Contraction Mania!

This week our first grade team analyzed some Fountas and Pinnell level G books to figure out what needed to be taught in reading to help our students get to that level.  We realized that many of the books contained contractions and words with inflected endings.  Our first plan of action was to immerse students in a word study of contractions.

So, this week I introduced the word "contractions" to my class.  I first wrote the word on a piece of chart paper and had them turn and talk and try to tell their partners what the word was.  It was funny listening to them talk to each other.  After about a minute I had them turn back and tell me what they discussed.  I called on one child who then said, "We decided that we don't know what a contraction is."  Then, the rest of the class agreed with him.  I just had to chuckle at that.  It was so cute!  Then, I introduced contractions to the kids slowly using paint sample cards that I had made in advance. ~ I got the idea from Mailbox magazine.  I went to Home Depot to get the paint samples ahead of time.  (Thank you Home Depot for the awesome donation!)   Unfortunately the only paint samples I could find were either too small to write on, or they were only 2 colors instead of 4.  So, I got out the scotch tape and taped the 2 color samples together to make 4 color cards (see picture below). ~ I introduced the words by first saying a sentence using the 2 words (ex. You cannot run in the hallway.) and then saying the same sentence using the contraction (ex. You can't run in the hallway).  While I said the sentences I showed them the words with the paint samples.  After doing a few words I had the kids turn and talk again and try to tell their partners what a contraction was.  The kids came up with the following definition:  "Two words that are shortened into one word using an apostrophe."  After I wrote the definition on the chart paper, I taped all of the paint sample contraction cards to the piece of chart paper to help the kids remember the definition.

Paint Sample Contraction Cards

The next day, we continued our word study of contractions with "Contraction Surgery".  I found the idea on Pinterest and decided to try it myself.  The kids loved it!  I wrote the words on index cards (enough for each child to "perform surgery" on 2 words.  Then, I demonstrated with the word "cannot".  I showed them how to cut the words like a surgeon would (very carefully).  After a surgery, the doctor puts bandaids on their patients, so we had to put a bandaid on our contractions after we put them back together.  The students put the bandaids where the apostrophe should be.  I used the very small bandaids and regular bandaids that I cut in half lengthwise.  After the surgery, each child got to show their words to the class and tape them on our chart paper.

Contraction Surgery

What was so great about our study of contractions was that during reading workshop, the kids started pointing out contractions they were finding in their stories (without me even prompting them to do so).  They were just so excited that they were noticing these words in their books.

Finally, we completed our week of contractions with "Contraction Mania"!  Here's a direct link to the worksheet. Of course, I got this worksheet idea on Pinterest, too.  Did I mention that I love that site?  It is so great that we teachers can share what we do to help each other, and of course to help our students learn!