A STUDY OF WATER AND LAND

After studying different landforms, students choose one to research further. After research student writes about the landform and draws a detailed picture. Post in the hallway or on the website. Teachers may want to put photos with an explanation of landforms interspersed with the students. After initial explanation, this could be done during center time. When you are ready to take off the wall, put in a class book or in Journal/Memory Books.

JOHNNY APPLESEED QUILT - STUDY OF TALL TALE

Read and discuss Johnny Appleseed. Then write major points from the story that students recall on the board. Have each student choose one of the points to draw and color. After doing detailed pencil drawings, the students need to get the teacher to write what the drawing is about, in black marker . The students color with markers. Make sure you review "coloring rules": 1. cover all the space. 2. color in one direction. 3. color neatly. Collect the pages and laminate. Then punch holes in the corners. Remember that the pages that are on the outside corners will not have 4 hole punches, so lay out the quilt before you punch. Use brown yarn to connect the corners. If you have extra spaces, use one laminated sheet as a title, one sheet as concepts learned, and one sheet as the illustrator section. Post the TALL TALE QUILT in the hallway and take a picture to put on your class Website. When your study is completed and you take down the quilt, take apart and put student pages in their Journal/Memory Book.

CLASS WALLS/AREAS

Photos show a CALENDAR AREA with a daily thought, a center - draw one of the sentences, and a poetry center. Another photo shows CALENDAR AREA with a thought of the day, a Did You Know Dog (put daily events, like Washington's Birthday), and a Story Problem of the Day. Another photo is the FIRST MONTH OF SCHOOL CENTER featuring an Arthur Bulletin Board that has a First Day of School Poem and directions how to draw Arthur. One wall is RELIGIOUS/CHARACTER COUNTS WALL featuring a Marble Jar Party poster, Classroom Rules, Monthly Song of America. A window sill featured AUTHOR OF THE MONTH with a poster and books by the author. One wall had a center of MAP STUDY that changed routinely to help students learn about the United States in a fun way. The LANGUAGE ARTS WALL had 6 Traits Writing, Rules of Capitalization, Rules of Punctuation, and General Rules of Paper Work. One bulletin board was kept for SOCIAL SCIENCES. Finally the HOMEWORK CHART was kept in the front of the room so students could mark sections each day they brought in all of their homework completed. At the end of the week, we chose one of the sections to go to the PRIZE BOX.

FALL LEAFS ME HAPPY

Question: What can we find out about fall leaves?
Material: Worksheet, Leaves, Magnifier, Map Colored Pencils
Directions:
Measure 4 leaves - use inch measurement
Pick 1 leaf to look at closely with a magnifier.
Carefully draw the leaf, the veins...
Color with map pencils.
Write a paragraph on the leaf paper.
~ tell about leaves
~ what is the same about them
~ what is different about them
~ what can you say about the colors
~ what do you know about touching the leaves
~ what can you say about the shapes
~ how did the leaf look different under the magnifier

TEACHING SUMMARIZING A STORY

If you ask a child to summarize a book they read, they go on and on without any idea of how to retell the story briefly. This project will help students learn how to summarize.
Brief highlights of summarizing: (make a chart)
1. Title
2. Author
3. Setting - where/when the story takes place
4. Main Characters
5. Goal - what character wants
6. Problem - Conflict
7. Outcome - how conflict ends
8. Sequence of Events: first, next, then, later, after, last, finally, afterwards...

Detailed Explanation of Summary: (make a chart)
1. Give the title of the story and its author.
2. Tell who the main character/s is/are and where/when the story takes place (setting).
3. Tell what the main character wants (goal).
4. Tell how the main character tries to get what he wants.
5. Tell the problem the main character may have in trying to reach his goal (conflict).
6. Tell if the main character finally reaches his goal (outcome).
7. Tell the events in time order sequence (first to last). Use clue words, like: first, next, then, finally, at the end...

Summary Teaching Chart I:
Title: __________________________________________________
Author: ________________________________________________
Characters: _____________________________________________
Setting: ________________________________________________
Goal: __________________________________________________
Conflict: _______________________________________________
Outcome: ______________________________________________

Summary Teaching chart II:
First, _________________________________________________

Next, ________________________________________________

Then, ________________________________________________

Later, ________________________________________________

Finally, _______________________________________________


Explain that commas set off time order words.

