Wisdom Wednesday- Varied Word Choices

This is an activity I did with a 3rd grade class. We needed to work on this standard:

EL.3.5.4 2006

Use varied word choices to make writing interesting. 

So this is a little activity that you can modify to suit your needs. 

Materials needed:

Emergent Reader Books

Paper

Pencil

Thesaurus (if choosing words is difficult)

What to do:

Most emergent reader books have very few words and repeat the same words. This is great when learning to read, but as readers (and writers) progress using the same words can be stifling. Read one of the books to the children. Ask them to pick out the words that are said multiple times. Give each child a book to "rewrite" with better word choices. The children can choose a different word for each word in the book, or focus on changing the words that are repeated. 

A Thesaurus can help this lesson, if children seem unable to think of synonyms on their own. Though if they use a thesaurus, make sure that the word they choose fits the sentence. You may need to demonstrate some examples of words that fit and words that do not fit, even if they are synonyms. This goes back to using words in context (another standard this group is struggling with). So by using the thesaurus with this activity you can reach multiple learning standards.

Have fun! The stories they create are fun to read and as a child completes one book, they can rewrite and illustrate it or move onto another book. 

Teachers Pay Teachers

Kind of jumping into the "Teacher" aspect of this blog. Though this could really help anyone with kids!

I'm used to creating my own lessons. I've had to do it all through school and even while student teaching I had to create a unit, including the pretest, progress monitoring, and post test. When I started my new job (that focuses on standards-based lessons), I thought it would be more of the same.

Only, it got to be really difficult to not only plan every single lesson on my own, but to create them as well. That was until I discovered Teachers Pay Teachers.

This site is so wonderful because not only can I search for lessons based on the standards I want to teach, so many of the lessons are FREE. Even if the lessons are not free, I know that I'm not only saving time by finding the lessons that have already worked for other classrooms- I'm also supporting my fellow educators while doing so.

I would love to add my own lessons to the site one day, but until then I will continue to use this site as a resource :)

*Disclaimer: This review is completely my own. I have no affiliation with Teachers Pay Teachers and was in no way compensated for this post.

Teacher Mama- Camping Scavenger Hunt

We had the opportunity to go camping as a family this weekend and had so much fun. It was a necessary break from the "real" world and a wonderful chance to spend a lot of time together. Even though I missed my shower, we had a show-down with a raccoon, and I found out that Benadryl makes me loopy. Memories!



Camping can be pretty pricey, though it was a lot cheaper than our trip to Chicago over spring break. Renting the campsite was way less than a hotel stay, but we found that our tent was broken AFTER renting it so we had to replace that. Most of our camping gear has been accumulated over time, so after the initial investment, campsite rental, and firewood- camping can be inexpensive.

Even though it is the end of the school year, I felt bad that the kids were going to miss a day of school (even though all tests and grades are already in). I wanted them to do things that were educational as well as fun. So in addition to roughing it, I planned activities for them to do.

One of them was a Scavenger Hunt



I created it with my daughter in mind. She has been struggling with vocabulary, riddles, and reading comprehension. It's like she has a photographic memory, but struggles with communicating what's in her head. Her teachers suggested making a picture dictionary and working to broaden her knowledge of the world around her. Since she goes to many museums, zoos, parks, cities, states, etc I don't think she has limited exposure to the world, she just needs help with expressing it and putting words to the pictures in her head.

SO long story short, this scavenger hunt was made so that the kids could solve the riddles, draw a picture of the item, then color it when they find it. I linked it above in case any of you have a camping trip or want an idea of something to do.

This was really a great "downtime" activity to do when it was hot and the kids were starting to get bored. I plan to make more this summer. 

Summer Learning

I notice that the "teacher" aspect of this blog is severely lacking. I have been trying to find time to work on my portfolio and create lesson plans to share, but obviously not trying hard enough. This should change this summer. I will start courses in August and plan to work with my kids over the summer.

My daughter is struggling with reading, so part of my plan for summer is to come up with activities that help her work through it. She is able to read, but reading comprehension is another skill and that is where she struggles. She's a very concrete girl, when it comes to learning. If you can show her something physically, she is able to do it, but something more abstract (like remembering a part of a story) is harder. This explains why her math grade is stellar but reading is keeping her off the honor roll.

My son will be starting Kindergarten this fall, and though we are all excited about this I believe that he needs a little more practice in order to adapt to the classroom. It also helps to have lesson plans for him while I’m working with his sister. We started an Alphabet book last year, and I am going to create a new one this year. I will put the book together next week and will share it then.

If I don't make goals, I won't reach them. I also have high hopes in May that tend to get shelved by the end of June. I don’t want this year to be the same. I know that my kids need some form of structure during the summer, so I am working on it now.

Summer Goals:

Create an Alphabet book

Participate in at least 2 Summer Reading programs

Create a story-telling board

Keep a Summer Vacation journal

I may add to this list, but will stop there. My lists tend to get long because there is so much I want to do, but then that makes it seem impossible. As I cross things off, I’ll add more. If you haven’t started planning for the summer, you may want to look into some programs. It is said that kids can lose up to a whole MONTH of learning over summer break.

Wax Resist Paintings - Ocean Theme

To say my kids love to paint is an understatement. I think they’d paint all day, every day. So I knew this project would be a big hit with them. It can go along with an Ocean theme, but isn’t limited to that. I just like to use themes because they are really fun to plan.

