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April 9, 2016

Contraction Surgery

Friday was one of those fun, engaging, awesome days of learning. It was play-based, rigorous, and had my operating room of 1st grader doctors begging for more. Today I wanted to share with you more about Contraction Surgery – a morning filled with hands-on contraction fun!

Setting the Stage

Like Compound Construction, part of creating a learning experience means going all-in. Primary grades are special because our littles still believe in the power of magic and they believe in us. So, if we say we are operating on contractions – they say “Let’s Scrub Up!” For our day of operation, we had a guest teacher named “Dr. W”. I borrowed scrubs from a teammate’s family, a stethoscope from a local education cooperative, and snagged a grade-level set of gloves and masks. (You could definitely have the gloves and masks donated from a local doctor or dentist office but I had just requested some for another activity. I’ve included Amazon affiliate links to the materials I purchased.)
Typically, I would start a hands-on experience at the beginning of the day and have everything all set up, but Friday was an alliterative schedule day. So, we started our morning with a normal Daily 5 block and then, during planning, I set-up. Since I already had all of the patient records and patients ready to go, the set-up took me a total of 20 minutes!
Each operating room was covered in white bulletin board paper (or white table cloth), a surgical mask (Amazon affiliate link), surgical gloves (Amazon affiliate link), glue sticks, knives (scissors), patient records, patients, and a tray of apostrophes (bandaids).
 

What Our Morning Looked Like

Students walked in from specials and gathered on the Operating Floor. We learned that there had been a terrible Word Accident. They were commissioned by a doctor to repair the broken contractions! I love using ChatterPix to ‘hook’ students into a lesson because it helps build excitement and creates an outside purpose for the activity.

After hearing their task, we did a quick contractions review and Moby and Annie. The 4 minute Brain Pop Jr. was the perfect way to review and practice how to form contractions. During the video, we stopped and added possible patients to our class anchor chart.

Then, it was time to save lives! My doctors were ready and speedily got to work. Gloves and masks were put on, and it was time to repair those broken contractions. Although many doctors worked by themselves, several doctors decided to work in operating teams. Each person at the table had 7-8 different patients: it worked really well and my 1st grade doctors were exposed to MANY different contractions!

The trickiest part of the surgeries was learning how to operate on ‘not’ contraction, realizing that only the ‘o’ needed to be removed from the contraction and figuring out how to do that with gloves on – ha! #firstgradeproblems
Throughout the surgeries we realized we need to work quickly and efficiently. We heard our patient’s heartbeats in the background and it was STRESSFUL! So many times, I heard “Work faster doctors! The heart beat is slowing now. We’re losing them!” come from my 1st graders mouths. They were eating from the palm of my hand!

Being Real – How Much Did it Cost?

The surgery was a blast and a perfect way to channel our “it’s-about-to-be-Spring-Break” excitement into learning! It took a full 90 minutes, but my 1st grade doctors could have easily worked another 30-40 minutes. They were completely into it!

In terms of cost, the materials were split between the 2 first grade classrooms. If we had asked for the gloves and masks to be donated, it would have been an almost free venture…but we had just asked for the same supplies for a previous staff meeting (and I was too chicken). So here is what the supplies and cost break-down looked like:

Have you done surgery in the classroom before? If you have, what were you learning and how did it go? If not, are you ready to step outside of your traditional reading block for a day? Contraction Surgery is a perfect way to engage and excite your learners with hands-on learning! It’s fun, simple, and makes a HUGE impression.

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Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

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Filed Under: 1st Grade, Reading/Literacy Tagged With: 1st Grade, Student Engagement

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Emily says

    April 10, 2016 at 3:08 am

    Your operating room looks great!! The scrubs and stethoscope were a nice touch. My kids loved this activity when I did it with them, glad you and your tiny people liked it!!! 🙂
    Emily
    Munchkins Inc.

    Reply
  2. Jody says

    June 7, 2016 at 3:58 pm

    Love, love, LOVE this!! SO blessed the children in your care!

    Reply
  3. Jody says

    June 7, 2016 at 4:07 pm

    Was wondering if you have or are planning to have the materials you used for both your Contraction Surgery and Construction for sale? Thanks.

    Reply
  4. Delayne says

    May 26, 2018 at 9:11 pm

    Dollar tree has the surgical masks! 10 in a box .

