Vocabulary might draw groans from kids world wide, unless your teacher is a total vocabulary geek (that would be me). One of my students' favorite vocabulary activities is making VOVIDS, AKA vocabulary videos.
Again this is certainly NOT my original idea, but we began doing it after discovering the website Wordia.com. It is a British site where people make and submit short videos discussing the meanings of words.
We decided to do our own and it's one of the most fun and meaningful vocabulary activities I've ever done with students. Some of them are so silly and they have so much fun making and watching them, that my students have no idea how much they are processing and internalizing word meanings. I have the students leave a pause after they act out the word, so that when we watch them in class, the other students have an opportunity to guess what the word is before they give the definition.
Another example of stealth learning- love it!
Definition of vanish
wordia definition of twitch
definition of furious
http://wordia.com/
Just one teacher, trying to make fifth grade fun as my students and I learn from each other. Feel free to learn and laugh with (and at) us!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Reality Shift & I LOVE Pinterest
Today is the last day of NCLB testing for my reading classes! Now we have an entire 4th quarter to really dig into the DEEP projects. I do projects all year, but during third quarter there is always testing looming on the horizon.
As we all begin the reality shift over to Common Core, I'm embracing it fully. There is not a whole lot of difference between CC and how I teach anyway, but it's still going to require some shifting in thinking/planning. So adios pink KS standards flipchart, I'm headed in a better direction!
For those about to test, we salute you! Here's a fantastic goodie I found on Pinterest (which is just the best thing ever). I so appreciate all teachers out there who share their wonderful stuff and those who pass it on.
I'm going to change the T to take your time for my kiddoes. Again, thanks for sharing this Mrs. Matejka!
As we all begin the reality shift over to Common Core, I'm embracing it fully. There is not a whole lot of difference between CC and how I teach anyway, but it's still going to require some shifting in thinking/planning. So adios pink KS standards flipchart, I'm headed in a better direction!
For those about to test, we salute you! Here's a fantastic goodie I found on Pinterest (which is just the best thing ever). I so appreciate all teachers out there who share their wonderful stuff and those who pass it on.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Test Ninjas
Three cheers for NCLB! It's test time again! (surely I don't have to tell you to insert sarcasm here) So that means it's time for the ultimate pump up for my wonderful reading students. School wide we are doing a "Rock the Test" theme, but my students came up with their own thing- Test Ninjas. So we're going be test ninjas that rock the test- the best of both worlds!
In addition to our all black ninja wear that we're doing on Monday, I made them a door display to cheer my ninjas on to total test rockage on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I tried to invent my own Asian-style writing, but I'm thinking I should have googled something to copy. I couldn't exactly remember the characters on my mahjong Kindle game. I'm quite concerned that I have written something completely inappropriate!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Inferences Run Amuck
My classes and I came up with a groove for remembering how to infer. Here they are!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Common Core Conundrum
Common Core... it strikes fear into the hearts of teachers everywhere. We hate NCLB, but CC seems so complicated that it's hard to embrace it right away. What's a teacher to do???
We are departmentalized, so our principal is having each department present our anchor standards to the other department. We're not sure if we love her or hate her at the moment. (I wouldn't say that unless I loved her all the time!) Here's our Prezi to show to our comrades in math.
I'm hoping to add music if/when I figure out how. I'm thinking some Bob Marley "Don't Worry".
http://prezi.com/z7gfgedfkseo/common-core-reading-reminders-for-mathmatic-masters/
We are departmentalized, so our principal is having each department present our anchor standards to the other department. We're not sure if we love her or hate her at the moment. (I wouldn't say that unless I loved her all the time!) Here's our Prezi to show to our comrades in math.
I'm hoping to add music if/when I figure out how. I'm thinking some Bob Marley "Don't Worry".
http://prezi.com/z7gfgedfkseo/common-core-reading-reminders-for-mathmatic-masters/
8 Ways Not to Say NO
Love this!! So many times I hear adults, parents, teachers saying "No" to kids. I see the deflated look on their faces. While I'm a FIRM believer that kids need limits and adults need to follow through, I also think that school is the only place where a lot of our kids get any kind of love, respect, structure, and guidance. Dry tears here- my heart breaks for some of my kids.
