Contraction Surgery

We did some surgery on contractions today!! It was such a cute little activity that I found on Pinterest a few weeks ago, from The First Grade Parade, though I've found it all over the place since then.

I started with cut sentence strips. I wrote down different words that could form contractions: I am, do not, cannot, we will, they are, etc. I found some bright neon band aids at Wal-mart. I had the kids cut out the letters that the apostrophe takes the place of and replace with the band aid. Voila! Word Surgery!

The kiddos had a blast and really got into the work. I wrote "Dr. _______" on their band aids with sharpie, and they loved it.

Here's a pic!

Such a simple activity to complete. I hope this inspires you to do some word surgery in your classroom!!!

Jessica

Ice Cream Contractions

As promised, here is my Ice Cream Contractions game! It's so fun and makes me want to eat some ice cream!! Just print it out, laminate or you can cut it out and glue it on construction paper first, put it in a center, and go!!

This activity involves the students choosing the contraction form FROM the two words, rather than going from contraction TO the two words that make it up. I find that my students have trouble knowing which letters to take out and replace with an apostrophe. This way they can see it and choose it for themselves. 

 I hope you can make use of this game in your classroom. There is a recording sheet to go with it. 

Scoop up your game here :)

Jessica 

Here are the Common Core State Standards associated with this center: 

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.2.2c Use an apostrophe to form contractions and frequently occurring possessives.

Scoops and Cones

Don't you hate when you are looking for something and you can't find it??? 

Or you find it and it's the design you want but not the skill you are teaching??

It's happened to me more often than I would like, so I decided to create my own blank customizable sets of different things that I could use for a variety of lessons and skills and centers.

The other day we were working on contractions and using Contraction Jack, a center activity I found on TpT from the blog Sassy in Second. It was so cute and the kids loved it!! Anyway, I needed something to continue practicing and since we are in November now I had brainstorms of turkeys and feathers and Thanksgiving dinner and macaroni and cheese but I still wanted something that I could use throughout the year and not be specifically themed.

So I decided to make my own customizable and programmable center pieces.  For my first one, I created ice cream scoops, cones, and bowls using The Print Shop 3.0. I used the shapes creator to put the scoops together (they are made of circles and hearts!) and in the clip art files I found the cones and bowls. I made chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, sherbet, lime, mango, etc. scoops for all to enjoy!!

This is the first of many (I hope!) to come. I thought of lots of different things for which I could use ice cream scoops and cones.

Here's just a few ideas:
-number decompositions
-contractions
-sorting
-counting
-patterns
-rewards in classroom
-different ways to show numbers

The last on there I will be posting as a center game shortly. I will also post my Ice Cream Contractions game after I tidy it up a little. 

 Hope these can help you and inspire you to be creative!!!

Click here for your own set of ice cream cones and scoops!!

Thanks, 

Jessica