The Scenario: You've got one week to go until you're out for Christmas/Winter Break, and you need to fill an hour with an activity that is productive, fun, and (preferably) holiday-themed.
Sound familiar? If so, I've been there before, and I've got you covered. Here are 3 middle school ELA activities for the week before Christmas break. (I'll keep this post short and sweet because I know you've got lots to do!)
#1 Read a holiday-themed short story with your students and do a quick review with a fun crossword puzzle and word search activity.
There are many Christmas/Holiday short stories to choose from, but here are two of my favorites, along with crossword puzzles and word searches to go with them.
#2 Play a holiday-themed review game.
There are many holiday-themed review games to choose from on TeachersPayTeachers.com, and what you choose will, of course, depend on what your most recent unit was. However, if an onomatopoeia review or refresher would be right up your alley right about now, allow me to introduce you to the Christmas Onomatopoeia Challenge.
Use the digital slideshow, the printouts, or both to play!
Instructions for playing are included as well as a timed version of the game and an untimed version.
#3 Inspire creativity with a holiday-themed creative writing challenge or game!
I challenge my students with this Backward Ad Libs Creative Writing & Parts of Speech Review Game!
We’ve all played Ad Libs before! You know the game - a reader asks the players for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and fills them into a story that the players can’t see.
With my Backward Ad Libs game, students start with nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs and race against the timer to build a creative and hilarious Christmas-themed story using the words they’ve been given. Your students will have fun practicing their parts of speech and creative writing skills all at the same time!
This game requires a little cutting and laminating (if you choose to laminate), so recruiting a student or two who loves to volunteer would be helpful. Don't worry, a student seeing the game cards in advance won't ruin the game for him/her in any way.
I hope these activity suggestions are helpful to you. Stay strong, fellow teachers! The break is right around the corner. :) Until next time!
Lauren
留言