The Grinch Activities

December 11, 2019 simplyengagementblog Leave a Comment

HELP THE GRINCH GROW HIS HEART–BY READING!

We had a special visitor in our classroom this week!

I asked students if they noticed any any new students in our class today and they immediately shouted “THE GRINCH!!” We started off the week by reading the book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and discussing the story elements. I then introduced our new students and we discussed how his heart was two sizes to small. The task this week? Help the Grinch by giving him hearts! But how will we give him hearts?! Students earn hearts by reading books. Read a book….make a 100 AR test….earn a heart! So far they have LOVED giving him hearts. They just check in with me, I give them a heart, they write their name, and tape it up. I made hearts using my cricut and some red paper.

Find THIS FREEBIE in my TPT store!!

THE SIMILE/METAPHOR THAT STOLE CHRISTMAS

The next Grinch activity we completed was “The Simile/Metaphor that Stole Christmas” lesson! This is one of my all time favorite activities to do each year! Engagement does not always have to be so ~~over the top~~! This is a simple lesson that students always love. Here are the steps:

Print the lyrics to “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”
Let the students sing along as you PLAY the song.
Discuss similes and then search for them in the lyrics. I put mine up under the ELMO and we highlight each, label them with an S (for simile) and underline the two things we are comparing. Next, we discuss what the simile truly means, For example, why did the author of this song use cuddly with cactus? What does that mean? What we normally use to describe cuddly?
Discuss metaphors and then search for them in the lyrics. Again we highlighted and labeled with an M…also underlining what was being compared with a discussion.
We then chose our favorite metaphor or simile and wrote it down on our “The Simile/Metaphor that Stole Christmas” sheet. They also wrote down what the simile or metaphor meant using the sentence stem “This means…..”
We concluded this Grinch activity by drawing the Grinch on our sheets using this video from ArtfokidsHub.

HELPING CINDY LOU WHO FIX HER BROKEN LIGHTS

For our next Grinch activity, Cindy Lou Hoo needed our help. After the Grinch took down all of the Christmas lights in Who-ville…they were all tangled and broken. Students had to fix the lights by coloring them the correct color! They coded the lights based on if there was a simile, metaphor, or neither written inside. This activity brought up LOTS of discussion. JUST because a sentence has the word “as” does NOT mean its a simile! We have to see if there is comparing going on. We went over this sheet as a class. Lots of learning happening here!

This is a part of the“Metaphors and Similes that Stole Christmas” lesson in my TPT store!

A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT

Grinch week would not be complete without a little science experiment! Just look at those faces! We wanted to help the Grinch even more with his little heart problem! So with a little baking soda and vinegar…his heart GREW!

Here’s where the great idea came from!

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Next, We used a product by With Flying Colors to practice our cause and effect skill for the week! After listening to the story again…I mean…can you ever read this story TOO MANY times? I don’t think so. We thought about what caused the Grinch to have such a small heart and the effect. We thought about what caused him to change and the effect. It was great. Also included in her product was a compassion activity where students could brainstorm ways to show compassion by writing in the provided hearts.

Ill be back to add more Grinch activities as we complete them this week! Stay tuned!! 🙂

THE GRINCH-SIMILE & METAPHOR MAD LIBS

A “GRINCH-Y” TREAT

Third Grade Text Features

November 18, 2019 simplyengagementblog Leave a Comment

The Jurassic Park Transformation:

Binoculars
12 Pack Safari Hats
Dino Photo Props
Backdrop
T-Rex Inflatable
Leaves
Dino Footprints — included for DIY on TPT
Small Puck Lights
Dino Eggs

SNAPSHOT OF OUR TEXT FEATURE WEEK:

Day One: Welcome to the park! Students train to become Archeologist by studying and practicing making text features using their Dino Text Feature Booklet.

Day Two: Students help sick Triceratops, by inspecting their droppings. They collect task cards from within the droppings and sort them on the correct “patient card.”

Day Three: Students help the park find their missing dinosaur eggs. Inside the eggs are slips of paper with a text feature listed. They must paste the correct feature on the appropriate space on the page provided.

Day Four: Research dinosaur using dinosaur research guide

Day Five: Students create their own Dino Text Feature Lap-Book.

THE TEXT FEATURE LESSON:

Find the accompanying TPT product HERE!

“Good morning park rangers and welcome to JURASSIC PARK! Jurassic Park is a new area we created to house dinosaurs that have been brought back to life by our team of scientists! We get to be one of the first groups to enter and explore the park! You should keep their hands feet and other objects inside your vehicle at all times!”

“Now that you’re here, we have some training to do! We must study hard in order to become Archeologists that are able to help the dinosaurs in the park. You will be receiving a certificate of completion when are research is done.”

Students create their own Dinosaur Text Feature booklet. Included are fill in the blank text feature definitions and a page for students to create their own example. I really worked WITH my students on this discussing and creating together.

Watch Clip: (edit/skip at 1:02 & 2:15 for inappropriate word)

“Gross, Rangers! But it is what HAS to be done. We have to figure out what is wrong with our sick Triceratops. Dig through the dung to match each set of three cards.”

