Words Their Way Game Freebie

This fall, I will begin my 3rd year using Words Their Way in my classroom.  It will be the first year that it is district curriculum.

I am glad that I have used it for a couple of years, as I have been able to become more comfortable with it and make changes to my plans as I go.  In general, I think it is a good program.  I have found parents relatively receptive to it although some still struggle with understanding how it works.

This game I made for Monday Made It with Tara.  It is a pretty easy game, and I will continue to develop it for more sorts as the  year continues.  So far I have made the game for sorts 1-15 in Book 3.  The majority of my 3rd graders have been falling into the Syllables and Affixes stage, so I decided this was a good place to start.

I started with some of those little gems that you use in the bottom of vases.  I got these at Michaels.

I used circle labels to mark some as Free Choice, Lose a Turn, and Oddball.  These will be able to used throughout the year for all of the sorts I create.

Next, I began with Unit 1 in the above book, and I put the headers for the Unit 1 sorts onto other gems.  As we start sorts, I will pull out the gems the kids need to complete the sort. Most sorts have about three headers.  That will mean 3 gems plus one free choice and lose a turn gem making a total of about 5 gems for the game.

These gems will be placed in a bag or cup in the middle of the two players. The students will take their sort cards and lay them in a pool face up.  (Each player will have their own pool.)  They will then put their sort headers onto a piece of paper in front of them.  They will follow these directions to then play the game.

Basically, the first player to place all of their cards in the sort correctly wins.  We will typically have about 20-30 minutes of word work each day, so I think that this game will be able to be completed during this time.

I am making three sets of gems for each unit which will allow 6-9 kids to play.  Most of my groups do not have more than 9 students in them.

Well--There is my Monday Made It!  Go check out Tara's website to find more great ideas!

Word Work Websites

One of my many summer goals is to strengthen my word work choices for my students.  I was pleased with the way my students worked their way through their Daily 5 Choices last year,but too many of them still view it as spelling practice.  I really want them to get the idea and fun of playing with words.  There is so much to be learned that way. With Words their Way, I have a number of sorts and other games, they can play with partners, but for many of my students, that is just busy-work.  They already understand the word and spelling patterns.

For my students, I am going to put together a list of word work web options.  They are typically assigned a word work goal for the week, so when they complete that task, they can move to a web activity if they wish.

Below are some sites that I think will be worth my students' while...
:

http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/frog/frog.html

This Word Frog game is a little easy for some of my students, but it will be a good review for many.  They will like the animation and the game part of it.  Arademic Skill Builders has some other good word games, too.

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/synsam.html

This game is from Between the Lions and it is called Synonym Sam's lab.  Again, it is a little simple, but I like the exposure it will give my students to words.  It will be esp. good for those kiddos who are not really reading at grade level as well as my ESL students.

http://www.wordcentral.com/games/bigbot.html

This Merriam-Webster site offers a much more difficult set of vocabulary for kids to use in finding synonyms/antonyms.  It will be great exposure to new words for some of my kds.

http://smarttutor.com/home/lessons/Vocab_PrefixSuffix_L3_V1_T3a.swf

This balloon pop game practices 3rd grade prefixes and suffixes,  but the site does offer similar games at other levels.  This one looks like ones my kids will like, and I like the way it makes them think about the prefix on different base words.  It will be a great reinforcer!

http://www.itsamadlibsworld.com/

I am going to probably let my kids do these Mad Libs with a friend.  That is what makes them fun!

http://www.playkidsgames.com/games/pinball/vocabulary/pinballvocab1.htm

Probably, a lot of kids have never played pinball, so this will be a novel idea for them!  This pinball game is similar to hangman.  As the kids send the ball over letters in the word, the letters are revealed at the bottom of the screen.

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/soup.html

Not only does this Between the Lions game practice making/spelling words, it offers some higher level thinking for my kiddos by using jokes.  Jokes are often a difficult skill for student who are not familiar with our language and those who struggle with reading.  Fun little game:  Alphabet Soup!

http://www.quia.com/hm/114901.html

This hangman site reviews the 300 most common words in our language.

http://host.exemplum.com/hasbro/boggle/boggle.html

This is just like the game Boggle.  I plan to have a boggle board on my wall this year, but I think this will be a fun alternative.  Besides, kids can practice at home!

http://www.abcya.com/letter_blocks.htm

This Letter Blocks game on ABCYa is a fun challenge for all.  It will add automatic differentiation for your kiddos.

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/

This site offers something for all of my kiddos.  Good games like Hangman aqd Crosswords for my higher students, and syllable games and homophones for some of my students who find these skills difficult.

Do you have any good word websites to share?  I would love to have a great set of choices for my students!

Excited about words!

