Review Game for the End of Your Units

We just finished up our big non-fiction unit on bats and we love ending our units with a big trivia game! Not only is it an awesome way to see all of the students new knowledge, but it is fun and promotes a ton of collaboration!

Throughout our unit, we keep track of our new knowledge on our KWL. Everything on our KWL is from the students--after I read a non-fiction book, students turn and talk and discuss their new knowledge.  When they are done, they raise their hand and share with me what they discussed.  I then add it onto the KWL.

Since I have all of their new knowledge right in front of me, I create questions right from my KWL. For instance, 'Name three places that bats may live.' or 'What do bulldog bats eat?'

I separate the class into teams.  Each team sits in a corner of our carpet.  Then, I give each team one of these amazing buzzers.

I pick one person on each team to be the 'buzzer presser' and we rotate throughout the game.  I also have them practice one time so I can hear which team has which buzzer sound!

Throughout the game we use our 'collaborative rules'.  These are rules that I use whenever we do a collaborative project.  For instance, you can't ring the buzzer until you have discussed the answer with your team and everyone has said that they agree.

Lots of amazing discussions take place!

When everyone on the team agrees, they are allowed to ring their buzzer.  I call on the first team to press their buzzer. If their answer is not correct, I move on to another team. 

If it is correct, then they earn a tally point!

My students love our behavior chart, so any team that works nicely together, gets to move their name up when the game is finished!

My students absolutely love playing this review game and ask to play it over and over again!

I included all of the questions used in this game in my All About Bats unit found on TpT or by clicking on the image below.

Next we will be learning all about Pilgrims and Native Americans. At the end of November we will do another collaborative activity comparing/contrasting children today to children of the past. You can read more about that HERE or see my November Unit HERE.

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October Centers Are Up and Running! [All About Bats Unit and Lesson Plans]

I can't believe that it is already October...yet alone the second week of October! Time is flying by (as always)!

This month we are learning all about bats.  I always start our unit off with our Word Splash.  This is what we use to teach vocabulary during our non-fiction units.  The first day of our unit I read one vocabulary word out at a time, I let the students raise their hand to tell me what they *think* that word means, then I call a student up to 'splash' the word onto our Word Splash!  I don't tell the kids what any of the words mean.  As we read our non-fiction books throughout the unit, we will learn the meanings of each word. 

 If students hear a word as I am reading they will put their thumb up. Then, when I finish reading that page we will stop and discuss the word.  After we discuss the meaning, I move the word to the far left side of the Word Splash so that we can review it daily. 

After I finish reading a non-fiction bat book, we 'turn and talk' to our partners to discuss any new knowledge.  My kids are trained to ask each other, 'what did you learn today?' or 'do you have anything new to add to our KWL?'.  After they discuss, I gather their attention and we add all new info to our KWL.

We label a bat together. I laminate this anchor chart and use velcro to label the bat.  This way I can use this same anchor chart year after year!

We had a lot going on during centers last week! My students are moving on to CVC words now (I do have one group still on letter sounds).  These Batty CVC Words are from my October Word Work pack.  The students love them and they are always so engaged with magnetic letters.

The Batty CVC Words come with a 'helper card'.  This way if students are stuck on a letter sound, they can look at their 'helper card' for some assistance.  These cards help make this center totally independent so I can be running my reading group without any interruptions. 

In the writing center last week we had list writing.  We also worked on labeling. 

One of our pocket chart centers was building sentences.  We have been working on our sight words and color words since the second week of school.  My students love using the pointer and reading the sentences to each other when they are finished.  They love playing 'teacher'.

Instead of writing the room, we counted the room!

 They LOVE walking around the room with clipboards looking for their cards.  I must say, they are super quiet and focused too!

 Awesome work! One-to-one correspondence and writing numbers (these are two of the skills we are currently working on in our math series right now too).

I still have students that need to work on number formation.  So we played Brilliant Bat Numbers. Students rolled the die and traced the number rolled.  We worked on writing our numbers from top to bottom.

They have also been working on 'stretching out' words.  They did 'Batty Beginning Sounds' and when they were finished, flipped it over for 'Batty Ending Sounds' (using the same cards). 

Another beginning sound magnetic center...have you tried magnetic letters in your room yet?  Best center ever!

I leave these candy corn letter/letter sound cards out as an early finisher activity in October.  My students love them! 

