A Teacher's Guide to Creating a Word Conscious Classroom
Navigating all of the digital tools available online for students can be overwhelming and time consuming. I've teamed up with another literacy educator to feature great FREE platforms for word learning, vocabulary practice and formative assessment.
Meet 5 laudable ladies in government and focus on character trait vocabulary themed around the qualities of a strong leader. Let's be honest, GIRLS run the world and it's time to celebrate that!
Blending a love of words with a delicious ice cream cone makes this alliteration activity instantly have everyone smiling and wordsmith-ing away. Tips, tricks and ready to use resources for your classroom and hybrid/remote learning.
Focusing on character trait vocabulary in elementary school is essential. Learn some easy activities you can implement for low investment and high return. Plus, get some great ideas for what character trait words match with the books you already have in your classroom library.
In the Word Collector by Peter Reynolds, Jerome has a wonderful imagination. Use his love of words in your interactive read aloud to promote word learning in your classroom with these easy to use activities!
Celebrate a year of word learning by supporting students to create stop motion animation videos themed around your classroom word wall words. You only need clay, an iPad and your imagination!
Meaningful vocabulary will help to strengthen your students' reading comprehension, writing skills and conversations. Introduce three Tier II vocabulary words with there interactive read alouds and printable resources for your elementary classroom.
Using interactive vocabulary notebooks with students is a great way to keep word learning organized, consistent and engaging! Start with Tier II vocabulary words and then consider incorporating content specific words as well.
Research shows that vocabulary words are more likely to stick when students can relate the word to a visual representation. This could be a picture, drawing or symbol. Learn how to use different digital tools to make virtual word webs for all!
As elementary school teachers every minute of the school day is precious. We have so many standards to meet from September to June. Any chance we get it's important to combine literacy learning into the content areas of social studies and science. My favorite way to do this is through my interactive read aloud time.... Continue Reading →
I am a big supporter of the magazine Time for Kids. They have sophisticated, kid friendly, current events articles at a variety of reading levels. For the last election, I used TFK to introduce election specific vocabulary!
As teachers we spend hours each week attempting to plan engaging lessons that every child in our class will learn something from. We try our best to reach the minds of students achieving on all levels of the spectrum. Of course, we want to believe that every student is listening to every minute of what... Continue Reading →
A great way to instantly engage students in vocabulary learning is by allowing them to play board games. Who doesn't love a great board game? You could set up different stations in your classroom, either having all of the stations involving a board game or mix in some other word learning activities too. After much... Continue Reading →
Throughout the first six weeks of school it is essential that we build a community in our classrooms that is based on kindness, respect and responsibility. However, what do those three traits look like to children? How does kindness in the classroom differ from kindness in the hallway? While working to build these routines it's... Continue Reading →
As September rolls around it's important to setup your classroom with word learning in mind. The easiest way to foster a word conscious environment is to create a word wall in your classroom. Many primary teachers use word walls to display sight words that students are learning and trying to remember. Although upper elementary teachers... Continue Reading →
