Prefixes, Suffixes, Comprehension and the Leader in Me

Happy Thursday!! I hope you are all having a fabulous week. I had a great day yesterday with my 2nd-5th graders. In the upper grades we are doing a ton of STAAR test prep...not the most fun but ya gotta do it! 

I did notice with my 4th graders that they had no idea what an affix was! I couldn't believe it. In fact, it irked me a little because I taught many of these 4th graders when they were in second and I KNOW for a fact that we introduced prefixes and suffixes to them. ARGH! That's ok, poor babies have so much thrown at them. 

Seeing this, I thought we might need a little refresher! So we discussed the basics of prefixes and suffixes. I made some base word and affix cards for them to create words with. We used flap books to record 4 prefixes and 4 suffixes. On the inside flap we wrote the meaning of the affix and recorded some words with that affix in it. The kids liked the change of pace and had something to take with them for review.

You can pick up the flap books and word cards here.

With my second graders we reviewed that good readers think while they read. The kids read an expository passage about grizzly bears. They recorded their thinking on sticky notes while they read. After reading, we shared sticky notes and sorted them on an anchor chart. We sorted the sticky notes by comprehension skills. We did this to review some basic comprehension skills: making predictions, asking questions, making inferences and drawing conclusions. 

In their reader's notebooks they glued in their "Good Readers Ask Questions" pocket along with sentence stems for asking questions. I blogged about this on Monday if you want to pick that file up or read more.

I introduced a new passage to them about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They used a flap book to record questions before and during their reading. We had to stop there because we ran out of time. Next time, they will finish reading and record questions after they read the entire passage. I also created a comprehension check for them. So we will be digging deep into expository text in the next few days.

Oh and just for fun I wanted to include some cute "Leader in Me" ideas I saw. One of the teachers did a lesson about being a leader and doing kind things. She had the kids record ways they are leaders and turned it into a heart. How cute!

Another teacher created a rock climbing wall. On each step the kids recorded their goals. How cool is that?! I loved it.