Alien Tour: Show Me Your Landforms

3 landform projects given to kids by Vladimir the Extraterrestrial! Vladimir sends the kids 3 postcards from Saturn via a space capsule (tupperware). He wants to know a little more about Earth's natural landscape. - No, he does not want to take over our planet! - In one postcard, the alien shows the kids his planet (an alien world with a familiar landform). 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17cLQgrcKLVTEuJrJAukLpfD5lPMquRIA/view?usp=sharing

Rock Band Storypath

Storypath units promote children as active participants in their own learning. Students learn about topics through cross-curricular connections woven into an imaginative real-world scenario. They role-play and make critical decisions independently and collaboratively. Invite your students on a rock band adventure! This unit integrates Common Core standards with project-based learning. Students discover that what they learn in school is valuable, even for a rock star!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fV41KsbdGUCe3K0GlvNYHIpLTfQyo9Er/view?usp=sharing

Entomology: Cross-Curricular Learning

Kids have fun investigating insects in their natural habitat!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VSK6HrKelgtudsf66-B3jeZ8On5L4Ywh/view?usp=sharing

Includes:
1. Letters and photos from Entomologist Greg prompting kids to do different experimentations.
2. 3 Insect Investigation Worksheets: identifying, describing, comparing and contrasting
3. Insect Trading Card Project: measurement and data collection
4. 4 Insect Posters: insect characteristics, non-insect characteristics, mouth parts and compound eyes
5. Insect Fraction and Graphing: oversized images of insects are hung up around the classroom and kids have to circle whether the specimens are insects or not. Then they make a graph of their findings and record fractions.
6. Ant Restaurant Experiment and Recording Sheet: kids have a menu and add their own items to a paper plate for experimentation. Then they graph the results of the experiment (as a class).
7. Label Ant Worksheet
8. Metamorphosis Monarch Sequencing Cards and Worksheet
9. Create Your Own Ladybug Sequencing Cards and Ladybug Lifecycle Worksheet
10. Lifecycle Comic Strip Tech Project
11. Incomplete Metamorphosis Worksheet: Grasshopper and Dragonfly
12. Butterfly Feeder Instructions: kids make daily recordings of the feeder
13. Letter from Greg prompting kids to research an insect from a different biome

5 Olympic Activities

Check out my post at We Are Teachers: 5 Olympic Activities that Integrate Core Subjects!

5 Quick Ways to Assess Writing

Check out my post at We Are Teachers: Easy and quick ways for grading students' writing and addressing common errors! Click here for a free extended response kid-friendly rubric! (pictured below)

10 Grammar Mistakes and How to Fix Them!

Visit We Are Teachers to check out my post for Zaner Bloser: 10 Grammar Mistakes that Drive Teachers Crazy and How to Fix Them!

Word Choice!

Help students expand their vocabulary and make their writing more descriptive by switching up their words! 

Introduction video: WORD CHOICE!

Next, pull out 2 identical postcards (pictured above). Read and project them onto the white board. Students compare and contrast the letters. Call students up to circle the words that are similar with different shades of meaning (synonyms). Ask students which letter was more successful, why? 

Then, play a whole group game: Hello My Name Is. Give each student a name tag with a word on it. They must go around the room and identify their match: a synonym for their word. Afterwards, have the students try to find an antonym for their word. 

Project: Younger students can create a Synonym City to display in the classroom! Click here for details. Older students can rewrite a song independently or in a group. Check out this activity here!

The Bones of a Good Essay

Check out my post at We Are Teachers: Teach students about how to write a good essay - free task cards (visual / tactile learning) and body motions to teach essay organization skills (kinesthetic).

Plus, there is a free poster created by We Are Teachers and Zaner Bloser.

5 Peer Revision Strategies

Visit We Are Teachers to see my post sponsored by Zaner Bloser: 5 Peer Revision Strategies That Actually Work! Click here for the writing wheel checklist featured above!

Big, Bigger, Biggest Sentence!

This whole group activity helps students learn about sentence stretching from their peers. They work as a group and learn by watching their classmates. First, split students up into groups of three. Each group comes up to the front of the classroom. The first student makes up a simple sentence. The next person adds more detail. The third person adds even more detail. The group stays up there until each group member has had a chance to create a simple sentence (be the first person to start the sentence round). To add some competition, you could give kids so much time to create their sentence. They get a point if each team member can think quick enough - sentence makes the cut before time runs out!

11 Quotes to Kickstart Your Lessons

Visit We Are Teachers to view my post sponsored by Zaner Bloser: 11 Quotes About Writing to Kickstart Your Lessons!

Bubble Gum Exploration

Cross-curricular learning with bubble gum:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MNYQ30GsdJD1oSyImNqL73bFqz-HYGfS/view?usp=sharing

Math:
Graphing - Who can blow a bubble?
3D Solids - Comparing gum shapes
Measuring - Pre-chewed vs. chewed (stretched) vs. blowed bubble on wax paper
Mean, Median, Mode and Range (optional) - Using data for measuring
Area/Perimeter - Gum wrapper design (and real gum wrappers - optional)

Science:
States of Matter - Investigating the process of bubble blowing / physical changes of gum chewed and placed in ice water

English Language Arts:
Writing - How-to blow a bubble / Recipe for new flavor / Math word problem

Social Studies:
Economics - Cost of their gum
History - Inventor Research

Design:
Logo & Packaging - Design for their new flavor of gum

Stacked: Learning with Styrofoam Cups

Check out my post at We Are Teachers: Ways to teach English Language Arts (featured above), Math, Social Studies, and Science using styrofoam cups!

