Charting a course. . .

Armed with my newly gained knowledge of SMART Notebook, I am using all of the pieces relected upon in my last post to plan and create SMART Board activities. For example, our book this week is Mouse Paint. We are working on colors, color mixing, concept words like hide, stir, three and positional concepts such as under/over, in/out. With my many English Learners, it is also important that an activity include opportunities for the students to use oral language with vocabulary words and comparisons. The social goals we have for our students include turn taking, waiting, and learning friends names. I designed a game where 3 mice are hiding under different color "puddles" of paint. In a small group, each child takes a turn to move a puddle and see if there is a mouse under it. I model the game and the oral language I want them to use by naming the color of the puddle I choose, and say "yes, there is a mouse under the green puddle" or "no, there is not a mouse under the green puddle". I ask the first child to play the game, helping them with the oral language if needed. Then the child is asked to pass the pointer to another specific child (recognizing friends names, turn taking and waiting). Structuring activities in this way will benefit all my students, cueing into the areas of need indicated through our assessments and data collection.