Trade and Grade with Ms. Landers' Class

For this month's Trade and Grade I hooked up with Kim Lander from Splish Splash Ms. Lander's Class.

I had the privilege to review her Splish! Splash! An Ocean Unit. Oh my goodness this package is amazing!!!!

This package is over 100 pages of AWESOME!!! Kim starts off this unit by giving you a variety of CAN/HAVE/ARE Graphic Organizers for many different ocean creatures, Titles for the Anchor Charts, and Venn Diagrams. 

To begin this unit we brainstormed as a class the different types of creatures that live in the ocean. Many of the creatures that we brainstormed, were included on in Kim's Ocean Life unit.

Language Centres

Kim includes 3 Language centres for your students to work through. My kiddos absolutely loved the centres.

Centre #1: Fishy Wish

In this centre students sorted the different words by deciding whether the -sh sounds was in the beginning, middle or end of the word. 

What I Love

I love the fact that Kim included 20 words in this centre. It is the perfect number, not too many, it's just right. I like that each card included the word as well as the visual to help my little readers. It allowed everyone to be successful at this centre which is key! I also love that Kim included a page for students to write the words down in the correct column. 

Centre #2 Whale's Tail

We have been talking a lot about word families lately, and how sometimes a word that rhymes doesn't always have the same spelling. So this was the perfect centre to reinforce this concept with my students. In this centre students worked together to sort the words by their ending (-ale and -ail)

What I Love 

Again, I loved that Kim included beautifully clear pictures (clip art) that helped students determine what the words were. Some of these words, my students were not familiar with i.e. quail, but the majority of them were able to figure it out by using their "Eagle Eyes" and the fact that it was a rhyming word. 

Centre #3 Alphabetical Order

In this centre students put the adorable ocean word cards in ABC order. This was the favourite centre for most of my class. 

What I Love 

I love that this activity can be differentiated for different learners in my class. Kim included 28 words which allowed me to pick the the words I wanted my students to work on. I chose to use 20 words with my kiddos. But, she also includes sheets for 12 and 24. I also appreciate that she included the visual for each of the words.

Math Centres

So not only does Kim include 3 great Language Centres but she also includes 3 amazing math centres as well! 

Centre #1 Swimming Into Place Value

This game was one of my students' favourites. Students pick a card make that number out of base ten blocks, then they spin the spinner to add or subtract a number. Students determine the answer by deciding if they need to regroup.

What I Love

We have been working on place value so this was the perfect activity to consolidate their learning. Kim includes 2 options for this game, both addition and subtraction. Again a perfect opportunity for differentiation. Some of my students played the addition game and some of my students decided to play the subtraction game. 

Centre #2 Comparing Numbers

In this activity students flip over two cards. They then compare whether the number is greater than, less than, or equal to. The cards that Kim included have a variety of number representations, i.e. base ten, tens frames, addition sentences to 20 and the numbers.

What I Love

I love that Kim included different representations for the numbers. This activity was great for building number fluency. My students especially loved the adorable clam shells that they used to show less than, more than, and equal to.

Centre #3 Beach Time

In Beach Time students match the half past analog clock to the digital clock and then record their answers.

What I Love

I loved that the students were not overloaded with cards to match. Half past is one of the hardest times for most of my students, so I love that they are just practicing the half past. I also like how this game encourages students to self check.

Overall Things That I Love

• I love how easy it was to set up. Print, Cut, Laminate and  Play. 
• I love that her instructions have graphics so the students can figure out what to do themselves. 

• I love that all of her math centres are multi-strand! Which is great for review and consolidation.
• I love that she included a book list to help getting us started with the unit. I also appreciate that many of them were books that my students could read themselves.

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Trade and Grade Time!

What is “Trade and Grade” you ask? It’s an amazing idea created by my friend Amanda from The Primary Gal. This month, instead of hosting a “Free-For-All”, as she has in the past, Amanda decided to have a blog hop. But not just any blog hop, each blogger was buddied up with a blogger friend and TPT author who teaches a similar grade. We then TRADED and GRADED each other’s work.

I was lucky enough to be buddied up with Abbey from A Teacher Mom. I was super excited to be working with Abbey since, we both teach first grade and we both LOVE to use games as a learning tool in our classrooms. I always think it’s neat that even though we are from different countries, (I’m from Ontario, Canada and Abbey is from Massachusetts, USA) we still have so much in common.

I had the opportunity to use Abbey’s “Blends Phonics Games Pack”. It has a great spring theme. I don’t know about you…but enough of the polar vortexes and snow, I need some spring in my life!

What I loved about this games pack was that there were five main activities. The activities were easy enough that my students could figure them out quite easily. My students found them engaging and fun. This games pack gave the students an opportunity to practice reading words with blends or digraph blends at the beginning or end of the word.

Since I had five activities to try out, I broke my students into groups of four or five students and had them rotate through the activities, throughout the week during their working with words time.

A little about the games.

1. Bingo

 Each student received their own Bingo board. The students took turn flipping over the umbrella cards. If they had that card on their board they would place a counter on it. The first person to create a line vertically, horizontally or diagonally won the round. The students also played until someone covered their entire board.

What I loved about this game was that my students were totally engaged and that the game encouraged them to read the words on their board.

2. Memory

 Note to self: Read the directions. Make sure you make two copies of the cards or your students will never be able to make matches. Can you guess what I did? :S This game is played like memory. Students take turns flipping two cards. If they match they get to keep them. Don’t forget to encourage your students to read the words on the card.

What I loved about this center: I loved that it was a familiar game, and that it didn’t require a lot of supervision allowing me to focus more on the other groups.

3. Build and Spell-a-Word

This was by far my students’ hardest, but most favorite game. Students use the cards to build words. They then add up how many points each word is worth. My students then recorded their words and how much they were worth on the table. We ended up making a class table as well so students could record their word that was worth the most. Notice the phonetic spelling? LOL.

What I loved about this center is that the game aspect of it encouraged them to problem solve, to figure out which word was worth the most. I also loved how students worked together to create words that were worth more points.

4. I Have…Who Has…With Blends

My students played this game in small groups, but it could easily be played with the whole class. In their small groups the students formed a circle and received 4 or 5 cards that they placed in front of themselves. They then tried to see if they could work together to solve the “I have…Who has…” puzzle.

What I loved about this game is that it encouraged everyone to participate and to practice reading the blends.

5. Real and Nonsense Word Sorts

This was also another of my students favourite games. My students worked together to sort the words into “Real” or “Nonsense” words. The students thought some of the nonsense words were really funny sounding.

What I loved about this game is that it created some debate between the students over whether a word was real or made up. We had a resounding debate about the word “gust”. Some of the group was pretty sure it was a real word, but they weren’t positive and others in the group felt it was a nonsense word. The students decided to ask SIRI if it was a real word or not. (I thought that was pretty brilliant.)

Abbey from Teacher Mom has provided a sample of her games.

 You can check out the full version. 

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