AT Tip 7 - Holiday Fun

It's the season of holidays, celebrations, family gatherings, and (hopefully) some time off, so my tip #7 is about having fun. For young children there are several fun web sites:

1. Christmas Stuff: HelpKidzLearn has a fun Advent Calendar - also look at their "Stories", "The Snow Family" is very cute.
2. Hanukkah stuff: (unfortunately there are adds on this site) - Apples 4 the teacher has Hanukkah Activities.
   
3. Kwanzaa stuff: Apples 4 the teacher also has some interactive Kwanzaa Activities.

For older students - Explore Drawing tools in Word
It's fun to explore the Drawing Toolbar and drawing tools in Microsoft Word. Exploration is a great way to learn new skills, and it's painless. Try creating an image or design and write an acrostic poem to go with it.

Word Art is another way to express ideas creatively.




Explore and enjoy this holiday season.
-Sheri

AT Tip 6 - Write Lists

Quick and Easy (no prep)- Writing Lists
Since many of our students find writing difficult, making lists of things is a great way to get some writing practice without the pressure of perfect sentences and flawless paragraphs. Making lists also gives students the opportunity to focus on generating ideas. In the book, “Becoming Naomi Leon” by Pam Munoz Ryan, the main character keeps a vast notebook of lists. She lists everything from “Things I Am Good At” to “Superb Spanish Words”.
Here are some ideas for writing lists:

1. Emergent and Early Writers – Classroom Suite – I have created some list making activities; students can click on word buttons to make lists. Number buttons can add numeration and counting to the activity. You’ll find list writing in: Instructional Classrooms > Literacy > Writing > Write Lists:

• Color List
• Green Things List
• List of Favorites
• Pet List
• Shapes List
• Zoo Animal List

2. Here are List Ideas for Intermediate Writers:

• Things I Am Good At
• Splendid words list – use the Dictionary & Thesaurus available in Word for this list
  
• Animals: categories of pets, zoo, farm, forest….
• Forms of Transportation
• Books I've read or Books I’d like to read
• Favorites: foods, places, things to do
• Places I've been
• Games I've played
• States
• Family members
• Movies
• Winter things
• Things I know how to do
• Names of pets
• Things I need to do before winter break (that’s the list I’m working on).

-Sheri

AT Tip 5 - Writing!

There's a lot to be said on this topic, but I'll keep this short and (hopefully) sweet.

1. For Emergent and Early Writers –
Experience with text and daily opportunities to write are crucial to developing literacy skills. All students can learn to express themselves through writing, although some may use nontraditional methods. Here are some ideas for non-traditional and emerging writers:

• Letter play (see list of web site letter activities in AT Tip 4)
• Use regular or onscreen keyboard (Classroom Suite) for free writing exploration, invented spelling, and writing name.
• Use talking text feedback (Classroom Suite) – students hear letters (& words) spoken as they type.
• Write with word banks or phrase banks – Classroom Suite.
• Use word prediction.
• Write for a variety of purposes: here are some

∆ Make lists of colors, people, pets, foods, or anything.
∆ Write about a picture, an event, a personal experience.
∆ Retell a story from a book read in class - using pictures and words.
∆ Journal – Today in school I ...
∆ Fill in blanks to complete sentences or write a story - Wacky Web Tales (Mad Libs)


2. For Students Writing Paragraphs and Extended Responses
Students, who are struggling to write Paragraphs and multiple paragraphs, may find word-processing less frustrating than a pencil and paper. Keyboarding is an important skill at this stage of writing (District 97 Custom Typing information)
• Lessons in Microsoft Word

• Formatting a document (Basic Formatting in Word, presentation in Word Handouts)
• Editing in Word (Editing in Word, tutorial in 'Word Handouts') – a presentation which can be viewed in QuickTime (as a movie) or opened in PPT.

-Sheri