The Door in the Wall is a great literature selection! I have very fond memories of reading it with my own children. If you are planning to read this book with your students, be sure to head on over and grab this study guide and lapbook over at 123 Homeschool 4 Me! It's a fabulous go-along with the book!
This is the second week of the Reading in the Wild book study! Several amazing bloggers are sharing how they arrange their Reading workshop. Here is an outline of what my Reading & Language Arts weekly schedule looks like. We have a large block of time in the morning, where we do mini-lessons, vocabulary, grammar, and Daily 5, […]
Freebie! One of the keys to teaching reading comprehension is showing kids how proficient readers think about text. Teachers have to find a way to make their thinking visible. One way is with graphic organizers.
Some ideas for teaching plot elements to help students recall stories in sequential order, summarize stories, and understand theme.
So you have 100 minutes, but how exactly do you plan and schedule your language arts block for the junior grades?
This blog post describes how to teach different comma rules to elementary students. It includes activities and ideas for teaching commas.
written by Hillary Kiser
Introducing your students to figurative language can be fun with picture books. Use these figurative language activities to help your students practice.
Check out my set "Most Interesting 500" here! Visit my Waldorfschool/Steinerschool related pinboards here!
So embarking on this new grade, I didn't imagine quite fully all the new material I would be teaching. Dialogue in writing and how to punctuate it - certainly wasn't something I was expecting. I fo
The Georgia Department of Education English Language Arts division has its very own Twitter account and has been hosting a weekly series this academic school year of “Twitter takeovers”…
Reading level measurements aren't perfect and neither are the conversions but as a general guide, it's a handy tool to keep around.
Daily grammar practice is a tool that helps students practice and master grammar standards. Learn more about grammar spiral review in the classroom.
If you're teaching your students about figurative language, you'll love this alliteration activity for kids in second third, fourth, and fifth grade. Get four FREE games!
Word analogies are one of the most effective ways to build vocabulary while simultaneously developing critical thinking skills. Unlike vocabulary activities that require students to memorize word definitions, word analogies develop a deep understanding of a word meaning by exploring the relationships between words. When students form logical connections between words, they create a mental […]
Integrating Science and Language Arts No comments Freebies, Integrated Units, Science, Teaching Ideas One of my favorite ways to cover our social studies and science standards is by integrating them with language arts. It's such a great (and easy) way to reinforce important reading, writing, and critical thinking skills! Some topics lend themselves to this more easily than others, of course, but I love being able to sneak in more nonfiction reading and writing when I can. I tend to integrate my language arts into my allotted science time, and not vice versa (due to curriculum requirements, etc). We recently began learning about bats which has given the students a chance to learn about something fun and interesting, as well as an opportunity to apply previously learned skills to other learning areas. So, what does this look like? Keep reading! Whenever I can, I have my students practice the skill of taking notes. Obviously, this looks a bit different in second grade than it does in the upper grades. When my students take notes, it is a guided process. I read aloud a portion of a simple nonfiction text and stop periodically. When I stop, I task the students with writing down something they learned. More specifically, I stop and ask, "What is something that you learned from the pages that I just read? Tell your elbow partner." After they have had a chance to share their ideas with each other, I pull them back in and tell them to write their information down on their paper in the form of a complete sentence. We need to practice that skill as often as possible in second grade! Note taking also keeps the students engaged as I read aloud because they are being held accountable for the information being shared with them. This year, I thought it would be fun for the students to choose their favorite fact from our note taking session and record it in a "giant" bat shaped poster. I traced the outline of bat onto butcher paper using a bat shaped template that I had on hand. I placed the template under my Elmo and projected it onto the paper. Easy peasy! I'm always looking to expose my students to as much nonfiction text as I can. Nonfiction reading passages are perfect for our short science block (30 minutes)! I like to use passages that require the students to go back to the text to locate evidence. They use different colored crayons to locate key information in the text and answer questions using text evidence. When my students answer the questions, they go back to the text and locate the information that will help them formulate their answer. They underline the text and write the question number next to it, in case they need to refer back to it as they write their answer. Here is a better picture of how they code the text to show where they found the helpful information. By interacting with the text, they are engaged and learning an important skill: go back to the text to find the answer! Wondering about the fact and opinion paddles shown a few pics up? Sometimes, after reading a nonfiction passage I give each student a paddle and we practice distinguishing between fact and opinion. I state facts from the passage and/or opinions about the topic (in this case, bats) and the students use their paddles to show their understanding of my statements. It's a sneaky way to work on those listening skills too. ;) You can grab these free paddle templates by clicking here. To make them double sided, simply glue the "fact" label to one side of a craft stick, and the "opinion" label to