I saw this on Pinterest and just had to save/share it! Thanks to Minds in Bloom.com and she who pinned it first!!
8 Ways Not to Say No
I saw this on Pinterest and just had to save/share it! Thanks to Minds in Bloom.com and she who pinned it first!!
8 Ways Not to Say No
I Can Infer that...
One of the most challenging things for my fifth graders in the dreaded inferring/drawing conclusion task that looms on the lovely upcoming assessments. All year I try to do as much of this as I can, but it's always a struggle- for them and for me.
At last week's KEEN conference several presenters demonstrated and showed pictures of their kids (mostly middle and high schoolers) doing various verbal/kinesthetic dances, chants and songs to make sense of all sort of content. While I do tons of kinesthetic activities in my classes, I haven't done a lot of this sort of stuff.
Soooo... after lots of web browsing and other investigating (AKA begging, borrowing, stealing) here's what I came up with to help my students grasp & practice this business of inferences.
Great video I found on youtube:
Power Point I made to do with students:
(I put in one slide at a time, feel free to snip and insert into your own document)
Finally... a poster I put in my room. This is based on some posters that other teachers shared on Pinterest. I guess this is the borrowing and stealing segment of our show. We also made up a rythmic chant with motions to help us remember the 3 steps of inferring.
Here's hoping that none of my students will be "left behind" (insert sarcasm here) and that they'll all demonstrate their knowledge of inferring or at least be able to get those questions right on the test. Hopefully I will draw the conclusion that I'm finally on the right track!
At last week's KEEN conference several presenters demonstrated and showed pictures of their kids (mostly middle and high schoolers) doing various verbal/kinesthetic dances, chants and songs to make sense of all sort of content. While I do tons of kinesthetic activities in my classes, I haven't done a lot of this sort of stuff.
Soooo... after lots of web browsing and other investigating (AKA begging, borrowing, stealing) here's what I came up with to help my students grasp & practice this business of inferences.
Great video I found on youtube:
Power Point I made to do with students:
(I put in one slide at a time, feel free to snip and insert into your own document)
Finally... a poster I put in my room. This is based on some posters that other teachers shared on Pinterest. I guess this is the borrowing and stealing segment of our show. We also made up a rythmic chant with motions to help us remember the 3 steps of inferring.
Here's hoping that none of my students will be "left behind" (insert sarcasm here) and that they'll all demonstrate their knowledge of inferring or at least be able to get those questions right on the test. Hopefully I will draw the conclusion that I'm finally on the right track!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Krazy for KEEN
I just got back from my first KEEN conference- fabulous!! For those of you non-Kansas dwellers, KEEN = KS Exemplary Educator Network. Not only did my 2011 class of NBCT's have a great recognition dinner, but the presenters, discussions, and learning sessions were great! First thing to do: WORD WALLS!
When I signed up for that session I was thinking of sight words and Eric Carle's Hungry Caterpillar unit I did years ago with my first graders. How wrong I was. A group of NBCT's and Horizon award winning teachers from a high school in Salina showed how they used word walls with their high schoolers. There are so many things you can do with words on construction paper and one of the best things is that it's so CHEAP to do!
Today (Saturday) I got right up to school and generated a list of vocabulary words we have been discussing with our newspaper project in my reading classes. I put them up in their own zone and didn't label them in any way. Monday I'm going to have the kids figure out what the title of the display should be and to categorize and connect the words in different ways. This word zone will stay up throughout the period when we're doing our newspaper projects and we'll keep adding to it as we focus on new vocabulary terms and concepts. Great stuff! I'll toss a picture in later and share some more of the great ideas I got from KEEN.
