language arts Archives | Lucky To Be In First

Did you know your classroom is full of little Secret Agents running around?

Secret Agent Learning will get your students excited to review essential Math & Language Arts skills!

Introducing Secret Agents to Your Class

To build up the suspense, I left a few clues around the classroom. I bought the cheap disguise glasses at the dollar store!

This really built up curiosity among my students. You know how nosey kids are! They started asking tons of questions about what everything was for and more importantly, if they could touch it and use it!

What Does a Secret Agent Do?

To get our activities going, I asked the students what they thought Secret Agents did.

There must be a lot of cartoons out there about Secret Agents because they gave me the exact answers I had hoped for! I was SUPER impressed that a first grade was able to come up with the word stealthy {and actually could explain its meaning!}

We created this anchor chart together, but I can’t draw at all, so I typed up their answers to share with you! We chatted about why each of these qualities are important in a Secret Agent.

Click on the picture to grab the file to use in your own class!

First Mission

At this point, you could feel the buzz around the room! The kids were excited to get working!

But, we quickly reviewed their job. Obviously, for each pack you use, there is a different “mission” whether it’s short vowels, telling time or finishing up number patterns.

Click on the picture to grab this poster for your room!

I explained to the students that the point of this activity was NOT to simply use the decoder to reveal the answers. Their job was to solve the problem on their own…and THEN check to see if their answer was right!

I explained to the students that it was okay if they got the wrong answer – they just needed to go back and figure out why it was wrong.

Secret Agents at Work!

At this point, you could feel the buzz around the room! The kids were excited to get working!

Using their decoders and recording sheet, the students walked silently {can you believe it!?} around the classroom to find the hidden problems.

Again, I stressed that it was more important to write the problem and the answer BEFORE they checked for the answer!

The students were excitedly hopping from problem to problem to figure it out!

I couldn’t believe they were this excited for math problems!
The pictures are making it difficult to see, but the answer is exposed once a student holds the decoder up to it! Taking pictures was a challenge because my reflection kept popping up 🙂

My heart skipped a beat when I heard a kid say, “Miss Lynch makes THE funnest activities for us!” {I didn’t want to break it to him in that moment that ‘funnest’ is not quite a word! }

But isn’t that what we want our students to think about school? That they’re learning BUT still having fun?

Extending the Lesson

Each Secret Agent pack is filled with at least 3 decoder activities plus printables to match the skills.

The first printable {from Secret Agent Addition} asked the students to use the secret code to solve addition problems. Huge crowd pleaser!

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This next activity asks the students to solve the addition problems and color odd and even sums different colors. It takes what they did during the decoder actvity and extends it a bit more.
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Secret Agent Language Arts

Later in the week, I introduced my students to Secret Agent Short Vowels. For this activity {which I use during Daily 5} I simply punched a hole in the corner of the cards and used a binder ring to secure them together.

Instead of cruising around the room, the students complete the activities at their own desk. Still a big crowd pleaser! I store the week’s activity inside of a cute little toolbox I got at a local dollar store!

How to Store Secret Agent Learning

If you plan to use more than one Secret Agent Learning pack in your class, you’ll want an easy way to store the goodies! I stopped by Michaels to grab this photo box organizer. It’s also available on Amazon here {but if you have a coupon at Michaels, it’s cheaper!}

It allows you to grab one set out at a time! I also store the decoders right inside the box, too!Of course, I used my Silhouette to make some fun words for the front!

A Couple Things to Know

Every printer prints the secret message differently. I have printed on countless printers to try it out! I’ve found that it’s best to print on an inkjet print using regular ‘ol copy paper.

Laser printers and card stock are fine, but the best results come from just the basic printers!

I make it a point to tell my students each time we do this activity that it is not important {or impressive!} if they can see the “answer” hidden. The point of these Secret Agent Learning activities is to give your students a new way to practice skills!

Directions are included in each pack to create decoders yourself. You can also purchase a class set of decoders HERE on TpT! They’ll be a bit more durable than the ones you’ll make, but they work exactly the same!