As fellow educators, we understand the importance of helping our young learners develop strong language skills and expand their understanding of grammar concepts. One aspect of the English language that can be challenging for kids is the use of the "-ed" suffix. In this post, I'd like to share some tips and strategies that I have found to be effective in teaching this concept.

The "-ed" suffix:

What is it and why is it important? The "-ed" suffix is a simple yet powerful tool in the English language. When added to the end of a verb, it indicates that the action has taken place in the past. Understanding the "-ed" suffix is crucial for young learners as it helps them develop their language skills and improve their communication abilities.

Tips for teaching the "-ed" suffix to young learners:

1. Use concrete examples: Utilizing objects or images is a great way to demonstrate how adding "-ed" to a verb changes its meaning to the past tense. For example, show a picture of a dog barking and ask, "What is the dog doing?" then show the same picture with a speech bubble saying "barked" and ask "What did the dog do?"

2. Encourage interactivity: Asking students to come up with their own verbs and add "-ed" to them can not only help with retention, but it also fosters creativity and independent thinking.

3. Incorporate music and rhymes: Young learners love music, and incorporating songs and rhymes that feature the "-ed" suffix can make learning this concept fun and memorable.

Conclusion: By incorporating these tips into our lessons, we can help our young learners understand and master the "-ed" suffix with ease. With the right approach, learning this important aspect of the English language can be a positive and enjoyable experience for students.

If you need more support teaching the suffix -ed to little ones or you are looking for vocabulary development for English language development, I think the resources below will help you. The resource will help you with concrete examples and encourages interactivity. You can check it out HERE or click on the images.

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• I used in my own classes.
• My grade level partners used them.
• Many of the primary grades that are at my school still use them to this day!
• Read the feedback on each, other teachers will tell you the same.

It will run all year long in your class once you set it up. It is editable, students manage their own words to practice in centers, it is differentiated, volunteers can pull students at a glance and so can you - ALL YEAR LONG. Students can track their words, parents are informed, students keep track for goal setting. NO MORE MOVING KIDS FORWARD or KEEPING THEM BACK with the the class. Students progress at their own rate with this easy to implement system. This resource will also generate a sight word or high frequency sheet for you! You fill in the words once and the entire document fills out! You can read more about this resource in this post HERE.

Get the Resource HERE.

Build it cubes! I have back to school and summer cubes. They are differentiated with different level of cards of the same design. HANDS ON, NO PREP (except print and laminate), MOVEMENT - WIN-WIN! You can read a book and have students build the design on the card(s). Let them choose or have them all build the same one. DO it whole class and use it for training for a center later on since I have different sets of BUILD IT cubes for the entire year! Believe it or not, I've had these out by accident and even 4th and 5th were into it. PERFECT for K-2 Back to SCHOOL!

SCHOOL BUILD IT PICTURES RESOURCE LINK

SCHOOL BUILD IT PICTURES RESOURCE LINK

I feel it and I'm sure you might be feeling it and I'm certain the kids will be feeling it.  Lets ease back into the NEW YEAR.  Starting the new year with a BANG is a noble idea but what if that BANG doesn't have to be felt? What if you can get the same impact or more with Winter activities or centers that don't take away more of your time but  keeps the engagement and impact on student learning without all the fuss? 

Here is one activity that can be repeated with consistency that most likely you won't have to go out and buy anything because you already have them.

• Linking cubes or snap cubes
• Books

CRITICAL THINKING

IDEAS for USING the WINTER BUILD-IT LINKING CUBE MATS

CONSISTENCY is KEY

BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!

Coloring sweaters and checking to see if you colored them correctly has never been so much fun! I made the printable version a few years back. 

 This year I added the digital version to help save teachers time on prep.  You still need to print the coloring sheets though.  The digital version is made in a way that doesn't sacrifice any of the FUN or ACADEMIC or ENGAGEMENT elements.  It's all there. Just simplified to save you time and money!

There are so many ways to use this. You don't have to use it as a countdown. You can have students work at their own pace as an early finisher activity or if you only have time for one or 2 you can make a copy of those slides and assign them individually. It's a very versatile holiday activity with lots of possibilities.

AGES

Originally, I felt the descriptions were well made for 3-5th grade but I've had teachers, parents, and homeschoolers from 1st grade to 7th grade use these.  Reading, writing, designing, adjectives, descriptions, etc., there is just a lot of everything for everyone.

WRITING

I included a writing component. Since the descriptions of the sweaters are filled with adjectives students are seeing and reading lots of examples of how to describe something.  Students have the opportunity to write an ugly sweater description after they design one.  Students quickly see how important adjectives are when you're trying to paint a picture in someone's head.

STEAM

This doesn't include all the steps in the engineering design process but I did include a planning sheet for students to design their own ugly sweater.  Once their ugly sweater is planned, they draw it and color it.  Then they use their planning sheet and colored design to help with their writing.  Designing the ugly sweater is my favorite part.  It also makes for a great bulletin with descriptive ugly sweater writing.  You can hang the student made sweaters on a clothesline with clothespins and see if students can match the sweaters to the descriptions.  They'll quickly understand they need to edit their writing if there aren't enough descriptive words.

ORNAMENT

You can have students turn that ugly sweater into an ornament if they draw it on cardstock or you could print the premade ugly sweater sheets on cardstock (shrink them first).  Add a string or hook, wrap them in tissue paper and put them in a mini-box just like an ugly sweater.

GARLAND

If you do decide to print the pre-made colored sheets on cardstock and shrink them. Students can cut them out and make a mini-garland with all the sweaters they color. 

If you decide to give it a try, come back and tell me how it went or tag me on Instagram @thewayiteach #uglysweaterdesigns with your pictures! I'd love to see them.  

TEACHER NOTES and EASY LINKS

You can check out the teacher notes and easy links in the PREVIEW HERE for this resource if it sounds like something your students will enjoy.