Teach: Idioms

Idioms

I try my best to not reinvent the wheel when I am planning lessons, because after all there are so many resources available on the Internet now. However, for this lesson I had this idea in my head about what I wanted to do.

 

Common Core Standards simply says "recognize and explain common idioms." I also decided that because this was only one standard and it was tied in with proverbs and adages I should not spend a lot of time on it. Due to my short class periods I did spend 4 days.

Day 1: Define an idiom and discuss the difference between the literal and figurative meaning. In groups of 3-4 students begin the matching activity.

Day 2: Continue matching activity. I had 7 different sets of cards, most groups were able to complete 6 or 7 of the sets. (Could combine day 1 and 2 if your class time is longer, or if you are fine with students not viewing all sets. My class period is only about 45 minutes.)

Day 3: Explain and begin working on idiom illustrations. Complete for homework.

Day 4: Students present idiom illustrations to class. (Could skip this day if students wrote a description of their illustrations.)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Idioms-Literal-and-Figurative

Teach: Grammar Games

I have been struggling with my transition into teach 4th grade writing, pretty much since the beginning of school. But the past few days and the upcoming days have been great! I wanted to share a few of my fun "games" we enjoyed while learning grammar.

Capital Letters:
It is a whole standard, but I have really having a hard time with the idea that it was something that I needed to teach again in 4th grade. I did spend a day on it, and a homework assignment. However, in looking for ways to make it a little more interesting I landed on this easy idea.

I had 6 sentences on the board and the students had the same six, plus more for homework in front of them. All of the students stood up to start with. As I called on a student they told me one word in the sentence that needed a capital letter. I then called on another student, and they had to say why that word needed a capital letter. Both students could then sit down. I continued until everyone had a turn, and they even got to go twice each. It seems really silly, but they did enjoy it. As we went they also highlighted the letter that needed to be capitalized. When we finished they had to rewrite the sentences correctly, and they also had more like that for homework. It worked out great and the grades were pretty good.

Ending Punctuation:
Again, this was a whole standard, and I was struggling with the idea of needing to spend a lot of time on it. So we played another "game". I read several sentences out loud to the students and they had an action to show what type of punctuation the sentence needed. If it need a period they clapped their hands, a question mark they jumped, and an exclamation point they held up spirit fingers. This literally took less than 10 minutes, but we all enjoyed it. My assistant principal stuck her head into the room for 30 seconds to tell me something, and when I met with her later she asked what we were doing because it looked like we were having so much fun. We were!

Commas (and maybe Quotation Marks):
This one is a little tricky, I mean I still have trouble with using commas correctly, but I wanted to again make this something fun. I wrote several sentences on a piece of poster board without commas. After we discussed the rules for the days lesson students identified where the commas needed to go in the sentence. They then taped/glued an elbow macaroni noodle in place for the comma. That night they had a matching homework assignment, just no noodles this time.

It will also work great for teaching quotations, but I haven't decided if I'm going to use the same thing twice.

I kept the posters around my classroom for weeks, and then finally got tired of looking at them and threw them away. Not thinking about I had not taken pictures.

Teach: A New Classroom

When I was hired last year 7 days before school started I was in a bit of a bind on looking for a classroom theme. I was told the whole team had an animal theme, and each class was named after the animal. I had one store to shop at, Office Depot, and 2 choices The Very Hungry Caterpillar or frongs. I went with The Very Hungry Caterpillar bacause I like Eric Carle. Seriously though in 5th grade?! This year I needed something new and fun. I decided to forget the animals and go with the new Dots on Turquoise. I already had a lot of bright colored stuff, baskets, pillows, a couch, etc.

 My classroom Reading Corner. I really wanted to create an environment the kids were excited to use. They are very excited about it, I'm just not sure when they are going to have time to use it. I had the couch from my bedroom in highschool, and the butterfly from my room in middle school. My kids do have to check books out from my personal library. Each book has a card and when they check the book out the card goes in their pocket. The books are not aloud to go home also just to help with kids lossing the books. 

