These are some of the fun ways we will be learning more difficult things in our class this year. The examples shown below include interactive bulletin boards and classroom displays focusing on some of our learning targets. Each of these activities offer formative assessment options for us to monitor our progress, follow the classroom targets, and are adaptable to all learning levels.
I Spy a Sign
We're learning to identify many of the signs that we see around us every day and the safety rules that those signs represent. Some students will be creating their own 'Safety Signs I Spy' books that they can keep in the car and check off when they find one of these signs from our classroom display.
While creating our books we are also learning about text features. Text features can be found in textbooks, magazine articles, newspapers, reports, Web pages, and other forms of nonfiction text. Text features provide information that may not be written in the text. Authors include these text features to help readers understand more about what they are reading.
While creating our books we are also learning about text features. Text features can be found in textbooks, magazine articles, newspapers, reports, Web pages, and other forms of nonfiction text. Text features provide information that may not be written in the text. Authors include these text features to help readers understand more about what they are reading.
Compound Words
Check out these 'spooky' Halloween words we learned: flashlight, kneecap, nightmare, nightfall, jawbone, cupcakes, popcorn, bogeyman, eyeballs, eyepatch, hayride, pitchfork, superhero, cobweb, warlock, witchcraft, broomstick, tombstone, moonlight, scarecrow, werewolf, spiderweb, graveyard, nighttime
Contractions
The most common contractions involve
verbs in five situations:
verbs in five situations:
- verbs with ‘not’ such as: aren’t, don’t, isn’t wasn’t, can’t weren’t, wouldn’t, doesn’t, hasn’t, couldn’t
- pronouns with ‘will’ such as: I’ll, you’ll, he’ll, she’ll, they’ll
- pronouns and nouns with the verb ‘to be’ such as: I’m, you’re, who’s, he’s, she’s, it’s, we’re, they’re
- pronouns with the verb ‘to have’ such as: I’ve, he’s, you’ve, we’ve, they’ve
- pronouns with ‘would’ or ‘had’ such as: I’d, he’d, she’d, you’d, we’d, they’d
Let's learn about our classmates
The flags from the native countries of our students.
Classroom Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger Hunt
The first week of our program the students in our ELL program participated in a fun Scavenger Hunt to help us locate many useful items in our room and learn the English names of things we will be using every day.
Homophones
Homophones
Homophones are words that are pronounced the same but have different spellings and different meanings.
Word Bank
Doe dough
Hoarse horse
mussel muscle
flee flea
Yoo hoo you ewe
Hare hair
knit nit
bare bear
Aunt Ant
foul fowl
Dear Deer
whale wail
Word Bank
Doe dough
Hoarse horse
mussel muscle
flee flea
Yoo hoo you ewe
Hare hair
knit nit
bare bear
Aunt Ant
foul fowl
Dear Deer
whale wail
Story Sequence
The Preposition Express
Prepositions
Prepositions, or position words, can be difficult to understand. Here is some information about prepositions and a game we played to help us learn more about these small, but important words.
There are about 150 prepositions in the English language. This is a very small number of words in comparison to the thousands of other words that must be learned.
Prepositions are important words. We use individual prepositions more frequently than other individual words. In fact, the prepositions of, to, and in are among the ten most frequently used words in the English language.
You may read or hear that teachers strive to 'differentiate' their lessons. What does that mean? Using this preposition lesson I am able to differentiate for any level of English language learners.
For students who are still learning how to listen to the language, we use single descriptive words to learn the positions and colors of the robots. If the students are young there are many hide and seek games that can be used to make this fun. If the student is more advanced and can understand the language, spoken sentences can be used so they can show understanding: "Point to the pink robot who is behind the pink train car."
For students who are learning how to speak the language I challenge the student to choose a robot by number and tell me where to find it.
For students who are learning how to read the language I use the questions below in the 'Which robot is which' section... asking them to read each question and answer where to find each robot by writing its number.
For students who are learning how to write the language we work on writing complete sentences that describe where each robot is located.
Which robot is which?
Which robot is aboard the green train car? Which robot is above the blue train car? Which robot is against the train station? Which robot is behind the pink train car? Which robot is beneath the purple train car? Which robot is beside the train crossing gate? Which robot is between the yellow and blue cars? Which robot is by the blue and green train cars? Which robot is following the blue train car? Which robot is in front of the purple train car? Which robot is inside a brown box? Which robot is near the railroad crossing sign? Which robot is on the train station? Which robot is underneath the pink train car? Which robot is upon the yellow train car? Which robot is with the train conductors?
There are about 150 prepositions in the English language. This is a very small number of words in comparison to the thousands of other words that must be learned.
Prepositions are important words. We use individual prepositions more frequently than other individual words. In fact, the prepositions of, to, and in are among the ten most frequently used words in the English language.
You may read or hear that teachers strive to 'differentiate' their lessons. What does that mean? Using this preposition lesson I am able to differentiate for any level of English language learners.
For students who are still learning how to listen to the language, we use single descriptive words to learn the positions and colors of the robots. If the students are young there are many hide and seek games that can be used to make this fun. If the student is more advanced and can understand the language, spoken sentences can be used so they can show understanding: "Point to the pink robot who is behind the pink train car."
For students who are learning how to speak the language I challenge the student to choose a robot by number and tell me where to find it.
