Stop teaching grammar in isolation and transform your teaching with mentor sentences- grammar in context that actually carries over into their writing!
Have a BLAST practicing parts of speech with this fun Grammar Games for Kids. Grab printable for this grammar activities for grade 3,4,5,6.
Contraction Surgery is when students get to take on the roll of being word surgeons. They get to take words apart, take out letters, put them back together and glue them into their surgery books. It is highly interactive and meaningful.
Jivey explains how to incorporate mentor sentences into your writing time to ensure that the grammar, mechanics, and style lessons you teach are sticking!
This is a fun Halloween activity that you can use with your kiddos to teach and/or review adjectives. This download contains a student writing page and a banner that can be printed and hung with all of the little monsters that your students create!
These first grade language and grammar activities are such a fun way for my first graders to practice these important Common Core skills. SO happy to announce that part two of my Common Core Language pack for first grade is FINITO! I have worked so hard on this bad boy and I wanted to highlight […]
You're never going to believe it: MORE SNOW is coming my way. I would like to act like it bothers me that I'm going to spend the first part of June in a school building, but let's be honest - the last week of school is always fluff anyway, so I'm okay with a few extra days at the end of the year. My motto: embrace the snow. I can't control the weather, so why complain about it? Anyways... We've been working on the not-contractions the past few days in language arts, and as nerdy as it sounds, I've really liked teaching it! I started with the chart pictured below. I wrote the little poem at the top, which we've been reciting each day as reminder about what a contraction is. I showed them how you can substitute the 'o' with an apostrophe for every one except "cannot." We used green painters tape to eliminate the 'o' and then the students volunteered to write the contraction to complete the "contraction equation." We also played Contraction Kid Match-Up. I gave each student a pre-printed name tag with either a contraction on it or the two words that make the contraction (if you want the Word doc, email me!). Then, they had to search the room for their partner. Once they matched up, the students returned to me and I gave them a paper "contraction kid" to decorate and to put their name tag on. We hung them up on our cubbies as a visual reminder of the not-contractions. The kids LOVED finding their match and it was a great physical reminder {for those kinesthetic learners!} that 2 words make up a single contraction. I thought they turned out pretty stinkin' cute :) Of course, we're also doing contraction activities in one of our literacy centers. I stole this idea from the amazingly creative Sarah Cooley of First Grader...at Last!. I purchased the cupcakes from our local school supply store. I also made a recording sheet for my students to use. You can download it by clicking the picture below. I also made a contraction memory game. You can also download it by clicking the picture below. Lastly, to ensure their learning, the students completed a quick contraction quiz. You can download it by clicking the picture below. * * * * * Some other exciting things going on in first grade lately have included: More of Deanna Jumps' Snow Unit & timelines in math. {Does anyone dislike Everyday Math as much as I do?! It bounces around so much it drives me bananas!!!} Deanna, if you're reading: EVERYONE has complimented this activity! They are DARLING! {As always, please let me know if a link isn't working! You can always email me for a document, too!! I'd also love to hear if you have any great contraction activities!!!!!} Happy Wednesday and, if you're in the midwest: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!
Last night at Fox Valley Montessori school, an audience gathered around while teachers from every classroom took a turn to walk through a lesson. The lessons all grew upon each other, starting with…
Pushing and pulling are forces that can create slower or faster motion. In this science worksheet, your child identifies what different forces can be exerted to change an object's motion.
If you need a writing anchor chart to help your students with visual references, this post has 9 must-make anchor charts to boost your writers.
Friday was one of those fun, hands-on, best-day-ever kind of days. It was play-based, rigorous, and had my crew of 1st grader workers begging for more. Today I wanted to share with you more about C…
Who says grammar has to be boring?! This post shares easy ways to teach grammar that boost engagement and achieve results. These ideas for teaching grammar can be fun for students and low-prep for teachers! GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED--Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter to get first dibs on giveaways, contests, and exclusive
This past week, we started a new personal narrative writing unit all about my many memorable firsts. I began this unit with a hook ...
