmart.  They just can't figure out how so many people get samples, but no gallons of paint are ever sold.  I hope it is not illegal to take these--but they are free, right?  Besides that I always take the colors that are the fullest because I think that those are the colors people would never use to paint the rooms in their houses.

These activities came from a variety of online sources over several years so I am sorry I do not have links to them.  Some of the are from FCRR and some are from the Third Grade Wiki.  Many of them I found simply by typing the topic into Google.  A googling tip that works well for me is to enter the topic and them add pdf.  That way I know I am not getting useless links.  Adding pdf usually outputs an activity rather than an article or lesson plan.

Author's Purpose

The cards have scenarios on them and students have to sort them based on the author's purpose. The correct answers are written on the back of the cards so that students can self-check.

For another center that features author's purpose check out Beanbag Toss

Cause and Effect

In this first activity, the students have to sort the cards to create a cause and effect relationship. The second activity is a little lower in level because there are choices to complete the cause-effect relationship rather than students creating their own. I only used one linking word, but you can also add in others to increase the complexity.

Fact and Opinion

In both activities students read a statement on the card and decide if it is a fact or an opinion.  In the activity on the left the cards are sorted and in the activity on the right the students give oral responses. 

Both sets of cards are coded on the back with the correct answers.

Synonyms and Antonyms

These card games are differentiated by reading ability. The first one is a higher level because the vocabulary is more academic than conversational.  The second activity, Dominoes, is more rigorous because it requires students to think ahead and anticipate future responses when linking the synonyms and antonyms together. The last two sets of cards are the same matching activity, but one set of cards has picture cues and one doesn't.

Beanbag Toss

I was at an NCTM conference when I came up with this idea.  I was actually working a booth for Renaissance Learning and during my down time I would walk around and visit the other booths.  There was a booth selling beanbags for $0.50.  They were advertised to be used with the Smart Board (which is also a great use), but another idea popped in to my mind.

This is a very versatile activity.  It can be used in the classroom or outside. Students can work independently or with a partner. You can use it as a center or during Guided Reading. Here are some ways to use the beanbags:

• I wrote author's purposes on the beanbags. I doubled up on to inform and to explain because my third graders struggle with distinguishing between those two the most.  I include a variety of laminated passages.  Students spread the reading materials on the ground face up. They scan them and read the titles.  They look at any graphics or illustrations. Then they toss the beanbags onto the reading passages that match the author's purpose on the appropriate beanbag.  They check their answers by flipping over the passages (where I wrote the author's purpose).

• Write content vocabulary on the beanbags. Write the definitions or an illustration on index cards.
• Write Marzano's Questions on the beanbags. Spread passages or books on the floor. Toss a beanbag on a piece of reading material and answer the question after reading.
• Write BOOK and HEAD on beanbags. Write questions on index cards. Students use QAR strategies to decide what type of question is on the card. They toss the corresponding beanbag onto the question cards.
• Write genres on the beanbags. Spread out a variety of books. Toss the genre beanbag onto the corresponding book.

Post Office

Letter writing is becoming a lost art.  This center gives students the opportunity to write cards or letters to friends and family members.  They can make their own cards or use ones that I provide for them.  They learn how to address an envelope. They get to be artistic and design stamps for the envelope. This center gives students exposure to artistic, linguistic, and interpersonal skills.  I placed all of the materials in a Priority Mail Box to make it authentic!

I put junk mail in this center for students to read which is another authentic purpose.  Sometimes I switch it up a little bit and attach question stems to the junk mail fliers.  Students can also do sorting activities with the junk mail based on author's purpose.

I also included some books that use letter writing to tell their story. One unexpected outcome of this center is that if you include thank you cards, the students begin writing them for each other which ends up being very positive for your classroom community!