Spelling Challenge- Week 18

Spelling Challenge- Week 18

MERRY CHRISTMAS! This week my gift to you is to choose your FAVORITE challenge so far that we have done. Practice this weeks words using that activity! If you need refreshing on all of the fun challenges so far, take a look back at Spelling Challenges 1-17!


The Spelling Challenge I Choose Is: __________________________________________

1.	zoom
2.	tunes
3.	brooks
4.	you'll
5.	wool
6.	mood
7.	suits
8.	crew
9.	spool
10.	stool
11.	cookie
12.	food
13.	used
14.	grew
15.	group
16.	stoop
17.	move
18.	stew
19.	huge
20.	should

Light Bulb Sentences

This current six weeks we have been focusing a bunch on parts of speech identification. We have recently learned about Adverbs, Articles and Prepositions but have been reviewing our knowledge of Nouns, Proper Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, and Conjunctions- Whew! We have been learning a ton! A great way way to wrap it all up and get into the holiday spirit was to make our own Christmas lights!

First the students had to create their very own Christmas sentence. After writing down their sentences on their papers, they then were challenged with labeling each word's part of speech. After their identifications, they then had to ensure their sentences had at least 5 different parts of speech in them. If their sentences lacked, they were taxed with including in a missing link.

Here is the color code we used:
Nouns and Proper Nouns- Red
Verbs- Light Blue
Adjectives- Yellow
Adverbs- Orange
Pronouns- Purple
Articles- Green
Prepositions- Pink
Conjunctions- Dark Blue

Check out the student samples below. They did AWESOME!

Spelling Challenge- Week 17

Spelling Challenge- Week 17

Partner Spelling

This requires two people- You and your student. Take turns adding a letter to spell each word. For example, for the word SUN - child starts by saying the letter S, parents adds letter U and child then completes word by adding the letter N. This requires focus and listening and is a great exercise.

If you want to make it more challenging and get the whole family involved, this is a great way to focus on concentration and listening because you have to hear what everyone is saying before you. If someone misses their letter, they have to sit out the rest of the round. If you have a younger child that is not up to the same spelling level, give them a cheat sheet. Your younger child will still benefit and learn from having to follow along. You could even make them your checker to ensure everyone is spelling the words correctly. 

1.	funnier
2.	families
3.	pennies
4.	worried
5.	replied
6.	varied
7.	marries
8.	carries
9.	easily
10.	silliest
11.	jumpier
12.	emptier
13.	merrier
14.	applied
15.	cozily
16.	sorriest
17.	prettily
18.	lazier
19.	happiest
20.	dizziest

Prepositions

In class, our grammar focus has been over prepositions. Prepositions are great to add to your writing when wanting to add elaborative detail, descriptions, etc. I have posted some great videos and songs to practice with prepositions. Hopefully you find them helpful!

Preposition Composition Song by Melissa

Preposition Cappuccino Dance

"Prepositions" song by The Bazillions

Spelling Challenge- Week 16

Spelling Challenge- Week 16

Spelling Sing-A-Thon

Warm up those vocal cords, channel your inner Justin Bieber and start singing your spelling words! That's right, you heard me correctly, sing them. You have done it before with the song B-I-N-G-O, everyone's favorite, so try it out with this week's words. Use whatever song or beat you like but a simple B-I-N-G-O like song & some clapping works wonders especially on your first day of practicing words. Parents, this method really helps kids begin to remember those words. La, la, la.

1.	tasted
2.	ripping
3.	forced
4.	flipping
5.	tapped
6.	flipped
7.	scared
8.	flagged
9.	ripped
10.	skipped
11.	tapping
12.	saved
13.	skipping
14.	scaring
15.	flagging
16.	discussed
17.	saving
18.	tasting
19.	forcing
20.	discussing

Happy Highlighting!

Today we tried something new with our sentence diagramming. We took our past S.E.W. (Stop Everything and Write) papers and decided to decorate them with some color. We first started with nouns. The students were instructed to find all of the nouns they wrote in their story - Proper Nouns, and all types of Common Nouns- Persons, Places, Things and Ideas. Once they finished with nouns, we moved on to Verbs! We broke out the blue and first started with Action Verbs. After finishing that we reviewed Linking and Helping Verbs and colored those blue as well. Finally, we opened up our Yellows and searched for Adjectives. The students seemed to get a kick out of doing it and it was a nice variation to our daily grind. The nice revelation I saw with the students (hopefully it sticks) was that some of them realized their papers were in fact not very colorful....which poses a structural problem. We discussed and agreed that we "knew" Subjects were Nouns and Predicates were Verbs. We then talked about how we "knew" that in order to have complete sentences you had to have a Subject and a Predicate.....thus meaning each sentence needed a Noun and a Verb. So it opened some eyes to some when they did not see a red and blue pattern on their papers. Most of the papers I saw were a sea of red. Our final connection was that if we were truly using Elaborative Detail in our papers then there would have been a lot more yellow- which was the least seen color. All in all I think it was a great way to put things into perspective and remind the students that it is not just about "knowing" the information, you have to apply it all in your writing! Below are two great examples of what I was hoping to see out of today's lesson.

Spelling Challenge- Week 15

Spelling Challenge- Week 15

Scrabble Spelling

If you have the Scrabble board game, Scrabble Jr, or even Banana Grams break out the tiles and use them to spell this week's words. After spelling the word, add up how much the word is worth using the numbers on the tiles. This is a great way to get your child's brain back into gear after Thanksgiving break. If you don't have the games mentioned above, see the chart below to use. Happy Spelling!

1.	fishbowl
2.	lookout
3.	backyard
4.	desktop
5.	campfire
6.	overhead
7.	waterproof
8.	grandparent
9.	railroad
10.	snowstorm
11.	loudspeaker
12.	bookcase
13.	bedroom
14.	blindfold
15.	newborn
16.	bedspread
17.	yourself
18.	overdo
19.	clothesline
20.	undertake

Spelling Challenge- Week 14

Spelling Challenge- Week 14

On the Other Hand Spelling

If you are right handed write your words using your left hand, if you are left handed write words using your right hand. Start off writing the words with your dominant hand and then switch and write the words again with your non-dominant hand. Compare your work and see how close you got. At the end of the activity it may be sloppy but hopefully it helped you learn this week's words!

1.	clams
2.	mints
3.	props
4.	arches
5.	dresses
6.	parents
7.	caves
8.	glasses
9.	hobbies
10.	engines
11.	couches
12.	arrows
13.	enemies
14.	babies
15.	ranches
16.	patches
17.	mistakes
18.	supplies
19.	mosses
20.	armies

Happy Birthday Caddo Grove!

Today my fourth grade students celebrated the Birthday of our school, Caddo Grove. This year I am trying to give my students as many experiences as I can in hopes that they use these experiences to draw from on the STAAR Narrative portion of the Writing Test. So we decided to make a day of it. We started off in morning assembly recognizing the school and then off to the classroom. In my Language Arts class we did several birthday related activities. First, we did the Writing Hokey (a "Writing" lyric themed version of the Hokey Pokey), then we completed two Birthday themed Mad Libs. Next we played Parts of Speech BINGO and "Pin the Subject to the Predicate". We ended class with a Spelling Pinata game. In their Math and Reading classes the teachers also geared their classes to the Birthday Theme. Students ended the day with....of course......CUPCAKES! You can't have a birthday party without some sort of cake! If was a great day and I hoping some sort of impact was made.

 

We Are Thankful

Today students practiced their Expository writing skills by jotting down the things they were thankful for. The students came up with three things and then went into detail about why they were thankful for them. We will be sending some of the letters to the Joshua newspaper. Be sure to check it out!

You're Invited.....

Students today wrote their invitations to each other for our big birthday bash tomorrow. Caddo Grove is turning 8 (really the real birthday was November 6 but we are celebrating it now). Check back later to see all of the fun events that took place.

Spelling Challenge- Week 13

Spelling Challenge- Week 13

Flower Words

Draw a flower for each word, 1 petal for each letter of the word. Inside each petal write one letter in the word and go in order of how the word is spelled until finished with the word. Once finished you will have a bouquet of wonderful words!

1.	center
2.	once
3.	scene
4.	germs
5.	spice
6.	bridge
7.	badge
8.	circus
9.	cement
10.	glance
11.	strange
12.	police
13.	certain
14.	orange
15.	ounce
16.	ginger
17.	wedge
18.	arrange
19.	sponge
20.	village

Spelling Challenge- Week 12

Spelling Challenge- Week 12

word, word, word

Small, Medium, Large Spelling

Have your child write the spelling word using the smallest letters they can possibly write (this one is a fave), then doing it normal sized and finally jumbo sized. It makes tedious writing practice so much more fun!

1.	hour
2.	lambs
3.	knew
4.	wrench
5.	kneel
6.	thumbs
7.	honest
8.	answer
9.	honestly
10.	plumber
11.	honor
12.	known
13.	combs
14.	wrapper
15.	knives
16.	doubt
17.	knead
18.	wriggle
19.	heir
20.	wrinkle