Celebrating Valetine's Day Early at 3L + 1T

It is February 1st so...Valentine's Day is RIGHT around the corner.  Have you started to think about what you want to do in your own classroom? I'm sure there will  be yummy treats, cute little crafts, and maybe some cards exchanged.  Have you thought of some fun ways to include learning into the mix of it all?

Have no fear, Mrs. Valentine's Day to the rescue! Catchy, right?  I have created a few products that will allow your students to still have fun, think about the holiday, and learn as well!

The Perfect Match: Synonyms & Antonyms

I cannot wait to use this in my classroom! I think this activity will be great when working in small groups during stations/centers.  The product includes:

• 21 pairs of matching synonym cards
• 21 pairs of matching antonym cards
• 1 quick check assessment for synonyms
• 1 quick check assessment for antonyms
• 1 combined assessment to use a synonyms and antonyms in writing a story and identify the words they used

I can see myself using the cards during my Word Word Station where students can play matching games with partners like memory or a Go-Fish kind of activity.  I also think it would be great to get notecards, and students can write cloze sentences where their partner has to find the missing word to go into their sentence. Really make those kiddos think!

The assessments would also be great to use after a mini-lesson or when you feel your students are close to mastery.  The assessments include matching, defining, using in a sentence, and identifying.  The final assessment asks students to write a story of their choice.  They must use a certain amount of synonyms and anytonmys.  When finished, they must go back to underline and circle those words they used. I love assessments that allow students to be creative, but also apply the skills they learned.

Have no fear...this product isn't JUST for Valentine's Day.  Use this all year around, as the only thing Valentine's Day about this is the hearts and the title.

 Check it out...here!

 

Valentine's Day Letter Writing

I just reduced this price on this product! I created 2 templates---one a post-card and the other a letter for students to write friendly letters to teachers, friends, and/or family members.  This would be a great way to start your day off. Have students finish up before starting your day of lessons and during the celebration in the afternoon...take a 10-20 minute break to go and hand deliver the letters/post-cards. It will make someone's day! I love teaching students about the gift of giving. Check out my Christmas post here to see how I try to do this all year long! 

I would absolutely love to see these products in action, especially the post-cards and letter templates.  Feel free to comment below to share some of your student's work!  

Grab the product...here!

Valentine's Day Synonym Cloze Writing 

The last item for you to pick (also reduced in price) from is a Valentine's Day synonym cloze activity.  This one is great for a writing center, morning work, or an "early finisher" type activity.  Students are asked to read the letter and fill in words that would  make sense or use the word bank in the bottom part of the paper to help students.  The choice is up to you! Although there is a answer key included...but you can always ignore that! Make it even more challenging for your students and have them create their own letter using 10 "fancy" adjectives.  Have them impress their loved ones.

 

Get the product here 

What Makes a Good Friend? Opinion Writing Project

Start a Valentine's Day theme next week with your students right before the holiday.  I am really excited to complete this project with my class.  The project goes through each of the stages of the writing process. Students can start with a heart shaped graphic organizer so they can organize their thoughts. I focused a lot on the next stage which is explaining each one of those hearts in greater detail.  This is where I see my students struggle as they do not know what to say about these subtopics.  From there, there a page dedicated to each heart where students can organize their thoughts deeper so they can elaborate on the individual hearts.  

The next steps are to write the first draft, edit, and revise. Students are given the appropriate paper, and a small quick-check rubric so they can remember to check their own work. I normally incorporate another rubric into the mix---one that I make with students before starting the writing so they understand their expectations and objectives from the start.  

Students can finish the project by rewriting their paper on the final draft format and complete a picture in the decorative hearts as a final step in their publishing.  I also like this project because you can make it into packet format to complete together, in small group, or individually if you think your students are up for the challenge. 

Hope you enjoy this and more importantly...your students have fun with this!

Check it out!

Happy {Early} Valentine's Day! Don't forget to share the love by pinning, liking, and sharing my products on your social media sites!

Adding Literacy During the Holidays

Book Clubs

Winter Break is right around the corner which means students will start getting a little antsy as they are getting ready to be on an extended beak and well for the most of us around the States they are stuck inside because of cold and snowy weather outside. I really try to make the 3 weeks in December really engaging, although I want them to still have lots of academics before break as well.  Chances are many students won't read a single word over their 2-week break. Scary, Scary, Scary!

I LOVE book clubs, or many call them, literature circles. I enjoy these because they are highly engaging, group oriented, bring a lot of discussion amount equivalent readers, and all have the reading/writing connection.  I have created 4 different holiday book clubs for my third grade classroom. The book selection was based on the needs of my classroom, so these may not translate  to every third grade class around the world.

1. Judy B. Jones and the Yucky Blucky Fruitcake (GR: Level M)
2. Judy Moody & Stink, The Holly Joliday (GR: ~Level M)
3. Miss Holly is Too Jolly (GR: Level O)
4. Who is Stealing the 12 Days of Christmas? (GR: Level Q)

Each book contains a breakdown of what chapter(s) to read during a 7-day period, except for Who is Stealing the 12 Days of Christmas? as this was my highest reading group and I was able to work with them a little differently since the book was at a higher level.  The group was independent enough to work on their own and together to complete the task.

Each group met with the teacher 2-3 times during their 7-day book club project.  I know 7 days does not match up with a normal school week, so it was technically a two week project (10 days).  Seven days they were reading, 1-2 days to catch up if we were behind, and/or 1-2 days to complete the final project.

The final projects were group oriented and we spent 1.5 Literacy Blocks completed them.  Because I wanted everyone to learn about the books other groups read, we created large movie posters (No pictures...bummer, I know!) to try to entice classmates to read this book over break.  Each student had a job (writer, artist, leader, supply manager, time manager, question master, presenter).  I hope to have a blog post soon on how these group activities work in my classroom.

After they completed their movie poster, they presented to the class what the book was about (without giving too much away).  It was a great informal assessment as you could truly tell which group members understood the book well and could answer the questions their classmates asked with confidence.  I added this as a grade as well.

A little more about the books/questions:

 Judy B. Jones group is asked to complete summaries of each chapter they complete using Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then and then completed a final summary in paragraph form of the book. Judy Moody's group is asked to complete a variety of questions about the text. They are comparing/contrasting, describing, identifying, and summarizing.

 Miss. Holly is Too Jolly asks group members to complete a variety of questions including grammar based, comparing, identifying, giving details, and summarizing.  Who is Stealing the 12 Days of Christmas? is all summaries of the chapter(s) read in paragraph form.

*Each group has the "Rate this Book" at the end of

Adjective Passage

If you are not looking to create a huge project around the holidays, as there is too many assessments, projects, papers, etc. due I also love included reading into grammar skills. No matter the grammar subject, my students are always reading and identifying it in text.  I think students retain the information more when they practice in text rather than the skill in isolation.

I have created a passage that has LOADS of adjectives in it.  Students are asked to read the passage and find the adjectives within it.  Where does the holiday part come in you may ask? Well, the passage is about a snow day! Many of us can already relate to a snowy filled day already this year!

Students will circle all the adjective they find in the text, but then they are also asked to draw a line to the noun it is describing, as that is just as important as the adjective itself.

Get this product...here!