    Reply
  5. Mary ruff says

    November 9, 2018 at 12:52 pm

    This is one of our most memorable lessons! Highly engaging with the heart monitor in the background and busy “surgeons” showing what they know and practicing contactions! Thank you for sharing this wonderful lesson . . . this is my second year using it! We also added writing “prescriptions” for our patients using the contractions in sentences. I teach second graders.

    Reply

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February 8, 2013

Contraction Surgery

This week we have been hitting contractions hard. Every day has included a contraction center and today was the culmination with First Grade Fever’s Contraction Surgery! I have seen this on all the blogs and was SO excited to participate in my first CS . 🙂

Yesterday afternoon, my CT and I placed white butch paper on the tables to sterilized the operating tables. We then set our all of the operating supplies – glue stick, scissors, band-aids, 5 contractions, and a booklet. Plus, a parent who is a doctor donated masks and gloves.

When our friends walked in, they were shocked and SO excited. The room was a buzz, and all my CT and I said was, “We do not want to contaminate the operating field. Please sit on the carpet and enjoy Browsing Box this morning [in replace of morning work].” It was so much fun to watch their faces while we waited. 

Once we explained what was happening, each friend was given a doctor’s badge and told to put on his/her gloves and mask. The gloves were a StRuGlE for them and hilarious for us. Totally worth it.

Our friends were SO serious while operating on their contractions. At one point, I overheard a friend say “I’m in a rush.” to which his shoulder partner responded, “What are your trying to do? Kill the patient!?!” hehehe. I LOVE the ‘buy-in’ factor of firsties! Another sweet friend was having difficulty opening her contraction booklet with her gloves on, stared intently at her booklet, and commanded, “Be still. I’m a doctor.”

We, my CT and I, were scrub nurses for the morning. We brought new band aids, repaired broken contractions [i.e. met individually with struggling contraction surgeons], and most importantly unstuck band aids from gloves J Plus, we got many laughs and fun photos throughout the hour. At one point while we were laughing, a friend said “This is a lot harder than you think…” Like I’ve always said, 1st grade is rough!

We
assessed contractions during reading centers, and I am SO happy to say that our
friends ‘got it!’ It was such a fun and simple way to made something that can
be so difficult easy. Plus, one little girl came up to me during surgery and giggled,
“We’re actually having fun and learning!” How can you beat that?

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. jivey says

    February 8, 2013 at 2:41 am

    I did this when I taught 1st grade! One thing I miss 😉
    Jessica
    ideas by jivey

    Reply
  2. Kelly says

    February 8, 2013 at 2:41 am

    OMG- I love this !!! I can't wait to pick this up and do it with my first graders…now, if I could only find the masks and gloves. What a great touch! 🙂

    Kelly
    First Grade Fairytales

    Reply
  3. Collaboration Cuties says

    February 8, 2013 at 2:42 am

    How cute! I love it! And I love that you had them wear gloves and everything! I have not seen this! Thanks for sharing!

    Amanda
    Collaboration Cuties

    Reply
  4. Brenda says

    February 8, 2013 at 2:58 am

    So funny! We did this exact same thing today! I'm sharing my pics tomorrow (left the camera at school)!

    Brenda
    Primary Inspired

    Reply
  5. AMC says

    February 8, 2013 at 3:02 am

    I did this with my class last year – loved it. Those pictures are great! It is so rewarding when the kids are excited by their learning and then transfer it to another activity.

    Reply
  6. Miss Squirrels says

    February 8, 2013 at 4:59 am

    Cute activity- looks like they had a good time!
    Squirrels
    Going Nutty!
    misssquirrels@yahoo.com

    Reply
  7. RealOCteachers says

    February 8, 2013 at 6:03 am

    Great activity!

    The REAL Teachers of Orange County

    Reply
  8. Jenny says

    February 9, 2013 at 4:36 am

    I love this! What a meaningful way to teach contractions!

    Jenny
    Suntans and Lesson Plans

    Reply
  9. Jessica says

    February 10, 2013 at 4:31 am

    So cute. The must have loved it!

    What i have learned

    Reply

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My name is Catherine Reed, and I am in my 8th year in elementary life, residing in small-town, Kentucky.  I student taught in 1st grade and never ...

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