LANGUAGE
ARTS
- construction paper of various colors
- scissors
- pencils and glue (or tape)
- templates of paper kites and bows
- The teacher will ask the students if they have had a chance to fly a kite yet this spring or if they have every flown one. She will initiate a discussion naming the parts of a kite, and why they are necessary. The teacher will then tell the students that they will be making kites with special words on them.
- Together in a large group the teacher will begin a discussion about words the children know from their word wall. The teacher will write on the chalkboard People-Places-Things.
- The teacher will ask students which of their word wall words are people, and she will write them under that word on the chalkboard.
- The teacher will ask students which of their word wall words are places, and list them like she did the people.
- The teacher will continue with thing words.
- The teacher will show the students a kite she had cut out of construction paper. It will have the word NOUNS- PEOPLE on it. This kite will have a string for a tail but no bows.
- The teacher will ask the students to say a people word from the list. She will then write it on a kite bow and glue (tape) the bow to the kite tail.
- The teacher will tell the students that they are going to create their own kite just like this one with nouns on the bows.
- The teacher will ask the students to decide which kind nouns they will choose for their own kite. She will then hand out materials to each student. The students will begin creating their own special kite using the kite and bow pattern templates.
- As the students complete their kites, the teacher will listen as the students read the words.
- The teacher will ask if the student wants to hang the kite in the room, or take it home.
- If the student wants to leave the kite, the teacher will hang it on a string from the ceiling.
- construction paper
- markers
- With younger students, you may have to teach / review rhyming words before doing this activity. Challenge students to come up with rhyming answers / riddles. Give them a couple of examples - then watch the fun begin as they get involved in this fun writing activity. After coming up with one, the ideas just keep flowing, and the students don't want to stop!
- Some examples include:
- A Goofy Female Horse - SILLY FILLY
- A Tired Flower - LAZY DAISY
- An Out-of-Control Kid - WILD CHILD
- A Wet Canine - SOGGY DOGGY
- A Damp Animal Friend - WET PET
- Fold the construction paper in half. Write the riddle on the front (A Goofy Female Horse). On the inside, write the answer (Silly Filly). Hang them on the hall bulletin board. Students and teachers alike will enjoy reading the riddles and trying to come up with the answers before peeking under the fold to see the correct answer!
- pencil and paper
- Start with sharing some well-known tongue twisters with
your students.
They get really involved as they try to repeat them and
share others.
Next, challenge your students to write their own tongue
twisters.
I use this model to get them started:
- Nouns - use at least one (Betty)
- Verbs - use at least one (bought)
- Adjectives - use several (brainy, billion, big, Buicks, black)
- Adverbs - use at least one (busily)
- Prepositional Phrases - use at least one (by the bay)
- Using this model, we now have a tongue twister: Brainy Betty busily bought a billion, big, black Buicks by the bay.
- Have students write several. Let them go through the peer editing process. Then print final copies to display on a bulletin board or put them together for a class book.
SPRING KITES: PARTS OF SPEECH
GRADES: 1-5
In this lesson, the students will identify nouns from the word wall and correctly categorize them to person, place, or thing.
MATERIALS:
METHOD:
Submitted by,
MARCIA GOUDIE
CAVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
VALLEJO, CA
MGoudie@aol.com
HINK PINK
GRADES: 1-8
Students have fun coming up with these rhyming riddles!
MATERIALS:
METHOD:
Submitted by,
RYLA POLLAN
HENRIETTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
HENRIETTA, TX
ryla.pollan@henrietta-isd.net
TONGUE TWISTERS
GRADES: 3-9
Students not only have fun with this creative writing activity, but they also review several parts of speech!
MATERIALS:
METHOD:
Submitted by,
RYLA POLLAN
HENRIETTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
HENRIETTA, TX
ryla.pollan@henrietta-isd.net
THE EVILS OF BOOK REPORTS
GRADES 4-12
This is one of the most controversial lessons I'll ever write...but also one of the most important.
I never give book reports to my students. Never.
There are some basic premises to my position:
- A MAJOR GOAL OF MOST TEACHERS IS TO GET STUDENTS TO ENJOY READING.
- ALMOST EVERY TIME A BOOK IS ASSIGNED, THE STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO WRITE A REPORT
- STUDENTS HATE BOOK REPORTS
- STUDENTS ASSOCIATE BOOK REPORTS WITH READING
- STUDENTS DO NOT VOLUNTARILY READ
This may sound simplistic...and it is. But it's also basic psychology--the students associate a negative experience (reports) with an action (reading books), and therefore, hate the action!
