Illustrating Homographs to Internalize Learning

 Brain Research tells us that when children illustrate as part of the learning process, it deepens the learning. In fact, integrating any of the arts has this affect on learning!

 

 

My students did this activity on homographs this week: 

My kids were so excited about the double meanings of words, they had a blast!  Plus, they created some awesome illustrations to prove their understanding!  Here are some of them:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Change can mean the money that you get back. Or Change can mean if you get your clothes dirty, you could change them!

 

 

 

 

Tip can mean a tip of a pencil or the tip at a restaurant.

Foot can mean football or foot can mean a foot.

Broke can mean I broke up or broke can mean no money.

Bat can mean a baseball bat or a bat who flies.

Key can mean a house key or key can mean a computer key.

Rose can mean a flower or Rose can mean a girl's name.

Well can mean a wishing well or well can mean getting better when you're sick.

March can mean they are marching or March can mean the month of March.

Aren't their drawings amazing? 

They actually thought of meanings of these words that I hadn't come up with! I love when they think of things I don't, in fact, I always love when the kiddos are thinking!

This is a perfect activity to keep in the "sub tub". It requires little preparation (just run off the papers), the kids enjoy it, and it's easy to leave directions for another teacher! 

Plus, these kiddos really know their homographs!

Shh... We Had Fun!

I have a confession to make. 

I strayed. 

On purpose.

Two days in a row!

 

 

Yes, folks, rather than sticking to my assigned programs, I strayed and did activities that I knew the children would enjoy.

Did they still learn? Yes! Honestly, there was more learning going on than the typical textbook learning.

Tuesday was Groundhog Day. I had to change my schedule because of another teacher being absent, so I ran with it!

First, I pulled out these Groundhog information stories and questions from my Science and Social Studies for February set.

I always try to have some comprehension question that can be answered directly from the text, at least one "word work" question, and one or two "beyond the text" questions. (These are my favorite!)

 

Since this reading was challenging for some, we first read as a group. After a discussion, I broke the children into pairs, and they re-read, then answered the questions. I love to have them work in pairs, since they have valuable conversations, especially on the "beyond the text" questions!

 

I told them I'd pay particular attention to question #4. (How would you keep a groundhog from eating things in your garden?) This reflects a problem I had as a gardener: 

The hungry groundhog actually learned to climb the fence I put up!

Their answers were delightful! Although they weren't all realistic, they showed an understanding of the problem, and creativity in their solution! (Plus, almost all kids solved the problem in a non-violent way!)

 

Once they learned about groundhogs, I had them make groundhog puppets and settings, and they created their own skits for Groundhog Day.

 

This guy put a couple of things to frighten the groundhog: the shadow AND a fox! 

 

The kiddos were so clever when creating their burrows! Some even designed the inside of the burrow on the other side! (In their reading, they learned a lot about the design of the burrows!)

 

 

As they performed their skits, they showed creativity, a sense of humor, AND knowledge of groundhogs! You can't get this on a computer test!

The next day was Day 100. 

I've had a little tradition going on that I started about 20 years ago. We go from classroom to classroom singing Day 100 songs!

We have 4 songs we sing. Here's one of them:

100 Days Smarter!

Sorry, the other 3 aren't mine to give you! 

 They kept them in their book boxes and practiced them during reading time. (It was hard to keep them SILENT during independent reading!)

It was loads of fun going from class to class. They rarely get to go into the other classrooms, and they got to go into almost ALL the classrooms! They saw younger siblings, older siblings, former teachers, neighborhood friends, and loads of other people they know. The teachers, students, and staff were amazing audiences! They welcomed us into their classrooms, listened to the lyrics, and applauded for the children. 

My favorite part is seeing the smiles on the faces of my former students as they remember Day 100 caroling in past years!

Later that day, we played a couple of games and activities, including Mental Math 100. Up until now the children had only worked with 2 digit numbers, but I had them adding and subtracting 3 digit numbers, and with this game, they were even dealing with 4 digit numbers! And, of course, they were successful!

It was a huge boost on their mathematics self esteem, and a whole lot of fun!

It's not actually what the manual told me to do, but it was truly a great learning day. 

Hopefully, I can sneak in a few more of these!

Science and Engineering Practices

After spending time studying the Next Generation Science Standards, I wanted to share the Science and Engineering Practices.

 

 

After several years with Common Core, I'm sure you'll remember the Standards of Mathematics Practices. If you recall, these practices apply to all grade levels, and all math learning. 

The Science and Engineering Practices are straight from the Next Generation Science Standards. The whole appendix dedicated to these practices can be found HERE. As with the math practices, these Science and Engineering Practices apply to all grade levels. Here they are:

HERE's a nice article I found that discusses each of these practices from the science and engineering point of view, for the different levels from Kindergarten to Grade Twelve. 

As I discussed these practices with my STEM Innovation Network, we came to the same conclusion: 

These aren't just Science and Engineering Skills, they are LIFE Skills!

These are the skills we should be teaching our students.

Even if it's not on the test!

These practices can be embedded in many activities across the curriculum, can't they? 

As a second grade teacher, our priorities are building the foundation: teaching the important skills of reading, writing and math. (As they say: K-2 Learn to Read, Grades 3 and up, Read to Learn!)

Science and Engineering aren't a priority in the classroom yet, but it's a strong area of interest for the kids! These practices are something we should be sharing regularly when we can fit them into our day.

How do you embed these Science and Engineering Practices into your school day?  

A Batty Art Project

I'm sure you know some children that are fascinated by bats! 

After reading a great information book by one of my favorite non-fiction authors, I wanted to do a fun art project to help the children remember what they learned!

 

 

 

I'm not a fan of "cookie cutter" art projects that all look alike. I like to give the children an opportunity to be creative and make something unique. 

We started by making a night scene with crayons.

Then we added a watercolor wash.

The kids loved how the crayons came through the watercolor!

It's amazing the effect paint has on a class of kids.  Suddenly all chatting stops and they are totally engrossed in what they're doing.

Of course, some classical music in the background inspires the creativity!

Now, please tell me why aren't I bring out the paints more often?

I was tempted to give them a pattern to follow for the bats, but when I looked at photos of bats in the night sky, you really couldn't make out a specific shape. I gave each child a piece of black construction paper and they developed their own technique for making the bats.

The results were spectacular!

Each child wrote a fact they remembered from the book, and these are displayed with the pictures. 

These kids are amazing!

Here's a fun resource that might be a good source for your Facts About Bats!

 

This resource is part of a bigger October resource with more fun Science and Social Studies activities:

Or try this Life Cycles set:

Or this Boom Learning resource:

Or go for the bundle of all three bats themed resources:

I'm thinking I'll be reading this book real soon! 
I love comparing fiction books to non-fiction!

 

 

Here are a couple more informational books about bats that might interest your students.