So Many Tests and So Tired of Study Guides

Are you tired of end of the year tests?  I am burned out.  Our last social studies test is very vocabulary heavy and I knew the kids wouldn't be responsible taking their Social Studies Journals home sooo we made a vocabulary study guide foldable!  I love a good foldable and so do the kids so its win win!

Prep
All during the unit the kids took notes on their social studies words.  We use 3 column notes, which are a progression towards Cornell Notes that our middle school and high schoolers use.  First I teach how to read the word and give the kids the definition.  Then once we have talked about the concept and read about it the kids go back and draw a picture or write an example.

Like this

I love his example for limited resources!

Project


So in a perfect world the kids kept up on all their work and have all their vocabulary done.  I listed the words on the board and told them if they didn't have them in their notebook they could look them up or borrow a friends notebook.

Then I cut paper in half the "hot dog" way and note cards in half.  The kids wrote the term on the bottom of each card so only the word showed.  Then they wrote a picture or example on the front of the card, but this part would be covered up.  The challenge was to know what the word meant wihtout the example but they had it there as an aid to help them study.  The definition of the term is on the back.

After I graded it I sent it home as their study guide for the test.

Making the Most of Boring Curriculum

Hello Everyone!  We are only 15 days away from paradise :)  Can you smell the children about to loose it?  3 of my  best behaved, most helpful students decided throwing food at lunch was a good idea today.  Then they were shocked that they got in trouble for it :/

UMMM? What classroom have you been in for the past 2 years?  However, when I asked them if we should ask their parents what they thought about it all 3 decided they would just take the punishment......dun, dun, dun, an evil clip down.  We have a behavior chart where they can clip up for good behavior and down for bad.  I love it because I can be mean and then nice when they turn it around; it lets me be more strict without having the whole class on phone call home at the end of the day.  I also can turn students behavior around by rewarding the good ones and not constantly being a meanie.

On to the main point of my post.  Does your school have a reading book that you use as part of your curriculum?  We use Literacy Place and for the most part I like it.  However, in 3rd grade there is a story that I dread teaching usually I would skip it but my kids were having trouble with sequencing events and it is actually a good story for that.  So my goal was to make it interesting for the most important person in the class.....ME:)

The story is Up Goes the Skyscraper

First, we do our vocabulary for the lesson by looking at the context clues, making predictions and then looking up the real meanings.  I give the kids a sentence that the word is in and then they have to write down what clues helped them make their prediction. I started this because my kiddos kept bombing the context clues section of their district assessments and EdVision placement tests.  I use a modified Fryer diagram for our vocabulary format.  I can change what I want the squares to say and keep the format consistent.   It gets the kids used to it by the time they need to use it.

Since we don't live in an area with skyscrapers we then watched a movie about them.  I love the website Howstuffworks.com and it had one that was perfect!  You can check it out here!

Once we were done the real fun began.  We build our own skyscrapers!  I cut black construction paper in half the "hotdog" way.  Then I cut note cards into squares for windows.  On each window starting at the ground students needed to write a step in the process of building a skyscraper.  Then we decorated them!  The kids had a lot of fun and I think its the first time any class actually remembered what happened in the story.

Some of them turned out larger than others because they broke down the steps instead of combining ones that went together, I think a contest over who had the tallest skyscraper broke out.  Next time I do this I am going to give them a set number of steps they must have.

What things do you do to make the curriculum more interesting and engaging for your kids and your self.