My Reading Crew friends and I have teamed up again to bring you freebies and advice for the upcoming school year!
This Literacy Life: games
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games. Show all posts
How to Use Games to Encourage Learning Phonic Decoding Skills
Trimming the Tree with Digraphs and Fun
It's that time of year ~ time to put our trees up and celebrate! And what better way to celebrate than with good friends. My friends from The Reading Crew and I have an amazing blog hop link up just for you, full of freebies and teaching ideas!
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St. Patrick's Day Activities for All Ages
There are tons of activities out there for students to enjoy St. Patrick's Day. So many times we find some that are appropriate for one age level or another. The three activities in this post span various age groups.
Compound Words That Make Sense
This year, my district finally purchased LLI, Leveled Literacy Intervention, for me! I love it and all of the lessons, but I don't like that it has taken away some of my ability to create new and fun lessons for my students. I decided that after every 10 lessons, we would have a "game day". We have had some game days this year, and I was excited that my second graders had been working on compound words. Though this seems so easy, I love that I could help them see that smaller words can make bigger words.
Engaging Students With Fun and Games
It's been a long beginning of the year for me, but we are finally off to a good start and into a good groove! My school finally bit the dust and purchased the LLI (Leveled Literacy Intervention) kits for me, and I am in love! I love how it ensures that I am getting all of the needed skills in to help my struggling readers become more successful, but what I miss is the element of fun. I decided that after every 10 lessons, we would have a "Game Day". This helps us all enjoy a little celebration and allows me to take additional running records, if needed.
The Importance of Making Predictions
We have had some snow days lately, and the meteorologists have predicted correctly! I have been working with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade groups on making predictions, an important strategy to help students read, understand, and keep reading.
We have spent time in real text through listening and reading activities. Students have predicted both in fiction and nonfiction texts. We have learned a lot through these readings and activities.
Before I get into what we did, I want to reinforce WHY we make predictions. WHY do good readers need to make predictions before, during, and after reading?
Simple! If they make predictions, they will WANT to continue to read. Of course, that is not the only reason. Good readers also make predictions to show they understand what they have read and to help them understand what they will read. It is one super important skill that no good reader can leave out!
My third graders used a fun Reading A-Z book about the Hoppers called "The Igloo". They wrote in their notebooks their predictions based on certain words that I gave them. They had to use those words in their predictions.
After reading to a specific page, they then wrote if they were right so far or needed to make a new prediction. We did this several times, confirming or changing our predictions.
This really helped my students think about what they were reading and want to continue reading. Predicting was such a powerful tool to use. Now when they read on their own, I hope they continue to use this important strategy for reading any book they have to or want to read.
And that is why making predictions are so important to reading!
After real work with making predictions, we used the activities from my new Making Predictions Task Cards and Activity Pack. It includes 48 task cards, separated into fiction and nonfiction for your students to use, a game board, mini poster, writing activities, and recording sheet. You can purchase it by clicking {here} or on on the picture below! It will be 1/2 price for the first 24 hours!
Here are some of the activities from it! Since I test these products in my classroom first, they may look different than what is in the pack. Many times I add to them after I use them to better fit my needs.
When we played the game, the other players had to agree on the prediction and be ready to explain why. It was fun to hear the different predictions! Because of the snow days, we haven't been able to use the nonfiction cards yet! They had fun and have asked to play it multiple times!
Tune in tomorrow for Book Talk Thursday as I highlight a great book for making predictions and an easy activity you can do with ANY book that is perfect for helping students make predictions!
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We have spent time in real text through listening and reading activities. Students have predicted both in fiction and nonfiction texts. We have learned a lot through these readings and activities.
Before I get into what we did, I want to reinforce WHY we make predictions. WHY do good readers need to make predictions before, during, and after reading?
Simple! If they make predictions, they will WANT to continue to read. Of course, that is not the only reason. Good readers also make predictions to show they understand what they have read and to help them understand what they will read. It is one super important skill that no good reader can leave out!
