Headfirst - a blog for primary teachers by a first grade teacher

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

3 Ways to Use "Write the Room" in your classroom! Plus a FREEBIE

WRITE THE ROOM is a versatile activity and a favorite of students. Kids love to get up and moving and Write the Room gets them to do just that! It is great for introducing a topic, vocabulary development, handwriting skills, and skill review. Students hunt for words or math problems around the room and record each one on a corresponding recording sheet. It also serves as a quick check to assess students.

For Write the Room, students need a clipboard, a pencil, and a recording sheet. Once they have their supplies, they set off and explore the room to find the picture/word/math cards.

Next, they match the picture on the card to their recording sheet, and write the answer. Students continue hunting around the room until they have completed all the cards or they run out of time. I use 12 cards in first grade but you may want to use 8 or 10 for kindergarten.

Here are some ways you can incorporate Write the Room into your busy day!

In the early primary classroom Write the Room is a perfect way to incorporate movement in your centers. Kids are full of energy so it's important to get them up and moving throughout the day. Students love to explore the classroom so this is a great way to put that enthusiasm to good use. And so much more fun than a worksheet!

In my classroom, I give three choices for centers to do while I am working with reading groups. Write the room is always a top choice!

Primary grade students are famous for this line! They need to stay busy or chaos ensues! Having these write the room activities as a routine and a staple in my classroom makes this question obsolete!

Students each have their own clipboard and access to the recording sheets. Some will do the same hunts over and over because they enjoy them so much! I change them out once a month and they are so excited when I put out the new ones!

Sometimes I use write the room activities to introduce vocabulary for a holiday or theme. It really creates excitement for the topic and I love the buzz! My principal always smiles when he walks by during this activity.

This is also a great spelling words activity. My write the room cards have editable versions so you can enter your own words or math problems to review! For this activity, we needed review on sneaky e words!

Write the room is also a great review game before a test, at the end of a unit of study, or for spiral review through the year. My ink-saving option is seen here printed on colored cardstock.

Write the room is easy to prep once and use year after year!

Step 1: Print, cut, and laminate the color picture cards on white cardstock or use the printer-friendly version with colored cardstock.

Step 2: Print multiple copies of the recording sheet. Each student will need a copy.

Step 3: Place the laminated picture cards around the room or have students hide them for you! Early in the year, I have specific locations for the cards. Later I mix up the card locations.

Step 4: Create a storage container by month with hanging file folders and ziplock bags. You are sure to find a card from 2 months ago and don't want to have to drag out the tub where it goes. It is best to have them all in a central location.

As with all activities, you'll want to discuss your rules and expectations.

Classroom Layout: Are there any sections in the classroom that you don’t want students hunting through? I have a teacher area and that is off-limits for cards. Also, they can't put cards inside or behind things. They need to be easily visible.

Student Directions: How do students get from card to card? Do they have to go in order? My cards are designed to be done in any order.

Can they do it together or ask friends for help? My rule is that you can ask a friend where a card is, but you need to figure out the answer yourself.

And of course NO RUNNING!

Modeling this activity before setting them off on their own will greatly affect the success of this activity.

Show students where the materials (clipboards, recording sheets) and cards are located and how to carry their clipboard and pencil around. Demonstrate how to match the picture on each card and copy the answer onto the recording sheet. Also, model how to get from one card to the next safely.

Sometimes I will pair up high and low students for write the room to help the low students be successful and to slow down the high students.

You can easily switch it up by adding special writing utensils like gel pens, smelly markers, etc.

Who changes the write the room cards?

THE KIDS! I will often use hanging and taking down the cards as an early finisher activity. I use velcro dots to put the words on the wall. The velcro dots make changing out the cards easier, not having to make tons of tape rolls. You can train the students to take the cards down, sort the cards, and put up new cards!

Write the Room is a flagship center that you can have in your class all year long. You can easily change it to match the theme, season, or holiday. My cards have seasonal and nonseasonal options.

I’ve done the planning for you by putting together a YEAR LONG WRITE THE ROOM BUNDLE! This bundle includes 55 different cards, plenty to change out each week of the year! I have included math and literacy cards in each monthly set mostly geared toward first grade concepts.

Each set of cards has editable options so you can enter your own skills such as vocabulary, sight words, spelling words, math problems, names, etc.

Another great thing about my card sets is that they come with or without backgrounds to save on ink or black and white options for those without access to color printers!

Check out each month's card set in my store by clicking on the picture or the bundle!

Click the picture to get your Christmas Bossy R or Spring Base 10 Blocks Hunt FREEBIE!

Friday, October 23, 2020

Nonfiction Animal Passages with Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Writing Activities for Primary Grades and a free sample!

I love using nonfiction with my students! I did not have a lot of nonfiction books available and my students LOVED learning about animals so I started making these nonfiction animal passages for the different levels of students in my first grade classroom and they were a HIT!

I find that my low-socioeconomic population needs a lot of building of background knowledge so I included picture vocabulary cards to go over before reading to get students ready for the text.

Having two levels of text, I could teach the same lesson to different levels of learners. They can all learn about the animal at their level!

When I want a shorter lesson, I can use individual pages of the resource and the corresponding comprehension questions.

I love connecting reading to writing so I have included graphic organizers including webs, can have are charts, and writing outlines at different levels. These really helped students organize their thoughts for writing about the animals.

