I need your help please. I am teaching a lesson on contractions. Today they just did not get it. I only had 1/2 understand it. So once again I am re-teaching it tomorrow. Does anyone have any key words they say or any easy thing for them to remember? For the not's I have told them to just drop the O add the apostrophe and that is it. But what about the others? Any easy way to help them "get it?" TIA - Julie

each kid is one letter: A-R-E N-O-T. One kid is the apostrophe, standing off to the side. Then the apostrophe taps the O on the shoulder and replaces him. Then do C-A-N-N-O-T, etc. The kids could hold index cards, or if you wanted something a little longer, try cutting up sentence strips. Have them say, "Excuse me, O, but you're outta here" or something they'll like. This is engaging and kinesthetic and graphically illustrates where the missing letter goes, and what replaces it.

This is good for about second grade. They'll all want to do one. Grades above second, although I do several kinesthetic lang. arts lessons, I would probably just do a minilesson on the overhead.

One thing that I use, after they "get it," for reinforcement is to make 2 sets of contraction flash cards. One set has the whole word, for example cannot, and the other set has the contraction. (This works best working in pairs.) One student holds up the whole word card and the other student has to match it with its contraction. When the set is completed, the students switch sets. This is great practice when there is extra time during the class and they seem to enjoy it.

[Mem901]

In regards to the above post --would you mind sharing your other kinesthetic language arts lessons (tips/tricks)? Thanks so much!