Finally, the ATS curriculum has arrived! Below you'll find all the curricular materials you'll need to facilitate your Silly Story Writing Show-off Competition with your students. Please remember, prior to beginning this 10-week session, you will need to do pre-tests on all your students (if they've submitted signed consent forms allowing us to do so, of course.) If you have questions or concerns, let me know.
Download 3rd_set_curriculum.pdf
Download charactercomparison.pdf
FOR ALL ACADEMIC TUTORING SPECIALISTS:
Below, you will find the next set of curriculum: Newspaper Creators Club. If you missed the curriculum training on Friday, January 5, 2007, please let me know, as you and I will need to meet one-on-one for a mini-training on the curriculum material.
The files below appear in the same order as the original set of curriculum given at the training; so, please download the files in order to reduce confusion.
FOR ATS MEMBERS PRESENT AT JANUARY 5TH TRAINING:
Additional guides and activities have been added to the Character Matters segment of the curriculum. Please print out the new pages individually and add it to your exisiting curriculum packet. The new guides and activities are as follows: Comics Friends, Tolerance, Everyone is Special, Justice, It Isn't Fair, Additional Character Strategies, Boil it Down, and Be a Reporter.
Let me know if you have any questions by dropping a note in the Questions, Suggestions & Celebrations Box.
Download newspaper_story_format.pdf
Download character_matters.pdf
Download political_cartoons.pdf
Download newspaper_writing_assessment.pdf
As we have previously said, this curriculum is intended to act as a basic framework to keep your students engaged in entertaining, yet educating activities. In other words, you can add your own twist to any of the activities or create your own. Just make sure it works to the four main goals of your role as an ATS: writing proficiency, vocabulary development, fluency and reading comprehension. If you come up with a fun twist on these activities, please let us know.
I want to give a special thanks to Yvette Ollada for her suggestion about helping students create a blog. It reinforces every ATS goal. Great idea! Check out Blogger.com, a division of Google, to start a blog for your after-school site. Best of all, it's free!
Another thank you goes out to Maria Garcia for her suggestion in helping the students start off slow and building toward using the newspaper. She came up with the fabulous idea of having students write about a movie they've seen recently, then on to a short book report, and finally the newspaper. That's creativity! High five!
Do you have an idea? Please share it!
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. He was a great man, to say the least, whose countless contributions to society during his lifetime helped to create avenues through which we live lives of freedom and equality. Inspired by Gandhi, he was steadfast in his life's work to help remedy social injustice through non-violent means. It is through education that his legacy continues.
As we celebrate his birthday this year, we are providing you with a few activities you can use with your students to educate them on the lifetime accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
ACTIVITY #1
Is King's dream our reality?
One of King's most famous speeches is "I Have a Dream." In it, King describes his vision for the United States. Have students read the speech in groups. See below for a link to the speech.Have each group identify five items that King visualizes for the U.S.Then, have students search through the Sunday newspaper for articles and ads that illustrate those five items. Do the articles/ads provide witness to the realization of King's dream? Discuss the findings as a group.
Here is a great warm up or cool down activity that you can do with your kids, called the "Life with the Wright Family." If you remember we played this activity at the OCAA Team Day on November 17 on Behavior Management.
To start the game, have all the children sit in a circle on the floor. You can use candy or some other items like tennis balls, but you will need one for every child that is participating in the activity. Hand out the item (if you are using candy, make sure they do not eat it) and then explain that the point of the game is to listen carefully. You are going to share a story called "The Life of the Wright Family" and in the story there are times that you will say the words left and right. As you read the story, they will have to pass the item in the direction of the word you say. Tell them that you will start when the group is quiet. Once you have finished the story, you can let the children have the candy to eat or take home. If you try this activity, let us know how it goes and reply back to this post. Thanks and enjoy!
You will find the story below:
LIFE WITH THE WRIGHT FAMILY
One day the Wright family decided to take a vacation. The first thing they had to decide was who would be left at home since there was not enough room in the Wright family car for all of them. Mr. Wright decided that Aunt Linda Wright would be the one left at home. Of course this made Aunt Linda Wright so mad that she left the house immediately yelling “It will be a right cold day before I return.”
