Trade & Grade with Schroeder's Shenanigans

I didn’t know how important it was to teach grammar until I taught second grade. Or maybe it wasn’t a focus with my prior reading program, but grammar wasn’t a big thing in my former first grade class. Once I began teaching second grade, I realized I really needed to get my act together because the worksheets that came with my new reading program were so dang boring! Plus, I was no grammar expert! Subject, predicate…what does it all mean?

Thank goodness I found Ashely from Schroeder’s Shenanigans because she has come to the rescue. She has made grammar fun…and yes, that’s possible! She’s also helped me feel more confident about teaching grammar.

Not only is she an expert at creating meaningful activities for our students, she’s incredibly sweet in person. I was so happy to finally catch up with Ashley at the TpT conference last summer. And if you follow her, you know she’s a machine who cranks out amazing math centers, blogging organizational tools, and lots of grammar task cards…all weekend long! I joke with her that there is no way possible that this cute little thing sleeps. She’s a force to be reckoned with and one to watch, promise!

If your kiddos are like mine, they need constant reinforcement when it comes to grammar. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve gone over what a verb is. But some of my littles still think “sit” is an adjective. Why oh why??? I knew I needed something that was fun, but was going to do the job!

I was lucky enough to try out Ashley’s Sweet ELA Scoot and Scoot Jr. for this month’s “Trade and Grade” with my kiddos this week.

I love that there are two options for each center. I chose to use the original scoot and scoot jr. both in my class and they worked like a charm!

It’s easy to prepare this scoot game. Basically, there are 4 cards per page. If you want to save paper, you can change the layout in your printer options and print 2 per page, therefore you will end up with 8 per page when all is said and done!I was so excited to use my brand new laser printer {how have I never owned one before, it it prints so daft?} and laminate all of my new goodies! Does laminating make you as happy as it makes me?

Our focus skill last week was using adjectives correctly, so the “Appetizing Adjectives” scoot game was going to be PERFECT!

Did I mention that the Big Wigs from the District Office came in during this activity. It was a hit and they were pretty darn impressed! My kiddos are scoot game experts. We use task cards for everything, so there were little directions given from me.

I posted the adorable cover on the board and placed the recording sheets in a Lakeshore heavy duty pocket for easy access. When my students were finished with their “must do” centers, they worked on this activity. I loved that I was able to work with my guided reading groups while my littles were actively engaged and working independently.

What my kiddos love about scoot activities is that they get up to move around. It’s a game to them because they have to find the number and answer the question correctly. I like to think of it as a scavenger hunt! I wish we had games like this when we were younger!

Trust me, I’ve tried mixing them up in the past and it doesn’t work. When the cards are in order and they can’t find #13, the know it has to be somewhere between #12 and #14.

I’ve found that storing all of my centers in plastic bags with a zipper work best. When I was done with these centers, I placed them back into my “Grammar” magazine file.

Not only did we work on adjectives last week, we had time to work with verbs and plural nouns. For the “Very Yummy Verbs” center, I placed the cards in a plastic bag and students worked in table groups. They spread the task cards out on the carpet and worked away!

If your kids love the original scoot, they’ll love the Scoot Jr. This was the first time we played, so I had to go over my expectations. Each student was given a set of task cards. I love that they were printed in black and white and fit on one page. I’m low on paper, so this was perfect! My friends liked that they had their very own set of cards to work with. They cut out the cards and solved the problems on their own. If you’d like to make this a partner or small group activity, you could print enough cards for your groups. Like the original scoot game, kiddos record their answers on their recording sheet {as seen above}!

All in all, it was a successful week of grammar task cards and I can’t wait to dive into the rest of them next week. Our focus skill next week is proper capitulation and punctuation, so the “Mixed Up Sentences” scoot will be big hit!

If you’re looking for some fun ways to spice up your grammar lessons, you will absolutely love this resource. Ashley has generously donated a sample of this product, just click on the photo below!

You can also read about more products that were traded and graded and even pick up freebies along the way!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Trade & Grade with Schroeder’s Shenanigans

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