Your green pages: 55 skill-building activities you can use right now!

Teaching Pre K-8, Oct 2003 by Swartz, Elizabeth

Romans Rule!

46 MATH/READING/VOCABULARY Introduce some new vocabulary by writing the words' definitions on the board, along with a Roman numeral telling the students on which page in their books they will find that word. Ask students to match the definition beside the Roman numeral with the correct word from the text. Review math and scanning while introducing some new words. The scavenger hunt feel will spur the readers on!

Last-Minute Division

47 MATH While students wait for a bell to ring, use those few extra minutes to do a little extra math practice. Have a student roll dice to come up with a divisor. Choose another student to select any number between 1-100, then have all the students divide the problem on paper or call on some students to go to the board.

Which Web?

48 SCIENCE/ART While teaching a unit on spiders, have students research different kinds of spider webs and how spiders use them. Then invite the children to use black paper and white yarn to make demonstrations of spiral, triangle, tangled and funnel webs. Students can then make a replica of the proper kind of spider to place in each web or download photographs of the appropriate spiders during online research.

Look Around

49 PERCEPTION Read the following poem and discuss point of view. Have students add to this poem with their own perceptions of things around them.

Point of View

Does a fly call me a walk?

or a lark listen to me talk?

In the eye of the elephant

is my nose much too scant?

by Muriel Mandell

Popular Pages

50 READING/WRITING October is Children's Magazine Month. You can celebrate by asking your students to bring in their favorite magazines and write a paragraph about why these magazines are their favorites. Make a bar graph of the class' favorite magazine.

Moving On

51 READING/WRITING Many of our students have experienced all the changes that come with moving from one house to another. Read together the following poem, then discuss how the descriptions help the reader to picture the house. Invite students to write poems about their own houses, using descriptive words mixed with their personal memories. Students can make illustrations of their own homes to accompany the poems.

House For Sale

We're leaving soon; it's hard to do.

Good-bye, Old House. I'll think of you

Your squeaky door swung open wide;

You greeted friends who trooped inside.

Your breezy windows let me hear

Blue jay's cry and robin's cheer.

Your cozy kitchen felt so snug;

My bedroom wrapped me like a hug.

I'll miss your halls, your sunny rooms.

But your new family moves in soon.

Good-bye, Old House. I'll miss you so.

We're all packed up. It's time to go!

by Heidi Roemer

Step By Step

52 RESEARCH/SOCIAL STUDIES Have your students make a topographical map of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Divide the class into groups and assign each group a different part of the journey. Research the supplies Lewis and Clark took with them and the manner in which the landscape was traversed.

Far and Wide

53 HISTORY/RESEARCH The Lewis and Clark expedition had farreaching effects on our nation. Have students do research at the website of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation at www.lewisandclark.org and the website of the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial at www.lewisandclark200.org to find out what those effects were. Have a class discussion about what our nation might be like today, if the Lewis and Clark expedition had never occurred.