Slice and Dice
From FreeReading
| Activity Type: Build Mastery |
| Activity Form: Peer |
| Grade: 3 |
| Group Size: Pair |
| Length: 12 minutes |
| Materials: A die, vocabulary words on strips of paper, a container |
| Goal: Given words from past texts, the student can use them correctly in sentences. |
| Items: Vocabulary words |
What to do
- Prepare for the activity by writing basal reading vocabulary words on strips of paper and then placing them in a container in the classroom. Put a die in the container too.
- Introduce the activity to your students. Today we are going to play a game with dice to review some of the vocabulary words you have learned. Who's going to go first? Have each child roll the die; the highest of the pair goes first.
- Have the student roll the die again. This number indicates how many word strips he or she should take from the container; alternately, it can indicate how many words should be in the sentence he or she has to create--in this case, the student should choose only one word strip. (A good rule of thumb is to have low rolls indicate the number of strips drawn and high rolls indicate the number of words in the sentence.)
- Now have your student create a sentence using the vocabulary words he or she has chosen. If he or she has chosen a lot of word strips, making multiple sentences will be easier.
- The partner's job is to make sure that the student is using the vocabulary words correctly. The pair should try to resolve any differences together.
- After they have agreed on the sentence or sentences, have the partner begin a new round by rolling the die and choosing word strips.
- Offer guidance to students as needed and note each pair's vocabulary and communication skills in an Activity Log.
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About this activity
This activity was created when I realized how many words we were learning from our basal. We had a tremendous amount of words, and I wanted the kids to gain even more experience with these words. I began with my students creating sentences with the vocabulary words. Then I wanted to make it more fun and exciting so I threw in some dice and made a game of it. The students roll the die and make sentences with them. The name was created because the vocabulary words are on paper like slices of a pizza. "Slice" happens to rhyme with "dice." There you have it...."slice and dice!"