back to life, back to reality

ahh.... why does spring break have to be over?  spring break being over means that i have four weeks to THE TESTS and eight total weeks of school left. sheesh....


syllables
my kiddos worked on syllables today. I know they have worked with syllables before, but it became quite apparent last week they had forgotten all about those fun little things. I decided this would also be a great time to incorporate some rich vocabulary for my mini-locos. so, I broke out the tap-lights and off we went. 


we worked on this in a small group. I printed and laminated the words. as a small group, we worked through three (I tried to grab a 2, 3, and 4 syllable word for illustration). then I would give one student the four tap lights and a word.

these are BIG and I love it. it is about the size of my mini-locos hand width.

I purchased 12 from the Dollar Store, 3 groups of 4 lights.

they would sound out the word while turning a light on for each syllable. at first, they kept trying to do the phonetic sounds of the words, but they quickly caught on. 

we worked through all the words as a small group and then they completed the worksheet individually while I worked with the next small group.

the words on the cards and the worksheet are the same, but since we worked through the words in a small group, the kiddos did not work with each card individually. so the worksheet allows them reinforcement of the concept. it was so great to see them tap the table as if turning on imaginary tap-lights. 

click HERE to grab the cards and worksheet.

analogies

does anyone else still teach their mini's about analogies? I love analogies. I believe that being able to make those relationship connections is very helpful.  my mini-locos can often tell the antonym of a given word, but I find it way more beneficial for them to recognize that relationship on their own and then APPLY it to another word. but it doesn't just end at antonyms! analogies are great for ela AND math concepts. 

i've started to combine analogies and daily oral language into daily practice for my third graders. click HERE to grab an example.

three 2-digit addition

three 2-digit addition is not a specific standard of ours, but it is something my mini-scholars need some practice working with. so I whipped up these addition sandwiches. they place a tomato number, a cheese number, and a ham number on their sandwich. then the mini's add up the numbers to see the total of the sandwich. everyone likes food, right? click HERE to grab this.