A little bit of a harder skill still, but my students are getting it, is matching numbers with number words.  Some of my students had to use our number posters for help, which is totally fine!

 Another early finisher activity that I have out in October are these play-doh mats. My students love play-doh!

The activities in this post can be found from various packs on TpT. 

October Math Centers

October Word Work Centers

All About Bats Unit

If you would like to try a math center activity, you can try one for free by clicking on the image below.

You can also see all of my lesson plans for this unit by clicking on the image below.

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Halloween Fun with Oriental Trading

My kids LOVE Halloween and they have been talking about their costumes for weeks! We have four parties a year, one of which is a Halloween party. Oriental Trading has some of the cutest Halloween decorations and some great Halloween games!

I let my kids test out some of our Oriental Trading games during our fun Friday.  I think this made them even more excited for our party!

I ordered candy corn bowling...how fun is that?!

 I am thinking that I will have to add a little bowl of candy corn at this center.  Maybe they can eat as many candy corns as pins they knock down?

 We are also going to make a delicious bat snack!

So I ordered some cute bat straws to use at our cooking activity center.

 Always a party favorite...pin the nose on the jack o'lantern! My kids were all dying to test this out!

 Almost perfect on her first try!

 I ordered some Halloween goodie bags for all of the kids as well.  I couldn't resist these cute patterns!

 At their Halloween party there will be a little goodie at each center.  When they finish their center they can 'Trick or Treat' and add their treat into the bag.

 I also ordered these bat lanterns. I LOVE them!! We are learning about bats for the next couple of weeks and these make a perfect, fun, addition to the classroom!

 I ordered 6 total and they were super easy to assemble and hang!

 I think this one may be my students favorite center.  I ordered pumpkin decorating kits for each child.  

 The pumpkins come out adorable!!

Oriental Trading is definitely the best spot to get your party decor and games! They also have lots of treats for goodie bags! 

Oriental Trading is actually doing an amazing giveaway that ends today, so make sure to enter below!

All About Bats Unit: Wrap Up!

I feel like the worst blogger! I haven't spent nearly enough time blogging and sharing ideas with you this year. I swear I have the best intentions...and then life happens!

This Fall I have totally been on the wedding circuit! I've almost been away every weekend since Labor Day! I. AM. EXHAUSTED. I was actually home this past weekend with no plans for the first time since school started and I barely moved from the couch! But, hey...that gave me enough energy to get through Monday and I am back! (for now)  ;)

Last week we wrapped up our Bat Unit.  I am really trying to make an effort to only have centers that I know my students will be able to complete 100% independently. This way I am not bothered during my guided reading group. 

In the pocket chart center, students put their bat cards in ABC order.

 Then they recorded their letters on their activity sheet.

During my guided reading group, we worked on beginning sounds. I let one student at a time choose a bat. They had to flip the bat over and tell us what the picture was. 

 Then, they all record the sound they heard. They loved this!

At their 'star' table (which is my parent center), they played Spooky Spin and Write! This is another activity that works on beginning sounds.

I have my formal observation coming up this week. Eeks. For it, I am comparing and contrasting children now to children of the past (Pilgrims). I wanted to practice so I quickly made an activity comparing birds and bats.  

First, we read Stellaluna. Then I had the students turn to their 'carpet buddy' and discuss one thing that was different between bats and birds and one thing that was the same. When they were finished I called on different groups to share what they came up with. Then, I showed them 4 different baggies I made. Each bag had different facts inside. I told the students that they would go back to their table group and they would work together to figure out where each statement went on the class Venn Diagram (bats, birds, both).

 I also explained to them that they would have to make sure every one at the table had a 'job'. Someone may be the reader, someone may hold the statements, someone had to get the tape out, etc. BUT they were not allowed to put the statement on the venn diagram until everyone at the table agreed on its placement!

...and yes they are in costumes...it was on Halloween and I made them work! Such a meanie ;)

 When each group was finished we went over the Venn Diagram. I read each statement and I had them put their thumb up if they thought it was placed in the correct spot. If they thought it was placed incorrectly then they put their thumb down. A couple times we had some thumbs down, if that was the case then I made the group stand up and either defend their answer or change it.

I made little pictures in the corners of all the statements- circles, squares, stars, and triangles. This way I knew exactly which group put on which statement.

The lesson turned out great! I love to see my students working together! Now let's hope it goes this well on Friday when we compare children now to Pilgrims children!