However, time is never our friend. As teachers, we know how valuable time is. We need more time to plan and develop lessons. There’s almost always a time crunch when we try to squeeze in all our lessons into the school day. Plus, there’s never enough time in the school year to properly teach all our standards.

Since time is a factor that we can’t ignore, I’ve created short, but powerful, lessons that introduce and review morphology and vocabulary content. These lessons provide a year’s worth of instruction.

Teaching Prefixes and Suffixes

Day 1-Word Matrix

A word matrix great tool for teaching prefixes and suffixes. It shows how morphemes can be combined to construct words. The prefix is on the left, a base or root word is in the center column, and the suffix is on the right. When students construct words with the matrix, the new word must contain the base word that is shown in the center of the matrix.

Each week’s word matrix consists of two root or base words. The focused prefix or suffix is included in the matrix. The additional prefixes and suffixes may be used for pre-teaching and reteaching morphemes. As you complete the matrix, the power of the activity, is in the conversations held as building words.

Day 2-Word Sort

On the second day of instruction, students are given 10-12 root or base words to sort by either prefix or suffix. Since the weekly prefixes and suffixes are grouped by meaning, this is a bit more challenging for students. For example, students may be given “opposite of allow” and determine whether they should use the prefix de- or dis-. This is also a great time to review spelling rules, because there are sometimes slight changes to the base or root word.

Day 3-Word Chains

Word chains are a lot of fun for teaching prefixes and suffixes. Each word chain starts with a base word and gives students a series of six steps to form new words using new bases, roots, prefixes, and suffixes. As students complete the word chain, they write a brief definition of each word they form. Once again, the power of this action is in the conversations held as students develop each word.

Day 4-Sentence Level Comprehension

Using the prefix or suffix of the week, students are given four thought-provoking questions that require a deep understanding of the vocabulary word. Each word is age-appropriate and are not easy enough for most elementary students to immediately recognize. Students can use the word parts to determine the meaning of each word.

Teaching Suffixes Day 5-Paragraph Comprehension

Students read a brief paragraph and identify the prefixes or suffixes in each paragraph. Then, they select three of the words they highlighted and write the meaning of that word. If you prefer, you may have students only highlight five or six words per paragraph and omit inflectional endings.

Multiple Meaning Words

In the past, I didn’t spend much, if any, time focusing on multiple meaning words. I assumed that was instinctive. How could anyone possibly confuse the bark on a tree with the bark of a dog, right??? Well, my students’ MAPS scores indicated otherwise.

After diving into MAPS data, I saw that there was a need for teaching multiple meaning words. While there is not as much time and attention given to multiple meaning words, I did want to provide consistent instruction. Plus, this has helped build my students’ vocabulary.

Day 1-Dictionaries

Students are given two dictionary entries of words with multiple meanings. For each entry, students are given three sentences and must select which meaning of the word is used for each sentence. This is also a great time to review reference skills.

Day 2-Paragraph Comprehension

Students are given two paragraphs that each include a multiple meaning word. The definitions of the multiple are listed below each paragraph. After reading the paragraph, students determine which meaning of the word was used in the paragraph. This is a great time to review parts of speech.

Teaching Multiple Meaning Words Day 3-Application

On Day 3, students write two sentences. In each sentence, students are given a multiple meaning word, and they write one sentence that uses the multiple meaning word two times to mean two different things. By the end of Day 3, students will have worked with six multiple meaning words. These are often commonly used words, so it’s feasible to cover a broader range of vocabulary.

Shades of Meaning

I love teaching shades of meaning. It helps students with their word choice in writing and drastically improves their vocabulary. I’ve noticed that it can also transfer into reading comprehension, because students have a larger schema to better understand character development, setting, and even mood. It lets students dig deeper into comprehension.

Day 4-Word Choice

Students are given four synonyms of commonly used words such as “good” or “bad”. They use their understanding of shades of meaning to determine which word best completes each of the four sentences. Some of the included synonyms are quite similar, so there may be some disagreements among best answer choices. That’s okay! There is so much power in those conversations.

Day 5-Thesaurus & Shades of Meaning

My favorite activity is on the last day. Students are given a thesaurus entry with multiple synonyms of commonly used words. They use the thesaurus entry to list six synonyms for the word in order from most intense to least intense. Once again, while some responses may have clear right and wrong answers, others may have multiple correct options.

Teaching Prefixes, Suffixes, and Multiple Meaning Words – Organization

Since the typical school year is 180 days, which is 36 weeks, this resource includes 36 weeks of vocabulary instruction. The 36 weeks are broken into three sections: prefixes, suffixes, and multiple meaning words.