So, last year, my good friend was telling me about this great idea that she had seen on teachertipster.com where you play pictures of sight words on a digital photo frame.  She teaches 1st grade, and that seemed appropriate for her classroom but not so much for mine.  Anyhow, I have been thinking about it for a year.  What a great idea.

Well, I had some grant money come my way this spring, so I decided to get myself a digital photo frame and make it work for my room.

One way that I expose kids to new vocabulary is through our classroom Word of the Week.  The kids are introduced to it and practice it in a number of ways throughout the week both in the classroom and in homework.  Most of my kids do pretty well with retaining the new words, but I do have some who struggle with remembering these words.  I am hoping that this will help with everyone having better retention of the words.

Here is an example of what one word and what it will look like. Somehow, I don't have the first screen which introduces the word: COLOSSAL.

I am going to place the frame in a place with a lot of student traffic so that the kids can see it easily.  The words will be words from previous weeks, and they will be in constant slideshow mode.  I haven't decided how many words to have going on at a time, but right now I am leaning towards a rotation of about 4 different words each week.

So, here is how I made it.  I used SMART Notebook 11 and made each page in that.  Each word starts with a page with just the word on it, a definition page, some sentence pages, an etymology page, a page of related words,  a page of synonyms, and a visuwords.com map for the word.  The word COLOSSAL is its own document, and each WOW will have its own SMART document.  Once I finished it, I exported it as an image/jpeg. I put all of this onto the flash drive, put it into the frame and voila!  I have my word slideshow. 

What do you think?  I think it is so cool, and I can't wait to continue to make more images for my WOWs.  I am hoping to complete them this summer before school so that I am not scrambling to do them during the school year.  Wish me luck!

Word Clouds

Word clouds are a great way to encourage students to use technology to "show what they know."  They are so much fun and have so many different uses. I have students use them to tell me about a book character, the elements of a book, to illustrate a theme, or to determine what words they used too much in their own writing.  They could also be used to illustrate the theme of a piece of writing.  Below are a variety of word clouds from some different sites.

I love Wordle.  They are easy to create and flexible to edit for adults and kids.  The wordle below is one I made by entering in all of the Presidents' first, middle, and last names.  If you are hoping for a successful son, it looks like you might want to name him James, William, or John.  :)

Tagxedo is another fun word cloud generator.  It works very similarly to Wordle, but you have the flexibility of creating your tagxedo into a shape, and when you hover over a word in the shape, it will pop out...
This is one I made just by entering the URL of this blog.  I was unable to find a way to embed it, so it appears as an image and loses its interactivity.  However, still cool!

Word it Out is another word cloud site.  It is easy to use, also.  The one I made here uses the words from this year's classroom expectations that my students created.

TagCrowd doesn't have quite as many options, but it does allow for a word count.  This would be a good one for students to use to review their papers for repeated words.  This one was made by entering the URL of our class website.

ABCYa also has a word cloud generator.  It is easy to use.  It just doesn't have the options that some of the others have.  Here is one I created for The Gettysburg Address.

Word Mosaic is another one that is easy to use.  You import your words and determine the shape.  It will allow you to embed the image.  The one below is one I created for Valentine's Day..."How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways..."

Share with me any other ideas you have for the use of word clouds.  They don't always have to be printed out.  Students can put them into blogs, you can place them in your blogs, wikis, or online portfolios.  Leave me a comment about any of these sites.  I love hearing your ideas!

Some thoughts on Words their Way

So, I have now been using Words their Way in my classsroom for the last 10 weeks.  It works well with my Daily 5 approach.  Students spend time at school working with their words and with with me learning about their word patterns.

I have developed the plan that the words are current for 2 weeks.  Students complete activities for me and do activities on their own with the same set of words before I assess their ability to spell them.  (Spelling is still a grade, and it still matters to parents, so while I try to encourage the concept of word study, the kids still think of it as spelling.)

 I have four different word groups.  Two groups are at different points in the Within Word stage, one is in the Syllable Juncture stage, and the last group is in the Derivational Constancy stage.  Most of my direct instruction time is with the groups in the Within Words stage.  My time with the other groups is spent making sure that they know the meanings of the words.

Here is what I have found so far:  The students in the Within Word stage are not having great carryover into their every day spelling.  Even though we have student CVCe since the beginning of the year, they still do not put that rule to use on their own.  When prompted, they might know what to do, but they rarely do it independently.  The other two groups are growing in their knowledge of word structure and vocabulary.  They were already good spellers, and their daily writing shows this. 

I am working to put more into my Within Words groups to help them move along.  Do you have any ideas?  Are you seeing progress with your students?  Certainly, I don't believe that these students are being harmed by WtW, but it is also not having the effect that I had hoped for either.  What do you think?  Do you have something that you are finding to be more effective?  I would love to hear your ideas!