SUPER SENTENCE - TEACHING PARTS OF SPEECH FROM THE BEGINNING

THIS IS A TEACHING TOOL I USED IN GRADES 1-3, BUT IT COULD EASILY BE USED IN GRADES 4-5. IT CEMENTS THE CONCEPT OF "PARTS OF SPEECH" USING THE 5 "W" IDEA.
FIRST GRADE: Teaching the idea of a "Super Sentence". Students give a sentence, teacher writes on the board. Example: The dog ran down the street. Good sentence. What tells us WHO we are talking about - the dog. WHAT did the dog do - ran. WHERE did the dog run - down the street.
Oops! We are missing WHEN, WHY, HOW...
Let's add WHEN - The dog ran down the street last night.
Now add WHY - The dog ran down the street last night to get its bone.
Can we add HOW - The dog quickly ran down the street last night to get its bone.
Later on teach the students how to change the sentence parts so the flow is better.- Last night, the dog quickly ran down the street to get its bone. GREAT JOB FIRST GRADERS!
SECOND GRADE: Of course, teach the first grade concept of the chart before you continue with second grade concepts. As you teach the different parts of speech, add the name of the part of speech to the chart. So this is an ongoing teaching chart. I use vis-a-vis, so I can erase my teaching marks and reuse from the beginning the following year. Probably, second graders will concentrate on nouns, adjectives, and verbs (action). If you teach more, then by all means, add to the chart. Make sure the students understand that WHAT is "did what" - action. A great project for second grade (after you review the first grade skills) is SUPER SKELETAL SENTENCES. This is completed in October and is an incredible hallway decorator. Children decorate a skeletal face, and then write their super sentence on bones that hang from the head. If you put one word on each bone it is long, but if you teach phrases, then you could shorten it.
THIRD GRADE: Teach the concepts from the beginning and then use the chart as you study adverbs. Adverbs will answer the WHEN, WHERE, HOW. Very versatile teaching chart.

SUBJECT/PREDICATE

I found teaching subject and predicate was a tough concepts for students to understand, so I came up with this teaching chart/idea. Subject is "who or what" (noun) the sentence is about. Predicate is the "did what" (action).  My team teacher did something similar.  She made a packet for each student in her class.  It can be any size.  For third graders it was an 9" x 5" cardstock with 2 stacks of white paper about 4" square attached.  The students wrote a subject on each page on the stack at the left and a predicate on each paper of the stack on the right.  Then they could make silly sentences by flipping through the stacks.  Examples:
SUBJECT:                         PREDICATE:
The boy                              ran through the store singing silly songs.
A fat cat                             rummaged through the garbage in the alley.
The silly clown                    gazed at the lightening in the sky.

You will notice that on the subject side, the beginning is capitalized and on the predicate side the ending has punctuation.
Encourage students to be creative with both the subjects and predicates.
Then either the students can read the sentences they can make to a partner or write them.
You can have as many 4" squares you think your students need to get the idea.

SIT 'N' SPELL CENTER

The goal of this partner game is to sit and spell! Position a chair against a classroom wall/window/door. Each week post a different word list above the chair (weekly spelling list). To play, Player 1 sits in the chair and Player 2 stands, facing the chair. Player 2 reads a spelling word from the list for Player 1 to spell. If Player 1 spells the word correctly, he remains seated. If he misspells the word, he trades places with Player 2. Spelling practice continues in this manner until one player correctly spells every word on the list or times runs out. Idea from Vicki F.

PRACTICE WITH NOUNS

TEACHING SINGULAR, PLURAL, AND POSSESSIVES IS A DIFFICULT SKILL. THIS CENTER CHART WILL GIVE THE ADDITIONAL PRACTICE STUDENTS NEED. Image is the answer key that is attached to the back of the chart.

UNDERSTANDING POSSESSIVES

GREATEST STRATEGY I EVER USED! A MUST IN GRADES 3-5.
Directions for teaching the flow chart:
List several singular and plural nouns on the chalkboard. Next, read aloud one word from the list and use the chart to find the correct spelling of its possessive form. Continue to do it with volunteers, A LOT! Eventually, the students will have the strategy and will have no problems with spelling possessives.