Imagine this! Your kid’s teacher puts notes on the board and reads them verbatim. Like all other kids, they wouldn’t find the learning session interesting.
For kids to engage in a lesson and comprehend what you are teaching, your best bet is to ensure they are having fun. So, how do you impart knowledge in an exciting way? With games!
Encourage your kids to actively participate in your lesson through activities that highlight their creativity and healthy competition. Below we present 11 fun 4th grade reading comprehension activities.
1. Roll and Tell
For this comprehension activity, you need dice, a short passage, and a series of questions. List the questions on a placard with matching dice numbers.
Your 4th-grade students will roll the dice, and whatever number they toss, they answer the question for the matching roll. Kids enjoy this activity since it gives them board game vibes.
You should always have multiple fourth-grade-books to break the monotony of one book.
We like to put kids in groups of four. After every passage, we roll the dice with them. Our 4th graders post higher ELA scores when using this method.
2. Spot the Homophone
‘Spot the homophone’ is a comprehension activity whose chief intent is to enrich your students’ vocabulary.
Let’s say you have been teaching 4th grade reading fluency passages and have instructed your kids to learn a particular passage. Chances are your kids will grunt and curse you in hushed stones.
Now let’s say you give your kids the same assignment, but they don’t have to read it. The only thing you do is instruct them to spot the homophones.
In this case, your 4th graders will be shouting things like ‘scent’ and ‘cent’, and ‘ax’ and ‘acts’ throughout the lesson. Expand this to a short story, and you have little burgeoning Einsteins.
Be sure to include comprehension questions on the homophones, and remember to explain the meanings of new and unfamiliar words to broaden your students’ word vocabulary.
3. Color Coding
In our teaching experience, fourth-grade kids don’t resonate with lengthy sentences. You need to break down the information into bite-size pieces.
Highlight reading passages in various colors to categorize the subject areas for meaningful learning. Encourage your kids to use different colors for a new vocabulary, central point, and writing style.
A significant benefit of color coding is that your 4th-grade students will recall specific story areas when prompted.
You can use bracelets as an incentive to inspire your students or issue DIY bracelets with beads representing the student’s favorite color-coding shades.
4. Reading Cootie Catcher
A long-time favorite for elementary and middle schoolers is making a comeback. Cootie catchers can definitely evoke nostalgia for teachers!
The paper art packages reading comprehension questions in a fun way. Your kids can pick a color and answer the comprehension questions in the interior of the cootie catcher. The questions can be open-ended or multiple-choice. We have found using multiple-choice questions helps students retain information better.
Cootie catchers are straightforward DIY crafts. Make your 4th grader learning experience more exciting using the best cootie catcher ideas.
5. Text Clues
Intuitive and predictive thinking are must-have skills for fourth graders. Using text clues stimulates analysis of the clue. Your students can write their inferences based on the hint. However, please give them a metric to guide them with the answers.
Time to let you in on a bit of a secret. We like DATES with our text clues: Definition, Antonym, Thought, Example, and Synonym. Using DATES in your class means instructing kids to document their inferences in the five subcategories. Use different color schemes to create stimulating visual charts.
Note that the subheading says “Text Clues.” You can include prosodic, context, and syntax clues in your model.
6. Employ Close Reading
The biggest pet peeve we have seen from our students is reading complex and long sentences. Fourth graders love short, straight-to-the-point phrases. However, many books have lengthy sentences. Close reading counters the challenge.
Close reading strategies are purposeful and intensive analyses of a text in a story. They assess the text’s meaning, syntax, coherence, and structure. Don’t rush it. The result is better readers.
Ask your students to use a pencil or highlighter during close reading lessons. Highlight the text you want to analyze and instruct your fourth-grade students to read it aloud.
7. Fun Book Reports
Who likes reading mundane book reports? Not your 4th graders.
It’s time to spruce things up with cheese reports. Try a cheeseburger for a change. Kids can customize the cheeseburger with as much information that relays their understanding of the book.
Your 4th graders will arrange different parts of the book into cheeseburger components. For example, the bread could be the book’s general theme, while the ham stands for the book’s main idea.
Use different colors for each segment when preparing book reports with your students.
Other fun book report ideas include cheesecake, paper bag, and Mint Tin book reports. There are numerous creative book reports. It all boils down to what works for your class.
8. Anchor Charts
Anchor charts are visual tools that provide comprehension activity references for fourth-grade students. The charts present key ideas, questions, and inferences from a previous short story or passage.
Your students can refer to the chart to recall information. Also, they can edit it when they grasp a new concept from reading comprehension.
As with other infographics, use distinct hues for the anchor chart. Remember, simplicity is genius. Don’t complicate your illustration. You can do some research on the internet to learn how to style your chart correctly. Involve your students in making the anchor charts to keep learning fun.
9. Fact or Opinion Task Cards
A classic reading skill reinforcement is task cards. Fact or opinion task cards contain facts and opinions based on the short story. A student will raise the card when you mention a fact or opinion. Don’t barrage your kids with facts and opinions. Four (two each) per student are enough.
Pair up the task cards with reading worksheets for unparalleled quality reading. The methodology encourages your 4th-grade students to make inferences and share them.
Encourage creative thinking and memory recall by using the cards.
10. Making Metaphors
Doesn’t it irk you when you can’t find appropriate grade-level poetry? And when you do, it’s a daunting task teaching the metaphors and similes in the poem.
An exciting way to teach your 4th graders is by drawing metaphors and similes. Have your kids draw their inferences from a metaphor or simile in passages. They can use contrasting colors for the metaphor and simile.
For example, in a poem with the phrase “as cool as a breeze,” the students can draw what cool means. You would expect ice drawings or wind illustrations. Promote clear understanding by issuing a standard example using red for similes and blue for metaphors.
11. Digital Games
We are living in an increasingly digital-driven world. Learning too continues to evolve.
Today you won’t find teachers with worksheets – at least physical ones. Instead, you’ll discover they use software-compatible work and teaching modules.
Digital worksheets can contain games that impart the same reading comprehension skills as many of our other suggestions, but on a digital platform.
Game-based learning confers other complementary comprehension skills. Combining traditional teaching with digital-based interactive knowledge is the sweet spot.
Use only approved sites. You don’t want to face the embarrassment of adult site ads popping up on your classroom board!
Use Our Methods for the Best Results
These 4th grade reading comprehension activities eradicate the mind-numbing reading experience. Instead, we adopt methods that directly engage students in learning so that they enjoy every step of the learning process.
Use these fun methods to shape your fourth-grade students into better readers. You can have a go-to game that your kids are always eager to play, and you can also combine them in different ways so that all lessons have something new and exciting to them.
Let us know which method works for you!
Last Updated on May 14, 2022 by Emily
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