Having Fun with Common Core: Silly or Serious Stories

Okay, so we were talking about CCSS for ELA in the Reading Informational Text #4. It focuses on building vocabulary.

Craft & Structure #4
Grade 3	Grade 4	Grade 5
Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 3 topic or subject area.	Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a grade 4 topic or subject area.	Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area.

In my last Monday post, I discussed a great strategy for early elementary students—songs. But let’s face it, by grade 3, not all students are enthusiastic about singing.

So how about this: Challenge them to write a silly or serious story using as many vocabulary words as possible. And here’s the great news: This assignment also meets CCSS for ELA Writing standard #3.