Onomatopoeia Lesson & Activity {Freebie}

Woo hoo!  It's time to practice understanding and using onomatopoeia with my little authors.  I've combined ideas that are swirling in my head as well as those found on the web into one lesson.

In my classroom, I use PowerPoint for nearly every direct teach lesson.  Due to terms of use on graphics that I've purchased or snagged for free, I cannot share a PowerPoint with you.  But I can convert a PPT into a PDF.  Although it does lose some features, the content is still there and if I design my PPTs knowing that I'm converting them to PDFs, then I can make them without animations and such.

Anyway, back to the fun figurative language device known as onomatopoeia...such a fun word to say.  Here's a sample of my {free Onomatopoeia Lesson}.  Go on...grab the complete lesson & activity with all 15 slides for free and follow me while you're at it.






If you grab this free lesson, I hope you find it engaging and helpful.  I'd also love some blog love by having you follow me.  Thanks!

Enjoy!

Word Endings Foldable with Rules {Freebie}

Last week I shared a foldable to be used with exploring adding -ing and -ed to base words especially for words where you have to double the last consonant.  Find that post {here}.  My little word hunters loved using their story of the week to find examples of base words that don't change when these word endings are added and examples of words that the final consonant must be doubled.

I was SUPER excited when my 2nd graders began to noticed that there were base words that had changed but not by doubling their last consonant.  Yahoo!!!  So here's a foldable that includes all of the rules.

We glue this foldable into our notebooks, and my kids use a story to search for words that fit the flaps.  They write base words under the left side flaps (on the notebook paper) and write the base words with the endings added on the right side flaps (on the notebook paper).  If they run out of room, they can write on the back side of each flap.  They actually wanted to run out of room so that they could write on the flaps.  They had a FANTASTIC time doing this Word Endings hunt!

Don't forget: If you like the fonts I used, get them for FREE at Rowdy in Room 300.  I used Rowdy Writing and Rowdy Funky.  Love them!

Enjoy!

Word Endings Foldable {Freebie}

My students are reviewing which words have to be changed when adding -ing and -ed.  I figured a foldable would be fun as well as flexible enough to meet my kids' needs.  I tweaked my free Prefix and Suffix Foldable.
Here it is before the flaps are folded back revealing what's underneath...

My students glue their foldables inside their interactive notebooks.  For this foldable, your students will only apply glue behind the "Word Endings," "-ing Happening Now," and "-ed Already Happened" sections.  They will cut all of the other sections to create foldable flaps.

As you talk about inflectional endings (letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning), you can have kids generate their own ideas for base words where nothing happens when an ending is added as well as words that have the final consonant doubled before adding the ending. (I've expanded this foldable to include more ending rules and you can find it {here}.  I tell my kiddos that most CVC words will need to have that final consonant doubled.  They will find that the vowel has a short vowel sound, and yet we always find exceptions...like words ending in /x/ like box.

So underneath each flap, students can generate words that fit each section.

If you like the fonts I used, get them for FREE at Rowdy in Room 300.  I used Rowdy Writing and Rowdy Funky.  Love them!

I hope this is something you can use.  I'd love it if you could follow me.  Thank you!

Enjoy!

Money Match Game {Freebie}

It's a Manic Monday at Classroom Freebies which means you can grab a ton of freebies!!  Go on, head on over and see what you can scoop up.  But first, snag a quick and easy game that helps your kiddos practice counting money.  This game can be played individually, in pairs or trios.  The only materials you will need are contained in my free (as always) document.

Instructions for your students

This is a concentration/memory type of game, and I've designed it so that once your students think they have found all of their matches, they can self-check using the answer key.

This {Money Match Game} contains 24 total cards.  I've found that 12 matches is just the right amount of cards to work with for my kiddos.  More cards = too much time working in the station + higher chance of losing cards.

You will need to cut the answer keys apart, and I suggest laminating them for durability.  (There are 12 keys on a page, so you'll only need to print this page once.  And surely you'll have extra answer keys just in case any get "lost.")

Enjoy!

Prefix & Suffix Foldable {Freebie}

I'm not a fan of worksheets as you know, so when it comes to understanding and using prefixes and suffixes, a foldable came to mind.  I searched the web to see what was out there.  I found something here that had a prefix foldable and a separate suffix foldable.  Love it!!  Since my objective included both prefixes and suffixes, I decided to play around with the foldable idea and here's what I came up with...

We just cut the three prefix flaps and two suffix flaps and folded them back.  Little drops of glue were applied to the back of the sections that say, "Prefix," "Word Parts," and "Suffix."  My second graders loved assembling their word parts foldables.

After we had everything in place, we talked about the meaning of each prefix and wrote it on the back of each flap.  Then I encouraged my kiddos to generate examples of words containing each prefix which were written on their lined paper.  (Please excuse any spelling errors...we continue to work on that skill.)  :)

One of my teammates suggested that I modify the foldable to replace the "Word Parts" section with "Base Word."  Brilliant!  So I've included both ways in the freebie.

Finally, I have included two pages that have blank sections next to "Prefix" and "Suffix" so that you can have your kids write in the prefixes and suffixes they are practicing.

Click on any of the images above or grab your {free copy here.}

Enjoy!

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!