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Gifted Seminar

Language Arts Plans and Activities - English

Materials for each student:

2 strips of light colored construction paper
1 sheet of white drawing paper

Materials for class:

2 grocery bags, one labeled subjects, and the other labeled predicates

Procedure for students:

1. Write a detailed, descriptive who or what part of a sentence on one strip and place it in the subject bag.
   
2. Write in detail what the subject did, and place it in the predicate bag.
   
3. Shake up the bags and, without looking, students will randomly grab a strip from each bag.
   
4. Paste the resulting sentence on the bottom of the drawing paper.
   
5. Draw a picture of the sentences.

Contributed by Lyn

Human Scrabble

On old recipe cards copy the tiles of a scrabble board, points included.

1. The recipe cards are shuffled and one is laid face down in front of each student (No peeking!)

2. Everyone turns over their card and has 60 seconds to spell a word by finding others with necessary letters. NOTE: no trading allowed.

3. Students sit in a row on the floor showing their letters so the word can be read NOTE: each student must keep their own card.

4. Students return the cards to be reshuffled.

SCORE KEEPING: As in scrabble.

• Double and triple score words for special theme topics (e.g. spelling list words = score x 3, Christmas theme words score x 2, etc..)
  
• Each student forming the word receives the points.

Adjective and Noun Review

a. Fold notebook paper into thirds, vertically, creating three long columns.

b. Head the first two columns "adjectives" and the third "nouns".

c. Print the letters of the alphabet down the paper, along the extreme left side.

d. Fill in the columns with appropriate words. (Children may use a thesaurus or dictionary if they want to.)

e. Create a class list.

f. Using their own initials, have children draw a picture of the corresponding adjectives and nouns.

Example - initials are H. H. K - the adjectives listed are happy and huge...... the noun listed is kangaroo. The drawing would be of a huge kangaroo with a smile.

Post on a bulletin board titled "Guess Who?"


Contributed by Harriet

To demonstrate the need for exact language with which to communicate effectively, and to encourage students to use specific detail in their speech and writing, this exercise is great!

You will need 12 sheets of paper with simple designs on them. Begin the experiment by having the class define communication. Ask what elements are necessary for human communication:

1. one person to send a message
   
2. one person to receive the message
   
3. the message itself

Ask for a volunteer to be the sender, another to be receiver, and have the rest of the class get out a piece of scratch paper. The sender is to stand in the back of the class at all times. The sender must turn around so that his/her back is to the rest of the class, and so s/he can't see the chalkboard. Sender will have one of the designs that must be kept out of the sight of all of the students. (a file folder works best so that s/he may "peek" from time to time)

Sender will give directions to the receiver, whose task it is to reproduce the design on the chalkboard as s/he interprets the directions. The sender is not allowed to see how the design is progressing. After each direction is given, the sender should signal to the receiver that the direction is done by saying "GO".

The receiver does whatever s/he thinks s/he has been told to do. Receiver's speech is restricted to one utterance - "OK". After receiver has received an instruction and carried it out, s/he says "OK" to let the sender know s/he is ready for the next direction. Receiver cannot get any help from the rest of the class, and cannot ask the sender for any explanation during the transmission. The rest of the class will be drawing at their seats what they think the sender is saying.

When the receiver has said his last OK, the sender walks up to the board and puts the original picture up beside the interpretation. Initiate comments from the class on the differences between the two, and how these differences could have been avoided. The sender then picks a new sender, and the receiver picks a new receiver, and the process is continued. As the game progresses, you should notice the students becoming more and more exact in their wording and communication.


Contributed by Jan P.

This activity is a review of the eight parts of speech and is something the students really enjoy doing. Each child needs to choose a comic character such as Snoopy, Garfield, Cathy, etc..

1. Draw this character on a sheet of regular size drawing paper and then cut it out.
   
2. Next trace this shape eight more times onto drawing paper or copy machine paper. This now gives the student one sheet per part of speech. These eight sheets should also be cut out.
   
3. Next have the students label each page for a part of speech. (noun, verb, pronoun, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection). Beneath the label they should write a definition for the part of speech.
   
4. The students should bring comics from their newspaper to school. They need to cut and paste one entire strip that contains their chosen character on each cut out traced page.
   
5. After the gluing is done, have the students underline the part of speech for that particular page. For example, on the noun page, all nouns in the comic strip should be underlined. They should also write an original sentence and underline all the same parts of speech in that sentence.
   
6. They should then color the cover of the booklet and staple together.

1. One player, the "victim", goes out of the room, while the rest of the players agree on a pair of homonyms.
   
2. When the victim returns, he asks each player a question in an effort to determine what the homonyms are.
   
3. The responses must be so phrased as to require the use of either one of the homonyms, but the word "teakettle" must be substitutes for them.
   
4. From these clues, the victim must discover the words that "teakettle" stands for.

Good sets of homonyms for this game are:

• pries and prize
  
• pore and pour
  
• would and wood
  
• sail and sale
  
• read and red
  
• steal and steel
  
• tail and tale
  
• hour and our
  
• flour and flower

The game can be made more complicated by using the word "teakettle" to represent three words that are homonyms, like cent, scent, and sent, or rode, road, and rowed.


Contributed by Joyce

Adjectives

Pretend you have just won a million dollars. Write a paragraph about what you think and feel.

Next, underline every adjective in your paragraph. Count them, then ask a partner to list that many adjectives without reading your paragraph.

Replace the adjectives in your paragraph with your partner's words. See what your silly new paragraph says!


Contributed by Brenda

Have the children go through magazines and have them cut out a picture of an object they like, or would like to have, and glue it in the middle of a piece of construction paper (9 x 12).

Then have the children go through the magazines again, this time looking for adjective words that would describe their picture.