At the end of the year, each student gets to choose a zoo animal to write about. These passages gave them lots of facts to use in their own animal books when I couldn't find a lot of books on the more obscure animals. They loved being able to highlight the information they wanted to write about.

Some of the passages have animal life cycles included.

Here's what buyers have said about my nonfiction animal passages:

"excellent packet thank you for differentiated lessons"

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"My students loved reading about Toucans and writing about them. It worked perfectly with our rain forest literacy night!"

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"This pack is good value as it has a range of activities, and is suitable for various ages and stages."

"My 3rd grade intervention group loved these passages they were very interested in what they were learning."

"My students loved learning about Meerkats with this resource. Thank you!"

"We read the story "Koala Lou" in class and this was a perfect non-fiction text to pair with it! Thanks!"

"Great unit to send home to have students complete during distant learning."

"This had two levels which I found very helpful. I loved the photos and vocabulary that were included with it. Thank you!"

"Great resource! The 2 different passages are helpful, as well as the graphic organizers."

"Great resource to help my students with informational reports!"

"Great supplement to an animal research project!"

"I bought this product to do with my reading enrichment group. We had a fun time with it and learned a lot."

"Great for reading groups, and differentiated for different leveled learners!"

"My kids loved learning more about owls! I thought the price was great for the amount of material provided."

"I love this bundle! Can't wait to save up to buy more of them! Perfect for differentiation in my mutli-level ability classroom."

"You are truly an amazing and gifted resource person. You have a great insight into what teachers need. Thank you for sharing this amazing resource. I use a lot of comprehension exercises in my class and this will be perfect."

"My first graders loved this resource!"

"Students love animals and learning about them! This resource had the facts I needed for a mini-lesson on Llamas and compared it to fiction stories like Is Your Mama a Llama. Very engaging!"

"MY KIDS LOVED THIS! Great resource!"

"My students loved reading about flamingos. My theme in my classroom is flamingos so it was easy to engage them. I had them work in small groups to read and find the information. It was really great practice!"

"My students were curious about flamingos & I'm so happy that I was able to use this resource to support them in exploring their interest! Thank you so much!"

"This is one awesome, comprehensive resource! It is just what I was looking for, even better than expected."

"This was a perfect resource to use with distance learning. The passages were just right for them which was wonderful since it is hard to get the right resources in the hands of little ones during school closures."

"Love this resource! It has great information about the tiger and great activities to support the comprehension of the text."

"These are great passages to use with my higher first graders for our animal research projects. Thank you!"

"Used these in our after school program for our grizzlies unit. We hung them throughout the program and used the information in them for trivia games. Kids love them!"

"I have a camping theme in my class and the last few days we did everything to relate to it and this resource was so fun to do with them. thank you!"

"I used this at home with my daughter. She loved learning about the different farm animals. Great read for a child who loves animals."

"I appreciate the leveled materials. The use of vocabulary/key terms was great."

"Very useful product! My students loved the activities!"

"Thank you for your skilled and creative work."

Check out this freebie for a sample!

PENGUIN PASSAGE FREEBIE

Click on the links below to see the passages in my store.

Gators and Crocs Passages

African Animals Bundle

Google Slides Nonfiction Animal Passages for Distance Learning on Google Classroom

Kids love learning about animals. My nonfiction animal passages for Google Slides are engaging and full of animal facts for kids to explore. You'll love the vocabulary and comprehension components as well as the webs, writing outlines, and writing paper.

Each has a similar format for consistency if you choose to assign these regularly or if you want to give students a choice of which animals to read about. Assigning on Google Classroom is easy and no prep.

Assign one page or two pages together or separately. There is a page of questions for each page and one for the passage as a whole.

Writing webs, outlines, and online paper is included. All the worksheets can be printed before or after using them online.

Many animals are available. Click below to see each in my store or click on the bundles to $AVE!

Here is what buyers are saying about my Google Slides Nonfiction Animal Passages:

"My students love learning about the different animals and having a similar layout in each type of animal. Thank you for this great resource."

"This is a great way to keep the kids interested in learning and writing without having lots of teacher support (since we aren't in class). This kept my students learning and was easy for them to understand and do."

"Some of the words are a bit advanced, but my kids love them all the same. They are enjoying learning about different animals and having similar layouts each week for their work. They really like them and are keeping them learning during this time."

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"We used this non-fiction resource along with the book Sylvie. Thanks so much!"

"As an ESY Distance Learning educator and previously a 3rd Grade Special Ed inclusion teacher (next year unknown), I need resources that would both work with my diverse group and be engaging. Students will be able to work independently and with the group throughout the use of this resource. They can be focused and on task. Thanks for offering it during the sale."

"This was a great resource to use for my class for Distance Learning. The students could complete the slides easily and I liked how I could change the document to meet my students needs! Thank you!

"I used this product in the spring and it was a great resource. My students enjoyed the reading passages. Thank you."

"My kids love it and it is easy for them to use."

"This was a great resource to use for my class for Distance Learning. The students could complete the slides easily and I liked how I could change the document to meet my students needs! Thank you!"

"A wonderful digital resource for distance learning!"

"This is a great reading comprehension activity on bats to use with your students in Google Classroom."

"Great resource! I love all the information, vocabulary, and thinking maps for the students to fill out."