The Fly Swat Game
The fly swat game is very versatile. You can use it for spelling, academic vocabulary, math and just about any subject that requires students to identify a word, sentence, phrase, number or equation.
I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this game.
Here’s how we play it in my classroom. First, I divide the board up into two sides, a side for the boy’s team and a side for the girl’s team. Next, I assign a score keeper. The score keeper sits on a little stool off to the side and keeps track of the points.
On the board, I put up the vocabulary words we are studying or short sentences that focus on the grammatical skills we are building. I’ve even put up clocks to reinforce time-telling skills.
This is also a great game to play for test reviews and reinforcing vocabulary.
Read and Draw Silly Monsters
Students read sentences about silly monsters and then draw them exactly like they are described.
Check out the two worksheets I developed for my first graders. They have to read a sentence about an imaginary animal and then draw it exactly as it is described.
G1 Greeperdorn – This worksheet has two imaginary monsters on it, the greeperdorn and the bumblesnap. I’m going to use it to walk the students through the process and then they can take it home to use it as a study sheet.
G1 Woogle – There are two monsters on this worksheet, the woogle and the wubble. I plan on taking a grade on this one. Be sure everyone knows what a beak is otherwise there maybe some confusion.
Free ESL Simple Sentence Writing Worksheets
Sentence paterns make writing English a breeze.
Below are two free down loadable worksheets I put together for my first grade class. They are a mix of the three sentence patterns we have been working on this unit.
- _______ can ________ , but he/she can’t __________.
- Do you like _________________?
- Can you play________________?
Classroom Surveys
Classroom surveys are a great way to get your students speaking "authentic" English.
Amazingly enough, for the first time this year my first, second and third graders are all working on the same theme at the same time.
The worksheets I created are available for download. Just right click your mouse and click “save as.”
Fruit and Vegetable Class Survey – use this Word document to get the students speaking and writing English. Class surveys are always a hit. Just be sure to monitor them closely, to make sure everyone is using English. Typically, I have them write the sentences and that usually generates spontaneous conversations about spelling and grammar.
What Do You Want To Eat? – use this Word document to get students used to using new food vocabulary. You decide on which vocabulary words you want your students to focus on – the worksheet is divided up into categories. The students ask their classmates a simple question and they fill in the blank. I deliberately doubled it up so you can cut the paper in half and then have the students use their own notebook paper to write the sentences.
Free Prediction Worksheets
Prediction is a skill that every student needs to master.
Prediction is a skill that is on most standardized tests.
You can download a copy of the prediction worksheet that I whipped up for my class, below. I saved it as a Word document, so you can add additional columns/rows. It is best to use with picture books that are light on text. You can adapt it to go with any book you choose.
Below you will find links to other resources that contain lesson plans and worksheets all geared to mastering the fine art of making predictions.
Have Fun Teaching – links to a website that has some worksheets.
The Teacher’s Corner links to a page with a lesson plan that reinforces prediction skills.
Reading Rockets – links to a website that lesson plans and anticipation guide templates.
Making predictions about pictures – links to a pdf file.
First Lines- explains when and how to use this strategy.
The Reading Lady – links to a page with a list of PDF worksheets and Word documents you can download for classroom use.
Free First Grade PowerPoint
Students practice writing simple tense sentences using short, tall, fat, thin, young and old.
I’ve created a simple PowerPoint that focuses on constructing simple sentences. Click the link below to download. As always, all my PowerPoints are free.
Free Conjuction PowerPoint
Conjunctions are like box cars that link phrases, clauses and words together.
Below is a short PowerPoint I put together for my primary students on the proper use of using the conjunctions and, but, and or.
I created it specifically to compliment my Conjunction Junction mini-unit. You can check out the details here.
Gingerbread Man Thematic Unit
"Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"
I’m kind of picky when it comes to Christmas stuff. I don’t go for the usual Santa Claus fare, but I do like gingerbread and in particular, I like the story, The Gingerbread Man.
If you teach emergent readers DLTK has a nice little Gingerbread booklet that you can print out. The focus is on I can… sentences. I copied and print it out and then stapled it together in order to save time in the classroom. On the first day, I read it to the kids and let them start coloring it, then the bell rang. The next day, I read it to them again and made them follow along, broke them up into pairs and then they had to take turns reading the booklet to each other. Once they were done, I let them finish coloring it.
Family Fun Magazine offers a PDF download that I’m using to create a gingerbread man booklet. There are two sizes of gingerbread men. I picked the littlest size and then fooled around with the copier to make 4 men to a page. You will need seven men for the following activity.
I’ve condensed the story down, so just write the following on the board:
Title Page – The Gingerbread Man
Page 1 – There once was a little old woman who decided to bake gingerbread cookies.
Page 2 – When the cookies were done baking, out jumped the little gingerbread man!
Page 3 – “Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!”
Page 4 - he called as he dashed out the kitchen door. No one could catch him, until…
Page 5 – he came to a river and was outsmarted by a fox.
First, read the story to the students, most of them are already familiar with it. Then show them your sample. Be sure to write the procedures on the board (1. cut 2. staple 3. write sentences 4. draw 5. color.) Otherwise, a whole lot of class time may be wasted. I try to stick to the same general procedures every time I do this sort of activity so the kids know what to expect. Plan on stapling the hands and feet, but make sure that there are 7 men for each booklet and that the hands and feet aren’t too short, otherwise one of the men may try to get loose!
Kidzone has a whole page devoted to a gingerbread man thematic unit and little giraffes has a nice page on the gingerbread man too and don’t forget to check out virtual vine’s gingerbread page.
Graphic Organizers for First Grade
Here are some graphic organizers I made for my first grade class. They are designed to go with The Story Box first grade curriculum which is published by the Wright Group/McGraw-Hill, copyright 2001.
If you don’t have access to these books,you can still use these graphic organizers to teach sentence patterns to the students. Just throw the sentence patterns up on the board and then plug in all the different choices that they can put into the blanks. This exercise is great for teaching adjectives, verbs, nouns and grammar.
I like to brainstorm the vocabulary with the class before I choose about five to focus on. This helps the exercise be more authentic and memorable.
The three graphic organizers below go with the book, The Monster’s Party. The sentence pattern is, I can _____ . Teach about the difference between nouns and verbs and how action verbs are different.
What is something you can really do well?
The group below is tailored to go with the book, To Town. The sentence pattern is, I will go to _______ on my _______ , my ______ _______ .
This graphic organizer goes with the book, The Farm Concert. The sentence pattern is, “________ , _________ ” went the ________ .
Once you understand how to create these type of graphic organizers, it is easy to do for just about any literacy related activity.