When I signed up for that session I was thinking of sight words and Eric Carle's Hungry Caterpillar unit I did years ago with my first graders. How wrong I was. A group of NBCT's and Horizon award winning teachers from a high school in Salina showed how they used word walls with their high schoolers. There are so many things you can do with words on construction paper and one of the best things is that it's so CHEAP to do!
Today (Saturday) I got right up to school and generated a list of vocabulary words we have been discussing with our newspaper project in my reading classes. I put them up in their own zone and didn't label them in any way. Monday I'm going to have the kids figure out what the title of the display should be and to categorize and connect the words in different ways. This word zone will stay up throughout the period when we're doing our newspaper projects and we'll keep adding to it as we focus on new vocabulary terms and concepts. Great stuff! I'll toss a picture in later and share some more of the great ideas I got from KEEN.
Pyramids and Spoons
Another goodie from the KEEN conference via those amazing teachers from Salina:
$20000 Pyramid was one of my favorite game shows growing up in the 70's. They use it as a vocabulary game. It's simple- one player can see the vocabulary word, the other has their back to it. Player 1 gives clues to help Player 2 guess the word without actually saying the word. We played at KEEN- so fun! There are a lot of other games with a similar format. I'm going to find a template online to put on my Promethean to do this. I also found some old clips from the show to show the kids. Fun stuff!
They also showed us an adaptation of the game SPOONS. Put all your vocab words on small, passable cards with words on some, definitions or characteristics on others. Put one less spoon on the table than there are players. The dealer gives everyone 2 cards then begins to pass a new card around. Each player can have only two cards at a time so the passing continues. When someone gets two cards that match they grab a spoon and everyone else does too. He/she who doesn't manage to grab a spoon is out. Each time a player goes out another spoon is removed.
$20000 Pyramid was one of my favorite game shows growing up in the 70's. They use it as a vocabulary game. It's simple- one player can see the vocabulary word, the other has their back to it. Player 1 gives clues to help Player 2 guess the word without actually saying the word. We played at KEEN- so fun! There are a lot of other games with a similar format. I'm going to find a template online to put on my Promethean to do this. I also found some old clips from the show to show the kids. Fun stuff!
They also showed us an adaptation of the game SPOONS. Put all your vocab words on small, passable cards with words on some, definitions or characteristics on others. Put one less spoon on the table than there are players. The dealer gives everyone 2 cards then begins to pass a new card around. Each player can have only two cards at a time so the passing continues. When someone gets two cards that match they grab a spoon and everyone else does too. He/she who doesn't manage to grab a spoon is out. Each time a player goes out another spoon is removed.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
SWBST & PIIYOW
Another goodie, not my own creation, but worth saving & sharing! I use a similar idea for a graphic organizer to help my students take ideas from Social Studies material, retell and summarize it in their own words before they use it in a glog or other project.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Mentor Text Buffet
Mentor text- love it, but how to best use it to teach writing? Donald Graves mentions that you should surround your writers with mentor text (he doesn't call it that, but that's what it is) of all different kinds and levels. I've always been reluctant to share mentor text if I don't think it's at exactly the right level for my kids. Huge DUUUUHHH moment. One of those things where you smack your own forehead and think "I know better than that! What's wrong with me?" No matter what level it is, each student will find something they can use from it and will self-level when given a variety of materials to choose from. Think of it as a mentor text buffet- all you can eat and someone else is picking up the tab.
Add this to my to-do list every week: find and use more mentor text with my students. I've got to do better about knowing what to do instructionally, and merging that with the reality of time to teach and plan. Darn national boards- they've made me look at my teaching harder, longer, deeper and made me want to fix it. It was the best thing I've ever done!
Now it's off to look for mentor text for our current project "American Dreamers".
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Beg, Borrow, or Steal
This was the point: to post, save, share my ideas as I am trying to become a better writing teacher. So enough frustration with uncooperative blog design cuteness. Time to get down to business...
1. Have my class do something together (play a game, team building activity, watch a video, go outside) and then write about it.
