Meaningful Activities to Do Before Winter Break

On the day or two before a winter holiday begins, students have often completely shut down their studious brains and fully engaged their frolicsome personalities. On such days, giving students free time is about as much fun for the teacher as having a root canal.

Some teachers need activities to keep students engaged during seemingly endless class periods, and others need good activities for students to work on after they finish semester exams or end of semester projects.

I always had a couple of holiday-themed exercises ready that would be fun for the students to do, but would also stimulate their higher order thinking skills. A little planning on my part made the hours leading up to the much-needed winter break a whole lot easier on everyone.

Please click here or on the photo below for two FREE exercises. I hope you and your students enjoy them!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Thanks for reading,

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Fall Into Figurative Language

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all. "

—Stanley Horowitz

My students enjoyed learning to recognize and write examples of figurative language. Yours will, too.

Although there are many different types of literary devices, the five that follow are used most frequently and are the most common: Simile, Metaphor, Alliteration, Personification, and Hyperbole. 

Alliteration - The repetition of consonants. There should be at least two repetitions in a row.  For example, Sally sells seashells down by the seashore.

Hyperbole - A figure of speech that uses deliberate exaggeration. For example, I’m so hungry I could eat a cow. 

Metaphor - A direct comparison between two things that are different but suggest some similarities. For example, The girl’s eyes were jewels glowing in the darkness.

Personification- A figure of speech that gives human qualities to animals or objects. For example, The daffodils nodded in the rain. 

Simile  - A comparison between unlike things using like, as, or as though. For example, The compliment was as sweet as sugar.  

Learning to recognize these 5 literary devices and to write original examples of them will give your students a richer understanding of literature, and their writing skills will achieve a new level of sophistication.

My 6-page exercise has 20 multiple choice questions and opportunities for students to write the five literary devices. The answers are provided for your convenience. 

Click here to take a look.

I hope you have a colorful autumn filled with vivid images and joyful events.

Thanks for reading,

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BOOM Cards™ Are an Exciting New Way to Learn

I love it when I discover a new way for students to learn that will help teachers 

and make their lives easier.

I haven't been this excited about creating new lessons in a long time. For years, I tried to present lessons that students could complete on the computer and have fun while learning. The problem was that there was no way for them to have immediate feedback, and the teacher had to grade what they had done.

Next came task cards, but still, the teacher had to get involved to provide feedback and grades.

And now, there are BOOM cards. Rachel Lynette, a veteran TpT member, and an expert on task cards teamed up with an innovative company to make digital BOOM cards. Now, students can practice concepts they have learned by "playing" BOOM cards. They get immediate feedback, and if they get the answer wrong they can try again. And, even better, they are self-grading. The teacher gets a report on all student activity.

It's amazing. Students ask for them. They LOVE playing BOOM cards.

Try it for yourself:

CLICK HERE TO TRY

CLICK HERE TO TRY

CLICK HERE TO TRY

The exciting thing is that you can create your own BOOM Cards and tailor them to your students' needs. You can use them for practice and for quizzes. You can find out what you need to know here.

BOOM decks are not expensive and they save the teacher so much time. Most of the ones I created come with a mini-lesson. If you would like to see more examples of BOOM cards, click here.

Note: If you have an idea for BOOM cards that you would like for me to create for your students, send me an email at charlenetess@yahoo.com.

Be sure to read the helpful and interesting blog posts below.

Thanks for reading,

Charlene

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Getting to Know You Activities

The first few days of school at a secondary campus are exciting, fast-paced, and often chaotic. As counselors balance class loads, and students adjust schedules to include elective classes, students are frequently added to classes and dropped from classes. At my high school, we had at least two fire drills during the first week of school, and the senior class had a class meeting. In additions to those interruptions, teachers have many administrative duties, including organizing equipment, books, notebooks, and the list goes on.

I developed a unit that I used every year with every class. The students enjoyed it, and after the introduction, it required minimal involvement from me for several of the days. I was free to prepare seating charts, get my groups outlined in my mind, label and organize equipment, and again the list goes on.

This unit will help you with activities for the first day of school to get your students seated and accustomed to your classroom.

It includes a series of activities that will help students get to know each other and introduce them to you. The activities included in this unit are:

• filling out an information card for the teacher’s use.
• learning to prepare the heading on papers due to the teacher's wishes
• learning interview techniques.
• writing a series of interview questions. interviewing a classmate.
• writing a personality sketch.
• learning to use a rubric.
• introducing a classmate to the teacher and the other students in an oral presentation. After completing all of the activities, students will have received three grades, and they will know a little bit more about the other students in their class. I hope you will find this unit helpful. You can find it here.

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Activities for the End of the School Year

The last few days of a school year can evoke many emotions. Teachers are tired. Students are restless and are often anxious about end-of-year tests. And yet, it is also a time for reflection, and a time to feel nostalgic about young people we have come to love and admire. They will leave us soon, and we hope to see them again and hope that we have made a difference in their lives.

After the test reviews are complete and we are satisfied that our students are ready to end their course of study with us, there will be days when we need to find something for them to do. You can call them filler assignments if you wish, but I like to make them both meaningful and enjoyable. The key is to make the students use their minds and give them Higher Order Thinking Assignments (HOTS). 

I will share two of them with you. One is free. Enjoy!

Click here for a HOTS Classification Exercise that will make your students think.

Click here for a FREE HOTS Classification Exercise that is perfect for the last few days of school before summer break.

Thanks for reading,

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