A Simple Activity for Story Elements Practice

Are you looking for a fun way for students to practice retelling fictional texts? I have the PERFECT activity I use to work on story elements in an engaging way. Students play a dice game to answer various comprehension questions. Read on to find out how I use this activity with my students!

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What is Roll-a-Retell?

Roll-a-Retell is a dice game for comprehension practice. Students roll a dice and answer a question that corresponds to the number they rolled. They can answer the question orally or in a written response.

Setting up the Activity

Decide which comprehension skills you would like to focus on with the activity. Some suggested skills include: retelling, character analysis, story elements, making connections, and theme.

Create 6 questions stems for each skill you'd like to include. You can easily differentiate the activity by the skills and difficulty level of the questions you use. You may want to scaffold the questions and increase difficulty based on the number. (Think Bloom's Taxonomy). For example if you're working on characters, a #1 question could be "Who was the main character" while a #6 question could ask "Would you be friends with the main character? Why or Why not?" After students are familiar with the activity they can create their own questions!

Choose a way to display the questions to students. You may want to create a visual for your literacy centers or on a bookmark. Digital options could be showing it on your board or with a QR Code for students to access the questions.

Before implementing the activity, decide how you would like students to respond. If they're responding orally you will not need to prep anything. But if you opt for a written response you need to decide how that will look. Some options for recording their responses are: in their Readers Notebooks, on plain notebook paper, white boards, or a specific recording sheet. I prefer using a recording sheet so I can collect it. This allows me to informally assess their comprehension as well as holds them more accountable for their work. 

Ways to Implement the Activity

Guided Reading

This is my students' favorite activity to do during guided reading! After we finish reading a fiction story, we use a Roll-a-Retell game board to answer comprehension questions about the text. I select questions based on the skills that we are targeting within our group. It's a fun and easy way to informally assess students' comprehension of the text. Plus it's engaging and changes things up a bit for the students.

Literacy Centers

Students can work with a buddy to complete this activity during centers. They can each read an individual book or read a book together. After finishing the book(s), the students take turns rolling the dice. You may opt to have students orally respond to the questions or have them write down their answers. 

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**Tip for Centers Setup!**

I love using 2-sided frames for centers. It is easy to print off directions and keep at the table where students are completing the centers activity. For the Roll-a-Retell activity, I place the questions I want students to answer in the frame. Super simple way to keep things organized!

Independent Reading

Students can also complete this activity during independent reading. After they read a fiction book, they can answer comprehension questions about the story. This is the perfect opportunity for reading response in students' Readers Notebooks.

Click to download the boards I use!

Have you used the Roll-a-Retell activity with your students? Share your tips for implementing this or similar activities in the comments below!

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Sight Word Flash Card Games

Sight words are a crucial part of reading for all students, especially those in kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade. If students have a solid base of sight word knowledge, it anchors their reading and allows them to focus more on decoding unknown words in text. But how do teachers help build students' sight word vocabulary? Here are some games I love using during centers and guided reading groups to increase students' number of known sight words.

Poke! Sight Word Game

This game is my students' FAVORITE. They constantly beg me to play just "one more round" which turns into a couple more rounds since it's a quick game.

In order to prepare the game, I print off the sight word flash cards that the students are currently working to master. I also print multiple Poke! cards. 

To play, I show the students in a group one flash card at a time. If they can read the word quickly and correctly, they get to keep the card. If they read it incorrectly or hesitate to read it, then the next student gets a turn to earn it. BUT don't get the Poke! card or you'll lose all of your cards to the player beside you. This part is their favorite and always leads to lots of laughs!

Go Fish

In order to play this game, I print two copies of each sight word that students are working to master. They play this game using the typical Go Fish rules. Students take 5 cards and try to make matches. Student 1 asks Student 2 for a specific sight word. If Student 2 has the card, they hand it to Student 1 to make a match. If Student 2 does not have the card he/she says "Go Fish" and Student 1 draws from the pile. Students continue alternating turns until no cards remain. The winner is the student with the most matches. 

