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All aboard..... The complete sentence!

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We decided that we needed to do something about the frustrating fragments that often plague our third graders' writing.  Therefore, we started the school year by teaching the four types of sentences during Lang. Arts time.  Immediately after that, we tackled subjects and predicates. Slowly, our ideas started chugging.  When brainstorming, we often try to come up with some sort of visual that students can apply to a new concept.  We decided to try using a train analogy to teach subjects and predicates this year.  We could teach students to think of a complete sentence as a train, with the subject being the train's engine, and the predicate serving as the train's caboose. After the whole group lesson, the kiddos worked as a team to put subjects and predicates together( ocean theme of course ) Not  only did our third graders really seemed to enjoy the  subject   &   predicate  activities we did, we can honestly say that they really seem...
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Our Brains Are SOARING

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Our Brains Are Soaring!   Inside the Outdoors is a unique, hands-on environmental education program administered by the Orange County Department of Education.   Its mission is to empower kiddos, teachers, parents, and the community to explore natural areas and expand their knowledge, understanding, and stewardship of the environment. Inside the Outdoors curriculum is designed to support the current California state standards and allows students to interact with these concepts in a real world setting.   This year our class was able to be visited by this amazing group. This particular assembly was titled - FEATHERS. The kiddos  discovered what makes birds unique as they work cooperatively and visit different lab stations to learn about the natural history of birds. The Traveling Scientists even brought live birds to show the students their special adaptations.    After a quick introduction , vocabulary review, and rule review the students got to rea...
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1 scoop, 2 scoop.... What's the main idea?

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Topic, Main Idea, and Details:       Ice Cream   Topic, Main Idea, and Details is one comprehension skill that our students sometimes have a hard time with.. When asked for the main idea, they would usually give us a 1-2 details not main ideas.   The problem with most main idea resources is that they don’t teach students HOW To find the main idea; instead, the resources simply provide students with practice of a skill that they don’t really understand. And then students practice finding main idea in the wrong way and form misconceptions that can be very difficult to correct. Over the years, we've experimented with a variety of different ways to teach main idea and supporting details to our students. Below are the different strategies that we found most successful and that helped develop a TRUE understanding of main idea in my students. Teaching Main Idea: Start with the Title Teaching kiddos how to use a title to help them figure out the main idea of a reading p...
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