The Wright family now bundled up the children, Tommy Wright, Susan Wright, Timmy Wright and Shelly Wright and got in the car and left. Unfortunately as they turned out of the driveway someone had left a trash can in the street so they had to turn right around and stop the car. They told Tommy Wright to get out of the car and move the trash can so they could get going. Tommy took so long that they almost left him in the street. Once the Wright family got on the road, Mother Wright wondered if she lad left the stove on. Father Wright told her not to worry he had checked the stove and she had not left it on. As they turned right at the corner, everyone started to think about other things that they might have left undone.
No need to worry now, they were off on a right fine vacation, When they arrived at the gas station, Father Wright put gas in the car and then discovered that he had left his wallet at home. So Timmy Wright ran home to get the money that was left behind. After Timmy had left, Susan Wright started to feel sick. She left the car saying that she had to throw up. This of course got Mother Wright’s attention and she left the car in a hurry. Shelly Wright wanted to watch Susan get sick so she left the car too. Father Wright was left with Tommy Wright who was playing a game in the backseat.
With all of this going on, Father Wright decided that this was not the right time to take a vacation, so he gathered up all of the family and left the gas station as quickly as he could. When he arrived home, he turned left into the driveway and said “I wish the Wright family had never left the house today!”
Activities That Teach by Tom Jackson
ake a red stop sign and glue to a popsicle stick. Introduce the idea that the stop sign is the
tool that you will use to get everyone’s attention and for the class to be
quiet. Part of the rules could be that
they have to fold their arms, be quiet and look up front. You can also count to yourself and when
everyone is quiet, tell them how long it took. You can encourage them to beat their record from the previous time.We like to recognize a couple of our members just for fun! Every month or so, we will offer "Challenges" that provide you with an opportunity to give feedback, share what's working for you and even ask a question or two, all right here on our blog!
Here's how it works. Answer the "Challenge" question by adding a comment. To do this, simply click on the "Comments" link at the end of this blog entry, type in your name and email address and answer the question. Everyone who answers will be put in a drawing to win a fabulous prize!
This month we are giving away 2 gift card packs that include free food, video rentals and yummy ice-cream!
Challenge Question:
Now that most of you have been at your after school site, you are probably pros at getting the kids' attention before beginning an activity! Tell us a quick tip that you use to get the kids geared up for learning. If you don't have a tip, ask a question. To be eligible for our prizes - you must enter your comment!
We will do the drawing on December 8th and announce the winners at our Team Day!
PLEASE NOTE: MONDAYS WITH MARCINA HAS BEEN REVAMPED TO INCLUDE RESOURCES FOR ALL MEMBERS, REGARDLESS OF POSITION.
In this week's Mondays with Marcina, you'll find fun, interactive games you can use to "break the ice" with your students, transition from homework help to curriculum activities, or to end the day with lots of laughter. Also, check out the Tip of the Week.
Try these activities with your students. Let me know the updates by dropping a note in the Questions, Suggestions & Celebrations Box.
SILENCE
In Silence, silence is the name of the game. Students must arrange themselves in order without uttering a peep! For example, challenge students to silently sequence themselves according to height. The game can be adapted with very little preparation to fit almost any curriculum theme. For example, if the class is studying state capitals, count out enough sticky notes for each student. On each note, write the name of a state capital. Each student wears a "capital" tag on his or her shirt. The students must silently sequence themselves in alphabetical order. You might make the game even more challenging by asking them to line up according to the state for each capital!
Options: Students can create their own tags. They might write their birthdays on tags and arrange themselves in order from January 1 to December 31. They might write their seven-digit phone numbers as a seven-digit number and arrange themselves in numerical sequence.
Other categories: The possibilities are endless, but students might include U.S. presidents (arrange in order of the presidencies), fractions (arrange in order of size), clocks (arrange printed a.m. and p.m. clock faces in order of the time shown), or largest U.S. city populations (arrange tags with the largest cities and their populations from largest to smallest).
WHOZIT? WHATZIT?
These quick little puzzles can be great fun. When you have five minutes to fill, write a couple of the puzzles on the chalkboard and let students try to figure them out. Each puzzle contains several familiar words. When carefully read and sounded out, the words reveal the name of a well-known person, place, thing, or phrase. As students figure out the hidden names, they write their responses on a sheet of scrap paper. The teacher can wander the room checking their guesses. Have a prize ready for the first person to guess both of the day's puzzles.
Follow-up fun: After completing the puzzles below, students might like the challenge of creating Whozit? Whatzit? puzzles of their own.