Another fun alternative to the game is letting students literally fish for sight words! Add a paperclip to each sight word and place them in a shallow container or on the ground. Attach a magnet to the end of string on a pencil to use as a fishing pole. Students can either fish to find matching flash cards or work to collect sight words that they can read correctly.

Memory Match Game

This game also requires you to print two copies of each sight word you want students to practice. Students lay all of the flash cards face down to begin the game. They take turns selecting 2 cards in order to find matching sight words. If they find a match, they get to go again. The game continues until all matches have been found. The winner is the student with the most matches. Make sure to have students orally read the cards they select for additional practice.

Slapjack

Slapjack is another simple sight word game I play with my students. All of the flash cards are placed in a pile face down. I flip a card over one at a time. If a student knows the word, they quickly slap it with their hand. The student who slaps the word first, gets a chance to earn the card by correctly reading it. If they're incorrect, the next student gets a chance to earn the word. I also like to sneak some of the Poke! cards as an additional challenge. They do not want to slap the Poke! card because it means they lose all of their cards. 

Another version of this game is to lay all of the cards on the table face up. The teacher says one of the sight words and the students have to be the first one to find it. If they find it first, they get to keep the card. The game continues until all cards are gone and the winner is the student with the most cards. You can have students slap the words with their hands, pointers, flyswatters, or any other fun tools you may have!

Sight Word Games Implementation

Literacy Centers

This is an easy literacy center you can use! Once you teach students the games, they can play them independently. I print off different cards throughout the year based on what students are currently working to master. I also have different thematic flash card sets that I alternate each month as a way to change it up.

Sight word games that can be used ALL YEAR!

I also keep the flash cards at various centers for additional activities. For example, at word work center students select a flash card and practice writing that sight word using magnetic letters, rainbow writing, letter tiles, etc. 

Guided Reading

I play a sight word game at the end of my guided reading groups. It's a fun and quick way to practice reading the sight words. I use the flash cards of the words that group is currently working on mastering. It also serves as a quick informal assessment of the sight words students already know or are still learning.

Fast Finishers

As a classroom teacher, I always kept several sets of sight word flash cards available. Students knew that if they finished their work they could play one of our sight word games with a buddy. It was a simple way for students to independently practice sight words.

Parent Volunteers

At our school, we are fortunate to always have a lot of adult volunteers. These volunteers are dads in our Watch Dogs Program, copy moms, and high school teacher cadets. By having sets of sight word games always available, I can easily have the volunteer play a game with a group of students. It requires NO additional prep and I'm always ready on the days I have a volunteer show up that I wasn't expecting!

Assessment

Practicing sight words through games is one aspect of mastery, but it is also crucial for us to assess students' progress. You may be interested in checking out my corresponding blog post about assessing sight word mastery where you can download another FREEBIE!

Sight Word Flash Cards FREEBIE

Are you interested in implementing these sight word activities with your students? Be sure to download this freebie to start playing the games in your classroom! 
(It includes the PrePrimer set from my July flash cards game.)

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Download this resource and other freebies by submitting the form below. By doing so, you'll gain access to the FREE Resource Library as well as additional tips for your literacy instruction!

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Do you play sight word games with your students? Do you already play versions of these games or different ones not mentioned? Share your experiences with sight word games in the comments below!

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Escaping from State Testing Stress

State Standardized Testing is unavoidable for educators each spring. As much as we strive to teach our students to be critical thinkers and lifelong learners, the reality is we still have to prepare them to also be test-takers. This time of year can be very stressful for students and teachers. BUT that doesn't have to be the case. We can avoid testing stress by bringing an element of FUN when preparing students for the test. One way I managed to do that was by creating an Escape Room for my students to review various reading skills. 

