Illustrating to Build Reading Skills

Illustrating is a great way to build reading skills!

I often have my students do some illustrating when I want to make sure they really "get" a concept.  

It forces them to visualize what they're learning.  

Brain research tells us that visualizing helps the memory and deepens understanding.

Brain research also tells us that adding an element of fun helps them remember as well... and don't kids love to draw? 

Add some classical music in the background, and the brain is more activated! 

 

Want to add a little more assurance that the kids are learning?  

Let them talk about what they're drawing and why!

I have several resources I use with my students that get the kiddos illustrating.

Figurative Language can be very tricky for little ones to learn! It takes a lot of conversation before they are ready to illustrate, but it's important that they "get" these confusing phrases. Once the instruction happens, the illustration really helps them to GET it!

 

There's this Mini-book about Healthy Habits.  

This resource is the result of much research on health and children. It has 10 pages written in child friendly language.

My own students have been working on this one this week, and have come up with some incredible ideas!

I also have a set of homophones for the children to illustrate.  These can be tricky for most kids, but in order to draw the different meanings, they have to deeply understand the different meanings.  

That involves a lot of conversation as well as thinking, but once they've got it, they've GOT it!  

As children are "social animals", they tend to remember not only their own pair of homophones, but the homophones their friends did as well!

 

I've got another set of word pairs for illustrating as well... these are homographs!  Just like the homophones, these are tricky, but once they've got them, they've GOT them!

Another advantage to these individual sheets that the children illustrate... they make great visual displays for bulletin boards!  I've had many compliments on the work of my students on these!

They also make awesome class books!

Another advantage? These are great for the sub tub! Just run off the set and leave it in the emergency sub folder!  Plus, they work for a variety of ages and levels. (Fifth graders are NOT too old to draw, they love it!)

Of course, any illustrating is enhanced by music. May I suggest this one?  (Click image for a link to Amazon!)

 

Acts of Kindness Holiday Countdown

Ever notice that wonderful feeling that comes from doing something for others? 

I suspect you know it well, 

since that's what teaching is all about!

I decided, instead of just a "Countdown to Christmas", I wanted to do a more special countdown.

I made this Acts of Kindness Holiday Countdown Set, which is a paper chain countdown with a twist - each link of the chain is an act of kindness to be done by the child, each day between now and Christmas!

First, the children will choose a "topper". There's a star, a tree, and a Christmas Bear. The topper is mounted on a piece of construction paper or tagboard, and a slit is cut near the bottom to hold the first link. Personally, I think this guy is going to need some glitter, and a big red bow at the top to tie him to a special countdown spot! (You could also design your own toppers!)

The "How Many Days" poem goes on the back. I think this needs glitter, too!

Next, the children can put the individual strips into a chain, putting just the right amount so that one can be removed per day until Christmas. These can be printed on colored paper, or simply print on white paper and let the children decorate each link on the chain. (with glitter?) (Again, you or your students can make up their own acts of kindness as well!)

It's a fun challenge to let the children figure out how many links to put on. Make sure you know the correct amount, but it's interesting to see their strategies!

As another act of kindness, I always apologize ahead of time to the custodians when I plan to use glitter. Plus, I've trained my students on using the dustpan to make the custodian's job a little easier!

I have to admit, I'm excited about my new resource, and can't wait to put them together with the kids!

How can you encourage kindness this time of year?

My Favorite Holiday Activity

Ever have one of those activities that's a win-win?  It's something that works so well, that you keep bringing it back year after year. 

That's how I feel about this Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.  I've done this activity with second graders for about 15 years now.

I've always loved the music from The Nutcracker. When my daughter was 5, I figured she was old enough to go into Boston to see the Boston Ballet perform the classic. We read a few versions of the story so she'd know what to expect, put on our very best holiday dresses, and drove into the city.

Since I knew the story so well, I brought the CD into school, and shared the story with my students. I wrote this summary of the classic story, and played the music while the children visualized what it must look like, then illustrated the different parts of the story.

