IT'S ABOUT TIME for TRIADS!

 

If you are not familiar with TRIADS, let me introduce you to your newest addiction. LOL TRIADS combine critical thinking with vocabulary development, while building word relationships. Teach your students to use Bloom’s upper level thinking skills –analysis, synthesis, and evaluation – while having fun!

Here's how TRIADS work: Find a word that can be added to each of the words on the TRIAD. The common word comes before or after each of the 3 words to make a familiar phrase or a compound word. 

For example: the common word for the TRIAD of litter, nap, and black is CAT -- CAT litter, CATnap, and black CAT. You will absolutely love watching your students' "light bulb" moments.

Here's a FREEBIE to let you try them:

If you like love them, as I'm sure you will, I have a plethora of TRIAD task cards ready for you and your learners to enjoy.

My GATE/enrichment students can't get enough of these word relationships. They love them so much, they started creating their own to challenge me!

It's About Time for FREEBIES!

It's about time, teachers, for 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is almost here.  This FREEBIE is perfect for upper grade classes.

POETRY POSSIBILITIES for MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY contains 2 poems. Each poem is accompanied by custom designed teaching points covering a variety of skills. These poems are copy ready and, thus, may be added to your students’ poetry anthologies. The range of reading levels in these poems makes them appropriate for all intermediate classrooms and provides for differentiation.

It's also the time of year that classes celebrate the 100th day of school.  Primary teachers will enjoy this FREEBIE!

There are 4 poems in Poetry Possibilities -- 100th Day of School Edition. Each poem has a teaching point related to poetry and teaching possibilities from multiple disciplines that are custom designed for them.

It will soon be Groundhog Day.  I have 2 FREEBIES for that special day.

Groundhog Day Hink Pinks, Hinky Pinkies, & Hinkity Pinkities are the perfect way to celebrate this just-for-fun holiday in your intermediate classroom.  Your students will work on language arts skills, critical thinking, and problem solving with these fun word riddles.

Groundhog Day Scrattle is a differentiated, math and  literacy, learning center activity that combines word work with computation; individual effort with competition. As in Scrabble™, students use a set of letters to create words. After recording their words, they calculate each word’s score using the letter values. Then they engage a friend in a battle wherein they compare their scores using >, <, and =. The student with the most >s wins the battle! (SCRAbble + baTTLE = SCRATTLE!)  Because this FREEBIE is differentiated, it is appropriate for ALL elementary classrooms.

Enjoy the FREEBIES!  Coming soon will be more FREEBIES just for Valentine's Day.

You may also like:

What are Hink Pinks?

It's about time, teachers, for Hink Pinks!  If you have ever used Hink Pinks in your teaching, you know how much kiddos love them.  If you are new to Hink Pinks, you are in for a treat!

WHAT ARE HINK PINKS?

• Hink Pinks are word riddles.
• Hink Pinks are fun word riddles.
• Hink Pinks are fun word riddles with rhyming answers.
• Hink Pinks are word play.
• Hink Pinks are fun word play that expands vocabulary.
• Hink Pinks are fun word play that expands and extends students' vocabulary.  
• Hink Pinks are fun critical thinking exercises.
• Hink Pinks are fun critical thinking exercises that help students learn to interpret data.
• Hink Pinks are fun critical thinking exercises that help students make inferences.
• Hink Pinks are fun critical thinking exercises that help students draw conclusions.
• Hink Pinks are fun critical thinking exercises that teach students to analyze new information.
• Hink Pinks are serious learning disguised as fun.

HOW DO HINK PINKS WORK?

• Read the clues.
• Think of a 2 word answer.
• The answer words must rhyme.
• Each answer word must have just 1 syllable.

For example:

Did you figure it out?  The answer is barn yarn.

HOW DO YOU USE HINK PINKS?

• as a literacy center
• Place several Hink Pink cards at your literacy center.  Direct your students to work cooperatively or individually; whichever works best for your group.  Encourage research by placing dictionaries and thesauri at the center.
• as a warm-up activity
• Settle your group and direct their focus by collaboratively solving several Hink Pinks at the outset of your lesson.  This works particularly well if you are conducting a pull out or push in program.
• as a sponge activity
• We all face those awkward few minutes when our lesson ends early and we cannot move on to the next part of our schedule because of time constraints.  Or we arrive early at a special class and must wait patiently for a few minutes.  Carry a few Hink Pink cards with you and use the time to challenge your class.  Any time is a good time for critical thinking!
• as an anchor activity
• Engage your students' brains the moment they enter your classroom by posting a few Hink Pink clues each day.  Train your students to work on solving them while you take attendance, lunch count, etc.  Then discuss the answers at your morning meeting.
• as a fast finishers' challenge
• The biggest disadvantage to this use is that the children love them so much, they may rush through their work just to get time to solve these riddles.

ARE THEY CCSS ALIGNED?

Yes!

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.5 Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings. 
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.5b Distinguish shades of meaning among closely related verbs and closely related adjectives. 
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings. 
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.5b Identify real-life connections between words and their use. 
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.5c Demonstrate understanding of words by relating them to their opposites (antonyms) and to words with similar but not identical meanings (synonyms).
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. 
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.5c Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, homographs) to better understand each of the words. 
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. 
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.5c Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions).

WHERE CAN I GET HINK PINKS?

You might have already guessed that I have a few Hink Pink products in my store.  If you want to try them before you buy them, several sets are FREE!  

     

If you like Hink Pinks, I have dozens of them and most have been combined into money saving bundles.  Check them out!

Boom! Learning Preview

It's about time, teachers, for another preview of -- 

Last week I highlighted a phonics sort for young learners, The Green Giraffe. Now have a peek at something for upper grade students...

This FREE set of cards challenges your students to use their critical thinking skills to create word relationships.  

Here's how Triads work: find a word that can be added to each of the words on the Triads. 

The common word comes before or after each of the 3 words to make a familiar phrase or a compound word. In this example, the common word for the Triad is CAT; CAT litter, CATnap, and black CAT. 

All of the answers for this deck are fill in the blank. So, students type in cat, then hit "Submit," and get instant feedback.

You will absolutely love watching your students' "light bulb" moments.

This is a great activity for a literacy center or enrichment. It could also be used as an anchor or sponge activity. Fast finishers love this challenge! So, why not give them a try? If you like this challenge, try the next deck:

Go to Boom! Learning now to see all the awesome resources. You'll be glad you did.

You may also like: