Recent Spelling Activities

I thought I would take a break from my teacher appreciation door decoration posts to fill you in on what spelling activities we have been working on in my first grade classroom.  Recently my grade covered the OU/OW words.  I grabbed this activity from Babbling Abby at The Inspired Apple.  Where do I start with her?  Her talents totally inspire me to become a better teacher!

My kids wrote an OU and an OW sentence and illustrated each (as seen above).  I made a cow and mouse poster, which are now displayed in my room for the students to refer to.  Later in the week, I had my kids write about a time they got an OWie.  Trust me when I say that EVERY child has a story about that!! 

The kids enjoyed writing their stories, but even more so, they loved illustrating their hurt bodies and putting a band-aid on their owies.  I am going to have to stock up on cute band-aids just for this writing activity!

I didn't use this "My ouch story" paper, but it definitely a cute one to use! 

You can grab a copy of the paper at What the Teacher Wants.

Here are a couple of Owie stories from my students:

 And here are all of them, proudly displayed on the hallway bulletin board.

I came across these perfect little posters (via Differentiation Station) to reinforce R-controlled words (OR, AR and IR/ER/UR).  This is just one of the 3 posters, so head on over to grab all 3 for your classroom.

I printed them out, backed them with construction paper (to add more color), laminated and have all 3 currently hanging in my classroom.  I can't tell you how often I see my students looking at these as a reminder of how to spell a word.
Last week our words were "double o" words.  As spelling practice one day, we used Froot Loops for the OO's. 

 You can grab your free copy from First Grade Wow.

I told the kids if they were able to all get 100% on our spelling test, we would celebrate by having a cOOkie & bOOk party! 

Put the word party with anything, and the kids get excited.  Apparently this trick worked, because EVERY SINGLE STUDENT got 100%!!  I was so proud of them!
I found these "You are one SMART cookie on TpT for $1.00 if you are interested, otherwise I am sure you could create your own little sign.

This time of year I find to be the hardest because the kids are all so ready for summer and things get a little crazy!  With that being said, this time of the year is also my FAVORITE as far as what my kids are capable of doing and what we teach.  I will be sad to let these cute kids go in a month, but for now we are still learning while squeezing a little fun in too!

Valentine Scramble

Supplies:
Index Cards
Paper Bags

How To Play: Choose a Valentine word such as: St. Valentine, Chocolate, Heart, Jewelry.... Write the letters of the word on individual index cards. Do this two times, making two sets. Put each set in a brown paper bag.
Divide children into teams. Give each team a bag. The first team to decipher what the word in the bag is wins. A variation of the game would be to divide into teams with the same number of children as there are letters in the word. Each child get's a letter and they must hold onto the card and stand in the proper order to spell the word for all to see.

100 Days of School

On Thursday, it marked the 100th day of school this year (at least for my kids' school), which got me thinking. I should post about the 100th Day of School. I must say that when I was teaching (3rd grade), I didn't do any activities for the 100th day of school, but the ideas are still out there.
When my daughter was in 1st grade, her teacher assigned the students to make a poster using 100 items. Since Valentine items were in the stores, we decided to use 100 red hot hearts and shape them into the number 100.

Some teachers have their students bring a collection of 100 things to share with the others. The items don't have to be edible, but the ones that are make for a fun snack.
Spelling - Have your students write (20) spelling words 5 times each, to cause them to have 100 words.
Apples 4 the Teacher has a list of some GREAT stories to share with your class on the 100th day of school.
Literacy - Make a class book: If I had $100.00 I would buy___________. Photocopy a $100.00 bill onto the class book page, and have each child write and draw what they would buy.
* See how many times can students write their name in 100 seconds - predict, then actually do it.
* Writing prompt - What happened 100 years ago? What will happen 100 from now?
Math - "Guess which jar has 100 pieces of candy". Have several jars filled with pieces of candy, but only one with 100 pieces. The students get to individually decide which jar has 100 pieces. The student(s) with the right guess, wins the jar (or divides it with the other winners).
* Clip 100 paper clips together. With a partner measure things in the room that are as long, shorter than, and longer than the paper clip chain We use third grade partners to work with the kindergarten students. They measure together. After each measurement the third grader writes the word for the item, the kindergarten student draws a simple picture of it.
* Have the students count to 100 using only tally marks. Have them circle each group of 5 and have them figure out how many groups of 5 it would take to reach 100.
Art - Students draw a picture of how they will look when they are 100 years old. (These are hysterical!) They also write about the picture.
* See the link at the bottom of this post for the printable 100. Have the students either color the number 100 or glue 100 items inside the 100.
Music - *Sung to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy"

Verse 1:
I can count up to 100,
It's so easy if you try.
I can't believe that since we started school
100 days have gone by.
Now let's all count up to 100
Come on try it once with me
We'll finish up with 99,
And last we'll say 100
Let's start out with 1, 2, 3.
(then count as a group to 100 by 1's)

