Students find cards with words on them (color code and have students work in groups) and bring them back to the group and build them into a sentence. This can focus on capitalization, punctuation and sentence structure.

Focus on one topic and come up with a question. Research that question and use the data to come up with a new question. Continue and talk with the students about where we end up.

Drawings

Lists

Can/have/are

Know/wonder/learn

...

Consider adding growth grades for certain assignments. Mastery is the goal, but growth is the path to get there.

Allow students to choose if they want to work independently (they understand the content and are ready to go), if they want to work with a partner (for a little extra support) or if they want to stay with me (reteach support).

(To the tune "If you're Happy...")

Bat and a ball, that's a b

Bat and a ball, that's a b

You can make a capital B,

erase the top and then you see,

the bat and the ball that's a b.

Separate chant

Seeeee (c) the d

Seeeee (c) the d

Students sit in groups of 2 or 3 with their backs facing one another. They spend a couple of minutes looking through their text for information (science, social studies, heart words, specific letters, etc) and when time is up, they turn around to the group and share what they found.