Queen of Questions

Ok...so I know Halloween has come and gone, but that doesn't mean I still can't dress up! Today, I became the Queen of Questions! I used a lot of what I added into my lesson from Mrs. Unger's Unbelievable Elementary Experiences. This is probably one of my most favorite lessons I have taught! It was so good, I wish my supervisor would've chosen today to come in and observe me!

Let me explain...

ELL's, just like other students, have difficulty with punctuation. I noticed that my students would place a period where a question mark should have gone. Or if I asked them to ask me a question they would actually tell me a statement. So, I decided to teach on the topic.

First, I started the lesson by making an anchor chart (surprised?). I went into detail explaining the two different types of questions: short-answer and long-answer questions. I explained that short-answer questions are simply answered with a yes or no, whereas a long-answered question requires more of an explanation. I also explained how each type of question starts. For example, a short-answer question can begin with do, does, will, was, etc. Sometimes, students just need concepts broken down and explained a little more. And I think this anchor chart helped do just that.

If you look at the top, you can see my crown and wand I used throughout the lesson. :) After I explained the types of questions, I put on my crown and wand and told them that I was now the Queen of Questions. They were only allowed to ask me questions from then on. Now, I wish I had taken a picture of my treasure chest, but I placed a laptop in it and had the students guess what was in it by asking me questions that would help them determine what it was. For example:
Is it red?
Can we play with it?
Where did you get it?
Is it small?

I gave each student a couple of post-its and on each one, they had to write a question mark. Every time they asked me their question, I wrote it on the board and they would "add" the punctuation by placing the post-it where it belonged. This helped them practice speaking correctly and adding punctuation + they were super engaged because they wanted to find out what was in the treasure chest.

As our last activity, they each had to write a question. Then they passed their sheets around and they would each answer each other's questions. This helped with reading and writing. As I went around, I noticed that some had forgotten to add their question marks! How could they forget when we JUST went over this?! I will never know. :) I threatened to turn them into frogs or books if they didn't fix that. :) They loved that. But I loved seeing them work together throughout the activity! Btw, I should mention that I did this with both 2nd and 3rd grade. I think both grades really enjoyed this lesson. I wish I had more pictures, but I was busy being the Queen! lol

Wild Words

For English language learners, the English language is just complicated! Words have letters that when put together make an entirely different sound or no sound at all. This makes spelling extremely difficult for students in ESL.

As a result, I try to work on sight words as much as possible. My students have such a hard time remembering that these are words that they cannot sound out. They always want to sound it out and then get stuck when they can't figure out what letters make a particular sound. They don't like sight words very much.

In order to make sight words a little more interesting, I've reintroduced them, not as sight words, but as "Wild Words." First, I read the story Animal Strike At The Zoo It's True by  Karma Wilson.

After reading it, I explained that just as some animals in the book didn't want to follow the rules, there are words that don't follow the rules either: sight words. So just as the animals went wild, these words are wild.

Then I went over the sight words we are going to work on this week. Afterwards, I had them spell out two sight words using foam letters. When completed, they had to put their words in a cage because they just won't follow the rules. :) (they had to glue the words on construction paper and then glue the cage on top of them). After placing their words in the cage, they grabbed a sentence strip and used each word in a sentence.

They loved putting their words in the cages. I like to think they enjoy writing sentences. :) Here is the final product:

Preposition Fun

Hi!! Just wanted to share an activity I had my second graders do today. They have been having a lot of difficulty with prepositions when writing, which is very common with ELL's. Since this year I am obsessed (yes, obsessed) with anchor charts, I created one that I found on Pinterest! I want to give credit where credit is due, but I could not find the original post, so if anyone knows whose fabulous anchor chart this belongs to, please, let me know! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE anchor charts because they are perfect for my kiddos. ELL's need billons a lot of visuals, and anchor charts are perfect!

My anticipatory set was giving each student several stickers. They were so excited and couldn't wait to find out what we were going to do! Who knew stickers would cause such curiosity? :) As I went over each preposition, I would pick a student to put their sticker where it belonged. I think it went really great because my kiddos were super engaged the entire time. With this lesson, I focused more on the types of prepositions that tell "where." Here is my version of the anchor chart I found online:

My sweet J.D. was placing her sticker on the anchor chart.

Here is the finished product (I did forget to add the word "prepositions," I think the stickers clouded my thinking :)

  

After we created our anchor chart, I had them sit down and write several sentences using different prepositions. When they finished, they had to underline the preposition that they used. They did so great with this! With every activity I have them do, I always try to add writing. 

Here are the finished products. (I only have 5 second graders in this group) One of them even graded her own work...hmmmm...teacher in the making? :) I think so!!!

Well, that was it! Let me know what you all think and what you would do differently!