Cause and Effect
I tell the kids that a cause is what happens and an effect is what happens as a result of the cause. Cause (make a hammer with your right fist and hammer your left hand)
Effect ( shake your left hand as if it is hurting)


Reading Genres = I have a start - please make a better suggestion and help with the rest.

Fiction / non fiction- just like the poster - Use the – three fingers / two fingers to the forehead to represent three eyes, fiction and two eyes non fiction.

Non fiction
Informational text – put your right hand by your temple and flick open you index finger- like a light going on
Biography – have a copy of a biography of Abe Lincoln as an example. Hold two hands at each side of your head to simulate Abe’s hat then bring two hands to the front of your body together and open them like a book.

Autobiography – point two thumbs to yourself, then do the biography gestures

Fiction
Historical Fiction- left hand palm up at chest right hand simulates drinking from a tea cup with pinky finger out – (ever so properly ?) then do the fiction – three fingers to the forehead

Realistic fiction -

Science Fiction -

Traditional Literature –

Poetry -

Cause and Effect--I've used these cues for years with little pictures, and they fit well into gestures: Cause (raincloud)-Effect(raindrops)-Cause(raindrops)-Effect(puddle)-Cause(puddle)-Effect(wet shoes)
With gestures: Cause(raincloud--make a circle above head with both hands, forming shape of a cloud)-Effect(raindrops--wiggle fingers of both hands as you pull them down from where the "cloud" was), Puddle (use both hands in a side-to-side wave motion to indicate water), wet shoes (point to shoe)

Yea! Thanks a lot! Please go on ..... I love to get new ideas!

We have a set of gestures everyone in the district has to do, www.pittsburg.k12.ca.us/uploads/document...dMotions-revised.pdf

Cause and Effest is my favorite and the kids love it too

Create the letter Y by extending your arms in a V while saying…
“The cause is the why.”
Then, place your hands on your hips while saying in a sassy attitude…
“The effect is what happened.”

For science fiction, you could hold your hands straight out in front of you and walk like a robot (in place)
You could also make a weird sound like "That does not compute"!

You guys are awesome! I love the ideas posted here so far, now it's time for us to put our heads together and figure out gestures for the other genres!

For realistic fiction, would 3 fingers to the forehead, then pointing out to your students (current people), then pointing to your watch (current time), then pointing to the room (current or believable setting) work? Let me know what you think. This would be very helpful to me as we're going to start talking about genre this week. Thanks in advance!

Does anyone have a suggestion for a gesture for the word 'genre'? I tried to see if there was an ASL sign, but no luck......

For fantasy I have my students pretend they are flying like a bird. Since fantasy is something that could not happen in the real world, I say can we really fly in the sky like a bird. Of course they say no. They really seem to like this gesture!!

After I do gestures,
I sing this song to an old country song (which I forgot the name) and it goes like this:

Cause and effect, makes perfect sense
All when the action makes something happen
The effect is caused by the actionnnnnnn
Always look for clue words to get satisfaction.

Also,
I teach my kids the "cause and effect clue words" by the tune of the Army Chant:

As a result, because, and cause (they echo)
Effect, since, so that (Echo)
Therefore, thus, when, and if (echo)
then, and then, and then, and then (echo)

The kids LOVE it and have NO problem finding the clue words. I caught them singing their song during the test!
I hope this helps and thanks for the awesome ideas!!
Brittany
4th grade

Everything sounds great Brittany!! I would love to get the name of that song!!

I will surely try and think of it. I made up the cause and effect song, but will try and find the tune for you! If not, you can make up your own tune!Lol The kids LOVE to sing. Let me know how it goes!!