Wax Resist Paintings

You’ll need:

Crayons (this is a great use of old ones since you need to color firmly)

White Paper (something sturdy is best, so construction paper or card stock)

Blue watercolor paint (I used blue food coloring in water)

Paint brushes (bigger sponge brushes would have been better)

Something to entertain the baby (okay that’s just me ;) )

First, you color an ocean scene. You can use this time to talk about the fish in the ocean, coral reefs, and more. My daughter also drew a submarine, so the picture isn’t limited to fish. Sunken ships, scuba divers, and even Mermaids would be a fun addition. Make sure to color really firmly on the paper. The more wax from the crayons on the paper, the better the picture will pop after painting. 

Then, you cover the entire painting with a coat of blue watercolor. The crayon will resist the paint, so even though your ocean is completely blue, your picture will show through. If there are places that are not fully colored, the paint will seep into them. 

I like this type of painting because it is less messy than most- or so I thought. I would really try to use watercolors if you have them, because at the very end of painting my son bumped his container over and made a mess. Thankfully it came right out, but I had a moment of panic. 

I remembered that we had an Ocean scenes puzzle book so while I cleaned up the mess, the kids put together the different puzzles in the book. 

Even in classrooms I like to use small groups and this project would be perfect for one. If the teacher was using an Ocean theme, it would be easy to set up different stations to visit (like the puzzles) and be able to monitor the class rather than have a large group of students painting at once. This also allows each child to work at their own pace, so that those who are finished quickly are not bored and those who want to take their time are not rushed. 

The Factor Tree

When you start to try different products at home to give reviews and spread the word about them, it can be either feast or famine! There can be a lot of wait time to get something to try, then you're trying multiple products at once and trying to keep up with telling others about it and reporting back to the companies.

This is one of my busiest times! Not only have I been able to review Tom's of Maine Wicked Fresh toothpaste, and a Just Dance 2 Houseparty, but now I get to have my kids try out The Factor Tree.



When I heard about The Factor Tree, I was excited to try it out! I am both a student learning to become a teacher, and a mother of young children who are in school. Anything that could help them learn math is an asset! They also love to use the computer so I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity for them to learn and for me to be able to track their progress.

Overall, I was disappointed. Though I have clicked around the website, I have not seen anything that would help entice children in. The set up seems to be in test format where students are able to take "real" tests and "practice" tests and the scores are given emailed to parents. Though I do think that the way the scores are tracked could be helpful, since they are listed based on the concepts being tested, I do not think this format will help my children learn.

It is not interesting to them. Though they get to be on the computer, just typing in what time is displayed or filling in the blanks of math problems is boring and by question 20 they are more than "over" the whole experience.

I think the concept is wonderful and think that with some improvements it could be something that would be wonderful for both parents and educators to use when working with children, but as it is I do not think it is something I will continue to use past the free trial.

Would you like to try it and see how you feel? Use "BZZAGENT" for a 2-week trial at thefactortree.com and let me know what you think!

The Last day of Kindergarten

Today is my daughter's last day of Kindergarten. I feel like this is more difficult than her first day. For some reason First Grade just seems so much bigger than Kindergarten, like once she steps foot into that classroom time will just fast forward. She is excited though, just like her first day.

She has grown and learned so much in just a year. Her teacher even notes that she is ready for first grade on her report card. I plan to work with her this summer so that she doesn't regress and so that she is still able to jump right in to first grade and not feel overwhelmed.

One of the first things she'll be doing this summer is writing in a journal. I have a plan spiral notebook and I plan to have her write a few times a week. She may have topics to write about or just talk about what she did that day. I think it will help with sentence structure and getting used to writing a lot, rather than tracing or having to mimic what the teacher writes.



We also have a word wall that has many of the common sight words to for her to work on. The ones that go on the wall are the ones she knows. I am also using a sight word list to help expand the list of the ones she knows. In addition to sight words, I want to help her learn more vowel digraphs and consonant blends rather than have her continue to sound out each letter separately. With all the Reading Clubs and activities happening at our local Library, we will be reading a lot together and working on reading comprehension as well as reading on her own.

I am still trying to determine how we will approach math this summer. The only thing her teacher says she needs to work on more is the concept of "one more" and "one less" so I know we will be working more with that.

She has done so well this year in both adjusting to a new school and in learning so much. I bet that on Monday morning she will ask why she can't go to school.

Ready for PreK

My 3 year old just graduated from the 3-4 class at his preschool today. They had an awards ceremony and it was really bittersweet to watch him stand up there and receive awards. He got certificates for counting (he can up to 12), knowing shapes (triangle, star, square, circle, diamond, heart, rectangle, oval), and knowing colors (red, yellow, blue, green, purple, pink, orange, black, brown, and white). I am so proud of him for working so hard this year.

I was also able to see from the ceremony what areas he could work on (since they don't do report cards). He was not able to identify all uppercase letters, say every letter, or identify numbers visually, so I plan to work on those areas this summer when I work with both my children.

Some ideas I have are an Alphabet Book (inspired by the creative letters that are on No Time for Flashcards). I plan to do each letter at least once and put them together in a binder to review. I may use some of the lessons shown there but also may adapt them to what we're doing on a given week. I can do the same for numbers. I also plan to have other alphabet related activities like spotting different letters when we are out an about, finding things that begin with certain letters, and more. It wasn't until today that I was able to see where he could use extra work, so I haven't planned a lot for him yet.

I'm just so proud of him and all he's done this year. I love that he loves school and I hope that stays the same for years to come.