Part 1: Concept-Embedded Movement

[Pages:10]Part 1: Concept-Embedded Movement

The Synonym-Antonym Sidestep In advance of this activity, you will need to prepare a set of approximately 20 index cards, with a word pair written on each. The words in each pair need to be either synonyms or antonyms of each other. For example, possible synonym pairs could include great-excellent and happy-cheerful while possible antonym pairs could include up-down and hot-cold. With the cards scattered in a spot on the floor, face down, the students, in pairs, take turns coming up to the pile, turning over one card at a time, and reading their words aloud. If the words on the card are synonyms, the partners face each other, grab hands, and sidestep back to the end of the line. If the words are antonyms, the kids go back to back (facing opposite directions), grab hands, and sidestep back to the end of the line. As the game progresses, the idea is that the kids will associate the term synonym with the word same (because they're facing the same direction) and the term antonym with the word opposite (because they're facing the opposite direction).

The Jumping Game The Jumping Game is a variation of a West African dance a presenter shared at the orientation of the 2004 Cal Poly Elementary P.E. Workshop that I seem to be referencing every page or so. Upon learning the dance, my friend Stacey and I had a brainstorn, and within a few minutes we had created another way for students to learn synonyms and antonyms. The creation of this activity shows how quickly an idea can form once teachers begin thinking along these lines. Students begin by facing their partners. I then announce the "Go" word. Next, the kids jump up and down on two feet twice, and then stick out one leg. It's almost like playing rockpaper-scissors with feet. If the partners show opposite legs, they think of as many antonyms as possible for the "Go" word. If they show legs from the same side of their bodies, they brainstorm synonyms. Assume, for example that the first "Go" word is mean. The kids then jump once, jump twice, and show their feet. Those groups showing feet from the same side of their bodies would brainstorm synonyms, such as cruel, rotten, and unkind. Those groups showing feet from opposite sides of their bodies would brainstorm antonyms, such as friendly, kind, and nice. I generally give the groups about 30 seconds to think of their synonyms and antonyms before bringing everyone together for a quick whole class share, in which I check for accuracy, reinforce the meaning of the two terms, and compliment those students demonstrating excellent word choice. You may discover that The Synonym-Antonym Sidestep and The Jumping Game provide all the instruction your students will need to grasp the concept of synonyms and antonyms. As is the case with many of the other strategies shared in this book, these two activities may accomplish more in 15 minutes than a week's worth of paper and pencil work. Please don't get me wrong. Pencil and paper work is important. But, if we can accomplish better results, reduce time spent on paper and pencil tasks, address more learning modalities, increase class bonding and student self-esteem, and have more fun in the process, that's a win-win for everybody.

The Contraction Blues The Contraction Blues is one type of whole class letter card game that's played with students holding up cards containing letters of the alphabet. (One happy year a colleague of mine left a set of laminated letter cards cut in the shape of little bears up for grabs in the teachers' workroom, and upon discovering them, I could not believe my good fortune. Whoever left me those twenty-six wonderful creatures, thank you.) Sometimes students may need to share letters or be responsible for more than one letter, depending on class size. If you want to get tricky, you can also have separate cards for capital letters, apostrophes, periods, question marks, and other types of punctuation. (Noone ever left me those, so, as a result, I don't have any.) The Contraction Blues uses letter cards to help students better understand that when two words are contracted, one or more letters are taken away, and the resulting word is shorter than the two original words. For example, I start by calling out the words is and not. The students with those letter cards come to the front of the room and, standing shoulder to shoulder, spell out those words while leaving a space between them. One lucky student, known as the Contractor, then springs into action, determining which unlucky cardholder needs to sit back down because he's in possession of the letter that's dropped when is and not contract to form isn't and escorting that now unnecessary person off the stage. The holder of the o then sadly returns to his spot in the audience. I strongly recommend keeping tissues nearby to help the exiting student deal with the emotional pain of being contracted and cope with what we call, you guessed it, the Contraction Blues. Once that unpleasantness is behind us, the Contractor steps in between the n and the t and forms an apostrophe with her hand while the holders of the i and the s move closer to the others to eliminate the space that used to separate the two words. Now the class has a chance to see the contracted word isn't with the apostrophe in the right place and with the resulting contraction physically shorter than the two words that made it. I drive this point about the shortening of the words home repeatedly so the students understand the true meaning of the word contraction. Letter cards can, of course, be used for a variety of spelling games as well, though none tend to be as emotional as this one.