Monday Folders, Friday Folders, all the same. Something else to keep track of. Last year I always had a hard time checking to make sure all the folders were in on Wednesday, so I decided to solve that proble, this year. On Monday when I hand out the folders the students will move their dot to "Out". The when I check their folder Tuesday morning they will move it to "In". This way on Wednesday I can easily see whose folder is still out. I cut out the letters on my Cricut in black vinyl.

I also got rid of the mailboxes I used last year to sort work. More for space saving reasons. Instead I use a Locker Tote that doubles as a file folder box. Each student has a file folder with their name on it and it can easily be filed. I still have a drawer in my drawer cart that their graded work goes into until it can make it into the folder. Then on Monday morning I can have a parent volunteer "stuff" their folders, and it only has to happen once.  

Student Wall

Birthdays: I have every intention of really making a big deal of the students birthdays this year, however it has not started off so good.

Calendar: Last year I did one of the calendars with the pictures, and velcro on the back. Too elementary for 4th and 5th grade. So I got a new calendar and plan on writing important upcoming events. Spirit week, picture day, walk to school day, high attendance day, etc.

 Library Chart: I know you can't really tell yet, but it's the blue chart. Each student has a pocket, and their book card goes there so I can tell what book they have out.

Classroom Jobs: I currently have a Librarian, Computer Tech, Paper Passer, Pencil Sharpener, Planner Personnel, and Playground Materials. However, with the schedule this year I don't even think we will have the time for my kids to even do them. Intentions:

Librarian: used a a reward to sit in the Reading Corner for the week

Computer Tech: in charge of turning on and off the computer, and helping me with the SmartBoard

Paper Passer: filing papers in the Monday Folder box

Pencil Sharpener: I have a sharp and unsharp pencil bucket, and just making sure that there are sharpened pencils

Planner Personnel: Last year I had 2 people who checked to see that planners were signed everyday. However after some discussion with several other teachers, we decided that if the students planner wasn't signed and we were moving their PAW was it really a punishment for the kids, or a punishment because of their parent. We are now doing positive rewards. So on Friday I check to see that their planner was filled out all week and give them a Tiger Card.

Playground Materials: simple, just in charge of bringing the playground bucket to and from recess, however, I don't have my homeroom kids before lunch, so this is out.

The whiteboard of many purposes, Monday Folder dot spot, agenda page, learning target, and I am just waiting for  them to tell me I have to do Lunch Count in the classroom. I already have plans for that too, below the agenda page, a magnet for each student, and spot for Option 1, Option 2, Packed Lunch, and Need to Vote. Again  I will cut this out in vinyl.

Smart Board with a carpet for me to stand on, especially nice with my feet hurt, or even as some added cushion from standing at the board. We have awesome double sided book cases, but its very hard to have a place in the classroom for it to use both sides. I finally decided on keeping the book shelf about 2 feet away from the wall, and I put a "Teachers Only" sign so that I can have some extra storage. I collected the students markers, glue, scissors, etc. into individual bags, and put them in a bucket so when they need them in another class its grab and go. 



Teach: Clip It

Displaying student work has been something in elementary schools for as long as I can remember. But the days of tape on the back of every students paper are gone, and push pins in the cork never last. Try clipping it up:

Materials:

• large construction paper
• letter stickers (or you can cut them out on a Cricut)
• clothes pins (2 per)
• laminating machine
• hot glue gun and glue sticks

A simple task, done at the beginning of the school year and good all year.

Directions:

1. Start by putting each students name towards the top of the paper, make sure you leave enough room for an 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper and about 2 inches for paper clips. You could even have the students write and decorate their own. Just watch where they do it at.
2. Laminate. It just helps make it last all year.
3. Using your hot glue gun, glue 2 clothes under each name. Spread them out, maybe 4 or 5 inches, but try to make them level. (We also hot glue ours to the wall. They lasted all year, but I know some schools are against that.)

A piece of paper should clip in, and hang only on the large constuction paper so that you can line them up in the hall or classroom.

Trim it with border and it is like an instant bulletin board. You can even put a title above it.

I have my kids take a paper out of their Take Home Folder that they are proud of to hang up. They also ask when they get papers back in class if they can go hang it up.

I also made an Objective/Learning Target Clip It. I can use our target for that lesson if it is something I want all of us to have out, or something like "I always do my best!"