English Word Work Review

It is hard to believe but the end is drawing near! A week and a half left!

This being said, each year at the end of the year I like to take some time to reflect with the kiddos on all we have learned. One of the tools I utilize to do this is the "My Spelling Reference Book" I have created to review all of the key word study patterns in English we have covered throughout the year. 

Each day for the last couple weeks of school we review a key concept and complete a page of our reference book. I tell the students they can then keep this book to utilize during the summer and in third grade as it now contains a smaller version of all those key anchors we created in class!

Here are some of the pages we completed this week!

You can get these and much more in my "My Spelling Reference Book" pack in my TpT store! Click on the image to check it out. Also, for those of you who are in a dual or bilingual room you can check out the Spanish equivalent "Mi Libro de Consulta de Ortografia" here. (We will be doing that one next week!)

Also, just for fun...our jam packed English wall that my kiddos used throughout the year as a resource- Take it in while ya can folks..down it comes tomorrow! I can't believe how time flies!

My Spelling Reference Book

Here is the English version of the "My Spelling Reference Book" I used with my kiddos for review of all of the spelling patterns we had learned the last few weeks of the school. As with the Spanish version, we did a lot of "reading the room" type activities with this packet as well as used a lot of English texts to hunt for our words! 

The packet includes pages on short and long vowels, "R" controlled vowels, blends, digraphs, suffixes, contractions, and more.

Before I put the packet into my TpT store for sale, I was hoping to have some trusty advisors (that would be you guys) review it for me- double check for errors, that content is acceptable, etc. (It's summer and my brain is a little more relaxed and flighty than during the school year!) Thus, the first five people that comment sharing that they would like to accept this challenge, will also get a free copy of the pack for helping me out! Win/Win right? Don't forget to leave your email address too!

Spanish Spelling Review

I was trying to think of something fun we could do during our Spanish spelling block to review all that we have learned this year. I also wanted my students to be able to create something meaningful that they could leave with that would serve as a resource/reminder of our learning.

Thus, I thought why not create a spelling reference book. We have spelling notebooks in my classroom in which my students write down the patterns we study throughout the year, complete activities, etc. But I wanted to create something that would bring it all together nicely- and look a little neater.

Here she is! We spent all week on this baby, and are finishing it up tomorrow. Each day we start with a brief mini-lesson/review of the letter pattern as well as define it on our activity sheet. Then, for most of the activity pages, I sent my students out to read the room to find the patterns in all of the anchor charts, etc. we have created this year. Anything in the room was fair game- except the word wall (as that was too easy!).

We have been having a lot of fun, and the kids are excited to be able to keep their books at the end of the week. If you are interested, I am currently selling the packet in my TpT store. Click here to check it out.

Stay tuned for the English version next week friends :)

"-ing" sort/Roots Investigation!

This week we are studying the present participle in English. We started our week with this anchor chart intro:

Then today, my students used our chart to help them complete a "Present Participle Sort".

Snag a copy of the sort by clicking on either of the images below!

This afternoon we continued on our journey through our plant unit and had a good ole' fashion "Root Tasting Party" as I like to call it!

Ran out at lunch today and grabbed some roots at the super market. Carrots, potatoes, onions, and turnips...yum yum!

Chopped some up and placed them in baggies ready to go for tasting (this was post activity so there were only a few left!)

Each of the kids completed a copy of this activity sheet while we explored! We went one by one- first naming the root, then the students drew a picture of it as I passed out a piece of it to each of them. Then we smelled it, touched it, and tasted it together! The students recorded their observations using their 5 senses. Some of their responses crack me up. They made some great observations that all of the roots were wet and slippery as well!

I love this. A potato- smells like tacos, feels wet, and has a "teeeeeeerrrrible" flavor. haha.

Carrots- smell like a leaf, feel wet, have a flavor like ugly (I think he meant dirty) water! (This was one of my native English speaking kiddos.)

As you can see we only completed 3. I promised them we could try the turnip (nabo) for snack tomorrow!