The Slouch Game Sure to become one of your kids' favorites, the Slouch Game begins with everyone seated in chairs. The purpose of the game is to help students distinguish between proper nouns (which require capital letters because they name specific people, places, and things) and common nouns (which don't require capitals because they don't refer to specific people, places, and things). During each round of the game, I call out a noun. If I say a proper noun, the kids approximate the height of a capital letter by sitting up super tall in their chairs. If I say a common noun, the kids approximate the height of a lower case letter by slouching. (For some reason this part of the game seems to come very easily to many children.) In the beginning of the game, I alternate between common nouns and their corresponding proper nouns in order to establish an easy-to-follow pattern, build student confidence, and give the kids a nice mini-workout. (It also cleans the chairs pretty well.) For example, I may start with the following words: city (slouch), Los Angeles (sit tall), school (slouch), Roosevelt School

(sit tall), team (slouch), Dodgers (sit tall). Once I have successfully created a false sense of security in the room, I break the pattern so that there is no reason or rhyme to the order of my nouns. During this time, I can quickly assess which students may need more follow up with these concepts. Consider the Slouch Game when students are learning other capitalization rules, as well. Having students adjust their posture in this manner and approximate the heights of capital and lower case letters with their bodies adds a kinesthetic dimension to your instruction that may make an important difference for those struggling to grasp the meaning of these types of nouns.

Place Value Hopscotch This activity helps students learn the names of the place value positions. In third grade we start with the ones place and progress to the ten thousands place, but this activity can easily be adapted to incorporate more or fewer places, as well as the places to the right of the decimal point. As students jump into each box, they call out the name of that box. For example, for the first three boxes the students call out "ones," "tens," and "hundreds." The next box is the double jump for the comma. The last two boxes are "thousands" and "ten thousands." The students repeat the sequence multiple times over a period of days. In an ideal world, four or five place value hopscotch courts would be painted on the playground of schools everywhere so students would gradually gain familiarity with these positions over time. If your school has these courts painted, that's awesome. If not, you can make some with sidewalk chalk or (if you have tenure, a solid reputation, and a strong relationship with your principal) paint. The more courts you make, the more turns students get, the less time they spend waiting, and the easier the activity is to manage. Should you want to stay inside, you can use tape to create courts on the floor or, even easier, simply draw the design of the court on the board and have the students call out the names of the positions as they hop from one part of the room to the other on "virtual hopscotch courts," either all at once or in shifts.

Place Value Jumping Jacks This activity reinforces the meaning of each place value position as well as the place value system as a whole. The students begin in the ones place and count from 1-10 as they do 10 jumping jacks. At "10" the kids wrap their arms around their bodies in a tight bearhug, simulating how ten ones come together to form a ten. Next, in unison the kids hop to the left, showing how the stick of ten must be moved from the ones place into the tens place. The kids then do ten more jumping jacks, this time counting by tens from 0-100. At "100" the kids again grab themselves, showing how ten tens become a hundred. This time the hug is a little wider because they're now holding 100 objects (such as popsicle sticks), not just ten The kids then hop to the left, showing how the hundred must be moved into the hundreds place. The pattern is repeated for as many positions as you wish. Instead of full jumping jacks, tired kids (and teachers) may do "half-jacks" by bringing their arms only to shoulders height. Extremely tired people may opt for "finger jacks."

The Multiplication Hula

This Hawaiian favorite works in tandem with the Sprinkler approach in situations where

kids need to multiply decimals or money amounts. Consider the following example.

$6. 1 8

x

3

Once students have completed the multiplication part of the problem with the Sprinkler System (ignoring the decimal point for the moment), they then use the hula to help place the decimal point in the correct spot. Many children will tend to bring the decimal point straight down because that's what they learned to do when adding and subtracting decimals, but they need to know that rule doesn't apply when multiplying decimals.

Instead, I instruct my students to start at the decimal point and "hula" to the right for every digit to the right of the decimal point. As I say this, I make little loops on the board, as you see in the example above. In this case, since there are two digits to the right of the decimal point, the kids should hula two times. Then, we physically drop our bodies straight down to show that we are now moving down to the bottom part of the problem, the product. Finally, starting on the far right side of the product, the kids hula back to the left the same number of times they hula'd to the right and then place the decimal point. I emphasize that the hula is a balanced dance and that however many times we hula'd to the right on top, that's how many times we need to hula back to the left on the bottom.

After I finish my explanation, I ask the kids to stand so we can practice this dance a few times. If you wear a Hawaiian shirt and play Hawaiian music in the background, you make this dance experience even more memorable. Later that day, when students go home and say they did the Sprinkler and the Hula in school, their parents won't have any idea what they're talking about, but you'll know they now know how to multiply larger numbers that involve decimals.