Pass The Plate Poetry

Students are split up into teams. Each team is given a plastic plate with a topic written on it and a dry erase marker. The team must brainstorm quickly and take turns jotting down words that relate to the topic. Once time is up, they collaborate and create a poem using the words on their plate and their topic as the title. The plates can be rinsed off and used again.

Inkle

Inkle is a fun digital storytelling tool for kids. Students can collaborate and create a Choose Your Own Adventure story! Each child adds a paragraph to the story and at least two options for readers to choose from. They insert images by adding the link to an image they like online. This web 2.0 tool is free and the children's work can be saved and shared.

Corners: Punctuation & Sentences

This fun game comes from Color Me Kinder! Children run to one of the corners of the classroom that have punctuation marks or sentence types posted near them. Then, the teacher reads a sentence. Anyone that is in the corner of the punctuation mark that the sentence needs sits down. For older students you can work on types of sentences. Students choose a corner. If they are in the corner that matches the sentence, they sit down. The game continues until everyone is sitting down. The winner of this game is completely by chance. Punctuation and sentence types are reinforced throughout the game.

Warhol Arrays

Students collaborate and create giant array of soup can art! Give each student one soup can template. They come up with a unique flavor, color it, and cut it out. Next, working in small groups, students create 3 different arrays using their soup cans (each student contributes his artwork - 1 can of soup). They write down their multiplication equations and solutions for each array they created.

Then, as a class, students create a giant display of all of their soup cans and figure out the multiplication equation and solution to their collaborative array artwork!

To integrate writing, students write a persuasive letter to The Campbell Soup Company stating why their soup should be added to Campbell's soup line. Click here for a free printable to help kids outline their persuasive letter!

Action Verbs

Objective: Students will silently act out action verbs and try to guess what verbs their peers act out.

Objective: Wearing special verb investigator glasses, children will observe their peers playing, spy an action that represents a verb, write it, and draw a picture of it. 
Objective: Students will publish their writing using Little Bird Tales with guidance from an adult.

Acting Out Action Verbs (whole group)
One at a time, each child goes up to the front of the classroom and draws a card from a paper lunch bag. Next, the child acts out the verb on the card without saying a word. They can only move their body. The rest of the children try to guess what he or she is acting out. (list of verbs)

Verb Investigators (small group)
For small group instruction, children are called over to the work table to become Verb Investigators! They put on special glasses (crazy sunglasses that have the lenses popped out of them) that will help them observe verbs in action around the classroom. Wearing their glasses, they look around the room and observe their peers playing at each center. Once they spy an action verb, they write a sentence, "I spy _____." Then, they draw a picture of the verb.

Digital Publishing
Children collaborate and create a video story using Little Bird Tales with the teacher's guidance to publish their writing to share with their families. Here is a link to the tale we created on action verbs.

Reinforcement

Verbs in Space game on the SMART Board: (http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/grammar/verbs.htm)

Differentiated Assessment - This activity can be differentiated based on each child’s developmental level. Higher-level thinkers can act out more complex verbs. Children with difficulty can be given a simple verb to act out. During the small group activity, the students are challenged to find a verb. They must use their problem solving skills. Advanced children might find a verb that is not extremely noticeable. While other children could point out a verb that is obvious. Teachers can use scaffolding to help them find a verb in the classroom if needed. For example, “What is Joe doing in the games and puzzle area?”

After the lesson, students assess themselves using a rating scale: GREEN = I got it!, YELLOW = I'm getting it!, RED = I need some help! (printable) Click here for a teacher checklist assessment.

Text-to-Self Connection

T-Chart – Lola / Class (create after reading first few pages)

On the side that says Lola, write down all the food she does not like. Then, write down the food the students don't like on the other side. Continue reading the story. End of story: What happened after Charlie gave all the food Lola did not like fancy names? Next, go through the list of foods you made on the t-chart. Put a check mark by the names of children that never tasted the food they “do not like.”

Kids Compare

Lola didn’t want to taste _______. I don’t want to taste _______.

- Or – 

(children who tasted what they don’t like)

Is there a food you didn’t think you would like and you tasted it and loved it?!

Lola ended up loving _______. I didn’t think I would like _______, now I do!

Fancy Food Names

Come up with a fancy name for the food you do not like, just like Charlie did for Lola. Then, draw a picture that goes along with the new name you give the food you dislike. (ex: page of orange twiglets from Jupiter, cloud fluff, and ocean nibbles)

Text to Self Connection: Good readers think about how books relate to their own life. By comparing ourselves to Lola, we are able to understand the story better. Now that you have created cool names for the food you do not like, do you think you will taste it?

Extended Learning: Think-Pair-Share - Using a Venn diagram, compare foods that you like and dislike with a peer.

Click here for printables to go along with this mini lesson. 

Venn Creature

Kids mash two creatures together to create a new animal! After they create (draw or photoshop) their creature, have them name it and describe its special characteristics. Where does the creature live? Have kids describe its habitat. What does it eat? What eats it?! How is it adapted to its environment? 

You could also have kids construct their creature using model magic, once they finalize their sketch on their Venn diagram.

If kids need a little inspiration, have them check out Build Your Wild Self (click here for an example)!