The Amazing Race (Literacy Version)

A few weeks ago my teaching colleague had a great idea to create an "Amazing Race" for our reading intervention students. She's an avid watcher of the TV show and helped me get some ideas to make this come to life! We decided to pick five big ideas we've worked on this year with our second graders, which includes, determining author's purpose, reading fluency, characteristics of non-fiction, retelling, and parts of speech. Since we are at a STEM school, we decided to throw in some engineering and math tasks too! We started small this year to see how it goes, but would love to make it a school-wide end-of-the-year activity. 

Here's the pdf, but if you'd like to tweak it for your kiddos, I'd be more than happy to send you the editable "Pages" (for Mac) template.  

I tried to color-coordinate each reading task so that it was easy to prepare. Instead of using yellow envelopes for clues, I used manila folders. I placed the directions on the outside and the materials needed in the inside (and laminated). Since there are roughly six to seven kids in each reading group I created four of everything (figuring that they'd be working with a buddy). Here's a picture of what it looks like when it's put together:

So when I started working on this, I had to bribe some of my colleagues to participate...I only needed five "stations" or "legs" so it wasn't too hard to get the help. Although it's pretty lengthy, here's what we came up with... 

AUTHOR'S PURPOSE

Students started out in the Reading Intervention Room where they read a selection to determine the author's purpose. (For this, I found a persuasive letter that I retyped). Depending upon their answer, they had a clue to tell them where to go next. (These clues are located in the "Tracking Sheet"). The next clue was located in the gymnasium which told them to find a 1st Grade teacher with an odd classroom number.

TIMED FLUENCY READ

Once they located the correct teacher, they received a reading passage and a timer. One student had to be the reader and one was the timer. Their goal was to increase the number of words per minute for three trials. If students were able to do this correctly, they were given a simple engineering task. If they weren't able to do this correctly, they were given a more complex engineering task. Upon completion, that teacher would provide them with the next clue!

CHARACTERISTICS OF NON-FICTION

Students were given a non-fiction story (pulled from Reading A-Z) to read and be able to list four characteristics of non-fiction. Depending upon how many they were able to get correctly determined how many rulers they were given for the next task. Students had to measure the length of the hallway...so the more rulers, the better! Once students successfully completed the hallway measurement task, they were given a clue to find a teacher with only one short vowel sound in her name.

RETELLING A STORY

Students worked together to read a story (also pulled from Reading A-Z). Students had to identify the beginning, middle, and end...while making sure they also addressed the characters, setting, and plot. Students received 1-3 clues for their next task based upon how well they were able to retell the story. 

NOUNS, VERBS, AND ADJECTIVES

Students read a passage and had to sort the nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Once the teacher ok'd their work...They were finished!