Verse 2:
I can count up to 100,
It's so easy if you try.
But this time instead of using 1's,
I'll try to count it by 5's.
Counting this way is much faster
So it doesn't take as long.
First say 5 and then say 10,
And end up with 100,
Come on and join in my song.
(count as a group by 5's)

Verse 3:
I can count up to 100,
Now I'll try it once again.
But this time instead of 1's or 5's,
I'll try to count it by 10's.
Counting this way is the fastest,
It is also lots of fun.
First say 10 and then say 20,
End up with 100,
Our song is almost done!
(count to 100 by 10's)

Check out these links for more ideas and printables:
I Can Write 100 Words Form

100 Charts for counting (blank, by 5's, by 10's and filled in)

100 Coloring Page (can glue 100 items inside the 100)

Some Random Ideas

Can you believe it? I have already started to see Valentine ideas floating around the internet and the decorations up in the stores! It seems too soon to be focusing on Valentine's already (especially since my Christmas tree just barely came down), so I will be collecting ideas, but not sharing them for a couple more weeks. For now, I am going to take a break from the holiday posts and share some other ideas I have been hanging on to. My thoughts might be random, but I have to get these things posted...

My kids started back to school today, so the homework is sure to follow! Here is a site with at least 25 ways to practice your spelling words in a fun, new way!

Since it is a new year, this is the time for setting new goals (and hopefully keep them!) If you would like a way to get conversation going around the dinner table, try out these conversation pebbles from I am a craft addict.

I love these pretend checks from 733! These could be used for play time (dress ups, etc.) or as a tool for math homework.

Oh and one more random thought for the day. Check out these weather magnets you could make for your kids (from it's a daisy day). Perfect for preschool/kindergarten age kids who learn about the weather!

Kool Aid Play Dough

Today it is snowing for the 2nd day in a row. You would think that since I have lived in cold, snowy places before I would be use to it by now. The truth is, I probably would be if I had lived in the snow more recently. For the past 9 years, up until this last summer when our family moved, I have been living in almost 365 days a year of pure warmth and sunshine. I will get use to the change in weather, but for now I am going stir crazy.
I decided to try out THIS recipe for Kool Aid Play Dough. (I am sure there are TONS of these recipes out there, but this is the one I decided to try. It was super easy and super fast! It is suppose to smell good too, but I can't really smell too much from it. (I used pink lemonade kool aid though so maybe pick a more potent smell.) It turns out really soft too and my 2 little kiddos are having a blast playing. YEAH~no fighting! Anyway, if you too are longing for warmer outside days and looking for something to do (indoors) try out this recipe.
From a teaching stand point, you could turn this into an educational tool too. Try having your kids make letters or words with the play dough.

Also, if you have cookie cutters, you could have the kids cut out shapes and name them for you. (My 3 1/2 year old is having fun making triangles and telling me all about them.)

You could also try doing a little math. Make numerals or try story problems such as rolling out 4 balls/snakes/whatever and take away one. What are you left with? 3! You can even have your child practice counting the objects you/your child makes.

Handwriting Help

Looking for a way to help your kid(s) with their handwriting? This site allows you to type in the words that you want your child to practice, up to 10 words. You can also choose between print and cursive, the size of font and how you want the lines the words are on to look. How cool is that? Anyway, thought I would share.

What To Do With Those Plastic Easter Eggs

I was trying to think up some ideas of ways you could use plastic Easter eggs in an educational way. After Easter, it seems that those eggs get stored away until the following year when they can again be used for another egg hunt. Well here are some ideas I came up with. If you are a teacher, I was thinking that some of these ideas could be used as centers.

Fill an Easter basket with an assortment of eggs split apart. The students have to find the correct match up, connect the egg and place the complete egg in an egg carton. If you are trying this activity on older kids, try to mix up the colors so the answer isn't so easy to find. (Like a pink top with a green bottom.)
Math problem to answer match up - Write the problem on one half of the egg and the answer on the other half. Depending on the age level of the kids, you could do anything from simple addition to division.
Upper and Lower Case Match Up - Find an upper case letter and its matching lower case letter and connect the eggs.
Cursive to Print - Have the kids try to match up the correct cursive letter to the same letter in print. The could be a good activity when just introducing cursive, especially since cursive can feel like a whole new language to kids! :)
Dots to Numeral - For younger kids, have the them match up the number of dots on half the egg, with the correct numeral on the other half. (four dots = 4)
Numeral to Number Word - Four to 4
Word to Definition - This could be applied to spelling, vocabulary lesson, etc. On this particular activity, have the eggs whole and have the students place the correct definition to the word (typed out on a piece of paper by you) in an egg with the correct word.
If you have any suggestions that could go along with this, or other ideas for reusing those plastic Easter eggs, I would love to know what you are thinking!