Coordinate Graphing The only real mistake students make when using ordered pairs to locate points on a grid occurs when they count up on the first number and then across on the second. Using the grid below, for example, if the ordered pair is (3,6), students would go up three spots and then across six, instead of the other way around and locate the pen rather than the stapler. In this activity students simply practice the proper "across, then up" sequence by retrieving objects that we place at various spots on a makeshift grid. Starting at point (0,0) on a grid, kids run across to the first number of a given ordered pair, stop on that number, turn left, and run up to the second part of the ordered pair to get to the object in question. Grids can easily be made with sidewalk chalk on the playground or tape on a classroom floor. If you're fortunate enough to have a large classroom rug with squares already outlined, then much of the work has been done for you. Once your grid is made, students line up at point (0,0), and then you give each child an object to locate (i.e., pencil, eraser, index card) on a specific ordered pair. As the kids are moving, I like them to repeat the numbers and the directions to strengthen the learning. Assume, for example, I give Kylie point (2,6) and ask her to bring me the marker I placed on that spot. I want her to call out "2 across" as she moves down the x-axis and "6 up" as she travels up the y-axis. Even though this activity moves quickly, students will still have to wait in line a few moments, but you can keep them engaged by having

them echo the words spoken by the person in the grid and cheering for one another as they correctly find the objects in question.

To reinforce further the proper order of the points, you and your students can use two simple arm movements. Using the ordered pair (5, 1) as an example, you can simultaneously chant "5 across" as you hold one arm parallel to the ground at chest level and chant "1 up" as you hold that arm perpendicular to the ground.

Part 2: Creating Novel, Memorable Stories

The Story of Perimeter The next two stories introduce important geometry concepts. Using these stories as "narrative entry points" and combining them with specific, novel physical movements will likely do more to aid student understanding of these concepts than several day's worth of paper-andpencil activities would do alone. "Once there was a boy named Peri. He was a bit unusual because he didn't seem to have any interests or hobbies. The only thing he seemed to do was walk around the outside edge of every place he visited. At school, he would walk around the border of the school. At home, he would walk around the outside edge of his room. His mom noticed her son's habit and shared her concern with Mr. Meter, Peri's father. He told her not to worry about it, but Peri's behavior continued. Finally, Mrs. Meter convinced her husband that Peri needed to be checked out by a doctor. So, after school the next day the three went to the doctor. As they waited for the doctor, Mr. Meter read a magazine, Mrs. Meter worried about her son, and Peri just walked around the border of the waiting room. In the examination room, once Peri stopped walking around it, the doctor determined that Peri was just fine and that the parents should simply leave him alone and take him to have a nice meal. The Meters did what the doctor instructed and brought him to his favorite restaurant, the Souplantation, where Peri avoided the food and did a series of laps around the salad bar. Peri enjoyed doing these laps, so the next day at school, he began walking laps around the track on the playground. His walking turned into jogging, and the Coach noticed Peri's talent. Eventually, Peri became a successful track runner and lived happily ever after. That is the story of Peri Meter." When I'm finished telling the story, I ask for volunteers who'd like to pretend to BE Peri Meter. By this point, as you can imagine, the kids are crawling all over themselves to have a shot at this opportunity. I then pick a popsicle stick and ask that student to go outside and reenter as Peri Meter. After the volunteer comes in, I then point to a nearby table and say, "Hello, Peri, check out our new desk." Our pretend Peri, who (hopefully) understands where I'm going with this, starts to walk around the table in true Peri Meter style. Everyone laughs, but this image of seeing Peri Meter walk around the outside edge of a table is burning into their memories, making our eventual transition to paper-and-pencil perimeter challenges relatively easy.

As time allows, I choose other volunteers to play the part of Peri Meter so that as many students as possible can experience the joy of walking around a table.

