Word Wednesday - Reading Vocabulary

Sorry for the absence.  My mother and Princess' grandmother had a cataract removed and wouldn't you know it, she is the 1 in 1000th person who developed complications.  We are now helping her with eye drops every 30 minutes...around the clock! 

Today;'s post is about vocabulary.  As an SLP, one of the things I have tweaked and retweaked and retweaked and retweaked year after year is vocabulary work.  I have no problem with the activities, but I  question myself, have internal debates, research and debate some more when it comes to what words to teach.  I have looked at academic word lists, Marzano's Vocabulary Project  (which is incredibly overwhelming) and used commercial products.  What I want is vocabulary that makes a difference to my students in the classroom.   One of my fellow teachers suggested I check out Jan Richardson's book The Next Step in Guided Reading. She has a list of words commonly found in texts for reading levels A through H.  Lady A and I looked over the list and liked it.  There is always this assumption that if a student can read or decode the word, they comprehend it.  Surprisingly not always the case.

Lady A and I created vocabulary cards for these words using Boardmaker.  It was quite laborious.

We made sets with pictures and text, sets with pictures only and sets with text only.  I thought we would never finish,

 

They aren't perfect because by the time we finished, our eyes were permanently crossed and we were convinced we teach kids to read using vocabulary that could not be pictured.  However, if you would like to use them, here they are:

Reading Level B & C Vowel A

Reading Level B & C Vowel E

Reading Level B & C Vowel I

Reading Level B & C Vowel O

Reading Level B & C Vowel U

Reading Level D Diagraphs

Reading Level E Initial

Reading Level E Blends

Reading Level F Final Blends

Reading Level G & H Initial Blends

Reading Level G & H Final Blends

Reading Level G & H Silent e Rule

By the way, Jan Richardson has a website with a ton of guided reading resources.  You can explore it here.

 

Word Wednesday - Affixes and Roots Bingo

Remember this vintage Bingo game Princess found in an antique store?

She knew she wanted it in her classroom.  However she did not want it relegated to a party game.  She had read that students who know and understand root words and their prefixes and suffixes did significantly better in not only standardized test skills, but also overall reading skills.  She asked me to create a bingo game for word study.  We came up with this.  This is not your grandmother's bingo!

Each day her class would take some time to spin the cage and get one or two bingo balls.  They would then mark off the square they drew and discuss the affix or root.  She was pleasantly surprised how much fun her class had trying to come up with words that had the prefix, suffix or root.  They often even referred to it if a word came up during the day.  She said it was very interesting to watch them try to figure out the meanings of the affixes by listening to words in which they occurred.

We decided to make two boards.  Here is the grades 3 through 5 board and the kindergarten through grade 3 board.  You can download and print theme here and here.

Here is the breakdown of affixes and roots by grade level that we used to help create the boards.  Because this was an enrichment activity, we included several grades on a board.

Princess rewarded her class with an extra few minutes of recess or a favorite game when they completed a Bingo.  However, she said they really enjoyed the bingo game more than the reward. 

Word Wednesday

    I added a center component to the speech room about five years ago because I was so tired of passive students sitting at my table.  Since then the challenge has been to find resources for them to use for self practice and practice with a buddy.  Many of my fellow SLPs have wonderful blogs and have created a wealth of great activities.  The one thing I have found missing is pictures.  I love all the great activities, but they are often just with text.  I don't know about you, but my caseload is heavy on the K-2 end.  Many of my kiddos are also struggling readers.  If they are going to do self practice, I have got to have pictures....so what does a techy SLP do?  Make her own, of course.

   For work on synonyms and antonyms, I created this Cherry Pie game ( Have you seen the cute Synonym rolls pins on Pinterest?  I guess I just had food on the brain!)

  Each of the cherry pairs has either a set of synonyms or antonyms.  My students sort them into the correct pie plate.  They get practice with antonyms and synonyms as well as knowing the difference between the two concepts.  It is great for my kids who do great with synonyms only to get confused when I switch to antonyms and heaven forbid I should do a mixed drill!

  I also had single cherries that the must use to match up a pair and decide if they are synonyms or antonyms before dropping them in the pan.

 

 You can download the set here.  I printed them on cardstock, laminated and then cut them out (okay, let's me real...I had m SLP-As cut them out....I am quite sure cutting out a hundred little cherries is in there job description.)  I purchased the pie pans from the dollar store.  I thought about printing blank cherries so my kiddos would also have to create their own....but let's be real, there is not an elementary school student alive who could write small enough to fit on those cherries!

