Fluency in a Flash! (Easy Literacy Center)

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Here’s a great way to get more use out of those leveled reader books you use for a week and then have to put back in the box until next year… and make an easy center for your students! After you’ve gone through the books with your guided reading groups and are moving on to the next set of books, place the ones you’ve already used in a box or plastic shoe box. Also include a bunch of timers for kids to use while they do a 1 minute timing. If your kids are on various levels, make a list of which kids use which books (for example, list kids who use the books with the red tab, green tab, etc.). Include copies of some basic story graphic organizers. Here’s what kids do for the center:

1. Whisper read the entire book. They should have seen it last week, so it won’t be killer. If you have those plastic PVC pipe phones, use them for this step too.

2. Fill out a graphic organizer about the book.

3. Turn to the first page of the book and start the timer counting down from 1 minute. When the timer stops, have them use a paper clip to mark where they finished. Have them do it a second time to see if they can get farther the second time.

So here’s the overall supplies list for the center:

leveled readers from last week (and current list of kids’ levels)
box/plastic shoe box
copies of a basic graphic organizer
paper clips
timers
whisper reading PVC pipe phones (optional)

Easy Parts of Speech Program

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Parts of speech can be pretty lame to teach (and hard to teach) if you don’t have a good, painless way to do it a little at a time. Here’s what one school does:

Each part of speech is assigned a color (adjectives are brown, nouns are blue, etc.)
Each classroom has the same posters up (so there’s consistency as the kids move through the grades).
Teachers use sticky tabs to add examples of the part of speech to the poster.
The class diagrams a sentence on the board by moving magnets (foam squares with a magnet on the back) above the words to identify them.
Kids record these sentences and identify parts of speech in their literacy notebooks.

Parts of speech posters.

Parts of speech posters.

Literacy journal page

Magnets for diagramming sentences on the board.

Flower Paragraph Planner/Graphic Organizer

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Here’s a paragraph writing planner that will help your students understand the parts of a paragraph. After they fill in the flower side, have them write their rough draft paragraph using the provided lines. Often I find lots of cute graphic organizers for kids, but kids don’t quite understand how to go from the cute picture to a paragraph of sentences. So this one’s very simple: plan and then write downs the ideas on the flower (from the top to the bottom) and they’ll have a complete paragraph. Click here for the PDF: Flower Paragraph Planner Enjoy!

How to Have a Fun Vacation

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Whenever one of my kids gets back from a vacation, they always want to talk about it. The other day, I used this opportunity to write about what makes a fun vacation. This free writing project worked out well since it allowed everyone to be creative and share vacation stories through their writing. Some kids took this further and made entire essays about a specific vacation and dedicated a whole paragraph to each idea if what made the vacation fun.

Keeping Track of Students’ Writing Progress

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

One of the most important parts of school is teaching kids to monitor their own progress. Here’s one way to help kids keep track of their own writing progress. We made a giant pencil with different sections (one for each step of the writing process) and laminated it. Then we added velcro strips down the side and to little tags that had each student’s classroom number on it. When kids finish one step of the process, they move their number tag down to the next step. This also helps kids know when they can get up from their seats… I’ve also seen charts where kids move a numbered popsicle stick from pocket to pocket to indicate progress through the writing steps. How have you helped your students keep track of their writing progress?

ABCs of Problem Solving

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I recently saw this in a classroom and I thought it was pretty clever. I’m calling it “the ABCs of problem solving” (because calling it “the ABCDEFs of problem solving” sounds lame).

A- Analyze

B- Brainstorm

C- Consider options

D- Decide what to do

E- Evaluate if itworks

F- Figure out another way

Finish the Alien (Writing/Drawing Project)

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

Kids love aliens. I catch kids drawing them all the time when they’re supposed to be doing something else. So why not turn the idea around and make it an assignment to doodle an alien… and write about it! This writing project could turn into a story, a persuasive essay (convince your parents to let an alien stay at your house, etc…), a poem, etc. Do this activity as a fast finisher, as a seat work assignment (10 times!), or give different versions to different kids in your class so there’s even more variety!

Click here to download the PDF set: Finish the Alien pages – complete set

Finish the alien 2 Finish the Alien 3 Finish the Alien 4 Finish the Alien 6 Finish the Alien 7

Click here to download the PDF set: Finish the Alien pages – complete set

Finish the Alien 8 Finish the Alien 9 Finish the Alien 10 Finish the Alien 11

Finish the Alien 1 Click here to download the PDF set: Finish the Alien pages – complete set

Switch! (The fun and easy playground game)

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I just learned a new game today and I’m really jazzed about it. It’s called Switch, and here’s what you need to know:

5 players at a time, everyone else in a line waiting to come into the game
Need a 4 square shape on the ground (basically looks like a huge 4 pane window)

First, players stand at the corners of the window and at the intersection in the middle. The 4 players on the outside corners try to run and switch places with each other. The person standing at the center intersection tried to get one of the corner spots while the others are switching. If the players on the corners make 3 switches, the person in the middle is bumped out and a new player enters the game (standing at the center). If the center player succeeds in stealing one of the corner spots, the player who lost their spot is out, the center person claims the corner spot, and a new player comes into the center.

Why I love this game: 1.) There’s no equipment necessary! Many schools have these 4 square lines painted on the ground already, but it’s as easy as getting some chalk if you don’t. 2.) Anyone can play. The group I was playing with today had kids ranging from kindergarten to 5th grade and we were all playing happily together.

The player on the far right sat down to tie her shoe, but other than that, this gives you a decent picture of how players should stand. The boy in the white shirt is trying to steal a corner spot during a switch.