My third graders used a fun Reading A-Z book about the Hoppers called "The Igloo". They wrote in their notebooks their predictions based on certain words that I gave them. They had to use those words in their predictions.
After reading to a specific page, they then wrote if they were right so far or needed to make a new prediction. We did this several times, confirming or changing our predictions.
This really helped my students think about what they were reading and want to continue reading. Predicting was such a powerful tool to use. Now when they read on their own, I hope they continue to use this important strategy for reading any book they have to or want to read.
And that is why making predictions are so important to reading!
After real work with making predictions, we used the activities from my new Making Predictions Task Cards and Activity Pack. It includes 48 task cards, separated into fiction and nonfiction for your students to use, a game board, mini poster, writing activities, and recording sheet. You can purchase it by clicking {here} or on on the picture below! It will be 1/2 price for the first 24 hours!
Here are some of the activities from it! Since I test these products in my classroom first, they may look different than what is in the pack. Many times I add to them after I use them to better fit my needs.
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| Nonfiction prediction and what they really read about (My new paper includes the second part.) |
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| The game board! |
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| A fiction task card ~ I have included the question "Why?" to each card because I asked it every time! |
Tune in tomorrow for Book Talk Thursday as I highlight a great book for making predictions and an easy activity you can do with ANY book that is perfect for helping students make predictions!
Fall Fun with the Virginia Teacher Bloggers
Fall in Virginia is one of my favorite times of the year! Many of my Virginia blogging friends have come together to bring you some goodies in the...
When people think of Virginia, they often think of Richmond, Williamsburg, or Northern Virginia, but I am lucky enough to live in Southwest Virginia ~ the Blue Ridge Mountains! This is what fall looks like here!
Isn't it beautiful?! And the weather is wonderful too, as it starts to get cooler, something I never really experienced growing up in Louisiana. Our winter was fall, and the leaves just turned brown!
I also love playing games with my students to review concepts we have learned throughout the week, month, or year. They always look forward to them too. I have made many of them for my students for many different concepts. When they play the games, they remember important concepts while having fun. Most Fridays are "Fun Fridays" in the Reading Center, simply for review and fun!
My students really enjoyed playing Costume Capers, a Reading for Meaning game. This game was inspired by the Istation lessons that work on this concept.
My freebie for you is a set of 5 fall themed game boards with pieces and spinners for each board. You can grab it by clicking {here} or on the image below. They will only be free through this hop {October 17-19} and will be a paid item on October 20!
I hope your students enjoy them as much as mine have over the years!
Now, head on over to Learning Ahoy to grab your next freebie!
Wherever you are in the world, enjoy fall and all it brings to you!
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I also love playing games with my students to review concepts we have learned throughout the week, month, or year. They always look forward to them too. I have made many of them for my students for many different concepts. When they play the games, they remember important concepts while having fun. Most Fridays are "Fun Fridays" in the Reading Center, simply for review and fun!
My students really enjoyed playing Costume Capers, a Reading for Meaning game. This game was inspired by the Istation lessons that work on this concept.
My freebie for you is a set of 5 fall themed game boards with pieces and spinners for each board. You can grab it by clicking {here} or on the image below. They will only be free through this hop {October 17-19} and will be a paid item on October 20!
Wherever you are in the world, enjoy fall and all it brings to you!
Harvest of Literacy Freebies Blog Hop
Welcome, fall! With fall in the air, my literacy blogging friends and I have come together to bring you a fun blog hop full of freebies perfect for fall!
Fall is a great time for focusing on the harvest. Many of us visit pumpkin patches and farms where we can see the harvest in action.
For your freebie, I am giving you my newest game, Harvesting Blends.
It is a simple game I am using with my second graders who struggle with blends. They simply read and sort the words to move around the board. I hope they enjoy it!
It is free through the hop and will be changed to a paid item on October 5, when the hop is over. So, grab it while you can!