• This resource is organized in two different ways. The first section is organized by prefix, suffix, and multiple meaning words.
  Pages 8-33 Prefixes
  Pages 34-60 Suffixes
  Pages 61-87 Multiple Meaning Words

I like to alternate between prefixes, suffixes, and multiple meaning words, so I created a separate file that rotates between prefixes, suffixes, and multiple meaning words. This allows you to intermix the three sections when teaching prefixes, suffixes, and multiple meaning words. You can find this vocabulary resource here.

This is by far my favorite way to teach prefixes and suffixes! If you’re looking for more ideas, be sure to check out this post.

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Adjective Acrostic

To incorporate a little art, have students write their names vertically on a piece of construction paper. If you’d rather everyone work with the same letters, you could use your school’s mascot, such as “EAGLES” or even grade level “THIRD GRADE”. Students should then write an adjective for each letter of their name that describes themselves.
Allow students to decorate their construction paper when they finish.

You can also use one of the included pre-made templates. This can save you a little time.

Adjective Wordle

Here’s another great way to integrate social studies and science with language arts, as well as integrate technology into your instruction! I use this to reinforce my habitats unit, but this can be used with almost any social studies and science topic. Have students write 15 adjectives to describe the noun being studied. For example, if we’re studying swamps, my students have to write 15 adjectives that describe a swamp. Make sure students check for spelling mistakes, because it is important that all words are spelled correctly. Students should then use a computer to create their own Wordle. Students can save their Wordle, and they can be printed to create an adorable display.

Adjective Practice

Task cards are a great way to practice and review. This can be done digitally or on paper.

There are also task cards for comparative and superlative adjectives.

A great way to review adjectives is with this Guess My Noun Game. Player One should look around the room and choose a noun that is clearly visible and write it down secretly on the back of a piece of paper. Then, Player One write an adjective in the “Adjective” column. Player Two should try to guess the noun by writing their guess underneath “Noun Guessed”. Continue the same steps until Player Two guesses the correct noun. Then, it is Player Two’s turn to identify a noun.

Adverb Charades

Adverb charades are a great way to review adverbs. Students can play this game just like they would play charades. However, instead of choosing a noun, students must choose what adverb is being acted out. Select one student to be “it” and have that student draw an adverb charade card. Show the card to the student, without letting anyone else see the card. The student should act out the adverb until another student is able to guess the adverb. The student who guesses correctly should have the next turn.

Adverb Scavenger Hunt

One option for completing this adverb scavenger hunt, is to allow students to go outside with their recording sheet to look for examples of listed adverbs. For example, if one of the adverbs is “fast”, the student should look for someone or something that is moving fast. The student would then record what they saw on the recording sheet. I really enjoy this method, because it gets students up and moving around, which helps students internalize the concept of adverbs. However, if going outside or other areas in the school is not practical for your students, provide students with a large collection of picture books. Students can then browse through the books to find examples of images of or representations of the given adverbs.

A similar activity would be when students go on an adverb search to look for examples of adverbs in books they are currently reading.

Change It Around

I like to have students practice rewriting sentences that use the description as an adverb. It’s a great way to help students think about sentence structure.

Color Coding

I love to have students color code different types of adverbs. They underline adverbs that tell where with red, adverbs that tell when with green, and adverbs that tell how with yellow.

Adverb Review

Students can review adverbs with task cards. These can be completed digitally or on paper.

After Teaching Adjectives and Adverbs

After teaching adjectives and adverbs, you can review through game-like activities.

Students also love this categories game. They use a paper clip and pencil to make a spinner. Students write the letter where the paper clip landed on the left column of the recording sheet. The student will name a word for each category that starts with the letter rolled. They roll again and repeat the same process for each row of the recording sheet.

Each of the activities (and much more) are from my Adjectives and Adverbs Unit that was written for third grade students but could be used with other grade levels. If you’d like to read more about teaching parts of speech, be sure to check out this post.

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This shares 4 procedural reading lessons you don’t want to skip. At the start of the school year, it can be challenging to find your groove.  Thankfully, it doesn’t take long to get back into the routine.

It can also be difficult to find your starting place teaching reading. Your first few lessons of the school year are building toward your “normal” reading lessons. This post focuses on how to get started with your upper elementary reading lessons.