Have them cut the words out and glue them all around their picture.

A great way to identify adjectives!


Contributed by Lonnie

This is a great pattern for students to create a poem to tell a little about themselves. It really helps when students are at the stage where they don't think they can write a poem. If students try to stick to an underlying theme, it seems to help. I also create one about myself to model the idea. Many of them were able to express their feelings in a great poem this way.

FIRST STANZA

I am (two special characteristics you have)
I wonder (something you are actually curious about)
I hear (an imaginary sound)
I see (an imaginary sight)
I want (an actual desire)
I am (the first line of the poem repeated).

SECOND STANZA

I pretend (something you actually pretend to do)
I feel (a feeling about something imaginary)
I touch (an imaginary touch)
I worry (something that really bothers you)
I cry (something that makes you very sad)
I am (the first line of the poem repeated).

THIRD STANZA

I understand (something you know is true)
I say (something you believe in)
I dream (something you actually dream about)
I try (something you really make an effort about)
I hope (something you actually hope for)
I am (the first line of the poem repeated).


Contributed by Kay

As a follow up to studying the 4 kinds of sentences I pass out to each child a magazine picture I've collected that shows scenes or advertisements with more than one person or animal in them. The children then have to write a dialog of four sentences in which the people or animals are talking to each other.

I usually ask them to use this order:

• interrogative
• declarative
• imperative
• exclamatory

They then share their pictures and read their conversations. I find the funnier the picture, the more interesting the conversations are.


Contributed by Lonnie

Learn and Tell/Independent Studies

To encourage public speaking skills, I have "LEARN AND TELL" in my classroom. Students sign up to share what they have learned OUTSIDE of the classroom. I want them to be aware that learning can take place ANY WHERE and ANY TIME; that it is ONGOING and NEVER ENDING.

Speeches last from 3 to 5 minutes, and can range from how to sew on a button to pouring a foundation for a house.

I also allow INDEPENDENT STUDIES whereby a student can research a topic he/she is interested in, but is not covered in our curriculum. Independent Studies include a researched report, a project, and /or a self-made video, all introduced and explained with an oral presentation. Recent Studies include strategies used at the Battle of the Bulge, Civil War generals, highlights of all the Superbowls, genetics, and a study of Ellis Island.


Contributed by Nancy

Read the clues below and try to find a rhyming pair of words to fit each.

• a just horse (fair mare)
• obese feline (fat cat)
• a rough stallion (coarse horse)
• a soaked animal (wet pet)
• a stone timepiece (rock clock)
• distant nova (far star)
• not bad lumber (good wood)
• unusual grizzly (rare bear)
• lengthy tune (long song)
• large sow (big pig)
• very warm place (hot spot)
• close ball (near sphere)
• unhappy father (sad dad)
• wonderful rollerblade (great skate)
• nasty legume (mean bean)
• slender fastener ( thin pin)
• colossal hairpiece (big wig)
• crimson toboggan (red sled)
• intelligent beginning (smart start)
• angry boy (mad lad)
• phony reptile (fake snake)
• attractive salamander (cute newt)
• sanitary monarch (clean queen)
• unadorned precipitation ( plain rain)
• liberated ocean (free sea)
• unbendable smell (stiff whiff)
• tawny male (tan man)
• unhealthy twig (sick stick)
• top examination (best test)
• wounded soil (hurt dirt)
• cunning insect (sly fly)
• enjoyable jog (fun run)
• painful market ( sore store)
• pleasant cost ( nice price)
• a tiny hot drink ( wee tea)
• a moist sticker ( damp stamp)

• Line 1: an article (a, an, the) + noun
• Line 2: adjective + conjunction (and, or, nor, yet, but) + adjective
• Line 3: verb + conjunction + verb
• Line 4: adverb
• Line 5: synonym for the noun in line 1

Bring in basket of assorted objects, which could include common household tools (can opener, hammer, scissors), old clothing accessories (hat, glove), natural objects (feather, dried flower, or driftwood, shell), and anything else your students could handle easily. Tell them they have the power to be magicians to transform these objects into other things.

Hold up one of the objects (i.e. hammer) and ask the students to look at it in a whole new way and then to brainstorm what it could be if it weren't a hammer. To get them started, show them how it moves and ask, "What animal does it look like? What could that animal be doing?" A possible response would be " A chicken pecking the ground." It helps to give students this kind of focus, because it encourages them to make the leap from inanimate to animate objects. By moving the object in different ways, you are encouraging the students to extend their imaginations and to see the "transformed" object in a new context, moving and performing a new function. This is the beginning of teaching "extended metaphors" a great source for this is Tsujimato's book Teaching Poetry to Adolescents.

Pass out objects to students randomly, or have them reach in with eyes closed and choose one. Encourage each student to hold his/her object in different ways and to move it in order to think of what it could be when in motion. Give each student a piece of paper on which to brainstorm at least five different things the object could be. Encourage students to draw sketches if it helps them see the object.

When the class is ready, each student holds up (and moves) the object while the rest of the class makes guesses as to what the object could "be". Student jots these ideas down on the other side of his/her own brainstormed list, which she/he shares after "guesses" have been made. (Or you could have students read own list before other "guesses" are made.)

It is fun to display the objects (or sketches of the objects transformed) with all the different metaphors students have created for them.


Contributed by Kris

Procedure:

1. A student leaves the room and the group in the classroom chooses a verb (example: run, sleep, play tennis)
2. The student that left is called in and has to discover which is the verb chosen by asking Yes/No questions.
3. As he/she can't use the verb he/she has to use the word "coffeepot" in the questions. So the student asks:

   "Do you coffeepot at home? in the classroom?"
   "Do you coffeepot at weekends?"