Fourth & Fifth Grade Reading & Writing Activities
Reading and writing are integral skills for fourth and fifth grade students. It is important for teachers to maintain their students' interest in literature and writing by providing creative projects and assignments. There are activities that provide interesting ways to refine fourth and fifth grade students' reading and writing skills learned in prior grades while simultaneously introducing new concepts.
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Fourth Grade Vocabulary Book
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Assign children a set amount of reading each day. As children read through each book, ask them to create a list of five to 10 words that they do not fully recognize or understand. At the end of the week, work with the students and use a dictionary and define their new vocabulary words. To help memorize the words, ask children to define the word and draw a picture of the definition in a book of blank pages created by folding sheets of plain white paper in half. Expand the activity by requiring children to write their own short stories using all of the week's vocabulary words.
Fourth Grade Reader's Theater
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Using a book that the whole class is reading, conduct a discussion regarding a few specific pages of the book. Ask students to analyze how characters are feeling and look for any physical movements described in the text. After the discussion, assign each character in the text to a specific student. Lead a reading of the pages you have discussed, with each student reading the parts for his character. Have the students omit any text about feelings or movements and act them out instead. After a few tries, the pages should read out like the script of a play.
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Fifth Grade Paint Chip Storytelling
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Gather a large selection of paint chip samples from a local paint retailer. Allow each student to look through the paint chips and select five with creative names. Put these names to work by instructing children to write a two or three paragraph story that incorporates the names of all five paint chips that were selected. Provide dictionaries for students to look up any names that they do not quite understand.
Fifth Grade Reading Comprehension
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Test the students' abilities to understand what they have read by providing students with a library of one page articles on a wide variety of topics ranging from pop culture icons to animals. Create a comprehension test consisting of five questions to go with each article. Instruct students to select an article, read it to themselves and answer the comprehension sheets in a set amount of time. Remind learners that all of the answers to the questions can be found within the text of the articles.
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References
- Photo Credit reading image by max blain from Fotolia.com
