Classroom Centers: Clothespins

Another idea for classroom centers I found on Pinterest, originally posted on the Love4thGrade blog, is a nifty idea for using clothespins.  Apparently, the blogger adapted this activity from something similar she also found on Pinterest (a great resource, if you aren't already aware).  Visit her post on centers so you can see how she made a wheel from tagboard and divided it into sections.  Each section can contain a definition, a category, a math problem, etc.  In a baggy, keep clothespins which are written with the responses to the wheel's sections.  Students clip the corresponding clothespins to the appropriate section of the wheel.  Two or three pins can belong to the same section.  You may want to keep the answers to specific clothespin puzzles (as I've come to think of them) somewhere so students can check their answers.  You can keep several different versions of the activity to practice a lot of subjects and topics.


Her class used the activity as a great way to practice vocabulary.  Another blog used the same activity to help younger students practice number recognition.  There are several other ways to used this idea:

• practice identifying root words (example:  the section of the wheel can say "these words have to do with 'life' or 'living matter'" so students can stick pins with the words "biology" and "biography" on that section).
• practice simple algebra problems  (Love4thGrade shows an example of this in the same post).
• review social studies, geography and history (example:  the section of the wheel can say "Pueblo Indians" so students can stick pins with the words "adobe homes" and "cliff dwellers" on that section).

There are many other ways to use this activity.  In fact, it may be helpful for students to create their own boards and clothespin puzzles to trade amongst one another to help review a unit of study.  It will help them think of things in categories and analyze things they've learned in class.

Try it!

Classroom Centers: Paper Cup Stacking

I found this review activity on Pinterest (posted by Mrs. Gilchrist, who decorated her Power Tower cans nicely), originally found on Teachertipster.com.  The idea takes advantage of many kids' fondness for cup stacking.  The "Power Towers" are merely Pringles cans that house paper cups used for stacking.  Watch the video as a teacher explains that you can write review questions on the cups to help students with quick recall of facts, like math questions, sight words or vocabulary.  If kids could recall multiplication facts as half as I've seen some cup stackers, they'd be a marvel!

Finding Decimals, Fractions and Percents Through Art

Here is a lesson found at  Nancy Mill's site.  This lesson is derived from the Mathematics Teaching in Middle School journal.  You can read how a teacher used an artwork lesson to help students understand the visual relationship between decimals, fractions, and percents.  The class created colorful pictures by gluing small squares to a grid.   Once complete, they had to calculate the percentage each color was used in the picture, and represent that percentage in decimal and fractions as well.  The students expressed their creativity and got a good math lesson out of it!  Click here for more details on the activity.

Play "Password" to Review Vocabulary Words

I found this idea on Pinterest.


Education.com provides easy instructions for science review using the popular game known as Password.  If you've never seen it, Password is a game where one person gives their partner clues about a certain word, but they can't say specific things about that word that would make it easy for their partner to guess.


The site suggests using it to review science vocabulary (and, if you sign up for the site, you can download the activity to share with your class), but you can really use it for any type of vocabulary practice.  In fact, you can adapt this activity for review of social studies/history facts, characters and events in a novel, math terms, etc.  Just have the students create their words on index cards, being sure to include words they "can't say" when they provide clues for their partners.


It's a great game for review and practice with words.  The partner has to provide the word, but it's also beneficial for the clue-giver, who has to make other associations with the word than just the "book definition."  See examples and instructions here.  

image:  education.com

GigglePoetry.com

I found this site with a lot of resources for poetry activities for the classroom.  Giggle Poetry offers many ways to learn about and have fun with poetry.  The site includes ways to help students write their own poetry, tongue-twisters, reader's theater poems for students to practice reading poetry together, and tons of other poems to read just for fun.  Many of these poems can inspire your students to create their own.

image: microsoft

Math Centers: Elementary Geometry

Here are a couple of printable math centers made available thanks to Mathwire.  Both a useful for giving students practice with shapes as an introduction to geometry.


The first is a called a Polygon Quilt Game.  Students pair up, and each person picks one color to use in the quilt game.  They take turns coloring sections of the picture, one small triangle at a time.  The goal is to try to create larger shapes with their color.  After the quilt is completely colored in, students tabulate the points they earned based on the shapes they were able to create.  The more complex shapes are awarded more points.  Students will have to strategize to win this game.  Here is another site that explains the rules.


The second activity is similar, called Spider Web Map Coloring.   3-4 players play this game, and they have to use a labeled die that tells them how many spaces to color.  They can only color sections that do not share a side with one they've already colored (but the sections may share a corner).


A second version of the Spider Web Map is in the same file.  The same rules apply, except each section has a number assigned to it.  That number is the amount of points awarded for coloring that section, so students will have to add those numbers at the end to see their final score.


Try it!

image: microsoft

Writing Activities: "Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street"

Talk about a book being designed as a springboard for writing lessons!  I read this book to a group of third graders, and I knew exactly what the teacher had in mind.  It's primary purpose is to give students good techniques for writing as they follow the journey of a little girl, Eva, through her neighborhood.  She encounters various characters who give her tips for writing:

• Mr. Sims, the actor, tells her to pay attention to details.
• Mr. Morley, the chef who makes mousse, tells her to use old words in new ways.
• Alexis, the dancer, tells her to stretch her imagination.  
• Mrs. Martinez, who makes soup, tells her to add a "little something" extra to give the story some action.

After meeting these characters and applying what she's learned, the little girl's boring day turns into quite an eventful one, and she has a great story at the end.

All the advice from the characters will help your students during the writing process.  

WritingFix has a popular lesson plan based on this book available for free.  It's perfect to use as a mentor text and lesson for writing workshop.

Check out the lesson, printable sheets for students to practice editing their writing based on the book's advice, and check out samples of students' work.


Here is another site that provides printable resources for working with the book.