My continuing journey with Words Their Way

Last week, I gave my first spelling test with my students' Words Their Way lists.  It went remarkably well.  Over half of the students received perfect scores on spelling and conventions, and a half dozen more spelled all of their words from their list correctly.  (Just a reminder, I give dictation sentences as my spelling tests.  Students are given five sentences to copy down.  Each sentence contains about two of the students' spelling words.  They receive a spelling grade, and a grade for correct capitalization and punctuation.)

I have four different developmental lists.  I have two groups in the Within Words  stage, one in the Affixes group, and one group in Derviational Relations.

I have a word work taskboard that students use as a basis for word work.  (Thanks to my friend, Christa.  I tweaked hers.) They have also been doing sorts and playing games from the Words Their Way book.  As we begin to move into our more regular schedule for Daily Five (although mine is Dailya Three), they are given a word work task or tasks to complete each week.  They also have another list of word activities that they can choose from if they finish the one that is assigned for the week.  I am anxious to see how they do with the independence required to work on these.  I am hoping that it goes well.

With each of my groups, we meet at least once during the two week time period so that I can check their understanding of the rule associated with their words.  We work with the words for two weeks before we do the dictation assessment.  I send home little/no spelling homework. 

I hope that not only do they do well on next week's spelling tests, but that they begin to learn the rules and have some carryover into their daily writing.  That is my main goal in using this format!

How many of you are using Words Their Way?  What are you doing with it in your classroom?

Kinesthetic Spelling

For a number of years, I have used this idea to practice our spelling words.  I use it sometimes in stations, or I have an individual at the SMARTBoard and one on the mat to practice the same word.

I have a couple of them, and they were so easy and cheap to make!  I used plastic tablecloths from the party store and then wrote the alphabet on them.  When the word is said, the children say the letters in the word aloud and move to it on the mat.

I made similar ones for multiplication facts.  They are set up differently as the numbers are randomly placed on the mat.  I have the kids go against each other in this format.  It is more like Twister.

It is a great way to help some of the kids get some extra movement in! 

Words their Way: Beginning Stages

So, I have started my Words their Way journey.

Early in the week, I gave the Elementary Spelling Inventory.  The scoring did not take too long, and I think I figured out groups well.  I ended up with 4 groups:  A middle Within-Words group, a late Within-Words group, a Syllables-Affixes group, and a Derivational Relations group.  I was pleased with that, and I am hoping I can manage it okay.

The toughest part will be launching the Words part of Daily 5 with 3 different groups.  I am thinking that the first working with words activities will be pretty much the same for everyone--just using their words.  Sorts are pretty easy to start with for 3rd graders, so that is where I plan on starting.

I like the information I get from the inventory.  After listening to kids read and watching some simple writing assignments, I had a pretty good idea where students would fall, but I like the more specific details I was able to get from the inventory.  I think it will really help me to pinpoint instruction and practice for my students.

I will have students work with their words in class and at home for about two weeks on average before giving them an assessment.  My assessment will be 5 dictation sentences which the students will copy.  Each sentence will contain 2-3 of the words from their list.  This assessment will receive two scores:  a score for the correct spelling of their listed words, and a score for using capital letters and correct end punctuation in their sentences.  Each group will get a different set of sentences.

The main goal for me of this word work is for students to have carryover of correct spelling into their writing and daily work.  Let's hope it is a step in the right direction!

If you would like to learn more about Words Their Way, click on the picture below.

An Amazon Delivery!

Today, I received a box of books from Amazon.  It contained books that I found while looking at other people's favorite fall read-alouds.  How exciting for me!  I took the boys to the pool, and I read picture books in the sun.  What great ideas I got from everybody!  Some of the books were on multiple lists, and now I can see why.

The book I am going to talk about is one that I don't think I found on someone's list.  It was listed below another book where it says "Customers who bought this book also liked..."

What a great book!  I loved its emphasis on words and definitions, and the story line was clever, too!  I looked online, and Debra Frasier has a website that offers some additional resources to use with it, too.  It is cleverly written and may be better for students in Grades 3 and up, but maybe some of you will tell me differently.

If I am mistaken and found this book in your list of fall read-alouds, I apologize and thank you for the recommendation!



3rd grade Words Their Way

So I have been learning more about Words their Way by Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton and Johnston. Has anyone out their tried this idea in their classroom?

Last year, I went to a complete word work approach in my classroom. Much less emphasis on memorizing spelling words. The kids did pretty well, and the feedback from parents was good. I used our district supplied list of 120 words that they feel all 3rd graders should be able to spell.

This year, I am going to assess my students at the beginning of the year, and use that to determine the list of words they will use for word work and for any type of assessment. Does anyone have any tips for me? Years ago, I used individualized lists, so that part is not too frightening to me. I am just wondering what successes or concerns people have had after using this book as their guide.

I am very interested in feedback from people about this. Let me know what you think...