For students who are learning how to read the language I use the questions below in the 'Which robot is which' section... asking them to read each question and answer where to find each robot by writing its number.
For students who are learning how to write the language we work on writing complete sentences that describe where each robot is located.
Which robot is which?
Which robot is aboard the green train car? Which robot is above the blue train car? Which robot is against the train station? Which robot is behind the pink train car? Which robot is beneath the purple train car? Which robot is beside the train crossing gate? Which robot is between the yellow and blue cars? Which robot is by the blue and green train cars? Which robot is following the blue train car? Which robot is in front of the purple train car? Which robot is inside a brown box? Which robot is near the railroad crossing sign? Which robot is on the train station? Which robot is underneath the pink train car? Which robot is upon the yellow train car? Which robot is with the train conductors?
For English Language Learners this interactive assessment activity also helps them practice their colors and build their background knowledge learning about train related vocabulary: train, engine, caboose, track, train crossing sign, train crossing gate, train station, conductor, etc. We also view a fun video clip that you can see by clicking this link:
Grammar Preposition Rock
Grammar Preposition Rock
A Study of Pairs
pairs
Pairs Practice: We sure had fun with activities around this theme. We used many pieces of 'realia', which are real objects that help us to learn. We went on pair hunts. We read books about many different things that come in pairs. We also discovered many new vocabulary words that we didn't know before because of our discussions about them coming in pairs.
Alternate forms of communication
How we learn about holidays
Here are three ways we learned more about a custom celebrated in the United States, and a few other parts of the world. Below you can see our Valentine History Board that details the history of Valentine's Day and poses trivia questions to check for understanding. You can see our Valentine Riddles Board that helps us to understand humor and word play. You can see a decorative valentine that shows the correct way to say "I Love You" in many different languages.
Idioms
Idioms
Idioms are one of our language's more difficult challenges. We used an idiom match-up game to learn more about these funny little creatures. The idioms chosen for this activity all have a 'bird' theme.
As the crow flies · In a straight line
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush · Don’t lose what you have by trying to get even more
Birds of a feather flock together · Similar people stick together
Chicken feed · Small amount of money
Clip your wings · To take away someone’s power or freedom to do something
Quit cold turkey · The sudden stopping of any habit
My goose is cooked · I’m in trouble
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch · Don’t plan on having something until you actually get it
The early bird catches the worm · Start before others do for the best chance of success
Feather in your cap · An achievement
Feather your nest · To add to your wealth and comfort
For the birds · It’s no good
Kill two birds with one stone · To get two things done with one action
No spring chicken · Not young anymore
Don’t put all your eggs into one basket · Spread your risk out to more than one place
Sitting duck · Easy target
Take someone under your wing · Shelter and guide someone
Walking on eggs · Taking care not to offend someone
Wild goose chase · A search for something that can’t be found
As the crow flies · In a straight line
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush · Don’t lose what you have by trying to get even more
Birds of a feather flock together · Similar people stick together
Chicken feed · Small amount of money
Clip your wings · To take away someone’s power or freedom to do something
Quit cold turkey · The sudden stopping of any habit
My goose is cooked · I’m in trouble
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch · Don’t plan on having something until you actually get it
The early bird catches the worm · Start before others do for the best chance of success
Feather in your cap · An achievement
Feather your nest · To add to your wealth and comfort
For the birds · It’s no good
Kill two birds with one stone · To get two things done with one action
No spring chicken · Not young anymore
Don’t put all your eggs into one basket · Spread your risk out to more than one place
Sitting duck · Easy target
Take someone under your wing · Shelter and guide someone
Walking on eggs · Taking care not to offend someone
Wild goose chase · A search for something that can’t be found
Want to have fun and challenge yourself at the same time? Click on the link to play a multi-leveled game of idioms: Paint By Idioms Game
Our study of the season of spring
Spring
In order to learn more about this season, students gathered information from a number of sources. We began by reading factual books related to the season. As we read we recorded a list of words that had something to do with spring in some way. After a few books we easily had almost a hundred different words. We viewed a video clip using www.brainpop.com for informational facts about spring. This picture shows the word bank the students created.
Spring Continued
Spring
Our first grade students brainstormed a list of statements related to things we would like to write about spring. The statements we came up with are:
- The first day of spring is...
- In the spring the weather is...
- Some spring plants and flowers I can see growing are...
- My favorite spring flower is...
- I can recognize Arbor Day and Earth Day in the spring by...
- My favorite springtime activity is...
Spring Word Work
Our second and third grade students decided to research 3 categories related to spring: weather, activities, and plants/animals. Next we brainstormed to create lists of words in each of those categories. We took those lists and changed them into Word Art using the online tool www.tagxedo.com. See the cutout shapes above featuring our word art. Finally, we selected our favorite spring topic and wrote an opinion piece using our research and our word banks.
Tell me more about why these are successful learning tools...
There are many reasons I choose interactive bulletin boards and displays as a learning method in my classroom. When selecting and designing a new display I keep the following criteria in mind:
- will this display provide English learners with practice and application of key content and language concepts
- will this display promote students' interactions with each other and with the teacher
- will this display provide opportunities for students to use English while listening, speaking, reading, and writing
- can this display be implemented with ease and be adaptable to multiple learning levels
- will this display provide information for assessing the student for our content or language objective