These are a few samples of my student's April writings using the April Calendar Words.
This is one of my ELL students.
This kiddo needed two pages to do his story.
Here is our April Words big book for the classroom. It's a great reinforcer for vocabulary.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-of-the-Day-May-Brain-Bounce-Game-1218110
This is the copy of the student calendar that comes with our Word of the Day Calendars. My students were using them to help them with Brain Bounce. The ELL teacher said our Word of the Day Products are really helping her ELL students with learning monthly vocabulary in a fun way.
This gives the kiddos practice with the Calendar Words as they put the words in correct sentence order.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/May-Word-Activities-1224396
This is a page from the April Activities. They cut and glue the words in order. You can have them highlight the calendar words. May has cute flowerpots to cut out.
Then they copy and illustrate the sentence.
Then there is a bonus question for every page.
This is a fun game where the kiddos look for word chunks in the Calendar Words.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Quality-Quest-Game-May-Word-Crumbs-1220195
I always tell my kiddos that they are going to be word detectives as they look for word crumbs in their calendar words. It would also be fun to give them magnifying glasses and do this as a center. We have 3 versions of how your kiddos can play this Quest Game. There are 18 task cards, a word list, recording sheet, answer sheet, teaching guide and directions.
We hope ya'll have a wonderful Mother's Day! Check back for Fun Friday:)
I am REALLY wanting to implement your word of the day routine, but I'm trying to make a decision first. Our reading program has "amazing words" each week that go with the story. I know I should probably use these words instead of "thematic" or other words, but I just really want to introduce them to as many words as I can.
ReplyDeleteDo you think I will be trying to do too much if I use your calendar words or make up my own? My best friend tells me I try to do too much. :)
I'm moving from 6th to 1st (taught K for 6 years 4 years ago). Our current 1st grade teachers teach reading and math all day with no writing.
Thoughts?????
Shannon
http://www.irunreadteach.wordpress.com
Hi Shannon!
ReplyDeleteI also teach 1st and I love it!
I have found that these monthly calendar words have really helped my students with increasing their vocabulary development, as well as their writing. I have seen them improve more and more with each month. My kiddos love coming in and seeing the word of the day on their own calendars. The cool thing about this is they have become very independent with this. They know they come in and write a sentence about the word in their calendar notebook. If they don't know what the word means, they come and ask me or ask a buddy. We also discuss the word at carpet time and discuss any word chunks or crumbs, as our games call them:) We always choose 5 of the words at the end of the month to write a story about and then I make a class book with them. The kids love going back and reading them, so it just reinforces these words. We also play our Word Bounce game at the end of the month. They enjoy breaking into teams to answer the questions. We have also used these cards in word centers so they see them and discuss what they think. We also have Word Activities as you've seen in this post which also reinforces these words. It has been great using these word calendar products for my ELL students because it increases their knowledge. I am happy and pleased to say that all my WIDA scores improved, and I think doing all these language activities have helped. It is always great when one of my students say"that's a calendar word!" when they see it in other places.
I will tell you we are working on bundling these calendars into one bundle this summer and we will have it on sale 50% off the first 48 hours, so we hope you will follow our store so you know when it will be posted.
I also have reading vocabulary that I have to teach and I don't feel like these calendar words have been too much because it is just one word a day and we are building on those as we go.
I have even seen where my ELL student's voice comes out in these writings. One little girl wrote, "Culture is doing your own thing." How great is that!
I can't even imagine not writing with my kiddos! We write in our calendar notebooks and journals everyday. It makes a huge difference in their reading, spelling and writing. We also do Writing Workshop everyday. And because I have done this since the first day of school, my kiddos are very independent workers and writers.
I am so sorry to have written so much! I could write more because this is my passion!
I hope this helped:) I have been teaching any grade from K-3 for almost 30 years and I love it!
If you need any more advice, just let me know.
Good luck with your 1st grade babies!
Oh, you didn't write too much at all!!! My passion is writing as well- I loved seeing the progress that my kinders made from August to May when I taught K! :)
ReplyDeleteI started following your store so that I will get the update when y'all bundle the word of the day calendar items. I want to buy them. SOON. Hint-hint. :)
Thank you so much for taking the time to write back to me. Probably the biggest thing that I'm nervous about is trying to do too much and then not having the time to do it all and having to figure out what to cut out or just getting too stressed.
BUT- I'm going to dive in anyway! :)
Shannon
http://www.irunreadteach.wordpress.com
Thank you for following our store!
DeleteI have one more week of school and then I will be working on this:)
I am working on a blog post now about what my kiddos did with the May word of the day products we used and they are all 50% off today and tomorrow for my daughter and partner's birthday bash:) It should be done around 6 if you want to read about it:)
I'm checking it out NOW! :)
ReplyDeleteShannon
http://www.irunreadteach.wordpress.com