Now, head on over to Wendy's blog, Read With Me ABC to grab her freebie. Or if you have already been through the entire hop ~ Congratulations! I hope you have enjoyed the Harvest of Reading Freebies!
And if you want to get updates about my blog posts, click on the scarecrow below to follow me on Bloglovin'!
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Fall is a great time for focusing on the harvest. Many of us visit pumpkin patches and farms where we can see the harvest in action.
For your freebie, I am giving you my newest game, Harvesting Blends.
It is a simple game I am using with my second graders who struggle with blends. They simply read and sort the words to move around the board. I hope they enjoy it!
It is free through the hop and will be changed to a paid item on October 5, when the hop is over. So, grab it while you can!
Now, head on over to Wendy's blog, Read With Me ABC to grab her freebie. Or if you have already been through the entire hop ~ Congratulations! I hope you have enjoyed the Harvest of Reading Freebies!
Simon Says, "Use Your Prepositions!"
Our school has been using iStation this year for Response to Intervention. Though I am not sold on it because you can't replace good lessons from teachers with a computer program, I do think it helps us get a better picture of who needs interventions. Our principal says that the kids in Tier 3 must have an hour and a half of iStation, which could be teacher directed lessons supplied by the program. Well, some are OK, and others have much to be desired. {And I hate being scripted!}
One of the lessons was actually halfway decent, so I used it with a group of second graders after I did some sprucing up. It was based on reading prepositions correctly. We played a quick game of Simon Says with a plastic card that I had. I told them to put the card in various places (over the chair, under the chair, in front of you). They had fun. Here are the cards under the table.
We reviewed prepositions and listed some on the board. Then I had the students write their own clues for Simon Says. Here is one child's set of activities. {She needs a little help with her spelling, I believe!}
Then each child read their own set of clues to the rest of the group who played the game. They had fun because many of the kids didn't listen and did something even when Simon didn't say to do it. It also helped them because they didn't have to think of the things for everyone to do.
I love when my students have fun and learn! Today they came back in and asked if they could play another game! Oh, how fun!
What are some fun things you do with your students to make learning more enjoyable?
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One of the lessons was actually halfway decent, so I used it with a group of second graders after I did some sprucing up. It was based on reading prepositions correctly. We played a quick game of Simon Says with a plastic card that I had. I told them to put the card in various places (over the chair, under the chair, in front of you). They had fun. Here are the cards under the table.
We reviewed prepositions and listed some on the board. Then I had the students write their own clues for Simon Says. Here is one child's set of activities. {She needs a little help with her spelling, I believe!}
Then each child read their own set of clues to the rest of the group who played the game. They had fun because many of the kids didn't listen and did something even when Simon didn't say to do it. It also helped them because they didn't have to think of the things for everyone to do.
I love when my students have fun and learn! Today they came back in and asked if they could play another game! Oh, how fun!
What are some fun things you do with your students to make learning more enjoyable?
Spin the Bottle in First Grade?!
That's right! You read that correctly! I love my job because I move from room to room and see so many different things and get many new ideas, and today was no different.
I was in my friend's room for my "push in" today, and she told me she was going to play Spin the Bottle with her first graders! I said, "Let me go get my phone, so I can get some pictures!" So, while my group was working, I got these shots of her game.
The game was so simple to set up and play. She wrote some of their spelling words on some index cards and then used her Diet Coke bottle for the kids to spin. One student spun the bottle and picked up the word the bottle landed on. He or she read it aloud to the rest of the group, and they had to spell it on their dry erase boards. The student who called out the word checked everyone's work.
The best part about it ~ EVERY student was engaged! Love it!!
This can be played with just about any concept! Just think about the endless possibilities! Types of sentences, sentence correction, sight words, math facts, greater than and less than, famous Americans, social studies, and science concepts! I LoVe this idea and will be using it with my groups. I might call it something other than Spin the Bottle.
Any ideas for a new name that is not so taboo? And what would you use this game for in your classroom?