2. To practice peer editing/feedback: print out a writing piece in current format. Put that onto a larger piece of paper with room on each side. One side is titled : Great! the other Try this... Pass around to classmates and have them add comments.
3. Pass around a paper with a topic sentence or idea for a story. Classmates could give ideas for details to add to story.
4. I really want to find a voice-to-text option for my writers and try that.
5. Story boxes: get a shoe box, cereal box, etc. Have them craft a story on that. Top = title & topic sentence.
The edge of the top would be topic sentences for paragraphs to follow. Each side could be the paragraphs that go with the topic sentences. Another side or the bottom would be for the conclusion. Students could but related items inside the box. Notes, webs, objects, photos.
6. After they get far enough along on a writing piece, have them make a crossword puzzle about it. I love Armored Penguin for this.
I do not claim original brain jolts for any of these. Most likely I've seen them somewhere else before, but I just thought specifically how they might work for my writing class as it is right now. I'm all about tweaking when it comes to ideas. Remember the unspoken motto of all teachers- beg, borrow, steal whenever possible and don't forget to share!
By the way, thanks to my friend, Tricia, whose whole blog started as a list. Does that count as borrowing or stealing?
1. Have my class do something together (play a game, team building activity, watch a video, go outside) and then write about it.
2. To practice peer editing/feedback: print out a writing piece in current format. Put that onto a larger piece of paper with room on each side. One side is titled : Great! the other Try this... Pass around to classmates and have them add comments.
3. Pass around a paper with a topic sentence or idea for a story. Classmates could give ideas for details to add to story.
4. I really want to find a voice-to-text option for my writers and try that.
5. Story boxes: get a shoe box, cereal box, etc. Have them craft a story on that. Top = title & topic sentence.
The edge of the top would be topic sentences for paragraphs to follow. Each side could be the paragraphs that go with the topic sentences. Another side or the bottom would be for the conclusion. Students could but related items inside the box. Notes, webs, objects, photos.
6. After they get far enough along on a writing piece, have them make a crossword puzzle about it. I love Armored Penguin for this.
I do not claim original brain jolts for any of these. Most likely I've seen them somewhere else before, but I just thought specifically how they might work for my writing class as it is right now. I'm all about tweaking when it comes to ideas. Remember the unspoken motto of all teachers- beg, borrow, steal whenever possible and don't forget to share!
By the way, thanks to my friend, Tricia, whose whole blog started as a list. Does that count as borrowing or stealing?
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
The whole point was to help me help my writing class.
I talk to some teacher friends. I borrow some books. I start reading. A list of ideas starts to grow on a pad of paper I know I'll lose.
Oh, by the way I've become a pinterest addict.
So I get to thinking- if all those other teachers can share all their stuff on cute blogs (this is where Pinterest is to blame) surely I can too. Instead of the notebook or a computer file (which I won't lose, but I will forget), I'll make a cute teacher blog and put all my writing ideas there.
Genius! Or copycat depending on your point of view.
I find cuteness (thank you Shabby Blogs). I download cuteness (sorry hon, I used all our Internet data limit for the month downloading cuteness). And now I can't get said cuteness to cooperate. Thus, the blank spaces on the oh so cute and shabby header.
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!
As a writing teacher I better learn to spell that.
I talk to some teacher friends. I borrow some books. I start reading. A list of ideas starts to grow on a pad of paper I know I'll lose.
Oh, by the way I've become a pinterest addict.
So I get to thinking- if all those other teachers can share all their stuff on cute blogs (this is where Pinterest is to blame) surely I can too. Instead of the notebook or a computer file (which I won't lose, but I will forget), I'll make a cute teacher blog and put all my writing ideas there.
Genius! Or copycat depending on your point of view.
I find cuteness (thank you Shabby Blogs). I download cuteness (sorry hon, I used all our Internet data limit for the month downloading cuteness). And now I can't get said cuteness to cooperate. Thus, the blank spaces on the oh so cute and shabby header.
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!
As a writing teacher I better learn to spell that.
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