I added this activity page and investigation explanation to my "A Little Dirt Never Hurt" unit. If you have already purchased it- head over and re-download the revised edition with this latest addition! If not, and you would like to check it out, click on the cover image below. It is on sale for only $2.40 this week!

Last thing...then I'm done I promise. Just wanted to remind you about about my "Super" Teacher Appreciation Sale as well as those of many other teachers taking place this week! Don't miss out!

"R" Controlled Vowel Flowers and Stems

I actually got this idea from another fabulous blogger - Lita Lita over at Learning in Spain.  She used it with her kiddos to practice verb endings in Spanish- which I am most def. going to have to do in the future as well! But since we were focusing on "R" controlled vowels with my intervention group this week- I just could not wait to try it out! I figured it would work equally as well for this activity- and it was a hit! Now the kids have a spring timey resource to use for helping to remember those tricky "r" patterns!

The kids wrote all of the patterns on the leaves and words on the petals in pencil first. Then they went back and traced each pattern with a different color marker and traced the words that contained that pattern with the corresponding color!

As if this wasn't enough plant fun for one day...we also started our investigations of stems today!

Enter celery, food coloring, and water.

I am sure some of you are already familiar with this one- and if not it is seriously such an easy way to show kids how water travels through the stem to other parts of the plant. Not to mention, my kids are always shocked when they find out that celery is actually a stem- and we eat it!

Here is the class chart we created to go along with the investigation. Today (as the real scientists do) we made predictions/hypotheses as to what we thought would happen to the celery after it had been in the red water for a few days. Each student wrote their prediction on a post-it. Now we just have to wait and see so that we can fill out the "what happened" side....the suspense is killing them!

Keep linkin up your great Cinco de Mayo ideas! It'll be here before ya know it!

A Trip Around the Word & a Freebie!

My classroom is all a buzz -packin, gettin our passports ready, etc.----WHY?, you ask. Because we are taking a trip around the world! 

Here is our suitcase.

We had to pack of course. Click on the picture to enlarge the image- pretty humorous- let's do a little "I Spy". Do you spy a cell phone? A DSI? A fruit roll up? A hair dryer? Bulls gear? They are too funny!

Then of course we had to get our passports. It's not the greatest picture ever, but on the right you can see there is a space for a stamp from each continent (it continues on the next page). I stamp my students passports after they complete all of the activities required in the continent and they are getting ready to "leave".

This is our "Continent Data" chart. Before we enter each continent, I read to my students a little brief intro. of the continent we are traveling too and we fill our this sheet to keep our facts straight! They keep this with them in their luggage as it is important to be informed about where you are traveling! We just entered our first continent of SA today- so no worries---I will share more along the way!

Also, I will be including some of these activities in my upcoming "Continents" unit I am in the works of finishing up- so keep your eye out for it!

Leaving you with a quick freebie today. We are working on plural suffixes in Spanish currently. I will then be bridging these suffixes into English with my kiddos next week. I am OBSESSED with sorts in my room, thus here are the word sorts we will be working with to practice these word endings!

Hope they are helpful! 

"Go Fish" Freebie

Just a quick one for you guys today! During our enrichment/intervention block, I am working with a group who needs review of long vowel spelling patterns. To help us in our quest to remember long "o" patterns today, I created this quick game of "Go Fish" for my students to play for review. It's suited for groups of 3-5, and I would highly recommend either printing the cards on cardstock or pasting them on construction paper and laminating them for durability. Enjoy!

"Super" Gallon Man and Spanish Word Work Freebie

I know most of you are familiar with good ole' gallon man. But this is "super" gallon man....so he is slightly cooler ;). I actually got this idea from Amber over at Aventures of a Third Grade Teacher and tweaked and translated it for use in my classroom! If you would like a copy in English, click here to visit Amber's TpT store. It's a free download. I will say that I did change the head and form of my body a little bit in the Spanish version. If you would like the Spanish version, go ahead and click here and it will look exactly like the one above. (I apologize the document isn't beautiful...I scanned it in on one of our copiers today as all I had was hard copies!- It'll work though :))

This week during our word work block we are focusing on the suffixes "-ción/-sión". These are can be super tricky for my kids as they both sound the same! As with almost all of our word work activities, we started on Monday with an open word sort. I gave the kids a variety of words with the focus pattern, but did not give them the categories yet. They chose how they wanted to organize them and reflected on why they did so. Then, today, I gave them the categories, and they resorted them this time doing a closed sort by organizing the words below the correct heading of "-ción" or "-sión". Throughout the rest of the week, my kids use the same words to do a variety of other sorts as well. They love them and particularly with letter patterns such as these they are perfect because they are seeing the words over and over again. 

