Prefix Task Cards

This past week my students and I worked on learning affixes-more specifically we focused on prefixes. Learning affixes in my classroom in previous year hasn't been the most exciting thing that we do. Every year, I would try a new way to present them and would do my best to make it more engaging and fun...so when I saw Rachel Lynette's Prefixes Suffixes and Roots Task Cards Set I knew I found the answer to my quest!

I printed the cards onto cardstock and laminated them. Then while my students were reading I hung the cards around the classroom. (My students were dying to know what the cards were for as I hung them.) The cards were hung on windows, bookshelves, tables, boards, doors, etc in random number order. After a short mini-lesson on prefixes I partnered my students up, gave them each a recording sheet and had them move around the room answering the task card questions together.
I gave them a few rules:
1. They were not to wait in line for a task card; with only 8 groups and 32 task cards there was no need to wait.
2. They had to discuss their answer with their partner and both be in agreement. (I didn't want one child doing all the work.)
3. They also both had to keep track of their answers.

My students loved the activity. My active boys loved it because they were up and moving. All of my students were on task and engaged throughout the entire activity. During this time I walked around and checked in with my kiddos that struggle. I was able help them talk through some of the task cards until they got the hang of it.

Some groups finished quicker than others so I had them correct their own work and then go back and recheck the cards that they missed (as time allowed.)

The task cards made learning prefixes a fun and exciting time. I'm thankful I bought the Task Card Bundle...I plan to use the Suffix set next week! If you haven't used Rachel's task cards before, be sure to check out other ways to use them here.

"Fishing" for Synonyms and Antonyms

By fourth grade most of my students have a decent understanding of synonyms and antonyms. They understand what they are and are able to give synonyms and antonyms for most everyday words. So that means it is my job to give them more challenging words to find synonyms and antonyms for so they continue to grow their vocabulary. To do this I pulled words from the read aloud that we just finished The Sign of the Beaver. If you haven't read it, it is a must read. My students both boys and girls love it! It leads to some wonderful discussions during Reading Workshop.

I created task cards using some of the key vocabulary words we learned during our book study and numbered the cards 1-21. Over the weekend I pulled out a few sets of the "Let's go fishin" game and numbered each of the fish with a number (hence the 21 question cards.) I broke my students into groups of 4 and had them go "fishing" When they caught a fish they had to answer the numbered task card correctly in order to keep the fish.

I'd love to say that everything went perfectly...but that wouldn't be entirely true. I didn't factor into account that some of my kids were "experts at fishing" and they began to get ALL of the fish, while others were working on their first "catch!" Thankfully, I was able to pause their playing and discuss what we could do to make the activity more fair for everyone. The kids and I brainstormed together and decided to have students fish until they caught one fish...they then waited until everyone in the group had a fish and then answered their question cards.

Once we established those ground rules the activity went well. My students really enjoyed the "fishing" aspect that decided which task card they had to answer.

While the activity helped reinforce synonyms and antonyms, it was a better lesson in learning how to work together and treat each other fairly. That is a lesson that is well worth the time it took to teach.