Create your own categories and place them on your pyramid.
Teams take turn listing items in a category until teammates can
name the category.
Put harder categories higher on the pyramid. Award points by difficulty.
An easy way to construct the board is to:
Draw a pyramid on the board or on poster board if
you want to reuse the pyramid.
You could also do this with PowerPoint and project the pyramid
onto your whiteboard (or interactive board if you're lucky enough
to have one!)
Write the number of points for each category on the
pyramid.
Write the name of the category on THE BACK of a removable
sticky note.
Put the $ amount on the front of the note.
Put the sticky notes on the pyramid.
When a student comes forward to choose a category,
she remove the note, reads the back of the note and
then names items in the category until teammates can name the
category. Then the next team plays.
Change the categories for any grade level or topic.
Solving
Analogies uses a lot of brain power.
Asking students to process information mentally is
sooo good for them. Analogies require processing.
Many students, especially those from vocabulary-deficient backgrounds,
don't automatically "get" how to do analogies.
This graphic organizer model by David Hyerle can be helpful with
your students as you teach them how to do analogies.
Here how.
On your board, draw the solid and dotted lines as shown
by the black lines above.
First, teach students what a "relating factor" is. "How
are these the same?"
Insert the following analogy: puppy is to dog as kitten is to
cat.
Discuss with the students how these are the same: they are both
babies.
Write "babies" on the dotted line.
VERBALIZE a sentence that shows the relationship. This is a very
powerful step and not too easy for a lot of people, including
kids.
Example: A puppy is a baby dog just like a kitten is a baby cat.
Do as many examples as you feel necessary.
Second, write the above analogy on the board again,
replacing "D" with "?" Let "babies"
remain.
Repeat the process. Explain that the next example with have a
"?" for them to fill in.
Third, do an analogy from music this time (Note - analogies
are commonly written with a colon meaning "is to".)
Perhaps, strings: cello as reed: ______ (clarinet) or soft and
slow : lullaby as loud and fast : ____ (march).
Let them puzzle out the relationship and the answer to the puzzle.
Note that there COULD be more than one correct answer.
Have a child verbalize the relationship. "The strings make
the air start to vibrate and the reed makes the air start to vibrate."
"Some types of music have predictable characteristics."
(Rephrase that for your young ones!)
There could be many correct verbalizations, depending on how the
child's mind processed the information.
But point it is: MAKE THOSE CONNECTIONS.
quarter note : half note as quarter rest : half rest
Yo Yo Ma : cello as Elvis : voice
violin : bass as trumpet : tuba
low : large as small : high
Categories
- fast paced, active
Use categorized lists of vocabulary
words in many ways. They are great ways to use varying learning
styles.
The same lists can be used all three ways with great success.
TRY THEM!
Students can act them out silently
as in charades;
students can draw them as in Pictionary;
students can describe the words as Password.
