Monday, March 5, 2012

The Running Man

This morning was the first teacher dance rehearsal for the end of the year talent show. Yup, you heard me. I am one of those crazy teachers who willingly gets on stage and embarrasses herself in front of the entire school. I did learn something while at rehearsal. This girl (point finger at self), does NOT know how to do the running man! I'm sure it was hysterical watching me try, though. The teacher choreographing the dance, actually stopped to come over and try to fix my "funky running man." That's pretty bad. I know what I'm "YouTubing" tonight.

Other than the excitement of dance rehearsal #1, today was just your average Monday. Having double special first thing Monday morning makes it hard to get into a routine.

I did my first "Word Splash" with the kids in Science this afternoon. I've done all sorts of other content area vocabulary sorts and activities, but it was our first attempt at the ol' splash today.

We are studying extreme weather, so I put all sorts of vocabulary words related to hurricanes on the Smartboard.
In case you aren't familiar with word splashes, the topic word goes in the middle and is usually a bit larger than the other vocabulary words. It is a great way to introduce content area vocabulary before reading nonfiction.

I had the students choose three vocabulary words. They had to predict how the words were related to hurricanes. Some of the students had a lot of schema about hurricanes and were able to accurately write a definition. Others were making guesses and had to revise their definitions after reading. 

They copied the word splash on this graphic organizer. 
Then they worked in partners to come up with the relationships between the topic vocabulary word, hurricanes, and the three other vocabulary words of their choice. They wrote their definitions below the splash.

After completing the graphic organizer, they read chapter 1 of a hurricane book which contained all the vocabulary words from the splash. (Big thanks to Kate who discovered the book. It's great working with such fantastic teachers) They then revised any of their predictions, if necessary. 

That's all for tonight. I have to go practice my running man. 




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