Guess Who?

You know those teacher moments you come up with on the spot?  Aren't they always the best??  We had some unexpected extra time during word work the other day so I quickly came up with a game.

We are studying the different ways that the vowel sounds can be spelled.  Last week we started with short -a vs. long -a.  I have been using the Words Their Way sorts for this.  My game, for some reason, reminds me of Guess Who?

To play the game, I had the students sort their words.

Then I gave them a clue.  For example, I started with "my word has a long -a sound."  So the students flipped over all their words with the short -a sound.

The next clue was "the long -a sound is spelled -ay in my word."

And so on and so forth, until we are down to one word (I thought I took more pictures, but apparently not!).  I plan to have the students play this in partners eventually, but I wanted to start as a whole class so that they understood the flow of the game.

Word Work Worksheets

I had a lot of interest in my Word Work activities that I posted about yesterday.  I got to work and revised the worksheets that I use with my students.  I use these in the classroom and sometimes for homework as well.  They work for Daily 5 centers as well as spelling.

It's available in both of my stores now!

{TpT}

{TN}

Word Work

This post can now be found over at The Colorful Apple.  Click here to check it out!

Monday Made-It!

I did it again!  I Monday Made-It!

Project #1:

I found these counting blocks at The Dollar Store yesterday:

Psshh...I'm not going to use them for counting!  They are going to be one of my Word Work stations.  I put letters on each of them.

(Yes, that's all I did because I want to go to the beach)

I'm pretty sure I got this idea from another blogger...but I can't remember who!  Please let me know if you did this, so I can give you credit!

 Project #2:

More clipboards!  Got these at The Dollar Store too.

This time, I wrapped them in a different duct tape:

Whoops!  Ran out of duct tape!  

Each roll covers 2 clipboards, it seems.

Check out 4th Grade Frolics for more wonderful craft ideas!

How do you spell...

Please tell me that your students ask that question just as much as mine do!  My response is always "What sounds do you hear?"  But then sometimes I get the students who are constantly asking about the SAME words.  Well, I decided to solve my own problem!  I created dictionaries for my students!  Each student has their own dictionary, which they can add words to, once they figure out how to spell it!  

I also thought this would be a great resource to add faculty and family members' names.  I've had students ask me how to spell their siblings' names...Nevaeh (Na-vy-ah)...Dulce (dul-say)...yeah, I had to ask parents for those!

My students keep their dictionaries in their desks so they are easily accessible at all times!  These would even work to create a "Class Dictionary" that all students could add to.

Check them out at my {TpT} and {TN} stores!

Write, Right?

This post has been moved to my new blog, The Colorful Apple.  Check it out here!

Roll and Spell

First, this is my motto for the next 3 weeks:

My whole family is going to Disney - I'm so excited!  Actually, I'm just excited to have a break.  We haven't had one since Christmas and that was less than a week and half long.  Only 3 1/2 more weeks!!

Meanwhile, in the land of spelling...

I stole borrowed this idea from Deb over at 

It's a game called Roll and Spell.  I was looking for a new activity for my kids for spelling and I stumbled upon her post.  I thought, why not give it a try?  Well...my kids go crazy for it!  It's the funniest thing.  They get so excited when I tell them that Roll and Spell is the activity for the day and when they have a free choice day, they automatically choose this one.

Deb has three different versions...original, rainbow spell and out loud version.

Rainbow version - they write the words in different colors depending on the number that they roll:

Original version - they write their words in different handwriting (big, small, fancy nancy, etc.)

Their favorite is the out loud one.  They get to spell their words out loud in different voices (alien, baby, opera, etc).  I tried videotaping it, but the rest of the class was too loud and you couldn't hear their voices.

If you are looking for a new spelling activity, go check out Oh My Little Classity Class's site!

My Biggest One Yet!

Ok, I don't know how you ladies create all these huge packets of activities.  It took me most of the afternoon to make a set of games that is only 16 pages long.  Major props to you!  Now, what are your secrets? ;)

My students will be working on Initial R-Blends in Spelling this week, so I created a packet that has 3 games in it; bingo, memory match and dominoes.  Go check it out at my TpT store!

I do have a serious question though.  I remember seeing someone post (of course I can't remember who) about using PowerPoint to create most of their items for their classroom/TpT.  Is this true or am I seeing things again?  I've always used Microsoft Word.  I'm curious, what do you find to be the easiest program to use?