Grammar Escape Rooms

 I have been on a mission to make grammar a more exciting part of my curriculum. It's never been my favorite because there's not much creativity when it comes to grammar. You are either right or wrong. Most of Language Arts allows freedom. You can find many themes in a text. You can write stories that are full of imagination. Grammar, well, can be boring. In an attempt to keep boring out of my classroom, grammar escape rooms have been created. Students work together to solve 4 worksheets on a particular unit of study. There is always a theme and some horror to escape. In the noun escape room you must solve all of the challenges or risk losing toes to frostbite. In another escape room, aliens are out to destroy the planet and knowledge of the parts of speech is all that will save all of humankind! Maybe grammar isn't so boring after all. 

Verb Escape Room

Parts of Speech Escape Room

Noun Escape Room

Subject and Predicate Escape Room

Reading Rewards

The amazing teacher whose role I filled at KCD, Lisa Stringfellow, had set up the 5th graders with the Reading Rewards program. Reading Reward is a free online reading tracking program. Students log their books and pages and minutes read. My students are required to read 100 minutes a week, and this is a great way to encourage students to read and work towards that goal.

The students can choose an avatar, move up in levels represented by different images, and earn points to see jokes and play games. There is a paid version for larger groups that also offers more details for teacher review. If you're looking for a way for students to record their reading, the free version of Reading Rewards is a great tool!

The teacher dashboard of Reading Rewards.