Guidelines of Reading Workshop

My first reading lesson of the year is Guidelines of Reading Workshop. This is typically a refresher lesson for most students, but it’s always a good review. It’s also nice to have common terminology with students. Since I teach this on the first day of school, it’s a short and sweet lesson. I follow it with a class read aloud First Day Jitters.

How to Choose a Book

On the second day of school I teach students how to choose a book and eventually let students choose their own book.

Show students how your classroom library is organized and explain the procedures in selecting a book. My procedures are: 1. only four students are allowed to select a book at a time, 2. students may only select one book at a time, 3. when students return a book, they should place it in the exact same spot and in the right direction, 4. students may only select one book during reading workshop-no switching. It is essential for students to practice placing their books back correctly, because inappropriate use of the library will cause a headache later in the year.

Before students’ independent reading time, I teach students how to log-in to EPIC. I let them select any book to read online. I don’t typically use EPIC during independent reading time, but it’s a great way for me to see what type of books students gravitate toward. While students are reading on EPIC, I let one table at a time browse the classroom library and select their first book. During this time, students begin building stamina for independent reading. After summer break, it is typically difficult for many students to read silently for long periods of time, and stamina must be built.

When You Finish a Book

This is such an important lesson. However, I feel the need to throw in a disclaimer. You will need to adapt this to your own classroom and students. We’re all in different settings and situations, so make it work for YOU. I’ve shared what I do to give you a starting place and ideas that you may want to implement.

Holding students accountable for their independent reading has always been a challenge for reading workshop. Many of us love reading and would do almost anything for uninterrupted reading time, but some of our students aren’t there….yet. The goal is to get our readers to the point where they no longer avoid reading. But, the students who struggle most with reading are the ones who work diligently to avoid it.

24 Book Challenge

For a reading bulletin board, I set up a 24 book challenge. I originally wanted a 40 book challenge as mentioned in the amazing Book Whisperer. However, I found that 40 was overwhelming for students. I always avoid stress, so I stepped back a little.

I customize a “poster” for each student. As students finish a book, they add a sticker to their poster. The goals is to finish 24 books by the end of the year, with a few required genres.

Being that I like to create completely unnecessary work for myself, I print images of the covers of books on stickers for students. It would be much easier to use different colors and color code different genres. I’d love to share my already made labels with you, but I’m fairly confident that would be violating a lot of copyright rules.

You can download the poster and label here. You can use any font for your students’ names. I used APL Type A Teacher.

It’s hard to think of many reading topics more controversial than Accelerated Reader and similar reading programs. As with most things, it all depends on how it’s implemented. Below are a few things to consider.

• We don’t want our students only reading for points or extrinsic rewards and inadvertently send the message that reading isn’t fun.
• We don’t want our students to not read a book, simply because it’s not AR.
• Avoid limiting students’ level of comprehension to the type of AR questions students encounter.
• It’s important to never turn reading into a chore or punishment.
• Students will learn how to work the system.

All that being said, I can still see some benefits. With larger and larger class sizes and and less and less time, it’s hard to consistently meet with all students individually. I want to …. I really do, but it’s not always feasible. That’s where I see the value of AR or something similar such as Read N Quiz. I use this as a tool to hold students accountable during their independent reading time.

If a student fails a test, I don’t make it a big deal. I use that information to make sure I carve out time to meet the student and discuss the book. There’s a possibility that the student did comprehend the text but didn’t do well on the test. However, there is a possibility that the student needs support in choosing a just right book because the book was far too challenging. There’s also the possibility that the student was pretend reading and more or less turning pages during their reading time without actually thinking about the text. This is when we dig-in and begin to understand the student as a reader.

Whatever your routine is, make sure that you clearly communicate it with students. Otherwise, you’ll constantly hear, “I’m finished!” which is not productive.

Status of the Class

At least once a week, I check in with each student and record the book they are reading. We have a brief conversation about the book, so I can make sure the student understands what they are reading. This also allows me to see if my students are finishing books and how long it is taking them to read a book. If I have a student spend six weeks on one book, then something’s wrong, and we discuss the situation. It’s a highly effective and simple reading accountability tool. This form is also found in my first reading unit.

I keep my status of the class forms in my teacher binder. This is on the immediately behind each student’s data/reading profile sheet.

After these lessons, I’m ready to move to more academic content, which I’ll share about soon.

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Students love learning about allusions to Greek Mythology. To capitalize on that interest I recommend this highly engaging resource for allusions to Greek mythology that is so much fun AND no prep. For your convenience, I included a PDF version of the slides and reading passages. However, this resource is intended to be used digitally. All the videos, songs, and passages have already been added and linked for you. You can assign one slide a day, multiple sides a day, or the entire resource at one time. It is completely flexible and designed to go with whatever works best for you!

