Inferring Ideas :)

Wow, it's only Tuesday and it is going to be a loooong week my friends!  We just finished up inferring yesterday and I came up with some fresh inferring ideas I'm pretty psyched to share :)  We started practicing inferring with Abby's amazing activities mentioned HERE.  Then, unfortunately we went on break and didn't come back until the middle of January.  My kiddos inferring skills went out the window during this time!  I had to do something to get them back on track and found a lot of great Pinterest ideas for inferring.  {SHOCKINGLY}, what I found was the more we practiced inferring, the more my students began to LOVE it!!!  So, here's some of my new inferring ideas I used with my kiddos over the past week, hope they are helpful :)


When we started inferring the meaning of new or big words, we had to read one of my very favorite books...Big Words for Little People by Jamie Lee Curtis.  This is my new MUST for inferring!  I told them we we're going to play an inferring game.  Since we're in 2nd grade, we played "Are You Smarter Than a 3rd Grader?" (to psych them up!) with this book. 

I would read the "clue" or definition of the word and the students had to infer what the word was.  THEY LOVED IT!!!  Especially when one of my kiddos figured out perservere, two students just stared at him with their mouths open...hehe :)

We also used this template to find a new word in one of our JRBs and infer the meaning of it.

Next up was an "Inferring About Me" activity.  I had my sweeties right down adjectives in a circle map about themselves without their name on it.  We then pulled out the papers one-by-one from a basket and inferred from their clues who each person was.  Another winner with them!  They begged to play it again later that day and they especially liked that is was all about them and the schema they had about their friends.  Here's a blank template to use if you want to try this activity :)

Finally, we played a similar game yesterday with inferring about our favorite book characters.  It was great because they really had to think about "clues" about their character and we had to use our schema to solve the mystery!  It went really well until one of my kids decided he was going to pick Michael Jackson to infer about and was angry that the other students didn't agree with him about Michael Jackson's status as a "favorite book character"...hehe! :)

Wow, sorry for such a looong one!  I have to leave you with one last thing inferring thing I found on Courtney's (Swimming into Second Grade) blog this weekend that is too cute not to mention...

LOVE IT!!!  Courtney is FANTASTIC and has sooo many awesome ideas, make sure to check out her FAB blog :)  Here's all the {FREEBIES}, thanks for sticking around for a super long one today friends!  Our $50 giveaway ends tomorrow, make sure to enter HERE!!! :)





{FREE} Pete the Cat Inference Log and Inferring Ideas

According to the Common Core Standards and our new district wide reading pacing guide, we are working on the concept of inferring.  We just introduced inferring right before Christmas break.  Since my students last year really struggled with the concept, I figured that I needed some new and improved ideas...that's when I headed out to do some blog-stalking and spend some quality time on Pinterest.  Before Christmas we used the WONDERFUL Babbling Abby's Snow Day Case Files Inference Investigation and Mystery Box Activity.  No joke, my students LOVE inferring now and they actually get the concept too!  If you haven't checked out these activities, they are great and will be staples in my class from now on :)  I also dressed up as an "Inferring Investigator" to introduce the concept and had extra Inferring Investigator hats for them to wear too!



My students dressed up as "Inferring Investigators".

Here are a few of my favorite inference Pinterest ideas:

On another note, I have a big confession.  I pride myself on always being on top of new children's books.  So, how did I miss all the {GASP} Pete the Cat books?!?!  Beth introduced them to me and the first thing I thought while reading Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes was I'm inferring where Pete is in the school the whole book!  Lightbulb on over my head!  I developed a simple Pete the Cat inferring log that you can use during your read aloud or on your Smartboard to practice this concept.  Click on the picture below to download your FREEBIE copy of this easy, but fun way to practice the concept with one of my fav new books :)