The Story of Area Here's the story of Area (Pronounced AH ? re ? uh). "Down the street from Peri lives another interesting individual, a young lady named Area. She didn't walk around places as Peri did; she liked to lie down on flat things and cover them completely. Luckily for her, she also had the ability to change the shape of her body so she could cover even the most unusual objects. At home, when her mother showed her the family's new rug, Area didn't say anything. She simply got on the floor and lied down on it. At school, when her friends played hopscotch at recess, Area didn't do any hopping. She lied down on the court. In class, when the teacher passes out place value mats so the kids could learn all the place value positions, you guessed it. Area lied on them. One day the family went shopping for a new bed for Area's little sister, who was ready to move out of her crib and into a new big-girl bed. For Area, the mattress store may as well have been a candy store. Her eyes lit up at the sight of all the brand new mattresses, and she went to lie down in every one of them. The store manager noticed Area, and went right to her mother. Expecting the manager to be upset, Area's mother was surprised to see that he couldn't stop smiling. "Ma'am," he said to her. "Your daughter has real talent. I have never seen anyone who lies down as well as she does. Why, she's a natural!" The manager then went on to hire Area as the store's new mattress inspector, and just like Peri Meter, she was able to use her skill and become a great success. She lived happily ever after." Once again, after I'm done sharing the story, I ask for volunteers who'd like to pretend to BE Area. Yet again, the kids are crawling all over themselves to have a shot at this opportunity. I then pick a popsicle stick and ask that student to go outside and re-enter as Area. The volunteer comes in, and I then point to a nearby table and say, "Hello, Area, check out our new desk." Our pretend Area, who knows exactly where I'm going with this, gets up on the table in true Area style. We all make a big deal about what a good job this student is doing, and probably for the only time in that child's academic career, (s)he will receive praise for lying down on the job. After a few more students take a turn being Area, we're then ready for a magical, pivotal moment. I ask one student to be Peri and another to be Area at the same time. With one student lying on the desk and the other walking around it, a powerful image is once again forming in kids' minds, helping them forever distinguish the two concepts that are so easily and so commonly confused for each other. With this story and movement experience about Area, we are once again ready to make an extremely smooth transition to paper-and-pencil work.

Part 3: Using Familiar Tunes as Piggyback Songs

"The Book Parts Song" (Sung to the tune of "The Addams Family")

The title page, table of contents, index, and glossary are four parts of a book that elementary students are frequently expected to learn. In my experience, children often confuse the index and the glossary, and they forget which parts are typically found in the front of books and which are found in the back. This snappy song should go a long way in clearing up this confusion. As the kids are singing the song, I like to hold up a sample textbook and display each of these parts while we are proceeding through the song. If I use post-it notes to make little tabs at the beginning of each of these sections, I can open to each part as it comes up in the song. If you have enough post-its, your students can do the same with their books. Finally, with this song and with many of the others that are relatively short, you may want to repeat the lyrics twice so the kids receive more practice with these ideas.

Turn to the front (snap, snap) Turn to the front (snap, snap) Turn to the front, turn to the front, turn to the front (snap, snap)

The title page contains / the author and the title Plus some other info / about how the book was made

The table of contents / shows the chapter names And the page numbers / on which the chapters start

Turn to the back (snap, snap) Turn to the back (snap, snap) Turn to the back, turn to the back, turn to the back (snap, snap)

The glossary is a / little dictionary with key words from the book / a-n-d what they mean

The ind - ex shows you / key terms from the book And the page numbers / where they can be found

"Now You're AOK" (AKA "The Division Terms Song") (Sung to the tune of "Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys)

Learning the names of each part of a mathematical equation doesn't have to be a dull, tedious exercise in rote memorization. Set to the tune of a Beach Boys classic, the following song will help students learn the following parts of a division equation:

? Dividend: the amount to be separated (or, as I like to say, "You always start with the stuff.")

? Divisor: either the number of parts in each group (if it's a grouping situation) or

the number of groups into which the dividend is separated (if it's a sharing situation)

? Quotient: either the number of parts in each group (if it's a sharing situation) or the number of groups into which the dividend is separated (if it's a grouping situation)

With a division sentence You need to know three terms

Start with the dividend It's what you share with friends

Next store's the divisor It shows the parts or groups

The quotient has the last say Now you're AOK

"You Get the Equal Sign" (AKA "The Equation Song") (Sung to the tune of "Love Potion #9" by the Searchers)

Consider the following multiple choice question.

A) 12 B) 5 C) 9

4 + 8 = _____ + 3

Many students will jump at choice A because seeing 4 + 8 will make them think the answer has to be twelve. The correct answer, of course, is 9 because we must take all parts of the equation into account, not just the first two numbers. Children who select A are neglecting to factor in the 3 next to the blank. These kids will benefit from viewing algebraic questions as a scale that needs balancing, where the left side, as a whole, needs to equal the right side, as a whole.

The following visual will help in this effort and should be on the board while the kids sing "You Get the Get Equal Sign," a song created to highlight this very concept.

4 + 8 = __9__ + 3

12

12

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