Think about it...how often, when you assign a book, do the students immediately inquire whether or not they have to do a report! And when they find out that a report IS required, how excited are they to now read?
So how do we get the students to read? Or, as many teachers may ask, how do we check up on whether or not they are reading? Here are a number of random ideas:
- Require the students to keep a reading book with them at all times, as part of their supplies. They read the book during their free time. When a book is easily accessible, they will naturally read.
- Assign genres of books as usual. However, instead of a report to check up on them, sit down and talk to the student, one-on-one. It's easy--you'll get all of the information you need, and you'll also develop a closer relationship with the student. This one-on-one only has to take a few minutes and can occur over a couple of weeks, during students' work time.
- Participate in book clubs (i.e. Scholastic, Troll). The students are picking their own books, and paying for them, and therefore, are more apt to read them.
- Start a classroom "card catalogue". After each student reads a book, he/she makes a card with a short summary for other students in the class to read. This is an easy way to check on the students reading!
- If you MUST give a project, use a type of book "project"--anything but a "written report". This can be a diorama, book poster, book cover, etc.
I have found that my students continuously read. They are always purchasing book club books, and their parents often relate back to me that the students get upset because they don't have enough time to read (when I give them too much homework). Reading has become a pleasurable experience--not one associated with a dreaded "book report"!
submitted by
DR. SCOTT MANDEL
PACOIMA MIDDLE SCHOOL
LOS ANGELES, CA
mandel@pacificnet.net
POEMS BY YOU ABOUT YOU
- Hand out the two poems entitled I AM, (see below--feel free to print them out and reproduce them for your class).
- Hand out the I AM MODEL, (see below); put a copy on an overhead projector, if available, for the entire class.
- Using the model, create an original poem as a class, incorporating ideas from the students.
- Assign I AM to the class.
- Optional: Each student does an art project (collage, diorama, anything that shows WHO they are) to accompany the poem.
- Students orally present their personal I
AM poem to the class.
I AM
GRADES 5-12
This is an excellent activity the first week of school. It helps to get students involved immediately in the curricula, get to know each other, and it gives the teacher some examples of student work to post for Back to School Night.
I am a carefree girl who loves horses.
I wonder if there ever was a horse that could fly.
I hear the stomping of a hundred mustangs on the desert in Arabia.
I see a horse with golden wings soaring into the sunset.
I want to ride swiftly over a green meadow.
I am a carefree girl who loves horses.
I pretend to be an Olympic jumper.
I feel the sky pressing down on me as I ride along a sandy shore.
I touch the clouds on a winged horse.
I worry that I'll fall off and become paralyzed.
I cry when a colt dies.
I am a carefree girl who loves horses.
I understand that I will not be able to ride every day of my life.
I say, let all horses roam free.
I dream about the day when I have a horse of my own.
I try to be the best rider in the world.
I hope to ride all my life.
I am a carefree girl who loves horses.
--ELLY TATUM
I AM
I am a nutty guy who likes dolphins.
I wonder what I, and the world, will be like in the year 2000.
I hear silence pulsing in the middle of the night.
I see a dolphin flying up to the sky.
I want the adventure of life before it passes me by.
I am a nutty guy who likes dolphins.
I pretend that I'm the ruler of the world.
I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders.
I touch the sky, the stars, the moon, and all the planets as representatives of mankind.
I worry about the devastation of a nuclear holocaust.
I cry for all the death and poverty in the world
I am a nutty guy who likes dolphins.
I understand the frustration of mot being able to do something easily.
I say that we are all equal.
I dream of traveling to other points on the earth.
I try to reach out to poor and starving children.
I hope that mankind will be at peace and not die out.
I am a nutty guy who likes dolphins.
--SANDY MAAS
I AM--MODEL
FIRST STANZA
I am (two special characteristics you have)
I wonder (something you are actually curious about)
I hear (an imaginary sound)
I see (an imaginary sight)
I want (an actual desire)
I am (the first line of the poem repeated)SECOND STANZA
I pretend (something you actually pretend to do)
I feel (a feeling about something imaginary)
I touch (an imaginary touch)
I worry (something that really bothers you)
I cry (something that makes you very sad)
I am (the first line of the poem repeated)THIRD STANZA
I understand (something you know is true)
I say (something you believe in)
I dream (something you actually dream about)
I try (something you really make an effort about)
I hope (something you actually hope for)
I am (the first line of the poem repeated)submitted by
STEVE JACOBSON
LA MESA JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
SANTA CLARITA, CA