SAMPLE PUZZLES:
*Tub Braid Heap Hunch (Clue: TV show) -- The Brady Bunch
*Sand Tackle Laws (Clue: fictional character) -- Santa Claus
*Tall Mischief Her Sun (Clue: person) -- Thomas Jefferson
*Buck Spun He (Clue: cartoon character) -- Bugs Bunny
*Shock Cussed Toe (Clue: person) -- Jacques Cousteau
*These Hound Dove Moo Sick (Clue: movie) -- The Sound of Music
*Docked Hearse Whose (Clue: person) -- Dr. Seuss
*Tight An Hick (Clue: thing) -- Titanic
*Aisle Oh View (Clue: phrase) -- I love you
*Chick He Tub Ban An Us (Clue: things) -- Chiquita bananas
*My Gulch Hoard Un (Clue: person) -- Michael Jordan
*Thumb Ill Key Wake Owl Licks He (Clue: place) -- The Milky Way Galaxy
PASS THE CHICKEN!
In this game, nobody wants to hold the rubber chicken -- the game's only prop! To begin the game, all students sit in a circle. Select one person to be It. That person holds the rubber chicken. The teacher or a "caller" says to the person holding the chicken, "Name five presidents of the United States. Pass the chicken!" As soon as the caller says, "Pass the chicken," the person holding the chicken passes it to the right. Students quickly pass the chicken around the circle. If it returns to the original holder before he or she can name five presidents of the United States, the holder is still It. Otherwise, the person holding the chicken when It finishes listing five presidents is the new It. You should prepare the topic cards for this game in advance. Topics can relate to your curriculum or be general information topics. The student who is It must name five items in the called-out category in order to get rid of the dreaded chicken!
SOME SUGGESTED TOPICS
*fast-food restaurants
*authors of children's books
*countries in South America
*sports teams
*things that grow in the desert
*vegetables
*cartoon charaters
*musical groups
*cereals
*rivers in the United States
*candy bars made with chocolate
*large bodies of water
*cities in California
Encourage kindness with a "Star Jar." Place on your desk a jar of stars cut out of construction paper. Whenever a student is caught in a random act of kindness, invite that student to the front of the room to write his or her name on a star and place it in the jar.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Comprehension Cards to use for all activities, including homework help.
Download ComprehensionCards.pdf
Additional Scripts and Resources for Academic Tutors directing Readers' Theatre.
Click here, especially if you have older students.
To all our Academic Tutoring Specialists (ATS), hello and welcome! Each week on Mondays with Marcina, I will provide the tools and tips you'll need to make your year of service a spectacular one!
Mondays with Marcina is a brand-new blog, so please provide me with your suggestions on making this one of the best resources specific to your ATS position.
Drop a note in our ATS Questions & Suggestions Box.
This week, you'll find links to all of the Reader's Theatre scripts and faciliation sheets that I've found for you. Plus, check out the Tip of the Week!
How to Get Your Students Undivided Attention
Get a regular playing card or index card for each child in your class. Write each child's name on a card. Shuffle them up and get ready to ban hand-raising in your classroom. From now on, whenever you ask a question and need an answer from a student, you will simply pull a card from your deck, rather than calling on hand-raisers.
Reader's Theatre (RT) Resources
Scripts & Facilitation Sheets (FS)
DIRECTIONS: Click on the file of your preference to download. In the dialog box that pops up, select "Save" and save the file to your "My Documents". Otherwise, the document will stay in your Internet browser.
It is a GREAT start to a NEW Year with the Orange County AmeriCorps Alliance - Orientation 2006 at UC Irvine. OCAA New Team Members participated in team building activities through a ropes course and challenges, learned behavior management techniques, and OCAA policies and procedures. Good job everyone.
View the pictures to see the members at work - click here!
We have officially begun our 2006-2007 Class of AmeriCorps!!!! (Insert fireworks and whistles and applause here!) I would like to welcome each and every AmeriCorps member who is taking on the challenge to teach kids that it's "Hip to Be Fit: Mind, Body and Soul!"
Our new year always kicks off with a bang. We are heading to UCI for our orientation retreat this year. With "Camp AmeriCorps" as our theme, our orientation wouldn't be complete without some old fashion ropes courses! Team Up will be providing everything we need for a fun and exciting day! Here's a sneak peek of what's to come for our AmeriCorps members this weekend!
Agencies who are interested in Team Building Opportunities can contact the Outdoor Adventures staff at UCI for more information!
Come back for more of our members in action at the retreat! It is sure to be a weekend of teambuilding, bonding, and education! We'll throw some fun in there, too!
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