Literacy Night with Creative Discovery Museum

I've posted before about our science nights hosted by Creative Discovery Museum, you can see them HERE and HERE, but tonight was our first ever Literacy Night!

What I love about CDM is that their activities are fast, cheap, and easy! (The perfect trifecta for teachers!) Students are engaged, standards are being practiced, and teachers aren't broke after making them!
Here are a few of the activities offered tonight:

 

Great for poetry practice. 

Students can come up with their own, or they can find alliteration in teacher provided poems.

 ************************************************************************

CDM had a laminated collection of nonfiction passages from which to choose. I would add the National Geographic Kids magazines that I have in my classroom, or the science readers that came with our science adoption.

****************************************************************

 Easy to make and you can Google picture cards to print. You can also visit these TPT stores:

Ladybug in Kindergarten

Allyson Lane

Sharon Oliver

Just to name a few!

********************************************************************

 Cards with different fiction and nonfiction text features/ characteristics are sorted into this hula-hoop Venn Diagram

*********************************************************************

This area was for relaxation and reading. 4 tents total with a blanket and collection of books in each.

*****************************************************************

 The Connect 4 tiles each have sight words written on them. Students have to read the word before being able to place their piece.

Pure. Genius.

**********************************************************************

Teacher or student partner reads sight words from cards and players follow the rules on the rule sheet. Again, you can Google sight word cards, or search TPT. There are a TON of them available.

***************************************************************************

 This one will take time, but the students who played tonight had a BLAST! 

Check out the Dollar Store for the visors.

************************************************************************

 I love this one! You can use Google Images to find pictures to use, and Walmart has rolls of magnet tape. Get yourself a few cheap cookie pans and you're set!

*********************************************************************

 Looking for ways to get all those annoying, painful Legos out of your house? (Maybe that's just me) This is the activity for you!

**************************************************************************

 

 CDM provided copies of the sheet to use, but I didn't get a pic of it. Students can make their own pictures and connect them to a story rope to retell their story. This is a more advanced activity.

********************************************************************

 CDM used character stickers, like ones you can find at Walmart. (Minions, Ninja Turtles, Dora, etc) I can see using stones like these during a small group mini lesson. I wouldn't let the kids try this individually until I had modeled the skill. A lot. 

Once the skill is mastered, students can do this at their seats and complete a free-write activity.

*********************************************************************

Creative Writing! You never know what you're going to get!

Check these out on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Halloween Prompts

Christmas Prompts

St. Patrick's Day Prompts

Valentine's Day Prompts

Thanksgiving Prompts

All 5 Holiday Prompts Set

 ************************************************************************

The last station provided was the one I manned, and the one I didn't photo. Yes, I suck. 

It was another creative writing station where CDM provided a blank book and students were expected to create a build-upon story.

I knew there was no way we would write one long story- it's after school and students don't want to stay at one station for too long- so I drew lines on the pages. Each student was allowed a page with 4 lines. They could put just one sentence on the page, or do as many sentences as could fit. 

By the end of the night we had 3 completed mini-stories! I was very impressed! 

• The first story was about a nice dragon who, after being trapped by a wizard, was rescued by his mama dragon.
• The second story was about a Rapunzel-esque character who escaped from her castle, only to discover a prince in the woods. They rode to his castle and lived HEA. 
• The third story was about a pair of royal siblings (boy and girl) who rescued their kingdom from a fierce dragon. The Princess saved the day with a perfect shot with her bow and arrow. Girl power!!

Each page was labeled with the author's name and age, just to prove that ANYONE, ANY AGE can be an author! The book will be donated to our library so everyone can read it. :)

 

Thank you, Creative Discovery Museum for a fabulous night! 

You do great work!

**Are you wanting to host a Family Night at your school but don't know where to start? 

If you're in the Chattanooga area, look no further! 

Check out the Creative Discovery Museum Family Nights link!

They offer a wide range of options!**

 

Read Across America- Mulberry Street

I'm a little late in posting, but here's Ms. Harper reading And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street! Thank you, Ms. Harper!

Watch it below, or click {HERE}

BIG PLANS- Community Catalyst for Mozilla

As you probably saw on previous posts {HERE} and {HERE}, Lindsey Frost was a volunteer reader during our Read Across America week. She also allowed us to interview her for our BIG PLANS segment!

Lindsey Frost (lindsey_in_cha if you're on Twitter) is a Community Catalyst for Mozilla. When we asked her what that meant in layman's terms, she said she was a community builder for Mozilla, which is a non-profit organization.

Lindsey is awesome, and I mean that sincerely. She works hard here in Chattanooga making sure that we stay technologically advanced. Every technology (in education) based activity I've attended here in the city has had her hand in it somewhere. She. Rocks.

So, here is what Lindsey had to say when we asked her about her job.

1. What steps did you follow to become a Community Catalyst for Mozilla?

2. What level of education is needed for this profession?

3. How long is your work day?

4. Is there a lot of practice needed for your job?

5. What does your typical work day look like?

6. Do you use any special equipment in your profession?

7. What was the best day you've had at your job so far?

8. What is the starting salary for this profession?

Thank you, Lindsey for coming in! You're welcome back any time!! 

p.s. Later I pointed out that I use Mozilla Firefox to get to the Internet and my students were totally impressed. Pretty sure they think you invented the Internet. :)

Read Across America Week- Curious George

Lindsey Frost from Mozilla read another story to us! This time, the book is Curious George and the Dinosaur.

Watch the video below or click HERE

Thank you, Lindsey! Come back any time!

Read Across America Week- Paddington

Read Across America Week is here again! It's a week full of wacky hair, crazy socks, character dress-up, and guest readers.
Today we were excited to have Lindsey Frost, a volunteer from Mozilla, come and read to us. Best of all, she read TWO books AND let us interview her! Woo-hoo!

The first story she read to us was Paddington.

Watch the video below, or click HERE.