This freebie is a sample of a complete grammar unit for 1st grade (but can be adapted for use with K-2). Students will create their own portfolio of learning as they complete these hands-on activities, graphic organizers, task cards, and story.
With this common and proper nouns practice for Grade 3, students master the distinction between nouns, ensuring a solid foundation in grammar.
Three different activities! These pages are easy to use and come with answer keys. Lesson reminders about what the -ful and -less suffixes mean and examples are included on each page. Three different styles of practice with the -ful and -less suffixes - underline the root word and circle the suffix,...
I've got a new parts of speech video to share with you today and this time it's about verbs! I love to practice songs like this one and my noun song during those extra
Fun, hands-on grammar game for kids. Check out this Spider Web Noun Sort Activity & Printable!
When you live in the South, you never know exactly what to expect from day to day when it comes to weather. In one week, you can have a sunny day, snow day, fog day, and then, when you least expect it, before you've even hit February, you can have a tornado day. I'm sure you didn't figure it out, but today was that day. The picture to the right is to give you an idea of what our day looked like. It's a screenshot from EarthSky.org of all the storms we had earlier today. You see all of that white? Well, it got up close and personal with my state today. This morning, within ten minutes of our day starting, we landed in our hallway. The kids were great, but my stomach was flipping and flopping. I have hated bad weather since I was a kid. A teacher suggested we read books, so that's exactly what I did. I went and got a couple of cute books and read to three of the classes while their backs were up against the wall. It had never occurred to me to do that before, but I have a feeling for the rest of my career, I will always grab a couple of books when we have to move to the hallway. Oh, and of course, it's to calm the kids... not me, how could you think that? Yeah, right! After that, the day seemed to drag on... and on... and on... and on. When we first went back to our room, my kiddos definitely had a difficult time settling in, but by 10:00, we were good to go for the rest of the day. Well, actually, they were good to go. I was checking weather.com and Weather Bug every ten minutes. We fully expected that we would be going back into the hallway. At the end of the day, we were doing our typical routine - Daily 5. I had also turned on some music to make them feel a little more at ease. It definitely seemed to drown out the wind, rain, and little bit of thunder we were hearing outside. Around this time, the decision was made that we wouldn't be dismissing on time. I can honestly say, I have been teaching for eleven years and I've never had that happen. I've also never been so thankful that they let us hold onto our kiddos. We were under a severe thunderstorm warning and the idea of sticking them into a metal bus just didn't seem to be the greatest idea. So, around an hour later, we took our kiddos up front and loaded them up onto their buses. By the time the last child was loaded, our principal and assistant principal looked like they jumped in a lake. They were my heroes because thanks to them, I was nice and dry! Now, outside of the mega bad weather, I also have a little exciting news. We had our annual Teacher of the Year announcement. Well, my sweet teammate won! She's going to kill me for telling my blogging friends, but I just had to tell you guys! I have a great little sister, but Alicia is like my little sister at school. We are so much alike it's a miracle that we can stand each other, but we get along great! She also is the reason that I make you guys a lot of freebies. She knows our standards backwards and forwards and has this sixth sense about what I should make next. Every time I listen to her, it definitely pays off! So, I had to brag!!!! I am extremely proud of my teammate and although I'm excited, I'm not surprised at all. I have the best team in the universe and they are definitely a part of my family! Okay, so now that I got my "Proud teammate" moment out the way, I have two new freebies. I know I kind of keep overloading you guys with lots of new stuff, but I guess I just want you to know what I'm about. Hopefully, this weekend I will get a few new packets created. I seem to always have BIG plans, but creating freebies is so quick, I just can't resist. Now that I'm going in ten different directions and babbling, I need to wrap up. My freebie pictures are below. If you like them, click on them, and it will take you to them so you can download. Hope you enjoy them and see you tomorrow. Oh, last thing - if you have any ideas of what you want to see me create, leave me a comment below. I try to stick to things between K-2. I'll pick one item and make it as my surprise freebie tomorrow. So, remember to comment!
Flex those writing skills with these clever prompts. Practice stretching sentences by adding details of who, what, when and where!
