Saturday, June 15, 2013

Happy Summer everyone!  We've been on summer break for about a week and a half now, but the weather sure hasn't seemed like summer.  It's been very chilly and rainy here in Illinois.  This is probably a good thing because we weren't tempted to put off our work to be outside "playing." :)

We have been working on our latest TpT lesson plans to go with the folktale, Tops and Bottoms adapted by Janet Stevens.

This lesson plan is turning out to be enormous, so we are not finished with it just yet, but I'm uploading some images of the cover sheet, the list of target goals, and the first lesson plan, so you can get an idea of what we are doing.

Listed are some of the 3rd grade Common Core State Standards(CCSS), but this plan covers 2nd grade CCSS, too.  Also listed are the target skills this bundle of lesson plans will cover.

This is the beginning page of the first lesson plan activities.

Kim has been tutoring two students this summer.  She began the day after school let out.  One student is working on reading and the other student is working on math enrichment activities.  Two computer activities the kids seemed to enjoy were Wixie and ShowMe, which is an iPad app.  

In reading, Kim and her student are reading the fantasy fiction book called Nerds by Michael Buckley.  She and her student are really intrigued by the plot.  They both created a Wixie card sharing their thoughts about the characters and the first few chapters of the book.

This program is fun because students can draw, import pictures, record their voices or other sounds, use templates the program provides, and much more.

We are also working on vocabulary development with this book.  It has exceptional vocabulary words, so she chose a few words she thought the student may not know such as ostracize, sarcophagus, preeminent, and flabbergasted.  We played Hang Mouse and Read-A-Word on Spelling City.  Then, we made a four-square vocabulary card with one of the words.

Box 1: vocabulary word; Box 2: definition from dictionary; Box 3: picture of word; Box 4: synonym

The four-square vocabulary strategy is very effective in helping students internalize new words and their meanings.  We will be doing more of these throughout the summer that she will share.  Sometimes the forth box will have the antonym of the word rather than the synonym.  

Another way to use Wixie is with math.  Kim's math student created a multiplication array card.

ShowMe is a free app that you can upload to your iPad.  It is an effective and engaging way to have your students demonstrate their understanding of a concept.  Below are two ShowMe projects.  Kim did one and her student did the other one.






We cannot wait to share more of our lesson plans and summer tutoring activities with you next week.  Until then...

Kim and Anne