Colt Chronicle
October 26-November 6
Tweets you may have missed!
Let's use the #coltslearn tag to tweet to when we experience learning or a resource that supports our work here at McCall. Here are some highlights of what has been tweeted recently:
Reminders!
UBD/Lesson Plans: Please ensure that your plans are accessible by Scott and Stacy. We have access to many, but not to all. Thank you for helping us clarify our thoughts by providing these important pieces to the instructional program puzzle.
*PTA Carnival: This is the only big event that may occur this year if they meet their fundraising efforts. Multicultural Night is November 6th. Please plan on trying to attend one of these events to support our hard-working PTA. Thanks.
Stacy and Scott
AVID Corner
In today’s AVID Corner I will share a fun activity called Super-Size Me that can be used to broaden the vocabulary of all students, especially our English Language Learners. Essentially, Super-Size Me is a quick activity that focuses on taking words/phrases that are “over-used” and replacing them with deeper and more scholarly language. The directions and an example are listed below. Even though the directions state that you choose a word that describes your mood, the same activity can be done for any type of term. For example, while describing a birthday party that a student attended, instead of a child saying that it was “fun”, they would Super-Size that word to “exhilarating”. This can easily be used as a Brain Break that takes only a few minutes. I would also suggest starting an area in your room where you can record some of the words that have been Super-Sized. Simply taking chart paper and writing the old “over-used” word on the left side of the page and then drawing an arrow pointing to the Super-Sized word on the right side of the page can help to “bathe” our students in a deeper, more scholarly vocabulary.
Materials:
Paper
Markers / Crayons
• Students are asked to write a word that describes their mood (happy, tired, excited).
• Students find a partner and exchange words.
• The facilitator encourages partnerships to “super-size” each other’s word to a more academic or scholarly level of language.
• If necessary, participants may be allowed to use a dictionary or thesaurus for support.
• In small groups or as a whole group, the facilitator asks partners to share their original word and the new “Super-Sized” word.
-Scott
McCall Elementary Administrators
Scott Schweikhard, Assistant Principal /@SSchweikhard
Website: http://k12.pisd.edu/mccall-elementary-school
Location: 6601 Cloverhaven Way, Plano, TX, United States
Phone: 469-752-4500
Facebook: facebook.com/mccallcolts
Twitter: @mccallcolts