Thirteen Ways to Make Spelling Practice Fun!

Earlier this week, I promised a blog post on ideas to practice spelling words, and here it is! It's important for these children to know their weekly words, as these words are high frequency words- words the children will need to be able to quickly read and write! In class, we've been briefly reviewing our words daily.

I introduced our words with hangman, which the kids loved! They got a kick out of beating Mrs. Whitten at a game, and I loved seeing how many of them knew the week's words already! The next day, we spent the last few minutes before lunch creatively spelling these words with our bodies as the letters. Today, we also learned how to play a quick game called "Sparkle," that has a little to do with luck and a lot to do with how much the children have practiced their words at home!

If your child gets tired of mundanely practicing their spelling words, these are some ideas to help get them excited to spell and switch things up!

1. Rainbow write the words. (Children can use different colored crayons, colored pencils, or markers to spell their words.)
2. Use Scrabble or Bananagrams tiles to spell out the words.
3. Write the consonants in one color and the vowels in another.
4. Write the words with "fancy" letters (with dots on the end of letters, curly letters, bubble letters, etc.)
5. Write each word three times: big, medium, and small. 
6. Make spelling "sweet" by pouring sugar on to a tray and tracing the words in the sugar.
7. Fill a ziplock bag with a bit of paint and seal it well. Children will use a Q-tip to trace the letters.

Click here for a link to instructions

8. Trace letters in shaving cream on a tray. 

9. Use chalk outside on a nice day to write words on the sidewalk. 

10. Bounce a ball outside while spelling words, one bounce per letter.
11. Roll and spell your words aloud! With a dice, roll a one: spell in a spooky voice, roll a two: spell in a robot voice, roll a three: spell in a squeaky voice, roll a four: spell in an opera voice, roll a five: spell in whisper, roll a six: spell in a cheerleader voice ("Give me T! Give me an H! Give me an E! What does that spell? The!")
12. In a dark room, "write" words with a flashlight in the air!
13. Use Play-Doh to form the words. 

Ta-da! Just a few of many creative ideas to use to get your kids excited about spelling! I'd also challenge your kids to look for their spelling words as they read books, in order to practice reading them! However, the weekends are not for homework- they're for playing and resting so we can keep having fabulous, productive weeks! Enjoy this time with your children!

First Week Frenzy!

Welcome to our newly private class blog! I apologize for just now sending out blog invitations, but wow, was it a crazier first week than I ever anticipated! Going home sick was the last thing I ever expected, but I learned an important lesson my first day: if I don't take care of myself (by doing basic things for my physical and mental health, like sleeping and eating), I cannot take care of your precious children... Which is an important job I take very seriously!

Thankfully, Mrs. Swigunski, our school math specialist (and firstie friend Ray's mom!), stepped in and stepped up to the challenge, like the pro she is! Not only did she come in and cover for the day, but she also came in and snapped pictures of your cuties and their pearly whites to commemorate their first day of first grade! Next week, you'll each receive an email with their first day pictures in case you'd like to print more copies for yourself! (Your child will bring one home on Monday!)

Besides the mishap on day one, our first week of school was fabulous! We got acquainted with school and classroom procedures and expectations. Together, the students and I came up with gestures to go with our class rules. For first graders, movement is crucial (it isn't developmentally appropriate to assume a 6 year old can sit still in a desk all day!), so the students responded well to incorporating motion into our rules!

Speaking of movement, I think my favorite part of the school day (and the students' favorite!) has been our "brain breaks." While the academic piece of school is obviously crucial, right now the students need incentive to get back into the swing of things! Our mornings are academically heavy, with math and writing taking up our first two hours of the day. While the students move around a good bit during these two hours, they are still itching for more after we wrap up our Writer's Workshop. That's when we turn to GoNoodle, a site created to get kids moving! Some GoNoodle videos give children explicit instructions on what to do and how to move, but so far, the class's favorites seem to be the "Kidz Bop" music videos, where they just freestyle dance (to wholesome pop songs) for two or three minutes! They LOVE it, and it brings me so much joy to see them all giggling together, dancing with no inhibitions!

"If you're a girl.... Go swimming!" This video, directing boys to do one thing and girls to do another will be a go-to for brain breaks!

"If you're a kid, dance around! Dance, dance, around!" 

Kids showing how they "Pop See Koo!" (Mrs. Whitten still has this song stuck in her head...) 

We also did an "Alphabet I Spy," where the detectives moved around the room, hunting for capital letters "hidden" around the room, and marking the matching lowercase letters off on a corresponding sheet on clipboards with highlighters (which the kids loved using!).  The catch? Tricky Mrs. Whitten didn't put up one of the letters, and the kids raced to see who could figure out which letter was missing first! It was so sweet to see the kids help each other out and work together, even though there was somewhat of a competitive "edge" to the activity.

Detectives hard at work! 

This week, we learned....

How to use our math journals, and I was so impressed with how many students were eager to share their problem-solving methods!
Tricks writers use to write small-moment stories. We completed three days of Writer's Workshop, which was huge!
What it looks like to be a professional first grader. (Listening to our teacher; following directions quickly; raising our hands for permission to speak; being safe, being honest, being kind; respecting ourselves, others, and our environment!) Ask your children to show you their class rules; by the end of next week, I think we'll have them down pat!
How to read to ourselves in our Reader's Workshop.
How to walk in a 4S line.  Silent, still, straight, and (my favorite) SMILING!
More about each other. Students started sharing their brown bag biographies- the bag with 5 items about themselves- on Friday, and it was such a delight hearing students present their favorite people, places, and things.  We'll continue sharing on Monday!

On Friday, Mrs. Whitten attempted to get most of our class gathered for a group picture! 

I'm looking forward to another wonderful week next week! In the meantime, enjoy your weekend with your adorable children!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow!

You're only a day away!

Meet the Teacher was so much fun on Thursday, and I'm so thankful for everyone coming out! Since I did not get through all the information in the first session, I decided to post the Meet the Teacher presentation at the bottom of this page! I am so ready to see all my first grade friends' smiling faces again tomorrow! We have a week full of learning and fun ahead of us!

At some point this week, please send in a one inch binder with your child. The first grade team has decided to utilize one inch binders for poetry notebooks this year. These binders will be used as a place to keep poems we read as a class and will ultimately be a fun keepsake for children to keep at the end of the year and read over the summer!

Again, I am so thrilled for tomorrow and the rest of the year!

Wanted: School Supplies

With all my excitement in just introducing myself and sending your children letters about how ready I was to meet them, I forgot to mention one important detail about Meet the Teacher: school supplies!

If you happen to see this post before Thursday afternoon and have already purchased the majority of your child's school supplies, please feel free to bring those supplies to Meet the Teacher!

I know how nerve-wracking the first day can be for children, and I would love the opportunity to just sort their supplies for them ahead of time so when they get to school on the first day, they feel right at home with their materials already in place! If you are unable to bring the supplies to Meet the Teacher, you are also welcome to bring them up to the front office on Friday!

I am looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow!