sight_word_connect_4.docx |
connect_4__with_blocks_.docx |
I've been playing around with Connect 4 and think I've found a fun way to use it for fluency/sight words. I turned it into a game of speed so that students will be practicing recognizing and reading the sight words quickly and (hopefully) accurately. I copied the same set of sight words onto yellow paper and onto red paper. These cards came from the "Sixth Hundred" flashcards found here, but any set would work. The rules are attached below.
I also created a version that uses BLOCKS. These are just Connect 4 tokens with a sticker on them that players can use at any time (three per color) to make the other player have to skip a turn. Those instructions are attached below.
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I've seen dominoes used a lot for sight words so I finally made my own set(s). I made them very low maintenance and super simple. I used different color cards for different levels of words. I found the words on the Fry word lists (here). For this set, they just match the word with the word and they have to read the word aloud. For my next sets, I am going to have them match synonyms, antonyms, definitions, and multiple meaning words. Below are the directions that I attached to the inside of the folder. These directions just go with "Sight Word" Dominoes. I will have to change the directions up a bit for different versions of the game.
This game is a lot of fun!
The object is to have the most blocks when the tower falls because that means you had the most correct words. This has been a fun one!! Here are the rules we are using (I've attached the rules below):
Academic Language Monopoly I made a game and tried it on my kids and they loved it! This has so many options and ways it can be played. I think an awesome way would be to use regular sight words. Students start with $300 (all money could be adjusted however!) and roll the die. They move that number of spaces. They can land on a space that pays them more money, a space that makes them pay the bank, or a word. If it's a word, they read it and then can buy it. When they buy it, they put their piece on the space. This way if another player lands on the space that has been marked, they must pay the owner $20. I was the banker and facilitated the game. Once they had read most of the words, I started having them tell me what the words meant before they could purchase. There are also some random boxes where they get paid or have to pay the bank. Play continues until you call time or all of the properties have been purchased. The winner is the student with the most properties. A tie-breaker could be who has the most money. The words I used on the game board came from the 5th and 6th grade STAAR tests but are also words I feel like are used a lot but not understood a lot. Words: approximate organization convey illustrate demonstrate support conclude infer conclusion presented solution logical climax compare contrast Below are the rules as well as the money.
I've had a couple of groups in the library the past several Fridays working on some specifics before the test. As they finish working with me, I have them go pick a station from the ones that are set up around the library. I pulled out several things I had put together from Cloze Planet to use at these stations. This worked really well because it allowed me the opportunity to work with 2 or 3 students at a time on their specific needs while the rest of the group got to choose an activity. I organize all of these in my trusty plastic sleeves. I usually keep the cover page that {most of the time} prints out with the activity, and put that in the sleeve along with the answer key. Then I store the copies of the activity (I usually make more than one copy/set) inside the sleeve as well. ~sorry for the glare~ Fronts: Backs:
Lesson 3- We read pages 8-11 next and used the same strategy of adding one sticky note per page with the main event or detail from that page. On page 8, we also discussed the word cabled and how it went with the word/concept of telegraph from our reading yesterday. Below are pictures of my thoughts and stickies for these pages. One thing I kept having to remind and ask is "what else?" because some of the students weren't going DEEP enough with what they thought was the main event or detail. For example they would write "the refugees cheered", but I really wanted them to get to the root of WHY the refugees were cheering. Lesson 4- Today we finished reading the story (pages 12-16) again adding sticky notes to each page. Once we discussed them all we transitioned from discussing events to discussing characters and the traits that we can infer from the story. We used this chart below to help us. I printed the same chart on each side of the paper and used one side for Sugihara and the other side for Sugihara's son, the narrator. I walked through a think aloud to show how I came up with different character traits for each character. I used two different colored highlighters, one for Sugihara and one for the son. I would highlight a piece of the story and discuss what that told me about the character. The blue below was for Sugihara: Using the graphic organizer, we wrote down the part from the story first and then decided on a word that best fit the description of what was described in the story. Finally, we wrote a short summary of the story. We walked through a retelling together and wrote the main points on the white board. Then students used the list on the white board to write their own summary.
To tie it all together, we brought the discussion back to heroes. We talked about Sugihara being a "normal" person who helped so many even when he wasn't even supposed to. I asked them to flip through the book and find specific instances that qualified Sugihara as a hero. Each student came up with several and explained why what they chose meant HERO. This story was SO WELL RECEIVED by ALL of my students!!! They loved it and each day came in so eager to find out some more. I found some extra information on Sugihara because they had so many questions about his life after the story ended. I was so happy with their work and interest/effort level!! For the next two groups sessions (I see groups every other week), we are hitting on skills that have already been covered but our students need to see again. I found many of these ideas in a Testing Review post here and then used some of them to do a similar set up in my room. Several of them cost money, but I felt like all of them were worth what I spent. Topics we covered: Main Idea Making Inferences Synonyms/Antonyms/Vocabulary Text Structure Perspective Main Idea I used two different activities. This first was Main Idea vs Theme: The next was a great package from Creekside Teacher Tales' TPT. There are quite a few nonfiction passages on animals and several options for how to use the materials. I decided to start with 4 different animals. I printed the 4 different animal passages on different colored card stock with their answer choices on the same color. The students would determine the main idea and mark their answer choice. Then I let them choose one animal passage from the ones they had already done to determine two supporting details from the passage that supported the main idea they had previously chosen. They completed the graphic organizer for just that one animal.
I found the original idea for this lesson on a teaching website and now I can't find it anywhere. When I do, I will give credit! I did tweak it to make it work for my 6th graders, as well as make my own supplemental pages, but the premise of the lesson is the same as whatever website I found it on. We used the story Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story. Lesson 1- To begin this lesson series we started off discussing HEROES. We made a list of heroes and then we made a list of descriptions of heroes. Next, we completed a web where we answered 4 questions about heroes.
I had to provide some background but along with what they already knew, they understood. Using our three main vocabulary words 1. diplomat 2. refugee 3. visa we recalled what we knew about Hitler and his awful treatment of Jewish people. Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who the Jewish people came to for help. They were desperate to receive a visa from him in order to leave and go to Japan. The Japanese officials denied Sugihara's requests to provide the visas, but he wrote them anyway. These people became refugees fleeing their homes in order to be safe and Sugihara helped them be able to do that. We used this as a vocabulary foldable in order to make notes of context clues and definitions for the three words. I've attached it below.
We read the first three paragraphs silently after our discussion of the background information. On a sticky note, each student wrote what they learned about Sugihara (the narrator's father) within these first three paragraphs (both text-level and inferential information). I had students highlight the word diplomat since that appeared within these first three paragraphs. On our foldable we wrote the context clues that described diplomat. Below are pictures of my stickies/thoughts for each page. We also highlighted the words refugees and visas on page 6 and discussed how when authors use a dash, they are often giving you the definition or huge clues to the meaning of the word before the dash. We highlighted how the author had done that with both of these words on this page.
Finally, I read page 7 aloud. We added the main event to a sticky note and then discussed the word telegraph and what that meant in terms of communication. For this story, it meant TIME which was very precious to the people waiting. We talked about the differences in communication between then and now. As we continue to inch closer to the STAAR, I try to focus a lot on strategies that will help my struggling readers be able to tackle the words on the page for the test, but also in LIFE. I think working with word parts is a really beneficial way to do that. One way we reinforce prefixes is the game below. This one came from the Kagan Balanced Literacy Grade 5 book but would be easily reproduced. Once a student spun the spinner they had to determine which words the prefix could go with and why. Some of them were a lot harder than others but they all gave us good discussion. Everything was laminated for easy write on-wipe off. As we got going with the game, we made a mini anchor chart for the definitions we decided on together.
A strategy that has really been helping my intervention students is a system for previewing the passage to get a good idea of the main idea of the passage before they start reading. I think this has been successful because it has given them a way to see specifically what to focus on as they read the passage. Here is an example of us practicing this strategy. We are using a released 5th grade STAAR passage from TEA. We discussed focusing on the title (and subtitles, if any), the first one or two sentences, the underlined words, and the text features (which for this passage included a map and a diagram). We highlighted those things: From those highlighted pieces they came up with the gist of the main idea (listed below in green): This took about 2 minutes to accomplish and then they had a vision for what to focus on. When the article started to mention Canadian Geese, they didn't spend much time on that because they knew their main goal had more to do with Wood Frogs. This is a strategy that my students need because they are the ones who haven't been successful on STAAR before. So to provide them with tips for how to attack the passages has shown some success!
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Lessons & SeriesIntervention lessons and series of lessons designed for (but not limited to) 5th and 6th graders
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