Every year, the children loved the activity, and it practiced some valuable skills: visualizing, summarizing, and sequencing. Plus, it gives them some exposure to classic holiday literature and classical music. Of course, you can't miss when the setting is called, The Kingdom of Sweets!

A couple of years after seeing the production in Boston, my daughter had the opportunity to audition for a production of The Nutcracker. She was in the youngest group, and the little ones had a very small part, but it was priceless. She went on to perform in the Nutcracker 3 years in a row before life just got too busy with other performances. However, the story of The Nutcracker will always be near and dear to my heart.

Enjoy this freebie: The Nutcracker story for Visualizing, Summarizing, and Illustration! It's one of my favorites!

Don't Be a Turkey!

Second graders are expected to add and subtract within 20 fluently. 

This is no easy task, but this game helps them master the 9s trick!

I find, once the kids catch onto the tens trick, the nines trick is easy! I first use a number grid, like THIS ONE to show them how easy it is to do "ten more". From there, it's pretty easy to figure out "nine more". 

Once they have a good understanding of the 9 more trick, they're ready to play Turkey Nines!  It works like "Old Maid", so they pair off all the addends and sums with nines, and one of your little turkeys will end up being the "Thanksgiving Turkey".

This is one of those games where "even the losers are winners" because there's something about cooking a turkey that makes the little ones giggle. Plus, they're getting better at that mental math!

Here's a fun little move about how the game works!

Want to give it a try? There's a smaller, free version here!

Have fun practicing mental math, and don't be a turkey!  (At least, don't be a cooked turkey!) 

Want more turkey learning fun?

Boom Learning Turkey Facts

Turkey Informational Mini-Book

Wild Turkey Life Cycle

Or try the whole bundle at a huge discount HERE!

How are your little turkeys learning and practicing their skills?

A Couple of Dollar Deals for Veterans Day

Somehow Halloween is over, we have Veterans Day in less than a week! 

I've rounded up a couple of fun deals to share with you!

Here's a collection of paper for writing thank you letters to veterans!  After a lesson or two on what veterans are and how they help us, I find letter writing to be a nice way to culminate the activities.

Thank You Veterans!

 

I've noticed my little second graders often confuse the different patriotic holidays, so I made this resource to help them keep track of President's Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, and Veterans Day. It's really helped them keep track of which holiday is which!

Patriotic Holidays!

Hope your students end up with a good understanding of Veterans Day!

 

 

Seven Ways to Brain Fitness for Kids!

The brain is the most important organ in the body, isn't it?
I've been fascinated by the brain. 

I read all I can about how the brain learns, and how to take care of your brain. 

Of course, I share information about the brain with my students!

Here are some ways I teach the kids to keep their brains fit:

1. Exercise!  Get the oxygen to the brain! We often do exercises and brain breaks in the classroom. (I'm sure you've heard of Go Noodle! If not, go straight to this link for FREE brain breaks that the kiddos LOVE!)

 2. Eat Brain Food!  I bring in some healthy snacks for the kids. My school encourages healthy snacks, but once in a while I'll bring in my own! (Usually not fish or spinach, but often some carrots and berries!)

 

3. Ease stress!  These kids certainly understand what stress is! We sometimes do some Yoga moves and breathing exercises, and sometimes they just have quiet time where they think about nothing! Research proves we need to give them time to clear the brain in order for the brain to take in new information. Plus, the children absolutely love Yoga!

4. Listen to Music!  I've got a wide variety of music to play in the classroom, from "party" music, to mellow music for concentration. It doesn't have to be classical music! Find something appropriate for the occasion.

5. Laugh! I recently posted Laughter is Truly the Best Medicine, and listed some of the benefits of humor in the classroom. I have a whole box of joke books that I often bring out on April Fool's Day, although they are good any time of year. I'm a big believer in making sure people get their daily dose of "Vitamin L!"

