A favorite way to practice spelling in my classroom as part of Daily 5 - Word Work is called Spelling Scribble. Simply draw a random squiggly shape on paper, making sure any loops in the shape provide enough space to fit several words. Then, inside each loop, write the same spelling word repeatedly inside each space. A cool example of brain-based learning that incorporates art to engage the mind.
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Last spring, a student gave me a little stuffed animal otter, which my class named Eddie. A sudden brainstorm hit me and I decided to use Eddie as a tool for classroom management. "Eddie the otter enjoys spending time with quiet students," I announced one morning, and thus began the morning routine of giving him to a different child each day to keep at their desk, as long as that student remained quiet and followed directions. If a child became too talkative or showed any form of misbehavior, our fuzzy friend was promptly taken away and placed back on the teacher's desk, or handed to another student. Eddie truly has become an integral member of the Room 17 community. I know this because, if I ever forget to give him to a student, someone in the class will inevitably ask, "Who gets Eddie today?" This year, I've been able to expand Eddie's involvement in the classroom into the realm of writing. He has become Room 17's favorite writing topic. We started off by developing his character with a circle map, with me modeling my own: After thinking of ideas to describe Eddie, we then began regular writing sessions about Eddie in the form of journal entries. We call them The Chronicles of Eddie the Otter. I gather the class on the carpet, and explain to them about diaries and journals, and the format of a diary entry with a date, greeting, and closing. On chart paper, I do a form of interactive writing with the children, eliciting ideas for sentences we could write from Eddie's point of view, as if he were actually writing in his own diary. I even call on students to come up and write words or add punctuation themselves to a sentence or paragraph, involving them directly and physically with the writing. I encourage the students to think like powerful writers, using vivid and concrete details to describe Eddie's day. Here are a couple samples: As independent writing practice, I occasionally have the class copy a diary entry and illustrate it. They've also written their own individual entries "by Eddie" in their own writing journals, and each one is so different! We've only done five or so entries for Eddie as a class thus far. I'm very curious to see where The Chronicles of Eddie the Otter will take me and my students as we continue our writing adventures with him into the year.
Beginning in this week's homework packet, students will be able to choose three spelling activities from the new "spelling tic-tac-toe" worksheet. Selected activities can be three in a row, three in a column, or three diagonally. Students should circle their choices and then use a separate (preferably lined) piece of paper for each practice activity.
To give everyone a virtual tour of Room 17 and some ideas of what students do every day, I will be highlighting special features of our classroom.
The Boggle Board is one of those activities children can choose to "play" with whenever they finish their work early. They simply get a worksheet I've made to list all the words they can possibly spell using adjoining letters that connect in any direction (horizontally, vertically, diagonally; no skipping over letters allowed). It's a great way to practice spelling and vocabulary skills. I try to change the letters once a week. Students can also play Boggle online. |
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