When preparing for the Escape Room, I analyzed the results from their test simulations to identify the skills with which the students would benefit from additional review. I created 4 stations for students to practice these skills.

Main idea and supporting details are always skills that my students find difficult. In this station they were able to practice both using main idea mazes. On one side they were given a main idea: Tornadoes are very dangerous storms. They needed to color in the supporting details for that main idea. By doing so they created a path to take our school mascot back to our school. The opposite side was the inverse of the first activity. The students were given supporting details and they needed to identify the main idea.

ABC Order is a skill that quite often is missed on tests due to students not taking their time. They know how to alphabetize, but make simple mistakes. This station required them to put 2 sets of words into ABC order. 

Questions requiring students to identify guide words are ones my students frequently miss on tests. What better way to review than through authentic practice using dictionaries? In this station, students had to locate 3 words in the dictionary (timid, anxious, nervous) and write down the corresponding guide words. They then needed to write a sentence for each one as they benefit from the exposure to new vocabulary words. A sentence frame was provided to support students with this task: She/He is ____ because _______.

Similar to the dictionary station, students need authentic practice using a thesaurus. My students tend to have limited vocabulary and need exposure to new words. This way a great way to introduce them to new words and provide additional practice distinguishing between synonyms and antonyms. For this task, they needed to identify 2 synonyms for 2 given words (cruel, fearful) and find 2 antonyms for 2 other words (miserable, foolish).

After successfully completing each task, the students were given letters. Their last challenge was to unscramble the letters to find out the secret password. 

WE GOT THIS! 

I chose this as the secret password to give students a boost of confidence before state testing and remind them that they CAN do anything! It is also encouraging for teachers to know that we can make it through standardized testing also!

Of course, breaking out of an Escape Room wouldn't be complete with out a photo opt! The students definitely had fun with the signs!

For more inspiration to help you embrace an innovative mindset that allows you to create engaging and memorable experiences for your students, check out this book:

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What are some ways you escape from state testing stress? Do you have any fun ways you help prepare students for standardized tests? Comment below with your ideas!

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Kahoot!: Interactive Online Learning Game

With state standardized testing quickly approaching, I wanted to share one of my favorite ways to review skills: Kahoot! This is a fun, interactive game that my students LOVE to play! 

In order to play you must have access to electronic devices (iphones, ipads, kindles, etc). When you set up an account online you can search through thousands of already created Kahoots or create your own. You can find premade Kahoots on just about every subject/skill! You also have the option of previewing the Kahoot before trying it with your students.

Now that we know how to select a Kahoot... let's learn how to PLAY!

Once you have picked a Kahoot, select the PLAY button next to it. That will bring up a screen similar to the one above. It will provide the game pin. Students should go to kahoot.it on their devices to enter the game pin. They will then be prompted to create a nickname. Once all students have logged in, select START to begin the game!

Above is an example of what the game will look like to you and your students. On the left, is an example of a question that will be displayed on your SmartBoard. The picture on the right shows what the students will see in order to select their answers. There may be a timer such as the purple circle on the left. Once all students have answered or the timer runs out, the correct answer will be revealed. You'll be able to see how many students picked each answer, which is definitely good information for you! The leaderboard with the top scores will also be displayed between each question. That feature is highly motivating to students! It is also nice that it doesn't rank all of the students (unless it's a small group), so no one gets embarrassed by a low score. Having unidentifiable nicknames also helps keep student anonymity. 

Most of the quizzes are multiple choice; however, a new game option is now available called Jumble! In this version, students are required to put the answers in the correct sequence instead of just selecting the correct answer. I have not tried this option yet but am definitely excited about it!

That's the basics about Kahoot. It's very easy to set up and play. Plus it is a fun learning game that involves ALL students!

What are you waiting for? It's time to have fun and play Kahoot!!

Have you tried Kahoot with your students? I'd love to hear your experiences. Are there other interactive review games you play? Please share them in the comments!

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