St. Patrick's Day Craftivity

Next week is state testing for my 3rd-5th graders.  It's a week of wonky schedules, proctoring, and pulling the kids I can when I can.  So I need an activity that is relatively easy to throw together, quick, and meaningful. Additionally, my Olympics themed bulletin board has run its course.  The social worker and I usually care for this bulletin board together, since it is outside of her office.  We have another one down the hallway that I put Mia McDonald's Idiom of the Week up.  

Say goodbye to the Olympics!

It has been a brutal winter here, so I want to start thinking Spring!  As always, thank goodness for Pinterest.  I found this cute free craftivity from The Teacher Wife.

Photo Credit to The Teacher Wife

With my 3rd grade and up groups, we could get the activity done in 20 minutes.  My K-2 kids need closer to 30 for the cutting and writing parts.  But it's a great activity to model sentences with, talk about feelings, follow directions, and really brighten someone's day.  I sent this picture to one of the teachers in my building when her 1st grader came up with this response:

Photo taken by my student. Can you see his sleeve in the corner?

If you are looking for a quick craftivity that you can use with a wide variety of students, I would strongly suggest this one.

May your day be touched
by a bit of Irish luck,
brightened by a song in your heart,
and warmed by the smiles
of the people you love.

And may we have no snow days to mess with state testing!  :)

Materials Wednesday Can I/Can you?

I have a student who has been struggling with asking questions in the classroom.  According to his teacher, he will roll on the floor saying, "I'm SO thirsty!"  When the teacher asks if he has a question for her, he will say "no". This can go on for 45 minutes, and usually results in the student being very frustrated, and possibly breaking down.

Well, you can imagine that when the teacher brought the concern to my attention, I immediately knew what my lesson plan for the next week would be: forming questions and talking about when to ask.  To be honest, I'm not quite sure where the breakdown is occurring: I've heard him formulate questions ("Can I ask you/tell you something?"), so it might be that he either isn't used to asking permission for things or that he isn't fully understanding when an appropriate time to do so is. 

So I created this quick activity to work on formulating the Can I/ Can you question structure.  The game is leveled in the following way:

 

 

The first level is fixing the question: a question is provided that is grammatically incorrect, and the student is asked to correct it.

Level two asks the student to turn a statement into a question. 

Level 3 provides the student with a very short scenario and has them practice asking a question:

 I also have question starter strips to help those who might need the visual reminder.

It's pretty straightforward, but I hope it will help.  At the end of the game, the students count up the number of eyes they have gotten on their monsters.  The person with the most eyes is the winner!

You can find it on my TpT store.