<$TheSimplyOrganizedTeacher$>

We spent two solid weeks working on inferenceing. We did some really fun lessons that I think the kids thoroughly enjoyed!

For the first couple of days we just talked about what it means to infer. We use text evidence-err side story. I asked them if they knew what text evidence was. No hands went up so I said alright, let’s break the words down and see if we can figure out what it means. “Class, what does text mean?”  Everyone’s hand shot up…all with the same answer… they didn’t even say an answer, they just moved their thumbs like they were texting on a cell phone. Hah! I realized I needed to back track a bit and talk about what the word text actually meant… Okay now back to inferring. We use text evidence and schema (things we already know) to make an inference or prediction about what might be happening.

We watched a couple of movie trailers and inferred what was going on/going to happen. We did a fun activity where the kids wrote down 4 facts about themselves. The first fact was something they had in common with the whole class, then something in common with most of the class, something in common with only 3-4 people in the class, something only true about themselves. Example:

Everyone was standing and as I read the clues, students who the facts did not belong to would sit down. We inferred about the friends in our class.

Another fun lesson we did was “What’s in Ms. Buchtien’s purse?” From pinterest, of course!

I loaded up my purse with a few random items. I pulled out the different objects and the students inferred (whole class) what that object meant about me. I had my school keys, a camera, sunglasses cases, coupon flyer, Special K bar, and a Ford dealership card. After we did whole class, they went back to their desks and picked two items to write about individually. They also had to draw a picture of the item. My class tends to take their sweet time drawing, so they had about 8 minutes to work on their picture. Then it was time to write. 

Unfortunately this was long ago so I don’t really remember some of the things they said about me. The one I do remember was that I had a Special K bar because I like to eat healthy…haha if they only knew! There was something else about me being cheap because I had coupons.

Here is the worksheet I made to go with this lesson, feel free to use it if you’d like!

The last day we played the game “Headbandz.”

Oh. My. Goodness. The kids LOVED it! They even wanted to have indoor recess so they could play it! If you haven’t seen this game, you need to get it! Your students will think you are the most perfect teacher ever!!!

I mentioned I wanted this about 2 days before Christmas. My sister and mom chimed in on this real quick. They didn’t discuss their purchases with each other. I didn’t know there was an adult version. So this is what I ended up with under the Christmas tree.