Students match the “dropping” cards (text features) to their definitions! They placed these on patient cards—the dino’s were sick and needed help. Each patient card had an example text feature….so they new where to place their cards!

Watch Clip (stop at 1:50):

“Rangers! We need your help. Our eggs have been compromised. We believe they are scattered around the park. With your team, quietly (We don’t want to wake the momma dino’s) search for your teams color eggs. These will be used to complete task one.”

Students searched for the missing eggs around the room! Inside the eggs were text features! They had to paste the text features onto a dinosaur article to correctly label.

Students completed research on the dinosaur of their choice. They used research guides found HERE to complete using google search. This took a lot of work for my third graders, but they will DEFINITELY know their text features!! I helped them with their percentages that they used for their pie graph.

Students used their research to fill out their own lap books. We used manila folders. They filled out their information, colored, cut, and glued!

I hope you have as much fun as we did with you Jurassic Park Transformation!! If you are looking for some materials to accompany your text features lesson…look no further! CLICK HERE for the Text Feature Escape included in my TPT store! 🙂

Jumanji Escape Room

April 7, 2019 simplyengagementblog Leave a Comment

Point of View and Perspective

March 26, 2019 simplyengagementblog Leave a Comment

Day ONE:

On day one I introduce perspective by explaining that students and teachers have different perspectives. I ask students these questions:

What were you thinking when you woke up this morning? I don’t want to go to school! Let me sleep a little more!
What were you thinking when you walked into the room today? My friends aren’t here yet. I need to get my cursive work out. What’s for lunch?
What did you do when you walked into the classroom today? I put my book bag away, I got out my cursive work, read my book, talked to my friends, etc.

and then I ask them the same questions…but instead about me!

What were you thinking when you woke up this morning? Did I hear Owen (my son)? I need to get up and get ready! Where’s my purse? Did I finish my lesson plans?
What were you thinking when you walked into the room today? Where’s my coffee? I need to help _____with their spelling work today. I should read ______ to my students today. Why is _________talking? Why is ______leaving the room?
What did you do when you walked into the classroom today? I sipped my coffee, graded papers, picked up trash off the floor, gave DOJO’s to student who are doing what they are suppose to do.

I explain that we are in the same place, looking at the same things….but we have a different PERSPECTIVE. We are thinking and experiencing different things because we are different people. “If you and I wrote a story about our day…..they would be completely different!”

I then place 2 sticky notes on each students desk. We imagine we are looking at a fish inside a fish bowl. We discuss what we are thinking about that fish and then write one thought on a sticky note: Fish are great pets, ~~I like to eat fish~~, I need to feed you, etc.

Next, We read the story Memoirs of a GoldFish. I always stop after reading the first sentence and ask the question, “From whose perspective is this story written?!” and they usually shout, “a fishes!!” 🙂

After we finish reading the story, students write what the FISH in the fishbowl (that we are imagining) is thinking on the last sticky. My students responses were: get me out of here, I am lonely, I need some friends, feed me, don’t eat me, who are you? etc.

We had just a little time today to view some clips from Finding Nemo on YouTube! I told them before we watched that I would be asking them to tell me about the scene from a certain characters perspective. Here a links to clips I showed (I don’t always show the whole thing…sometimes I will stop a few times):

Diver takes Nemo Scene

Darla at the Dentist Scene

Marvin Meets Dory

DAY TWO:

I will continue to update throughout the week! 🙂 CHECK BACK TOMORROW!

An INFERENCING Week at a GLANCE

February 21, 2019 simplyengagementblog Leave a Comment

Day One:

On day one I begin by having students create an Interactive Notebook page in their reading notebooks. They will use this as a guide throughout the week! I use THIS one.

Tips for interactive notebook: It always takes WAY TOO long for coloring and cutting. I have to set a timer for my kiddos. I’ll usually put about 7 minutes up. They know at 2 minutes, they should be cutting, and at 1 minute they should be glueing.

We also watch the Flocabulary video on inferencing. I always stop the video as we go and ask the students questions and have them make inferences along the way.

We ended our lesson with exit tickets. I like to make quick google form quizzes with task cards I’ve purchased from TPT! Today I used these for todays lesson. For more information about how I use exit tickets, click HERE.

This afternoon I also gave these Mystery Mail envelopes and letters to staff members at our school! They will be writing an anonymous letter to our class, and will be sending three items that represent themselves with the letter. I chose to give them to the art teacher, librarian, assistant principal, computer teacher, and lunch lady. I thought that each one of these staff members would have at least one item that we could make some really GOOD inferences about! I set this up this morning (below), so now we are just waiting to receive our letters and infer who wrote each one!

Day Two:

Today we started our lesson by viewing the Inferencing Flocabulary video again. I also pulled up the exit tickets from the previous day and we went over each answer as a class.

