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.

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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.

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 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!

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

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

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 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.

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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.

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

Check out the Dollar Store for the visors.

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 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!

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 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!

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 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.

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 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.

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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

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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!**

 

Literacy Centers- heck yeah!

I had the unique pleasure of being able to visit my fellow 3rd grade teachers' classrooms during their small group reading times. The idea is to see how everyone is doing their literacy centers and implement the things that would improve my classroom.

Well, I say I had the unique pleasure, but the truth is that all the 3rd grade teachers get to do it. Ms. Chastain had her turn yesterday, mine was today and Roach and Jackson get their turns this week as well. In fact, 3rd grade is getting pretty well known for their literacy centers. So much so that 4th and 5th grade teachers will be observing next week!

What can I say? We pretty much rock the socks off of literacy centers. :)

Since most of our centers are found online (blogs, TPT, teacher websites...) I will try to give credit where credit is due. If I overlook something, I apologize!

The 3rd grade team has agreed to follow the same center pattern. Classes are split into 4-5 groups. Each group is given a center for the day. Students will work on that center for the entire center time. (when that are not in small group reading) Students know that they are never done with their center. After completing the activity, they document their work for accountability, can put the words in a sentence, can illustrate their work, put new words into their individual word walls for future use, etc.

Let's start with Chastain's centers: Chastain uses manilla envelopes for her centers. She also makes sure that each center is labeled with the appropriate standard. She finds most of her centers on Teachers Pay Teachers- all free.

Ocean Waves- sentence sort

• Students sort sentences according to the verb type (are, is, am)
•  After sorting, students write the sentences in the proper columns 

What's That Picture?- Making inferences

• Pictures from magazines, newspapers, etc, cut out, numbered, and laminated
• Thinking stems (sentence starters) included
• Students look at the pictures and create inferences based on what they see

Story Extension

• Bag full of extension cards
• Stories (leveled readers from textbook adoption)
• Students read the story and use the story extensions   

Dress the Turkey- types of sentences

• Students read the sentences on the feathers and sort them according to their type of sentence.

Now on to Ms. Roach's class! Ms. Roach also appreciates the free centers found on Teachers Pay Teachers. :)

Lollipop Compound Words

Science Puzzles

These puzzles are Ms. Chastain originals! She took our science vocabulary and definitions and created puzzles to help incorporate science into our literacy time. 

• Students put together each of the puzzles and write down the word and matching definitions. 

Rainy Day Contractions

• Students match the contractions with their meanings
• Students put the words in sentences

Comprehension (Florida Center for Reading Research) C.009

**Tons of free centers available on the Florida Center's site!**

• Students use the leveled reader and graphic organizer provided in the envelope to complete the activity.

Last, but not least, Mrs. Jackson's class!

Fact and Opinion

• Students read the card and decide if the sentence is a fact or opinion.
• Students document their answers on their accountability sheet.  

Contraction Cut and Paste

• This activity is printed on cardstock and laminated so it can be used again and again!
• Students sort contractions and words, then write them on their accountability sheet
• Words can be put into sentences when students have completed the activity

Inferencing-  

• Students read the cards and match the cards to the pictures.

 

Heart Contractions

 I didn't observe my own class cause, well, it's my class! I will try to get pictures of my centers to add to this post. I know you're all wanting to see the awesomeness that is General Delk's Army!