Turn and Talk Task Cards

Well a new school year is about to begin.  I hope everyone had a well rested summer!  I was looking for a fun way to begin the year and came up with these turn and talk task cards.  I know so many teachers start by reading a great picture book (For example The Best School Year Ever or A Bad Case of Stripes) and instead of just reading the book to your class a great activity would get them involved in the reading.

The students are excited to see their friends and this gives them the opportunity to have a conversation and keep them engaged during a read-aloud.

Make sure to check out this great activity by clicking HERE!!!

Also available for Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, and Grade 5

Its beginning to look a lot like.....

CHRISTMAS!! The holiday season has begun! I really hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving!! Now that it is over I need to start working on all my Christmas and holiday activities.  I'm starting with a vocabulary activity pack on The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg!  I love all of his books but this is one of my favorites since I love everything about Christmas!

This activity pack includes a vocabulary matching, an I Have... Who Has... Game, a context clue graphic organizer (this is great to use while you're reading the story), and context clue task cards.

I know the students in my class really love playing I Have Who Has games.  I usually use them before we read a story to review the vocabulary words.  

The next activities in this activity pack involve context clues.  The first one is a graphic organizer that you can use while your reading the book The Polar Express.

I have also created context clue task cards.  I use task cards for my literacy centers while I'm doing reading groups.  This gives my students engaging activities to complete while I work with a small group.  My students enjoy them more than just completing a packet or worksheet!

Check back soon for more great The Polar Express activities!!

Get this vocabulary pack by clicking HERE!!

Sea Life Syllables

My students have been having a really hard time dividing words into syllables. They can tell me how many syllables are in a word but are really having a hard time dividing the word into syllables. Since this is such an issue I've been creating a bunch of activities to help students with this skill. I really feel its important because it gives them the knowledge to sound out unfamiliar words.

 This activity is a spin off of the Fall Syllable activity I created where some students had to sort words by syllables while others had to divide the words into correct syllables. You can find this activity on my TpT page here. Fall Into Learning - A Differentiated Syllable Activity

Ok so now to Sea Life Syllables.  After having my students complete the Fall into Learning activity I wanted all students to work on dividing words into syllables so I created this differentiated activity to focus just on this skill.

There are 2 sets of cards in this activity.  The first set contains words that are 3-4 syllables and the second set contains words that are 4-5 syllables

Enjoy!!

Look for this great activity on my TpT page by clicking HERE!!!

Fall Into Learning... Learning Syllables!!

My students seem to have such a problem with syllables! They recently took an assessment that gave me a lot of information on what they are struggling with and syllables were a major problem!! I created this activity pack to help all students in my class. It is differentiated to meet all the needs of the students in my class. So far they absolutely love it!

Within this activity pack there are 3 activities.  The first activity is a syllable sort.  Students have to read the word and place in on the correct sorting mat.  Then once they have checked they have all the words in the correct column ( there are 5 for each ) they write the answers on their response page.

The second activity has the students decide how many syllables are in the word but they also have to divide the word into syllables.  This can be done by laminating the task cards so students can write on them or they can just copy it onto their response page.

I like having the students interact with the materials so for me laminating works the best.  The students get more involved whenever I give them dry erase markers :)

The 3rd activity involves words with the suffixes -able and -ible.  They first have to divide the words by their suffix.  Then divide them by syllable.  It is a 2 step process and I give this activity to my students who are either on level or above.  

Check out this activity pack on my TpT page 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!!!

Inferencing Activity Pack

So I have noticed that my students struggle the most with making inferences.  We just finished a unit on the first chapter of Alice in Wonderland, which they loved by the way!  They had such a hard time making inferences during this lesson.  I created this activity pack to help students use details to make inferences.  I also included the Common Core State Standards.

The first activity in this pack is a task card activity.  There are 12 in total.  I find the best thing to do is laminate them.  I like them laminate because they last longer but also the students can use dry erase markers to underline the clues that helped them make their inference.  It makes the activity a little more interactive which the students love.

I find my students love any activity that involves dry erase markers! 

This game my students absolutely love!!! I created a similar style game with character traits and my students begged me to keep playing.  So I decided to create a similar game with inferencing.  If students answer the card correctly they get to color in the letter that is on the question card.  The first player to color in "WADDLE" wins.  If they already have a letter colored in they get to skip another player (which they love :) ) This game I also added in a WADDLE card where they can color in any letter they need.  Just another bonus.  I think the students love the bonus card because it makes them feel like it is a real game they would play at home so why not add them here.

Check out Inferencing Activity Pack on my Teachers Pay Teachers page by clicking here