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I was in my friend's room for my "push in" today, and she told me she was going to play Spin the Bottle with her first graders! I said, "Let me go get my phone, so I can get some pictures!" So, while my group was working, I got these shots of her game.
The game was so simple to set up and play. She wrote some of their spelling words on some index cards and then used her Diet Coke bottle for the kids to spin. One student spun the bottle and picked up the word the bottle landed on. He or she read it aloud to the rest of the group, and they had to spell it on their dry erase boards. The student who called out the word checked everyone's work.
The best part about it ~ EVERY student was engaged! Love it!!
This can be played with just about any concept! Just think about the endless possibilities! Types of sentences, sentence correction, sight words, math facts, greater than and less than, famous Americans, social studies, and science concepts! I LoVe this idea and will be using it with my groups. I might call it something other than Spin the Bottle.
Any ideas for a new name that is not so taboo? And what would you use this game for in your classroom?
Quick and Easy Word Game
Our school has started a new intervention program with the kids in the school that will help us track students progress ~ Istation. I am not sure if any of you have heard of it or used it, but if you have, I could use some serious pointers!
Anyway, I have been playing around with it since I am in charge of getting reports for our Leadership Team as well as delivering lessons face to face some of the time. I had a group of third graders who needed some help with spelling, so I looked at some of the lessons given for intervention.
Now, I have to admit that I hate giving lessons that are scripted. I went to school for an extra five years just to create my own lessons that work for students. As a reading specialist, I feel like I am capable of saying the right thing. Luckily, I don't have to use the lessons word for word, but I do need to present lessons based on the assessments in the program. I do look at the lessons to give me an idea.
So, with that being said, the lesson was a game that I had thought of before and used in my word study groups before! It is a simple game that can be played with any words you want your students to work on in spelling.
First, I used these cool plastic cards that we got years ago from a credit card factory. I wrote the targeted words with Sharpie (long vowel words) and had the students read them all after reviewing the "magic e" rule. The first student read the card aloud and hid it. To get a point, the word had to be read correctly.
All of the other students had to spell the word correctly on their dry erase boards. The word caller was the official checker. If the word was spelled correctly, the player received a point.
The player with the most points won the game! And to think, all the kids were doing was spelling words! I love when playing a game is truly learning!
So, you can do this with any list of words at any time, both in small groups or at centers. Just use sight word flash cards or spelling words on card stock. I can guarantee that your students will have fun!
So, how do you make learning fun? And, if you use Istation, how does it work for you? Any pointers, especially for the younger kids (K-1)?
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Now, I have to admit that I hate giving lessons that are scripted. I went to school for an extra five years just to create my own lessons that work for students. As a reading specialist, I feel like I am capable of saying the right thing. Luckily, I don't have to use the lessons word for word, but I do need to present lessons based on the assessments in the program. I do look at the lessons to give me an idea.
So, with that being said, the lesson was a game that I had thought of before and used in my word study groups before! It is a simple game that can be played with any words you want your students to work on in spelling.
First, I used these cool plastic cards that we got years ago from a credit card factory. I wrote the targeted words with Sharpie (long vowel words) and had the students read them all after reviewing the "magic e" rule. The first student read the card aloud and hid it. To get a point, the word had to be read correctly.
All of the other students had to spell the word correctly on their dry erase boards. The word caller was the official checker. If the word was spelled correctly, the player received a point.
The player with the most points won the game! And to think, all the kids were doing was spelling words! I love when playing a game is truly learning!
So, you can do this with any list of words at any time, both in small groups or at centers. Just use sight word flash cards or spelling words on card stock. I can guarantee that your students will have fun!
So, how do you make learning fun? And, if you use Istation, how does it work for you? Any pointers, especially for the younger kids (K-1)?
More Cause and Effect fun!
