Teaching Context Clues is Baloney! {FREEBIE}

In searching for a new way to teach context clues, I ran across this blog post showing how to use the book Baloney (Henry P.)  In Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith's story, Henry is an alien schoolkid who needs to come up with one good reason for why he is late for szkola again. Otherwise, his teacher promises that he will have detention forever.

I decided this would be perfect for my 2nd graders.  I read the book to my little aliens, and we made a chart just like Mrs. Whitehurst.  Since my kiddos are a year older than hers, we were able to talk a little bit more about word parts, word roots, and derivatives as the clues to the words and their meanings.

After reading the book, I told my students that they were to come up with one more reason to explain why Henry was late for school.  They had to include a nonsense word in their excuse which could be figured out using the context clues given in their explanation.  It was a lofty goal, and I wasn't sure if they could do it.  With a few examples and a little tweaking, they got the hang of it and they LOVED it!

I was late for school because I couldn't find the page that came off my zeading log.

 

I was late for school today because my mom's zack broke down on the way to school.

 

Henry P. Baloney was late to school because he forgot to put grape junes on his bread.  The bread would be dry without it.

I wish you could see all of the Henry P.'s they created; they were ADORABLE!  I know what you really want...the files!

Baloney (Henry P.) Alien Body

Grab the writing paper {here}.

Enjoy!

Move It With Brain Breaks Music Videos {FREEBIE}

If you're like me, you'd like one place with all your fun music and movement videos at your fingertips.  And it'd be great if those videos were in a safe format so that annoying content wasn't displayed before or after your video played.

I took the videos that many of my colleagues use on a regular basis and made a Symbaloo (a really cool visual bookmarking tool that helps people keep their favorite links in order.) First, I converted each video into a link on SafeShare.tv - a wonderful site that generates a safe link for YouTube videos.  It removes all the yucky stuff you don't want.  You might have one ad pop up at the bottom of the video right when you hit play, but that's about it.  No more questionable content on the sides and nothing comes up when the video ends.  Woo hoo!

So, here it is!

When I find engaging videos, I add them to my Symbaloo which updates automatically.  If you have a favorite that you'd like to suggest I include, just leave me a comment and I'll check it out.  (My Symbaloo was updated in September '14 to include new videos, GoNoodle and many Kid President videos.)

Enjoy!

Place Value Monster Game {FREEBIE}

Here's a fun game that helps your students practice building numbers.  This game is flexible so that you can differentiate to meet the needs of your students.  If you have kiddos who are working on building 6-digit numbers, then they can play this game together.  For kids who are needing practice with 2-digit numbers, they can play this game too!

The materials you will need are:

• one game board (first page below) per group of kids (Partners work best, but a trio of kids will work too.)
• one number cube (A regular 1-6 number cube will work.  If you want to make a number cube from a blank cube by writing the numbers 4-9 on the faces, you can do that for a game variation.)
• paper and pencil or white board and dry erase marker for each student

Best of all, it's FREE as usual here at I Love 2 Teach!  Enjoy!

Place Value Monster Game