On each allusions to Greek mythology page there is a brief, student-friendly video with information about the god or goddess. The video is embedded into the file, so students will simply click the arrow to play the video. It will not redirect students to a new page.

On each page there is a passage with information about the god or goddess, as well as popular allusions. The passage is hosted in Google Drive, so students will click the book icon to access the passage. You can see an example of the Hercules passage below.

On four of the pages, there is also a book on EPIC linked for students to access. To read the book, students may click anywhere in the green rectangle. Of course, this portion of the assignment is completely optional. You can delete the link if you want to skip the EPIC books.

Formatted textboxes are included for students to write in as needed. There is also a variety of questions to keep students thinking critically. I didn’t want students to begin going through the motions. Instead, I want them to think about their responses. This was a great way to have students dig a little deeper into allusions to Greek mythology.

When possible, students can hear clips of songs that reference the different gods and goddesses. The songs are indicated with the music icon. I found a lot of music that I didn’t include. Even when only sharing clips of songs, I don’t want to share explicit songs.

I plan to break these slides up into a one week reading unit. The gods referenced are: Titans, Hercules, Nike, Midas, Pandora, Aphrodite, Hermes, Eros, Medusa, Achilles, and Atlas. There is a bonus slide for Ajax and Apollo. If you’d like to have a copy of the resource, here’s the link! Hopefully, you’ve gained some new ideas for teaching allusions to Greek mythology! Be sure to check out this post for more ideas on teaching reading to upper elementary students.

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This article was originally designed to include poetry, prose, and drama. However, I quickly saw the need to give poetry its own blog post, because there is a lot involved in teaching poetry. You can find that post here. In this article, I’ve shared some of my favorite ways to teach drama and prose. The lessons are from my Reading Unit 5.

Drama

At the beginning of my mini drama unit I let students share what plays they have seen before. Since our K-2 students attend a play for a field trip each year, my students always have a lot of responses!  I use that lead-in to share that we sometimes read plays, rather than watching them performed.

Cast of Characters

A cast of characters is a list of characters that are included in the drama. There is typically a list of characters included for a drama. If the play is being performed, a person will be assigned to each character in the play. When reading a play, we should notice that the character’s name is written and then what the character says is beside the name. I always show students an example of what it looks like when a character is speaking during a play. Help students understand that when reading a play (in their minds or orally), do not say the character’s name out loud. Instead, read what the character says while understanding which character is speaking.

How you move on at this point will largely depend on your students. If it is your students’ first experience with reading plays, you may want to use this time to use students to model how to read a play together. If students are already comfortable with reading together, students may break apart into groups and read a play together using a cast of characters.

Stage Directions

Even though students will likely not perform on a stage, they need to learn how to read stage directions. Help students understand that stage directions are for the reader only, and they are not said out loud to the audience. The directions may tell a character how to move or how to speak. Stage directions are typically in parenthesis. I like to show students a few examples of stage directions and model how to act on, but not read aloud, the directions.

Use this time to let students practice reading with different emotions. Use a basic statement such as, “I like riding my bicycle,” and have students read the sentence using a variety of emotions. For example, they may read the sentence with excitement, as a question, with a whiny voice, etc. This is typically a lot of fun for students, and it is great fluency practice!

Setting & Description

Give students time to share how dramas are alike and different from a fiction book or story.  One thing to help students notice is that in a drama the setting is often described but it’s not always described in the dialogue that is read aloud. Occasionally, the narrator will describe the setting which allows the reader or audience to visualize the setting while reading or viewing the play. I like to read plays together and have students describe the setting they visualized in their minds.

Reader’s Theater

Reader’s theater is a great way to end a brief drama unit. Break students should into groups (based on the play they will be reading) and have students practice reading a play together during their independent reading time. Then, depending on your students, you can either allow half the class to share on one day and the other half to share the following day, or you can save all performances for the following day. I love incorporating Greek mythology into our reader’s theater. That let’s us become familiar with Greek myths.

Prose

To introduce prose, show students a large collection of reading material and ask students what all of the texts have in common. Give students a little time to respond. Finally, share that all of the examples can be called prose. Prose is any text without metrical structure, which means it is almost anything except poetry. Since students are already familiar with prose (even if they don’t realize they are), so spend a few minutes together examining the characteristics of prose. I like to create a class anchor chart as students complete the same graphic organizer on their recording sheet.

