Memorization activities...

One of the last projects we did for the study of our quotation was a rebus activity:















In a rebus, words are replaced with pictures. At the start of the project, I gave each student a 40 x 50 cm template that looked something like this:















I wrote out the quotation leaving blank words I felt they wouldn't find frustrating to draw. For sure, I tried to leave out concept- words we had studied so there would be an opportunity for the children to think about what they meant when coming up with their images.

Here are the words I left out for them to draw:




























Our camera (and my photography skills) aren't fabulous, but you get the idea...

The completed project above is mine. Whenever possible I try to put together a finished project to show the children so that they see the end in the beginning and have a model as they move along in their own work . (This is especially helpful for non-native speakers and students that can't always grasp and retain instructions given verbally and all at once.) It's also nice to have these kinds of things on hand to display permanently in class or to use for review.

It took the kids a while to draw their word images. They didn't end up with borders and colorful stenciling by the end of the class, and I didn't want to carry the project over to another lesson, so I simply sent them home. For me, the most important aspect of the activity was getting them to think about the concepts again in a way they enjoy and find engaging, so process trumped product.

A few afterthoughts...

I recently thought of others ways this rebus activity could be done that might allow for both process and product to get their due diligence. The template posters can be introduced at the very beginning of the quotation study. As the children learn a concept, they can draw its image on the sheet. (So one image is drawn every week or two, as opposed to all of them at once.) At the end of the quotation study, after all the blank spaces have drawings, the children decorate their posters to celebrate the culmination of their study. This might be an occasion to bring out special craft materials -- glitter, decorative paper for cut-outs, stencils, stickers, foam shapes, sequins -- anything that might suggest the end of an era :-).

If you want to turn the rebus into a more cooperative, whole-class activity and/or don't have a lot of paper and supplies, you can have each student or a pair of students draw an image on a separate piece of paper sized to fit the blank spaces. After everyone is done drawing, the poster with blank spaces is put up and the class is gathered together to read the quotation aloud. When the class reaches a blank space, the child(ren) with that image go up to the poster to glue it on. After everyone has added their contribution, the entire quotation is read again. Each child can then be given a small piece of paper to draw a picture depicting the meaning of the quotation to be added to the border, or everyone can decorate a cut-out (e.g. heart, star, butterfly, flower) to glue on.

One for the road...

This was another memorization activity we did.















I printed out the quotation in large font and cut out word-phrases for the children to piece together. (Whenever I do this type of activity, I try to cut out the words in phrases that make capture an entire idea and concept, instead of just random cuts here or there.)

I placed the phrases around different parts of the room for the children to hunt for (definitely optional) and the kids collected them all in one place and pieced them together.

Not all children are strong readers at this age, and most of our class hadn't memorized the quotation, so I made sure the whole quotation was available for them to see. This adaptation allows non-readers to still participate -- they may not be reading to figure out the sequencing, but they can match letters and words.