6. Drink water!  Water is essential for brain function! I can't emphasize this enough. (It's important for the rest of the body, too!)
 

7. Keep challenging your brain!  I'll have a variety of puzzles and riddles for the children to choose from. I'm a big fan of Sudoku, so I often have a few of those for the kids. I also found a couple of cool websites: ABCya Tangram Puzzles has tangrams that can be done on the computer.  Puzzle Choice has tons of puzzles for kids and adults- go to Kid's Choice for lots of possibilities for printing as well as puzzles for the computer.  

How do you keep your students exercising their brains?

Opinion Writing Organization

 Kids have opinions, and they're actually pretty good at sharing these opinions, giving reasons for their opinions, and sometimes even getting their way! 

They need help getting these opinions written down in an organized manner. I have this resource to help them out with this!

I made up this graphic organizer, along with a couple of samples.  There are a million topics they can use to share their opinions, such as "favorite color, brothers: good or bad, favorite after-school activity, to name a few. See this resource here: Opinion Writing Organization

I always believe that children need to talk before they write, so I'd share my samples, and enhance each time to make the story more interesting.

Quite often, before they even start to organize their story, I have them practice orally with each other what they'll be writing. It truly does help the writing flow more smoothly!

Golfing for Tens

Thursday I had 3 doctor's appointments.  Not 1, not 2, but 3. (I'm fine, just happened to schedule them on the same day!) I also went to the dentist on Tuesday and had my flu shot on Wednesday, so I should be all set for a while!

Since 2 of the 3 doctors are a half hour away, I was looking to fill time between appointments, so I went into the local dollar store.

I'm always looking for cute ideas for school in the dollar store. I'm either looking for organizational ideas or game ideas.  As I was browsing through the toy section, I saw the perfect game for my sports themed classroom:  golf sets!
I was planning the math game I was going to make while standing in line to make my purchase. (Do all teachers do this sort of thing when they take a day for doctors appointments?)

We've been working with addition of single digit numbers in our new math pilot program:  enVisions. The math part was so easy, I wanted to bump it up to adding tens. I figured they could work in teams, working on adding tens. I set up 3 lines, each a foot apart, and decided they could and take a few shots from different level.

As you might have guessed, the kids loved it! They were even good about working quietly while the other groups did their "sitting down" work, which is not easy for adults, never mind second graders! However, they knew they'd lose the privilege, so they worked hard to golf quietly!

The only problem? Those plastic golf balls were so light, the kids had trouble aiming them. Therefore, hardly any balls went into the cup, so they didn't get much practicing adding up points. I'm going to bring in real golf balls tomorrow, and I'm sure the extra weight will help them have more real "adding tens" practice. In the meantime, it was a great lesson in adding zeroes, and the kids really enjoyed it!

See the picture or HERE for your "golfing for tens" resource. I'm sure they have the golf sets in the toy section of most dollar stores!  

 Enjoy your golfing!

 

 

Sentences, With a Halloween Twist

My students have been learning the four kinds of sentences. 

They're getting pretty good at naming the 4 kinds (Statement, Question, Command, Exclamation) and can easily identify that they all should begin with a capital and end with punctuation. 

However, when I say a sentence (or when they read one) they're still working at figuring out what kind of sentence it is. So I decided to take matters into my own hands, in a fun way, with a Halloween Twist!

I made this activity with lots of sentences of each kind.  Of course, each of the sentences has something to do with Halloween!  I used mostly Dolch words, but I added some of their favorite Halloween words.  (They always remember those, don't they?)

Halloween Sentence Reading Practice

I made some sorting cards, with reminders of each kind of sentence, along with 28 sentences.  I also added a few other activities to do with the same sentences, based on the Common Core for grades 2 and 3 including realistic or fantasy and complete sentence or sentence fragment. I think they're going to love it!  

Here's a little movie to give you an idea how it's used!

The children will be having so much fun, they won't even realize they're practicing important reading and sentence skills!