After my kids cut out their words the first day, I just have them keep them in a plastic bag on which I write their class number and they keep it in their word work folder all week. Then on Friday, they take the bag home and are able to utilize the sort at home as a resource for further practice.

Being as I am in a dual language classroom, I always incorporate comprehension activities within my word work block as well. Because sometimes the kids do not know what the words mean that we are studying- and this is equally as important! Today, to focus on the comprehension component, I gave each of my students a card. The card either contained a picture or a word with our focus letter pattern. The students had to find their partner who had the corresponding card. When all had finished finding their match the students presented their words and pictures to the class. I then put this activity in my pocket chart center so that they could continue to practice.

You can pick up a free copy of the individual student word sort as well as the class picture/word comprehension activity we did by clicking on the image below! 

By the way, does anyone know how to use accents on TpT? I tried to use them for the title of this document and it went all funky monkey on me... It bugs me that the title I posted is not grammatically correct!

"El dictado" Freebie and a Giveaway!

Happy Saturday morning- gosh was I ready for the weekend! 3 days off = much needed (for me and my kids I think!).

Wanted to start off with a quick freebie-

As part of our spelling/word work each week my kids are exposed to a dictation sentence. I introduce the dictation sentence to them at the beginning of the week and we use it in a variety of ways. First, it is a great way (since my kids are all language learners especially) for them to see words that contain the pattern we are studying in context. It provides them with a way of making sense of them, rather than just seeing them in a list format. Second, I can use it to teach sight words, language structure, punctuation, you name it! Each day, I start my word work lesson with a mini-lesson corresponding to an aspect of the dictation sentence, and then we go on to do an activity related to the focus letter pattern of the week. Then on Friday, instead of being tested over a list of spelling words, I dictate our "dictation sentence" to the students as a quick assessment of what was covered throughout the week. (Note: I alternate the language of word work each week - thus I will do English one week, Spanish the next, and so on.)

We were doing word work in Spanish this week and our focus spelling pattern were the suffixes "-ón/ona, oso/a". For those of you who are unfamiliar with these suffixes in Spanish, when one adds "ón/ona" to the end of a word it changes its meaning to mean "bigger" or "having much of". When one adds "oso/a" it changes a words meaning to mean "full of". Our dictation sentence this week was "El gigante barrigón que vive el la casa espantosa, se toma un tazón de sopa deliciosa." Which translates to- The big bellied giant who lives in a haunted house, has a bowl of delicious soup (eh...doesn't sound quite a nice in English, it actually rhymes in Spanish!). Anyways, one of the activities I have my students do it write their dictation, underline the words that contain our spelling patterns or study, and then illustrate the sentence to demonstrate their understanding. Here are the pictures from some of my students (I think they are hilarious.):

With this dictation throughout the week, I was also able to review the difference between "hard G"/"soft G", with the word "gigante" as well as do a little focus on grammar and conjugating verbs using the word "vive" as our example. There are so many things that you can touch on with just a simple sentence! I love it!

Click here for the freebie in Spanish and English if you are interested.

Ps. This adorable border is compliments of Graphics by the Pond! 

GIVEAWAY!!

Also, just wanted to put in a word about a giveaway that is going on over at Smiling in Second Grade for an adorable 31 tote! It looks like a perfect one to cart back and forth to school, so head on over and check it out (and her adorable blog as well!)! (But be quick, because the giveaway closes tonight at midnight!)

You want it, right?

Happy (relaxing, I hope) Saturday!