Using Dumb Charades to enhance unit related vocabulary

We played a game or Dumb Charades today; the difference was that the words given were not names of movies, but words related to the unit (design, weather, environment, shapes, money, government laws, culture, etc). There are basically the factors that impact the design and construction of a structure.

Contextual writing

The grade 5's were given a few picture books today and were asked to create a house in the setting of the book. They were given a choice to either write a descriptive essay or create a poem. The focus was use of adjectives and other descriptive language (simile, metaphor and personification).

 One group created their own club house; another group created a house in the 'whispering palms'. A third group described the house in an adventure story and the last group used their senses to add information to Abraham Lincoln's childhood home.

Transferring into symbols

We read the book 'The Greedy Triangle' by Marilyn Burns today and the students were asked to turn the story into symbols. This helped them understand the 'shift' between polygons and the revise the vocabulary.