Hands-On Learning: Skills Work

In my building, the current structure of our reading block is novel studies. In my small class, the students rotate between reading the novel and daily phonics/skill work. In my large reading class we utilize literature circles (focusing on skills that coincide with the book) and it's in between books that we really dig into skills.

This week has been a skills week.  It's been a blast thanks to my friend Catherine!


The first skill we worked on was inferencing. Not that the kiddos haven't had to infer throughout the year, but we were in need of a booster shot!

During the last sale, I picked up Catherine's inference activity.

Lots of anchor charts and notes to refresh students and review, which was terrific. The best part was the hands-on activity that had my students up and moving. {This week with our wacko weather had us full of wiggles that needed let out and about!}

Students were given one of the cards from the pack and three note cards to jot down their situations. I should have taken a close up of some of the cards, they did such a great job--creative and funny in many cases.

Once students had wrote their situation for the given topic, they were to raise their hand and look for another student with a hand raised to partner up with.

Students then read their note cards and their partners tried to guess the topic. After both partners had shared, students swapped topics and started again until they had traded three times.

For all of the movement, my room was so quiet! The students were sad when exit slip time came. The marks of a great lesson/activity.

The second activity I started today. It was on my plans all week, but who doesn't love a sale? Worth the early start to my morning to make copies. Although, my sleepy eyes didn't read all of the instructions, so my students dealt with an extra challenge---all of the cards were the same color. Scandalious, made the kiddos sweat, but they were able to do it!

Students had to work with a partner and figure out how to set up their main idea houses based on the cards that were drawn. Determining the difference between the topic and main idea was a bit challenging, but by the end of the hour, students had it down. 

Again, engaging day. Students learned more about some historical events that they didn't know too much about. Looking forward to our practice with science topics tomorrow!

Don't forget... TPT's BIG sale started today and ends tomorrow. Get some great resources at a great price while you can!