I spent the entire last week getting the third graders ready for the Standards of Learning tests we will take in a couple of weeks. We worked on cause and effect all week long and finished off with a Fun Friday activity, the last before the big tests. For the next two weeks, it will be practice test after practice test ~ blah, blah, blah!
We played a super fun game called Cause and Effect Concentration. The kids had so much fun, and they were "getting" it! It was so fun to see them get excited while practicing a tough skill! I incorporated science standards in the cards as well, so the students could easily review for their tests. There is also another set of cards with everyday occurrences too. We played the science game. Before we played, I read this wonderful book by Molly Bang called My Light. We talked about the cause and effect that our sun has on our world, since that is what the book is about. It is one of my favorite books for teaching about natural resources.
It is a really simple game with some graphic organizers to help you and your students out. Here they are playing the game:
You can grab it here in my TPT store or by clicking on the image below in my Teachers Notebook shop.
If you were able to check out Storie's review on her blog of my Main Idea and Detail Concentration and Poppin' Fact and Opinion Games, you will love that I have all of the games in one bundle for a lower price! If you buy all three games together, you can grab them for a lower price. You can grab them here in my TPT store or by clicking the image below from my Teachers Notebook shop.
Best of all, your students will have so much fun as they are learning! I love watching the excitement!!
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We played a super fun game called Cause and Effect Concentration. The kids had so much fun, and they were "getting" it! It was so fun to see them get excited while practicing a tough skill! I incorporated science standards in the cards as well, so the students could easily review for their tests. There is also another set of cards with everyday occurrences too. We played the science game. Before we played, I read this wonderful book by Molly Bang called My Light. We talked about the cause and effect that our sun has on our world, since that is what the book is about. It is one of my favorite books for teaching about natural resources.
You can grab it here in my TPT store or by clicking on the image below in my Teachers Notebook shop.
Jelly Bean Freebie and Giveaway!
I LOVE jelly beans, especially this time of the year, so I made this fun game board for you!
The file includes the gameboard, two sets of game pieces (eggs from The 3AM Teacher's Silly Eggs Collection), and three different spinners! All you have to do is print out the game board and spinners and write the skill you want to practice on the jelly beans and spinner. Enjoy!
I also have my Jelly Bean L-Roll game in my Teachers Notebook shop and Teachers Pay Teachers store for you to enjoy! You can grab it from Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking here or from Teachers Notebook by clicking the image below!
But wait! You can win it by leaving a comment below telling me how you plan to use the blank game board with your email address! I will choose a winner Tuesday, March 19 after 8 PM by using the Random Number Generator! Good luck!
Until next time!
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The file includes the gameboard, two sets of game pieces (eggs from The 3AM Teacher's Silly Eggs Collection), and three different spinners! All you have to do is print out the game board and spinners and write the skill you want to practice on the jelly beans and spinner. Enjoy!
I also have my Jelly Bean L-Roll game in my Teachers Notebook shop and Teachers Pay Teachers store for you to enjoy! You can grab it from Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking here or from Teachers Notebook by clicking the image below!
St. Patrick's Day Gameboard Freebie
St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner! Every holiday seems to have sneaked up on me this year, but I actually feel like I am ahead with St. Patrick's Day! I am planning to make some fun games with this board, but I wanted to share it with you before I add anything to it.
The file includes the above gameboard, which you can use for any game or concept ~ sight words, spelling patterns, math facts, you name it! You can write on it or the cards that I have also included. Due to my own printer problems, the cards are in color and black and white! The file also includes 6 leprechaun game pieces for you to use.
I hope you enjoy these! Like I mentioned, I am planning to make some fun games to sell in my TPT and TN stores. If you have any good ideas, leave them with your email address in the comments below. If I make something with your idea, I will email you a copy!
Enjoy and have fun!!
Until next time!
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I hope you enjoy these! Like I mentioned, I am planning to make some fun games to sell in my TPT and TN stores. If you have any good ideas, leave them with your email address in the comments below. If I make something with your idea, I will email you a copy!
Enjoy and have fun!!
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