7-up Stand-up!! Quick Wrap-up Activities!

Hey everyone!!! It's Nicole from All Things Apple (formerly with "in 2nd") checking in for the first time!!! :) I'm so excited to be a part of this collaborative blog and even MORE excited to share some ideas with you today!!! 

One of my blogging friends, Catherine from The Brown Bag Teacher, wrote a post about her vocabulary activity called 7-UP!! Read about it here!! She talks about introducing vocabulary with Jan Richardson's steps, but then 7-UP adds the written component to the process by writing a sentence that's at least 7 words as a game!! What child doesn't like a competition, right?!?

SOOOOOO...

I had to get in on the fun!!! We do it slightly differently, but man, do my kids LOVE it!!!

First of all, do you use Whole Brain Teaching techniques in your room?? If you aren't, check out

Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids: (and the rest of your class, too!). You won't be sorry!!!! It has made such a difference in my room, and this book seriously makes it so simple to add in parts as you bring it into your classroom!!

MIRROR WITH WORDS!!! 

Ya'll, this is seriously one of my favorite times of the day, if not THE favorite!!! I love it, and my kids love it!!

After our literature circles (which are also a favorite :), we all meet on the red rug for our vocabulary introduction and practice! With the new reading series we adopted, Reading Wonders, there are usually about 8 words per week. I hang the large picture cards on my reading focus wall so they are visible and easy to use.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, we introduce 4 of the words. In doing this, we follow a bit of a system that looks and sounds like this. 

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This week our essential question is "How are people able to fly?" Turn and talk to your neighbor about what we might be learning about this week.  

Teacher: Class, class.   

Students: Yes, yes.

Teacher: Now, we are going to take a look at our first 4 vocabulary words. Our first word is flight. Count that word out. How many syllables?

Students: Flight. 1.

Teacher: Flight is the act of flying. This word is a noun. 

Teacher: Since it's a noun, it's talking about the activity.  For example, my flight was delayed due to the weather. It's not a verb that would say...The airplane flight in the sky. You would say, The airplane flies in the sky.

Teacher: What action should we connect to this word? (I call on students for suggestions so that they can connect to it and not me telling them how to connect.) 

Teacher: Ok, so we will act like we are a plane in flight. We put our arms out and move them around like a plane moves.

Teacher: Mirror with words. (I touch my hand to my mouth and then put both hands up like I'm a mirror.) 

Student: Mirror with words. 
(My students "mirror" everything I say AND do now. As I'm talking, I'm also moving my arms in the motion we decided to use with the word. I do this with a lot of enthusiasm!!! It's SO MUCH FUN!! Let yourself get into it! The kids really feed off of you!!)

Teacher: A flight...

Students: a flight...

Teacher: is the act of flying... (I'm doing the gesture we came up with as I'm saying this so they will do it, too!)

Students: is the act of flying. 

Teacher: A flight...

Students: a flight...

Teacher: is the act of flying...

Students: is the act of flying.

Teacher: (clap, clap) TEACH.  

Students: (clap, clap) OK.

(Then, the kids turn to a classmate, and teach them exactly what we just said. Here's a look at how it sounds.)

Students: A flight is the act of flying. (They do the action as they say the word. After one student says it, the other student goes.)

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We then go to the next 3 words. 

Once we have completed the 4 words, we play 7-UP...STAND-UP!!! I use this game as a way to WRAP-UP my vocabulary lesson to check for mastery!!!

The kids LOVE this!!! You literally see their brains just turning as they try to come up with a sentence!!! I was telling everyone about it the first time we used it!! It really makes that final connection with the word!! OHHH, they cannot use REPEATED words like...very, very! :) Once they know that, they really begin to think!! Now, here are some ideas from how I use this!!!

Catherine, The Brown Bag Teacher, also shares her way of doing this as a written component which is an awesome idea to connect writing with the vocabulary practice!!!

**If you want to read more about our monthly BOOK RAFFLE, click HERE!!**

We also continue our vocabulary practice by using the Vocabulary Parade where they WEAR the vocabulary word on them!! Then, we have a VOCABULARY PARADE, using the actions/gestures we connected to the words from our introduction I shared above, at the end of the day!!! Read more about our Vocabulary Parade HERE!!

7-UP REWIND fro MATH!!! 

I also use 7-UP REWIND in math!!!  Here's how I use it!!

The math 7-UP REWIND is quick, efficient, and you really see the kids thinking and reflecting!!! I was so impressed with it the first time I used it for an evaluation that I had to continue using it!! 

I hope these ideas can help out in your own classroom like they have in mine!!! I'd love to hear if you do anything like this, and how it works too!! 

You can find more ideas over at my blog by clicking on my button below!!! :)