Paragraph Writing in 1st and 2nd Grade Just a few months ago we welcomed our first-grade friends and they were able to write a few words and if we were lucky, a complete sentence. How can we help t…
Kids will have fun beginning to understand what all makes up a sentences in this fun, FREE Smore Sentences Game. Perfect for early readers.
Jivey explains how to incorporate mentor sentences into your writing time to ensure that the grammar, mechanics, and style lessons you teach are sticking!
Adapt your lessons to every learning style with these simple ideas to help you differentiate grammar activities in your classroom!
This year, I decided to teach this skill over a few days at the beginning of the year. I've never taught it like this before. I usually wait until I move into nonfiction and argument writing and then I mention the difference in the three, but I never teach it as its own lesson. However, this year I thought maybe knowing how to do each of these early on would help as we start working on answering open-ended questions. I was inspired by this post over at The Creative Apple. I loved her anchor chart, which I believe she borrowed from this blog. Wanting to have an interactive page for our ISNs, I turned the anchor chart into this interactive folding page! {You can get it FREE right HERE!} They looked like this in our notebooks: Which open and look like this: Next, I had the kids read some short articles (I used some old Time for Kids magazines) and answer some simple, "right there" questions using either a quote, summary, or paraphrase to support their thinking. I am hoping that teaching this strategy early on will pay off. Often, I have students (usually my struggling learners) who will copy an entire paragraph from a text because they think they are supporting their answer. Typically, they don't use transitions and their answers come out disjointed and confusing and LONG! Do you teach this skill as its own lesson? How's it work for you? Happy Teaching!!
On the back of a piece of paper we sorted words by beginning or ending with sh. On the other side we glued on an sh and th...
**For the new school year, 2012-2013, students in Room 121 created an updated version of Angry Verbs. CLICK HERE to check out the newest post--featuring tons of pictures and writing! After being inspired by this Angry Verb bulletin board using the Angry Birds, I had my students review verbs as well by writing a sentence on an angry bird and underlining the verb/verbs. During class project time on Monday (when some students were in Orchestra), a few students covered the door with butcher paper while several others began working on coloring the birds. Later on during Daily 5, students who were doing Word Work practiced finding verbs by creating their own Angry Verbs.
If you've been around kids very much, you know that they love markers! Of all the supplies in my classroom, markers are favored above anything else. Here's an engaging activity where kids find parts of speech (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) and color code them using markers or highlighters. This makes a fun whole group, center, or homework activity. Enjoy! Hannah Braun
Are you looking for an engaging grammar practice for comparative and superlative adjectives using suffixes er and est? Your students will love learning about adjectives that compare with the included fun activities. This easy-to-use resource includes posters, worksheets, and more. This product is now available in a large grammar bundle. You can SAVE 30% over the individual unit prices by purchasing the bundle! This unit is designed for first and grade students to be used whole group, small group, in centers, and individually. If you're interested, I NOW have a GOOGLE SLIDES Comparative Adjectives DIGITAL unit. CLICK HERE TO SEE IT! Here is what is included: Three posters explaining comparative and superlative adjectives (color and blackline) ER & EST sort headings & 18 sorting cards (color and blackline) Recording sheet 6 worksheets- comparative adjectives with no spelling changes Poster of comparative & superlative adjectives with spelling changes 10 additional worksheets- adjectives with and without spelling changes Correct and incorrect sentence sort (self-checking option available) Recording sheet to correctly write four incorrect sentences. Be sure to download the preview for a good look at what’s included in this unit! Thanks so much for taking the time to visit this product! If you are looking for some other engaging educational products, click on the links below: Comparative and Superlative Adjectives Made in Google Slides™ Adjective Unit Prefixes Suffixes Click HERE to be notified when new products are released. New products are discounted for 50% off during the first 48 hours! I really appreciate your feedback! Did you know you can earn FREE credits when you leave feedback at TpT? You earn 1 credit for every dollar spent. Every 20 credits count as one dollar to be used on any product on TpT! Wow! You can’t beat FREE money!
Montessori Grammar is fun to do with kids, and noun sorting cards are a must-have when you do so! When my son was almost six years old, he was extremely interested in parts of speech.