It’s beneficial for students to think about the purpose of each of the characteristics discussed. For example, what is the purpose of organizing sentences into paragraphs or paragraphs into chapters. As an extra review, students may complete the Prose Scavenger Hunt where they find specific examples of prose from different texts.

I typically don’t spend a long time teaching characteristics of prose in isolation. However, I do like to spend a little time comparing and contrasting the characteristics of poetry, prose, and drama combined. As fun extension is to have students write an opinion paragraph that explains what type of text is their favorite and why.

For extra practice I like to have students complete the Poetry, Prose, and Drama Sort and/or triple Venn-Diagram. It’s a good way to help students focus and organize their thinking.

Hopefully, you found a few new ideas here! You can see all of the lessons in the post here.

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Many teachers wait until late winter or spring to begin their poetry lessons. I like to begin teaching poetry after I teach figurative language, because students have a reference point to relate to during instruction. In this post, I’ve shared my favorite poetry lessons and activities. You can find the lessons below in this reading unit.

Poetry Lessons

At the beginning of the poetry lessons, students focus on stanzas, verse, and meter. To show students examples of the elements of poetry, you may use almost any poem. The poems I have selected are “meaty” poems, so students must read and reread the poems to analyze the multiple layers of meaning.

Parts of  Poem

Students first need to learn HOW to read a poem, as well as the parts of a poem. It’s important to explain that poems are written using lines and stanzas. Make sure that students understand that lines are not necessarily complete sentences and that lines do no always go all the way across the page. Then, show students that a group of lines is a stanza. Explain that a stanza is  group of lines in a poem, separated by space from other stanzas, much like a paragraph in prose.

It’s important for students to know that we do not read poems the same way we read a book or article. Poems can have many layers and many meanings, so we need to read the poem multiple times. The first time you read a poem, concentrate on just reading the poem. After you read the poem, try to determine the meaning of any words you don’t know. Reread the poem out loud so you can hear the poem, which will help you understand the poem. When you are reading, don’t pause at the end of each line, which could cause the poem to sound choppy. Instead, pause only where there is punctuation, just as you would when reading prose, only more slowly. Be sure to model how to read slowly and clearly.

Free Verse

Before focusing on more complex poetry structures in our poetry lessons, I introduce free verse poems. As we ease into the comprehension of poetry, this frees students to focus on the meaning, rather than overly focusing on structure. Students often have the misconception that poems must rhyme, which isn’t the case at all. It’s necessary to teach students there are many different types of poetry. One common form is called free verse where there is no rhyme scheme or set pattern.

Read “Daffodils” or “Farm Pictures” and have students to discuss the poem in a small group. Ask students what they visualized as you read and discuss how the author used imagery within the poem, as well as the author’s choice of words and how they impacted the text.

Poetry Lessons – Rhyme & Meter

When teaching poetry, it’s important to introduce rhyme and meter. Once students are comfortable reading and interpreting free verse poems (which typically isn’t long) you can introduce rhyme schemes. There are three main reasons an author chooses to make his/her poem rhyme: 1. To give pleasure. Rhyme is pleasing to the ear. It adds a musical element to the poem and makes the pieces fit together; 2. It makes a poem easier to memorize; 3. To deepen meaning. I like to have students work together to find the rhyme scheme of the poem(s).

After introducing rhyme, I introduce meter, which is a unit of rhythm in poetry or the pattern of the beats. The difference in types of meter is which syllables are accented and which are not. This can become a bit complicated, so in the poetry lessons I primarily focus on finding the number of syllables in each line of a poem. A great way to do this is through Haiku poems. In a Haiku, the first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables. Show students several examples of Haikus written by other students and let students try their own.

Once students know the parts of a poem and how to read a poem, I like to dig a little deeper into comprehension. Each day we read a poem together and then break down the poem to completely understand the meaning of the poem. Then, students repeat the same steps with a poem that they’ve read with a group, partner, or individually.

Poetry Lessons

Imagery & Figurative Language

It’s hard to teach poetry lessons without incorporating imagery and figurative language. Imagery is the elements in a poem that spark off the senses. This does not have to be just visual but can apply to any of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell). A poet could simply state, “I see a flower”, but it is much more interesting to use techniques such as similes or metaphors to describe the flower. Read a few poems to  students and have them think about the imagery within the poem(s). Two great examples are “At the Seaside” and “How Doth the Little Crocodile”.

When you’re reading poems you’re sure to encounter many examples of similes, metaphors, idioms, and other examples of figurative language. This makes poetry lessons an amazing way to introduce, teach, or review figurative language. Have students continuously look for examples of figurative language in the poems you read as a class and as they read independently.