Next, students made inferences about ME based off of what was in my “teacher bag!” I preloaded my bag with good items like keys, coffee cup, Chickfila bag, Paci, and planner. As I pulled each item out of my bag we talked about what we inferred about Mrs. Neal based on those items. I tried to get them to think ~~deep~~. For example, for the keys: Mrs. Neal has a car (obvious answer), but she also has a drivers license (deeper answer), she is at least 16 years old (even deeper answer). You can find a lesson guide and more by click HERE. These are the items I used:

Finally students got to work independently by creating a “What’s in my Backpack?” page (also included in the link above). They were to draw at least 3-4 items that represents them in their backpack. I had to remind my students that we are not drawing what is actually in our backpack…..we are drawing items that represent US….these items can be anything. Some of my students chose to draw items like a binder or a pencil pouch. In the future, I want to stress the importance of choosing better items! If someone were looking at our “backpack” we WANT them to be able to figure out who we are (what sport do you play, do you have any pets, do you cheer for a specific sports team, etc). I must add that we did NOT fill out our name or the bottom portion of the backpack drawing page until the very end! We made sure to spread out around the room while working on these, so that no-one saw other papers! I collected each one, mixed them up, and placed each page on a desk. Students became detectives and visited each backpack. They made a list of items in the backpack, inferred what each item meant or represented, and then inferred which classmate the backpack belonged to! This is the sheet they used to investigate each others backpack:

We ended our lesson with 3 exit tickets again, using google forms and google classroom!

Day Three

Once again, we started our lesson with our Flocabulary video (by this day my students have memorized most of the words and have a little more fun with it!)

Today we got some MYSTERY MAIL (remember I told you I sent info to staff members around the school at the beginning of the week!!) We made inferences about the clues FIRST and then read the letter. Take a look:

Next, I had students will fill out their Fingerprint Analysis. WE WILL USE THESE FINGERPRINTS ON DAY FIVE for a CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION!! Students receive a fingerprint. They will record information about themselves being as detailed as possible (examples: I love Alabama football, my favorite book is Last Kids on Earth, I have a dog named Sofia, I have a 1 year old brother, etc). We will use these later in the week! I will end up choosing ONE fingerprint and finding an item that represents each detail (example: a shaker for being an Alabama fan, a zombie drawing for the last kids on earth book, a stuffed animal or leash for having a dog, baby food for having a baby brother.) These items will be placed in a crime scene later in the week! Students will decide WHOSE FINGERPRINT “MATCHES” the crime scene!

ONCE AGAIN, we complete 3 task cards in google classroom for an exit ticket!

Day Four

We received another piece of Mystery Mail today!! They were so excited about yesterdays…they kept asking me if we were going to be receiving anymore!!

Day Five

You can find a more detailed explanation of this lesson by clicking HERE.

Students fill out their own fingerprint. Each students is a suspect in the case of the missing _________. They are analyzing “fingerprints” to see which one “matches” the crime scene.
Choose one fingerprint to create a crime scene around.
Make the crime scene
Copy finger prints. This year I am choosing to copy a set of fingerprints for each group. I will save paper by printing 4 on one page! I won’t do front and back because I want them to be able to sort the fingerprints and look at them all at the same time. I have 18 students so I will split my students into 6 groups of 3! (I always choose partners due to minimize behavior problems and to ensure that personalities and abilities are set appropriately!)
Students view the crime scene and take notes. They will note each item.
They will meet as a group and make/record inferences about each item” “What does this piece of evidence say about the suspect?”
Next, students will work through each fingerprint. They will decide if the fingerprint matches the crime scene. They can sort them into to stacks: suspects, not suspects.
Students will then look back through their “suspects” list in order to narrow it down even further. They can highlight, mark through, etc. I remind students that EACH item in the crime scene must match to part of the fingerprint.
Each group must decide on ONE fingerprint as their PRIME suspect and be able to explain why they chose this person.

Story Taco-Fiesta Transformation

February 3, 2019 simplyengagementblog Leave a Comment

FIESTA MUSIC ON YOUTUBE

Lesson Ideas:

The Story Taco

Students create a story taco based on the elements of a book or story. Each ingredient in the taco is a different story element: character, setting, plot, solution, & theme. Find story taco templates by clicking HERE.

I just recently did this in my classroom with the book Mango, Abuela, and Me .

It was the perfect story to bring in a little cultural background and stuck with our theme for the week. It is about a grandmother and granddaughter who now live together and do not speak the same language. They work on speaking to each other throughout the story. After reading the story I let my students free with their tacos (I of course explained he directions before reading the story). Here’s a little sample of their final work:

Chips and Salsa Main Idea Sort

Students match chips (details) to the correct salsa bowl (main idea). Make this activity even more engaging with real chip baskets from amazon! Put a salsa bowl (main idea) in front of each chip basket. Students sort the details by placing them into the correct basket!

I did this at the end of our third grade year in 2019. The product has options for salsa bowls that contain the main idea OR you can give students the blank salsa bowls. This allows students to come up with the main idea on their own. They did really well even though that got frustrated a time or two. I walked around the room and helped each group think through the way they were sorting details. With about 15 minutes left in class, I pulled the salsa bowls that included the main ideas up on the board. They checked theirs and then sorted based on the correct main ideas. It was a big hit! We spent about an hour total on this activity!

Let’s Taco’ Bout Point of View

If you have some older kiddos, my friend over at Teaching Between the Lines created this Point of View activity! It also includes an editable writing activity…which is always a PLUS.