Word Work Updates

Every now and then, I feel the need to spice things up for Daily 5, keep the kiddos engaged and interested. During my workdays before track in I hunted all over the lovely blog-o-sphere for new word work ideas. I've always loved this list of ideas from Christina Bainbridge. Definitely worth checking out.

On the far left in the green basket, are our Writing Folders from Really Good Stuff. I love those things. They really help the kids learn the writing process. We don't keep them in our desk because our grade level has to keep the same ones for 2 years before we replace them. So to keep them from the doom of what is often my kiddos' desks they live in the green basket.

Next is one of the new word work choices, ipad words! I found this via a pin on pinterest - Mrs. Gilchrist adapted the iphone idea into a larger ipad. I have a list of "ipad words" that goes with this. The kiddos have to first write the words in alphabetical order in the boxes with a dry erase marker, then they "type" them and hit "send". Seriously, it is the cutest thing for this apple-loving teacher to see. I told my kiddos that I would LOVE to have more ipads and have them using those for word work, but I'm not made of money so we make do. :)
Next up is Boggle Words. Anyone else out there ADDICTED to playing Scramble on their iphone? Me me me! I love this game and have seen Boggle bulletin boards for the classroom. I bought this set of cards by Rachel on TPT. I laminated 4 of the cards, put recording sheets in the folder, and voila challenging word work. I've explained to my kiddos that this choice is a challenge, that even adults find it hard! Therefore, this is not always the best choice for everyone. But I knew my higher readers needed a word work choice that was challenging and I can tell already that they love it. Sometimes we'll do one as a class in between rounds and I'm always shocked by how many words they find!

Bananagrams has always been a popular and favorite choice for word work and I don't think I'll ever get rid of it. I have a spelling list in a sheet protector and the kiddos use the tiles to spell their words and any other words they know. Scrabble Flash is a new one this year by the reccomendation of my coworker, Jim. It's basically like making words except the game self corrects and tells them which words are actually words! I love it! My kiddos can tell you what a stickler I am for quiet during Daily 5 but I do allow for the beeping of this fun game.

I forgot to take a picture of my last choice, Lacing Letters. Basically the letters have holes in them like beads and the kiddos lace their spelling words onto strings. Very kinesthetic. We've had that choice around for a while too.

Retell the Story with Post-Its

A while ago I found a cool story map on Pinterest that uses Post-Its. I used the idea to make my own large story map to use with post-its for whole group mini-lessons. It is perfect for practicing retelling the story.

After we read a story as a whole class, the students retell parts of the story and I record their answers on the stickies. I usually keep up those stickies for the rest of the day or longer.

Note: I often don't record connections on stickies when we do it as a whole group as this could take forever. I let as many people as I can share their connections verbally making sure to say if it is a Text to Self or Text to Text connection first.

We have talked about how what you write doesn't need to be in complete sentences and how it doesn't have to be fancy, but you should be able to expand on your thoughts when you talk about the story.

After modeling and practicing using the story map many times during mini-lessons I gave the kids their own story map to use during Read to Self or Read to Someone. I also use the student sized version during my Retell the Story strategy group. The kids keep their story map in a clear sheet protector in their Daily 5 folders. I also gave each student their own pad of Post-Its!!! It was like Christmas, hehe. We did have a nice chat about using Post-Its for reading and to become better readers, not to pass notes to a friend. As I have walked around the room lately during Daily 5 I've noticed many of them with their folders out using their stickies to retell the story. Yes!!

Awesome Read Alouds

Recently as we began to study Making Connections as a reading strategy I came across some super fun read-alouds that lend themselves to endless connections.

The first is Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown. I saw this at Barnes & Noble, browsed through it, and was immediately hooked. I knew that my kids would think it was hilarious! When I saw it in our school library I checked it out pronto. The whole premise is about a bear who wants a child for a pet. The kids loved the funny plot and were giggling the whole time.

Then we read Not Norman: A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett. The little boy wanted any pet except Norman. Norman didn't do anything like all of his friends cool pets. What a sweet, yet fun story about pets. The text was predictable and I found the kids reading along at the end of every page with the "Not Norman" part.

Last we read Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst. Oh my goodness, I'm in love with this one. Lulu is a spoiled, rotten brat. She absolutely wanted a brontosaurus as a pet. She even sings a song about it. As I read it aloud in a sing song voice the kids cringed at Lulu's antics and tantrums. They laughed at her crazy adventure in the woods and the way the author talked to the reader in the middle of the book. What a fun read! The kids couldn't wait for me to read a couple chapters each day to them!

As we read all 3 of these, we practiced making text-to-self and text-to-text connections. Most of the kids had connections to wanting their own pet or something their pet could do. They also made connections between the 3 books.

What are some of your favorite books for teaching connections?

I'm linking up to the Favorite Read Alouds Linky Party at Swimming Into Second. Go check it out!

Expanding Vocabulary - Word of the Day

You'll quickly learn that I love the Daily 5 for Literacy! Our 2nd grade team pioneered the Daily 5 last year and since then we are singing it's praises. We have even led 2 rounds of workshops for the rest of our staff to get them into the Daily 5 as well. Last year I learned so much about literacy and reading and getting kids motivated to read! This year I am trying to hone in on what I am teaching and figure out the best practices to teach each strategy or skill.

One area of Daily 5 that I really wanted to improve

on was "Expand Vocabulary". I started by doing a Vocabulary Word of the Day. I use my ipad2 (another love) for one of my mini-lessons to introduce a new word each day. I use Vocabulary Builder, Grade 1 and Grade 2. It's an awesome app.

After I show the kids the word and explain it's definition they share sample sentences or meanings at the carpet. Then I have them go to their seats and write the word in the Wonderful Words Book (more on that later). They can also draw a picture next to the word.

I needed somewhere to display the word of the day so that the kids could see it and hopefully use it. As wall space is short I decided to make a word of the day display on the cabinets above my sink. I really like how it turned out.

The kids have a lot of fun with the word of the day. I find them using it often during the day and week and also finding it in their reading!

One of the most fun things we do with our word of the day is post in on twitter. The leader of the day gets to come up with a sentence that uses the word of the day which I then publish on twitter, along with the meaning of the word. I have encouraged the parents that follow us on twitter to reply to the word of the day tweet and use the word in their own sentence. The kids love seeing what their parents say! A recent example for "hustle" was "Second graders often do not like to hustle when they get up in the morning."

So far I'm loving the word of the day. It's helping my students tune into those interesting words as they become better writers and readers!

How do you help your students tune into interesting words and expand their vocabulary?