These are great poetry lessons to tie in with student writing. During that time, students can try writing their own poems. You can find the above lessons for teaching poetry here.

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Figurative language worksheets, activities, and lessons can be so much fun! I begin the unit with a brief overview of figurative language. Students should be familiar with the terminology and its use before analyzing poems. Students then dive in to more in-depth figurative language lessons.

Figurative Language Worksheets & Activities

Similes

A simile is when you compare two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”. These are typically familiar to students, so I like to give everyone a chance to share similes they are familiar with. A great mentor text for teaching similes is Fiona’s Luck. As you read, have students listen for the words ‘like’ and ‘as’. They may even want to jot the phrases down on a sticky note during the read aloud. After reading, students can complete the figurative language worksheets on similes for additional practice.

Metaphors

After teaching similes, I introduce metaphors. A metaphor compares two things by saying that one thing is something else. Metaphors are always quite a bit more challenging for students than similes. However, I do give them the opportunity to share a metaphor they’ve heard or read. My School is a Zoo is a great mentor text for teaching metaphors. As you read, have students listen for examples of similes and metaphors. After reading, allow students to share examples from the text. For practice working with metaphors, have students complete the metaphors activity on the figurative language worksheet.

Figurative Language Worksheets – Idioms

I like to introduce idioms by using an idiom in a general conversion with my class. For instance, if it’s raining, I may say “It’s raining cats and dogs” but any idiom will work. After I say the idiom, I ask the class if they think that I really meant what I said. I use their response to lead in to the lesson. Once again, I give students time think of an idiom that you use in general conversation. The book Birds of a Feather: A Book Idioms and Silly Pictures is a great mentor text for teaching idioms.

For extra practice, have students complete the idioms activity. In the lesson, students explain the literal meaning of several different idioms, and they write two idioms and draw a picture of what the idiom literally says and then explain what it actually means.

Figurative Language Worksheets – Adages and Proverbs

A special type of figurative language is an adage or proverb is a saying that offers advice. For example, one of my favorite sayings is, “If you don’t have time to do it right the first time, you must have time to do it again.”  That simply means that if you don’t do something right the first time, you’ll have to do it again. Give students time to share any sayings they frequently hear or say. A great mentor text for teaching adages and proverbs is Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin.

After reading the book, I like to have students complete the figurative language worksheet below. It’s also fun to have students develop their own adages and proverbs.

Figurative Language Worksheets – Alliteration, Hyperbole, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Oxymoron

While my reading standards don’t specify other forms of figurative language, I don’t stop at the minimum. I add additional content to my figurative language instruction. While I may not teach these for mastery, I introduce the terms, so that students are familiar with these additional types of figurative language. After introducing the words, students go on a figurative language search and look for different written and oral examples. You can download the figurative language worksheet, which includes similes, metaphors, idioms, adages/proverbs, alliteration, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, and puns here.

Student Favorite

A GREAT way to review figurative language is through music. I found an amazing collection of songs on YouTube with great examples of figurative language. You can find the video here. Of course you definitely want to preview the video first. I typically skip a couple of the songs, because they’re not the right fit for my students.

Hopefully you were able to get a few new ideas with these fun figurative language worksheets and activities. Stay tuned for how I tie this in to poetry! If you’d like to read more about teaching reading to upper elementary students, be sure to check out this post!

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These noun worksheets and activities can make teaching parts of speech a little more fun! To be honest, parts of speech are not my favorite thing to teach. It doesn’t even make my top ten list. However, it’s a part of our language arts standards, so it’s not something I can skip or ignore. Instead, I’ve tried to make the best of grammar instruction by creating 3rd grade noun worksheets and lessons that students will find fun and engaging. In this post, I’ve shared some of my favorite ways to teach nouns through my Noun Unit.

In this post:

• Identifying Nouns
• Plural Nouns
• Common Nouns & Proper Nouns
• Possessive Nouns
• Concrete & Abstract Nouns

Identifying Nouns Worksheets

I begin by teaching students to identify nouns with these engaging noun worksheets. Yes, students have been learning about nouns since kindergarten, but I’ve always needed to reteach this skill. A quick and easy review lesson is to give students a picture and have them brainstorm a list of nouns that can be found in the picture. Students love the open-ended aspect of this lesson.

Another fun and no prep noun worksheet is similar to the board game Scattagories. Students try to fill in each space on a table with a noun from the category indicated on the rows that begins with a letter in the columns. It’s fun and encourages creative thinking while reviewing nouns.

Plural Nouns

After students review nouns, I introduce plural nouns with these plural noun worksheets. This is not the first time students have worked with plural nouns, but they do need intentional instruction. I like to begin with a broad overview of spelling patterns for plural nouns. Students complete a cut-and-paste activity where they brainstorm examples of different types of plural nouns, including irregular nouns.

Students also enjoy this plural noun sort. This interactive noun worksheet (sort) helps students recognize and spell plural nouns. It’s also helpful for students when they move into subject and verb agreement. Seeing these nouns from different angles helps students solidify their understanding.

Common Nouns & Proper Nouns

During the noun unit, I introduce common and proper nouns. This too is not new content for students. However, I’m sure we’ve all seen plenty of lowercase proper nouns and uppercase common nouns! One fun activity is for students to convert a common noun to a proper noun. For example, they may change ocean into Pacific Ocean. Students also complete the reverse where they convert a proper noun into a common noun.

If I see a need for extra practice, I may have students complete common and proper noun puzzles. This does require a bit more prep than a typical noun worksheet or activity, so I like to save the cards and use them year after year.

3rd Grade Noun Worksheets & Lessons

Possessive Nouns

After I teach/review common and proper nouns, I move into possessive nouns. This is when things begin to get a little more tricky for students. I love starting by reading The Greedy Apostrophe. I’ve found that students often overuse apostrophes, rather than omit them.

Students enjoy going on an apostrophe hunt where the scan through the pages of books to find possessive nouns. Students write the possessive noun and a phrase to describe the possessive noun. You can use books in the classroom or sites such as EPIC for this activity.

To help students solidify their understanding and use of plural possessive and singular possessive nouns, I like to have the class complete a sort using this possessive noun worksheet. Students cut and paste examples of singular possessive and plural possessive nouns.

During this time it’s always beneficial to have students look back at their past writing to look for examples of possessive nouns.

Noun Worksheets – Concrete & Abstract Nouns

This is often students first experience with concrete and abstract nouns. Fortunately, it’s a fairly easy concept for them to understand. I’ve found that’s it helpful for students to see side-by-side examples of the two types of nouns.

If time permits, I like to end our noun unit with a fun review game. Since I’m not currently using language arts centers and didn’t want to print and cut task cards, I shared the task cards on Google Classroom and printed the game boards. This made it a super easy to prep activity that students love!

Hopefully, this has given you a few new ideas for 3rd grade noun worksheets and activities! If you’d like to read more about how I teach grammar, check out this post!

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Here’s a little secret….Chris Van Allsburg books had to grow on me. The first few times I read one of his books, I thought they were a little too strange. It just wasn’t for me.

However, I finally realized I had fallen into a genre rut. I was reading the same style of book again and again and wasn’t giving different genres or styles a fair chance. I tried another book, and I was hooked. He’s now become one of my favorite children’s authors, and I love using his books as mentor texts for teaching a variety of literacy skills. In fact, I have an entire week of instruction dedicated to his books in this reading unit.

Setting

I teach this lesson after I’ve taught setting in previous lessons. However, it’s an important enough concept to revisit throughout the year. Read Jumanji and discuss the text with students. Use that discussion to discuss the importance of the setting in the book. Then, give students a chance to flex their creativity. Have students write their own version of the book, BUT they change the setting. It’s so fun to see what they come up with!

Inferring From Illustrations

When it comes to interesting illustrations, I’m not sure that it’s possible to find anything better than The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. The full page illustrations come with a title and a sentence starter. Everything else is left up to the imagination.

One way to use the book is to have students complete the stories. Since that takes multiple days to complete, I like to save that activity for writing. During our reading time, students record the inferences they made from the illustrations. The write what they notice and what they think that observation means. These inferences can later be used to guide students’ writing.

Point of View

It almost feels like Two Bad Ants was written for the purpose of teaching point of view. It’s perfect! I don’t use this to introduce point of view. Instead, I use this lesson as a point of view extension.

After reading the book to students, discuss how the story is unique because it’s written from a third person point of view that gives an ant’s perspective. Have students share how the story would be different if told through a human’s perspective. To extend thinking about point of view, have students write their own story in the style of Chris Van Allsburg that is written from an ant’s point of view through a third person narrator.

Comparing Theme

After students have multiple opportunities to identify the theme of books, I also like to have them compare themes. This is especially beneficial when comparing themes in books written by the same author. I like to use The Garden of Abdul Gasazi to move students into comparing theme.

Have students collectively determine the theme of each of the Chris Van Allsburg books you have read together. As students explain how they determined the theme, model how to complete the comparing theme graphic organizer. Then, read The Garden of Adbul Gasazi and discuss the book together. Have students use the same graphic organizer to compare the book with another Chris Van Allsburg book.

Comparing Story Elements

You can also use Chris Van Allsburg books to practice comparing story elements. Since his books include a huge variety of setting, character, and plot, there are many possibilities. I like to use Just a Dream as a mentor text for this lesson.

Spend a few minutes reviewing story elements with students and discuss the story elements of the Chris Van Allsburg books you’ve read together. As you read the mentor text, have students think about the story elements of the text. They may even want to jot down a few notes as you read. After reading the book, have students complete a double bubble map that compares the story elements of Just a Dream (or the book you chose) and any other Chris Van Allsburg book.

A great informational extension to these lessons is to have students research Chris Van Allsburg and to write a brief biography on the author.

If you love author studies, be sure to check my Patricia Polacco author study blog post.

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When it comes to children’s literature, there’s good, there’s great, and there’s Patricia Polacco. Her books have it all. They are the perfect mentor text for teaching personal narratives and reading. I have an entire week of Reading Unit 4 centered around a Patricia Polacco author study. I’ve shared some of the highlights from those lessons and how to use her books as mentor texts for teaching theme and characterization.

In this post:

• Theme Introduction
• Supporting Theme With Text Evidence
• Characterization
• Comparing Characters
• Using Character Traits to Make Inferences

Theme Introduction

I start this after I’ve introduced theme in previous lessons. However, it’s an important enough concept to revisit throughout the year. Read Pink and Say and discuss the text with students. Use that discussion to collectively determine the theme of the book.

Use the mentor text to complete the first row of the Theme in Patricia Polacco’s Books graphic organizer. You can have each student complete their own graphic organizer, make a class version, or use the graphic organizer to create an anchor chart.

Supporting Theme With Text Evidence

In the next lesson I read Mr. Wayne’s Masterpiece which moves in a completely different direction. As you read, have students think about the theme. After reading the book, discuss it together and discuss possible themes and add it to yesterday’s graphic organizer.

Explain to students that they need to support their choice of theme with evidence from the text. To do this, students should use phrases such as: because, for instance, for example, on page x it said, etc.

Model how to include this text evidence on the corresponding recording sheet. Students may also complete a Theme Practice recording sheet (independently or in reading groups). They may either find the theme of the book they are reading independently, in their reading group, or use text evidence to support the theme chosen for Pink and Say.

Characterization

To add on to thinking about theme, in the next lesson students concentrate on the character traits of the main characters in the Patricia Polacco texts read. Read The Keeping Quilt and discuss the text with students. As a whole group, determine the theme and add the book to the theme table.

Then, model how to complete the Character Quilt recording sheet. In each square, students write the title and main character from a Patricia Polacco book. Students may write about multiple characters from the same book. Students write a character trait to describe that character and explain that character trait with evidence from the text.

Comparing Characters

Read Thunder Cake and as you read, discuss the story’s characters and theme. As a whole group collectively determine the theme of the text. Remember, a little debate is a good thing, because it encourages the use to text evidence. Once an agreement is reached, add Thunder Cake to the theme table.

Now that students have been introduced to several Patricia Polacco characters, they are ready to compare and contrast characters. To keep this activity open-ended, I let students select ANY two Patricia Polacco characters. The only exclusion is that they cannot repeat the two characters I select when modeling how to complete the assignment. Students describe both characters’ character traits, problems the characters overcame, and what the characters learned.

Using Character Traits to Make Inferences

We end our study of Patricia Polacco books with my personal favorite, Thank You Mr. Falker. I’m always impressed with how well students relate to this text and how deep their explanations go. After reading and discussing the book, add it to the theme table.

In the final activity, students use pictures, words from the text, actions from characters, and descriptions of setting to make inferences about the text. Many students’ first instinct is to explain something that was obvious or explicitly stated. Make sure they understand that they should explain something they inferred that was not directly written in the text. Students can use the book they are reading independently, in their reading group, or any Patricia Polacco text-you decide.

As an informational extension to the lessons, you have have students research Patricia Polacco. I did include a brief page and graphic organizer in the reading unit.

While teaching this Patricia Polacco author study, I check-out all the Patricia Polacco books available in the school library to make her books as accessible as possible to students. If you’d like to read more about how I teach reading to upper elementary students, be sure to check out this post!

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