the other. Fact and opinion is a biggie in my classroom. I think it's important for students to recognize the difference between the two since they are required to write both informative and opinion based writing pieces. I also think that being able to differentiate between the two is an important critical thinking skill. So, when I can, I like to have my students interact with this skill, and sorts are always a fun way to do this. Scholastic News is also a GREAT way to bring in more language arts when covering your social studies and science units. Sometimes, I like to use my own activities with the various issues, like this Three Truths and a Lie activity. The students are tasked with writing three factual statements, based on what they read, and one lie (made up fact). Then, they pair up with their teaching buddy and trade papers where they then read each others statements and figure out which ones are the truth and which one is a lie. They love trying to trick their friends! When it comes to writing, I tend to do different things throughout my unit. That is, I might have the students write a constructed response. I might have them write a paragraph showcasing everything they've learned, or I may have them write a poem. In all honesty, it depends on what we are doing in writer's workshop at the time. I try not to overwhelm my students with too much writing in one day. This year, I opted to have my students write a poem. Cinquains are one of my favorites to use during themed units. I like that the students have to come up with a variety of words that relate to the topic. It's a different way for them to showcase their knowledge. I hung the poems on our outside bulletin board and displayed them with this super duper cute bat craft from the super duper talented A Cupcake for the Teacher. You need this quick and easy (free!) craft in your life! You can grab the free poetry template here. :) Scoot and I Spy (Around the Room) usually make an appearance during my units too. Not only do the students get a chance to show what they know, but they also get to move around. In the Scoot game below, students practice identifying parts of speech, and in the I Spy game, the students evaluate the statements printed on each card. While these specific examples may not be tied directly to a language arts standard, they do require some critical thinking skills as the students evaluate and interact with the text and task presented on each card. As with anything, there needs to be balance, so some of the activities I do during a unit might be interactive and hands-on. I usually find some sort of art project to use, and if I can, I have my students do something that gets them moving around. For example, this week, we will "act out" echolocation on the playground, and the other day, the kids made this fun mosquito model from Fun in First. Most of the activities shown in this post can be found here: Bats {An Integrated Unit} Nonfiction Close Reads for the Fall Months You can check out my other integrated units here. :) Thanks for stopping by! Share It:
The list below contains the books I have used over the years for teaching figurative language. Some of them are designed to teach about figurative language and some of them are books with figurative language woven naturally into the poem or story. Just recently, we shared how we used one of these books to do a text ... Read More about Books with Figurative Language
Students will work on their reading comprehension skills with this "Pygmalion: Henry and Eliza" worksheet. Great for 5th and 6th grade. Click here!
Never planned to homeschool, now wouldn't trade it for the world
Piktochart helps you create — Explore all free templates
My students were giddy this morning when everyone woke up to the first snow of the season here in Kansas! It wasn't much, but enough to get everyone excited. So when we did this little activity about the 4 types of sentences today, (declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, & imperative) we wrote our 4 sentences about snow! 4 Types of Sentences flip book! I introduced the 4 types and then the students put the flip book together. Under each flap they wrote that type of sentence. One of my teaching partners also suggested stapling 2 sheets of the lined paper underneath and using one to describe the type of sentence and the other for the example! Click on the picture below to download a free copy... I've been working like crazy putting together a unit all about regrouping! Full of strategies, games, anchor charts and lots more! I'm going to start selling some of my units on either Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook so I'm hoping to get that set up this week...fingers crossed! I love teaching regrouping with the activities and games I've included in the unit and I can't wait to share it with you all so check back in soon!!! I will still be sharing FREE printables on my blog so no worries. :) Hope you are having a fantastic week!
--> My fascination with literacy is almost innate. It has been a huge part of who I am since the very beginning. Some of my earli...
Author's Purpose PIE'ED Anchor Chart- take author's purpose to the next level for upper elementary students by using the PIE'ED Method!
Grade 4 vocabulary worksheets including words and their meanings, match phrases, context clues, sentences, paragraphs, word lists, synonyms and antonyms, apostrophes and jumbled words. Free | Vocabulary | Worksheets | Grade 4 | Printable
The list below contains the books I have used over the years for teaching figurative language. Some of them are designed to teach about figurative language and some of them are books with figurative language woven naturally into the poem or story. Just recently, we shared how we used one of these books to do a text ... Read More about Books with Figurative Language
Are you asking this one important question about your students' sentence diagrams? You should be!
Get your students excited about reading! Are you tired of chasing students down to get them to complete a reading log? Do you want to be able to differentiate what the students are reading but still provide student choice? Are you looking for an engaging summer reading program? READINGOPOLY is for y...
