Alphabet Symmetry Challenge Freebie

Yesterday we wrapped up symmetry, and I decided to surprise my students with a challenge.  They ALWAYS jump at a chance for a challenge (sometimes I don't get it, but they do).  Anyway, I wrote Symmetry Challenge on the board, and that got their attention.  Then I went over the directions:  They could either work independently (since some of them really crave that alone time) or with a partner.  They needed to look at the capital letters, and from there decide if it had a line of symmetry, or if it didn't.  

They used our big alphabet cards from our OCR adoption, and I wrote them on the board as well.  I had them use whiteboards to complete, though some of the kids needed to physically fold a paper to understand the concept.   

I only gave them 10 minutes to attack this challenge, and then we went over it full class, them telling me yes or no, and if the lines of symmetry were horizontal or vertical.

I started thinking more about it, this was the first year I ever thought of using the alphabet for symmetry - and I've been teaching for 15 years!  Don't know why, usually we stick with pictures...  

So I made up a little freebie for your own challenge.  I'm printing off a couple of sheets and putting them back to back in sheet protectors so the kids can draw the lines on them with dry erase markers.  My Monday mom will pull the kids that needed a little extra help.  

I hope it helps you!

Student Yearly Challenges - Reading, ELA, and Math

My students have enjoyed seeing their progress as much as I do.  In past years I usually start the challenges in January when we start the major test prep, but this year I'm switching it up a little.  I want to start it at the beginning of the year, so students can really measure how far they come in our 38 weeks together.  

New this year, I created a 32 books yearly challenge for my students.  I know the Book Whisperer talks about 40 books, but 32 could fit on the paper so much better.  My main goal was to have them have a space to write the book title and AR quiz# on the sheet, then it turned into a tracking device for the year.  Here's the document if you are interested - the font should be A Little Pot.    

This is the same Internet 4 Classrooms Game Board that I already posted a while ago for Friday Finds.  Internet 4 Classrooms has so many awesome activities for kids to review.  I mainly have my students focus on the Language Arts aspect, since we use IXL for Math.  Here's the document again if you want it - the font should be Annoying Pot.   

For IXL (Math) my students have this game board to color in as they master the skills.  These are the skills for 4th grade, but the letter/number combos are similar in all grade levels.  I also did something similar when I used Think Central to have kids keep practicing.  Here is the document.

These sheets will be kept in the students' binders.  They will have access to them to bring them home to work toward their goals, they can pull them out when it's their turn on the student computers in the classroom, or when it's our turn to head to the computer lab.  Anyway that gets them to review, right?  

Do you do something similar in your classroom?  Hope this helps!