The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson *ACTIVITY PACK*

This week I am linking up with Book Talk Tuesday from Mrs. Jump's Class.  I love all the activities and books posted so definitely check it out!  The books are all about what to read on the first days of school!

I really enjoy using The Best School Year Ever by Barbara Robinson.  I find my students are really able to relate to the story and we are able to have many good discussions.  Some good discussion starters could be found from my Reader's Notebook post from yesterday! Check it out!

There are many skills that can be taught using this book.  I created an activity pack to use that contains skills such as:

• discussing genre (realistic fiction)
• citing supporting evidence 

It is important that students are able to sight evidence from the text.  Typically students give you a brief summary rather than analyzing evidence to support their answer.  This is a good way to introduce this skill to them in the beginning of the year.

• character traits 

This graphic organizer is also given without the characters names filled in.  This gives you an opportunity to differentiate the lesson within your class.  This also goes back to students have to cite evidence from a text and makes for a great group discussion once students are finished.

• narrative writing 
• the 4 types of sentences

My students love this activity.  I have the students work in groups using large chart paper.  I hang the chart paper around the room and give each group about 5 minutes to go through the story and identify a phrase from the story that matches the type of sentence they are assigned.  After about 5 minutes students rotate to the next chart paper station.  They really enjoy this scavenger hunt activity because it allows them to work together.  I really like this lesson because of the discussions I hear throughout the activity.  My students really start to analyze the sentences and this helps them comprehend the story better.

To check out the activity pack click HERE to go to my TpT page!

And don't forget to check out Mrs. Jump's Book Talk Tuesday!

Enjoy :)

Beach Bum Literacy Chick

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A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

This is a great book to use to teach multiple skills in your class!  It also works well during a lesson on bullying and treating others with respect.

Some great skills to use with this book are visualization, character traits, cause and effect, problem and solution, and answering common core questions.  My students really enjoyed reading this book and the visualization graphic organizer was great!  They really focused on what the text was saying so they could draw an accurate picture!

Other activities include:

* Character trait web - students use the graphic organizer to come up with a character trait and evidence from the story to support it. Students can then put the information on a poster to display.
* Character change writing - A graphic organizer is included to help guide students to write about how Camilla has changed throughout the story. Also includes final copy paper.
* Cause and Effect matching center - Students match the sets of cards and write the response on the recording page.
* True/False - These activity pages have students read different sentences and decide if they are true or false
* Problem/Solution - Graphic organizer to help students locate problems and solutions throughout the story
* Sentence or Fragment - This activity page have the students read each phrase and decide if it is a sentence or a fragment.
* Pre-Reading activity - Students work in groups to determine different reasons why the character on the cover is covered in stripes. Have each group share their responses after with the other groups.
* Higher Level Guided Questions - After reading the story have the students answer the questions
* Carousel of Questions - Put the students into groups and hang up the question pages in different areas of the room. Have each group start at a question and answer it. Each group should have a different colored marker and should be given about 5 minutes to respond to each question. Then they rotate to the next. Once all questions have been answered by each group review the responses given. 
* Comprehension Game - Students can play in groups after reading the book to help them review.

Check out this file on my TpT page by clicking HERE!!!
Don't forget the FREE activity guide that goes along with A Bad Case of Stripes!

Enjoy :)
Beach Bum Literacy Chick

The Widow's Broom by Chris Van Allsburg

Woohoo!! I love this time of year because it is PERFECT to read The Widow's Broom by Chris Van Allsburg!  This happens to be home of my all time favorite stories to read with my class.  The character development is great and the twist at the end gets them every time!  There are so many different activities to do with this story so today I am going to focus on vocabulary.  Vocabulary is such a big factor in my class since many of my students are below level they really struggle understanding and a lot is due to vocabulary.  I created this activity pack to use the vocabulary in many ways so students don't just learn the definitions but they also use and see the words in multiple ways!

This activity is also COMMON CORE ALIGNED!! such a big topic lately so I didn't want to leave it out.  Many people are timid of using books that don't specifically say COMMON CORE on them but they do align with the correct activities!

One of the first activities in this pack is the actual words and definitions.  Students can use this matching activity independently at a center or they can play a memory game with a partner.  A good way to use this is to introduce the words, let them play the game, and then put it as one of your literacy centers for the week.  This gives them time to really continue seeing the words.  

Students can continue working with these vocabulary words in 3 different ways.  In this activity pack there is also a part of speech sorting activity which is a great review.  I know my students commonly forget parts of speech so I plan on using this as a center.  

There is also a syllable sorting activity.  As a 6th grade teacher I never really stressed to much on syllables.  I guess I always assumed they had that skill.... Jokes on me haha  They recently took an assessment that gave me items they were struggling on and syllables was a big one.  So I created a syllable sort to help them practice and again they are seeing these new vocabulary words.

The last activity is an ABC order activity.  I like to give them ABC order as a center because they always tell me it's so easy yet they do struggle with this skill.

Enjoy!

You can find this activity on my Teachers pay Teachers pay by clicking HERE!!

Goldilocks ROCKS!!

I mean who doesn't love the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears... When I found this new book told by Baby Bear (Believe Me, Goldilocks Rocks by Nancy Loewen) I was so excited!  I love when they retell stories in the point of view of another character! It screams incredible teachable moments!  This is by far one of my favorite stories.  I love that the story has rich vocabulary which makes teaching it to my 6th graders very appropriate!  I really think my favorite part of this story is the fact that Goldilocks has a cell phone.  I know thats a very strange aspect of the story to like but my kids are totally able to relate to it which makes them love it even more!

I decided to create an activity comprehension pack to go along with this story.

There are a bunch of activities to use in this one file.  I know my students really love the I have Who Has game  so I created one to go with some of the vocabulary associated with this story.  I also created a vocabulary matching game that also works really well as a center!  

The higher order activity is really important now that we have implemented Common Core Standards.  The questions are common core aligned and allow students to think deeper about the text.  I love that this activity gets them out of their seat and walking around the room.  They are so much more engaged when they are moving rather than sitting in their seats.  PLUS they get to write on post-its so thats the best lesson ever for them!

Check out my Comprehension Pack at Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking here!!!

Just A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg

I am in the middle of an author study of Chris Van Allsburg and my students are absolutely loving it!! Today we read Just A Dream, which by the way is a perfect book to read for Earth Day.  Before reading we went over some vocabulary words that they would come across in the book.  The words were easy for them to decode and they have often use these words but coming up with defintions was a challenge for some of my students!  I created a matching game for them to play with a partner but it can also be used as a literacy center!

Check out this activity on my Teacherspayteachers page by clicking here!

More great Just A Dream activities to come!!

The Sweetest Fig

I absolutely love The Sweetest Fig by Chris Van Allsburg! My students loved it also! I created 2 games for them to play after reading the book. One was a cause and effect matching game. My students did awesome with this and they really liked playing the game. The second one was a comprehension board game. My students sometimes have a hard time getting excited about projects but they absolutely loved this game. They didn't want to stop playing!!

Both activities can be found at my teachers pay teachers page by clicking HERE!

 

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