We all know teachers are magic, but it seems that this time of year, our magical powers need a little extra umph and a maybe even an ABRACADABRA to get us to that last day of school! So, I teamed up with some amazing intermediate bloggers to create some magic of our own! You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, we joined forces to swap some of our favorite resources, armed with the goal of putting a little extra magic in our lessons and keeping our students engaged during these final weeks of the school year.
As promised, we’re all back today with Part 2 of our blog hop giveaway – the big reveal –
viola!
We had SO much fun using the materials that Deb from Crafting Connections sent me! She has an amazing “Text Structures” bundle with ALL sorts of goodies! I used a number of the components with my class as we tackled our big research project. The expectation in our district is that students understand key text structures and can write informational pieces using what they have learned…here comes Deb to the rescue!
I started off by using her powerpoint that highlights each text structure by showcasing five different pieces all about soccer–and showing how information can be presented on one topic in many different ways!
The students really seemed to “get it” when they saw the same topic presented in different formats, so I knew I was onto something. The next day we put together her “flip books” that highlight each of the text structures, gives examples of each, and–here was the biggie–a list of “signal words” for each to really help with their writing. My students have literally used these flip books EVERY day for the last 2 weeks as they have been writing their pieces. They refer to those pages constantly for reinforcement on what graphic organizer to use and what transition words will help their piece flow!
Finally…after working with these text structures for a few weeks, I wanted to see how the students were applying the information. Deb has this nifty “craftivity” where students read some short texts and then “attach” them to clipboards with each text structure labeled on them. I decided to NOT have each student do this individually but used it in small groups as a “sorting” activity. We had GREAT discussions as we read, looked for signal words, and eventually assigned a text structure to the different pieces. I loved how flexible this product was…you could use it SO many ways!
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| Look how cute! We lined up the pieces under each clipboard…but if you use it as a craftivity, the students can sort them on their own and make a cute display with their text structure “clipboards”! |
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| We had some great discussions about some of the trickier ones! The idea of “cause and effect” seemed to trip up some of my students…and some of my students had pretty compelling arguments about how some of the pieces really could fit in multiple categories! |
So…if you need to do something with text structures–this resource is exactly what you are looking for! She has the products bundled, but you can buy them separately as well. Check it out!
Click
HERE to check out the “Craftivity”!
Click
HERE to see the entire bundle!
Now to our second round of magic giveaway! We decided to switch things up a bit by having several winners this time around! In fact, 14 classrooms will receive a little magic for their own classrooms! Each of the blogs featured below will be giving their prize to a different winner!
So, perhaps you want to know what MY winner will collect! Whoever is drawn as the winner from my blog will receive $15.00 worth of products from my store–their choice!
Stop by each blog to read about all the magic that has been spread around classrooms near and far!
Enter to win each blogger’s resource using the raffle below. Each blog is showcasing the same Rafflecopter, so you can just add entries as you go!
While you are at each blog, if you’re not a blog follower already, sign on to follow! (You can earn bonus entries for following all blogs once you unlock the additional entries.)
