Research & Homophones

You may remember this post about my super geekalicious organizational strategy for researching that I used earlier in the year for my paper on multicultural education. Today, I worked with my fourth grade friend and her teacher was implementing a similar system (more kid friendly of course!) that I thought was great!

The teacher provided her students with envelopes (small manilla) and had them label each envelope with a research category. My student is researching the Mayan civilization and her categories are farming and clothing. On the back of the envelope she wrote specific questions she is looking to answer such as "What kinds of crops did they grow" and "Where did they get water from?" The students were also provided index cards and are being taught to take notes in order to write down the most important words and information on their cards. As they read and research, they write notes on index cards and put them in their envelopes for safe keeping. The teacher also said she is going to teach them about plagiarizing and how to write down the source where they found information on the back of each card. My student wrote the question on the top of her card and then wrote down some details that pertained to that particular question in the rest of the space. Now, when she needs to write a paragraph about how the Mayans farmed, she will have all the information she has collected in one nice, neat envelope.

I think this is a great system to teach kids at a young age because research skills will become very important and learning how to organize and keep track of information can be tough for kids. I wish I had some pictures, but I think that the system is easy enough to imagine since I didn't have my camera with me during this lesson.

I also made this document of common homophones today, so I thought I would share it. These are great visuals for students who may confuse certain words and how to spell them. It could also made into a fun matching game like memory. Please feel free print and/or make copies of this document! If you click on scroll on the bottom, you will be able to view all of the pages before printing.
Homophones


The weather was finally getting sunnier and warmer and then we were hit with a lot more snow over the weekend! I am freezing my fanny off and wishing spring would just come already! I am starting to feel like I have put on some winter "padding" if you know what I mean, and I really want to start getting fit for spring/summer. Only three weeks left until my two-week spring break and our trip to Ireland! Woo hoo!

Any tips or motivational speeches for getting back into summer dress/bathing suit/shorts shape?
Any advice or recommendations for traveling to Ireland?
Anyone else sick of snow!?