Reading

Characters

How well do students understand a main character? Why not find out! Ask each child to choose a vacation destination for the character based on what he knows about the character’s likes and dislikes. Then instruct the student to “pack” a vacation suitcase for the character. To do this, he folds a 9" x 12" sheet of construction paper in half. Then he unfolds the paper, cuts a handle shape from a scrap of construction paper, and glues the handle to a short end of the larger paper. Next, he cuts out magazine pictures or illustrations he’s drawn and glues them on the construction paper, avoiding the fold line. When the glue is dry, he refolds the paper. He makes a suitcase tag from construction paper and personalizes it for the character. Then he attaches the tag to the vacation bag and embellishes the bag with desired details. Be sure to set aside time for students to share the vacations they envision for the character. You can quickly assess each child's understanding of the character’s traits and interests.

Math

Measuring Length

Give students plenty of measurement practice with this center.

Materials:

• 4½" x 6" construction paper rectangles (one per child)
• ruler

A child draws a car in the upper left corner of her paper and then draws a small house in the lower right corner. She uses her ruler to measure and draw lines connecting the car to the house as shown. She adds the measurements together and writes the total on the back of her paper.

Print-and-Use Cards

In The Swim

Program each of several copies of the piranha cards with a Greek or Latin root and its meaning. Next, program copies of the fish cards with words containing each root. A student matches the words to their roots. Then he lists each word on a two-column chart, uses the root to predict the word's meaning, and records it in the second column.