Room Reveal-Traveling through Third Grade

Sorry for being absent the last two weeks.  School has started and between meetings and trying to get our rooms ready, we have come home exhausted every night.  Princess Kay has finished her first ever classroom and it deserves its very own Pinterest board.  It is stinkin' cute.  So bear with this post it is going to be veritable visual feast for the eyes.

Princess Kay spent a summer in Ireland and fell in love with traveling so naturally her theme is Traveling through Third Grade.

 The Library:  Because of room and the age of the students, she opted to not have a reading corner.  Instead she will let them create their reading spaces throughout the room.

 Isn't that an awesome reading bulletin board.  She plans to challenge her students to find other books to use to change out the board throughout the year.

 She was left with cracking and broken book baskets by the teacher who retired.  So it was off to the dollar store for the cheapest bins a new teacher could afford.  Some day she will get the ones she wants.  Alas, the books left by the retiring teacher were not only very very old, but the were in sad shape.  Most of these books are hers and come from digging and searching thrift stores.  Stay tuned for a post telling how to fill out your class library for pennies on the dollar.

 The book shelves and desk clumps came from the wonderful blog Dandelions and Dragonflies.  They cut down on movement and really promote the community our district stresses (they frown on desks in rows)

 The book shelves were $15 a piece at Walmart.  She just added maps before she put the back on.  They are perfect for their data notebooks, book boxes and math manipulatives.  With a little wastebasket, the groups are set.

 As we were moving out tons and tons of furniture, to make the room more spacious, I kept trying to convince her not to get rid of bookcases (you know there are some pieces of furniture you never get rid of because you will never find them when you need them!)  She agreed to keep it, but opted to turn it on its side and make a writing counter.  Genius!  In case, you can't read it, each section has a trait (and Ideas is on top).  The baskets hold mentor texts for each trait.

 Again, the bulletin board will evolve over the years as they learn about each trait.  She will add anchor charts and other visual displays of what they discover.

 As we were cleaning out cupboards, we came across these flat flimsy boards.  We had no idea what they were.  I thought they looked the perfect size for mileage signs.  I sprayed them green and used my Silhouette to cut out letters and numbers.  That is the correct mileage from our school.  She outlined the computers with electrical tape so she can designate their use for centers and other projects.

 When she got in the room, she only had a Smart Board.  There was no other place to write.  She was going to put in a ticket to get a white board.  However, she was in so much over the summer working on her room that she made great friends with the custodians (the first lesson every new teacher should learn.)  She saw them taking down a white board and mentioned that she would love one in her room.  They took the board straight to her room and installed it right then and there! 

 Check back later for posts about her classroom procedures.  They are really fun and her kiddos love them.  She said the whole class came walking in the room from their very first recess with four fingers up! (in order to get a drink)

Common Core has arrived so here is her nonfiction cart and the table will eventually be a nonfiction center.  One of her desires was to have books all over the room to help her kids see how reading takes place everywhere.  So she has a book library, a writing center with books, a non fiction center and even a picture book spot

This spot is just inside her door.  The tent flip book tells the kids what specials day it is. (and she stuck in another book!)

She found the bingo game at an antique store and loved its vintage feel.  She also read a study that said if students knew prefixes, suffixes and root words, they magnify their vocabulary tremendously.  As they line up and have a few minutes, they will take a ball and use a dauber to mark the Bingo cards.  They will discuss the prefix, suffix or root.  The class will celebrate when they get a bingo.

 Here is her in and out board for when her students leave the room.  She painted those clothespins and then we saw on pinterest how to dye them.  She could have saved herself about two hours!

 She found this magazine rack at a garage sale for $3.  We just gave it a coat of black spray paint.

 Check more on the map chair here.

 New teachers don't need desks or file cabinets.  They are products of the technological age!

 We had seven teachers retire this year.  There were lots of things to snatch up in their give away piles.  However, there were very few cute things.  She jazzed this up with maps, contact paper and Mod Podge.

 No matter what theme she had, she knew Fancy Nancy would put in an appearance.  I found clipart and added a suitcase.  We printed it using the tiled poster option on the printer.  We just had to piece it together and laminate.  She is gorgeous, don't you think?

 Binder clips....what a great idea!

Name Plates

Pretty awesome, don't you think?  Makes you want to be in third grade again!