More Inferencing Goodies!

When I wrote about my super big love for Babbling Abby's inferencing unit many of you commented that you were also having a tough time teaching the skill. So today I'm going to share some of the other resources I added to the week to really drive that skill home.  After we spent time as Inferencing Investigators, I wanted to give them some more targeted practice, so we used a combination of task cards and a great game posted on the Florida Center for Reading Research website. (Keep reading for links to all of this free awesomeness)

The game from FCRR is fantastic. The kids read cards and infer something about where the person is or what they are doing. Above is a close up of some of the cards and half of the game board and below you see some kids playing. I upped the fun-factor with some Smarties. I had them start by placing a candy on each circle and letting them eat that piece if they got the right answer. Here is the game in action:

Click {HERE} to download the game and click {HERE} to visit FCRR for more great content.

Next up were the task cards. I placed each set in these adorable paper boxes from the Target Dollar Spot. In each box I also added a small plastic container with 4 sets of 10 centimeter cubes.

Each student took a pile of same colored cubes and then if they answered a card correctly, they put one of their cubes back in the empty container. The first one to use all of their cubes was the winner. I wrote the answers on the back of each card to make them self checking.

I did not create the task cards below. They were created by some amazingly talented generous soul over at ProTeacher. She didn't include her name on the file, but if it's yours please tell me so I can give you proper credit and a super big THANK YOU! I highly encourage you to check out the forums there if you haven't already. The teachers there are amazing! Click on the pix below to download each set.

Now I'm going to leave you with something that's been on my mind a bit. I have been given the incredible opportunity to do reviews and giveaways from some outstanding companies lately, like Really Good Stuff, Scholastic News and Spelling City. I also have three great tech products to share with you from Learning Resources staring this week. One of the primary reasons I accept these offers is because I really, truly believe in the products. The other is because I feel great about offering the same product to one of you guys to use in your classrooms. I've been feeling so torn lately because it seems like all of these great opportunities seemed to happen at once! I really don't want my blog to be a constant giveaway stream. You'll notice I don't even have ads on my blog because I really want the focus to be the content. So, I guess what I'm asking is - How do you all feel about the reviews and giveaways? I don't want them to be something that makes you roll your eyes and think, "Geez, another giveaway!?" So, leave me a comment below and let me know what you think. (I hope I'm just over-thinking this. I have a tendency to do that!)