Shake It Up, Baby!!

I started using The Daily 5 in my Grade 3 class last autumn, and although I loved it, there was a fair amount of prep work to get started on it.  When it came to the word work activities I followed the suggestions of others online and in the school, and was basically pleased with how most of it worked.  Now that I have a bit more time on my hands and some experience using the program, I know that one of the areas that I really want to make some changes to is the my Shake-It bottles.  Last year the kids had fun with them, but they were basically just searching for a list of words in the bottle.  I wanted to incorporate more written work with this, so I went on a hunt!  I was not disappointed when I came across the Springtime Compound Word shaker bottle at Sunny Days in Second Grade.  I didn't waste time putting it (and her synonym and antonym bottles) together, and tested them out in a friends class.  They were a hit, the kids loved them and they actual showed evidence of learning!  Be sure to check out the Sunny Days site, its jam packed with easy to create ideas!

The ideas I got from there inspired me to create two more Shake-It activities to be introduced during the new school year.  The first was a Back to School Shake-It and I'm very happy with how it came out.  I'm blessed with 2 testers of just the right age in my own home to try things out before they go LIVE at school, and they have given it a thumbs up!

Since I plan to use this with The Daily 5 program, and Word Work is the last area I introduce, I kept it simple.  The kids will only have a week or so to work with it, and since it is the first they will be doing this sort of activity, I wanted to keep it fun and engaging.  So, the words in the bottle are the words they need to find on a Back to School Word Search.

My second Shake-It idea of the day was sparked by a fellow teacher who was complaining that she needed to instruct a small group of her students on identifying verbs and adverbs.  However, because of the range of abilities in her class, she simply didn't have time to waste on a full lesson that they wouldn't all be engaged in.  So, I thought to myself...we need a Shake-It for that!  From there, the Add an Adverb bottle was born.  The bottle itself has 10 adverbs in it and the worksheet has 8 verbs.  Students need to decide which adverb to pair with the verb and then draw a picture to illustrate it.  Some of the ideas my daughter came up with were "accidentally swimming" and "sadly sleeping".  She spent a good chunk of pre-dinner time giggling to herself as she created her illustrations, and giggles are always a good sign!

If you think you can use them, both these activities are available for purchase in my TPT store.  I plan to keep creating so I can keep rotating them in and out during the school year, so stay tuned for more!