Many parents have commented to me about Word Wizard. Vocabulary is one of the strongest predictors of reading success. Word Wizard is an activity we have been doing in class to help the children build their vocabularies in a fun and meaningful way. New and interesting words that we find in our reading or content area studies are added to our vocabulary logs and word wizard board. The children try and put the words into their everyday speech. When a child uses a word wizard word, they tell the class the context they used the word in and they get to put a sticker up on our chart. The children are trying to get enough stickers to earn a popcorn party.
Hopefully, the children have been trying some of the word wizard words at home. I even have gotten a couple notes from parents that their child used a word wizard word. I love it! Our first word wizard words this year came from the wonderful book, Ruby the Copycat. Click on the title above to see an excellent video version of the book.
After reading the book and watching the video, we have been studying the words, coincidence, murmur, recite, loyal, bitter, and sensitive. We even added sensitive and bitter to our vocabulary notebooks.
Ask your child what all six of these words mean and see if they can use examples. Try and use the words in your conversations and see if your child notices. Please be listening for word wizards! I would love to get some more notes! Thank you for your continued support!
Last Wednesday, I met with all the student individually. We graphed their reading level and talked about their reading goals. Of course, we discussed the ten ways to become a better reader! They are motivated. What an exciting time in first and second grade!
We have an amazing opportunity to read with a subscription to Raz-Kids.
Raz-Kids is a digital library that our class has access too. Last week, the homework assignment was to login to Raz three different times from home. The week isn't over and we have already had some amazing reading champions. Five students have read over 2 hours this week. Almost all the students have an hour logged on Raz-Kids this week. Amazing!
If you are unable to access Raz-Kids, please let me know and I am happy
to help or give an alternate reading assignment for the week.
The Raz-Kids library is available on both computers and devices like
kindles and ipads. You can get to the site through the blog. Just
click on the Raz-Kids button on the top tool bar. Or, go to this site:
http://www.raz-kids.com/main/Login
Here, it will ask for our class' user name. Type in ConnectedOnes
(no space). Then find your child's name and put in his/her password.
Now, you should have access to your child's leveled book assignment.
Just a note, the website uses Flash Player so ipad access has an
additional step. You will be unable to download and read books using
the Safari browser. You can download the free Raz-Kids app (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learning-a-z/id474207297?mt=8&affId=1449142) and have access to the books and quizzes through the app.
Each book has the option to listen to the book (with word by word
highlighting), read the book, and take a quiz. In class, when children
are working independently, I have the children do all three in order:
listen, read, quiz. They receive bonus stars for each activity
completed. Further, as a teacher and parent, we get reports on which
activities are complete and how the child is performing on the quizzes.
The children are LOVING Raz-Kids, they are so motivated to read and earn
stars. I am so impressed. Please give this amazing site a try!
We did some color mixing in science but were also able to mix reading, writing, spelling, and science objectives. Our scientists worked together to mix different colors of water to make new colors. The scientists made predictions and recorded their findings in their science journals.
In first grade spelling, we are practicing spellling the color words. We worked together to make a color reference wall with all the color words posted. We have been listening to color songs to help us remember how to spell the words. Click on each color word to be linked to the song: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black, white.
We also wrote about colors. Each student published a book about the colors he/she likes. Then, they painted an illustration to match the writing. The students worked hard on conventions of print like starting with a capital, using spacing, and ending sentences with periods.
Argh! We had such a great "Talk Like a Pirate Day" on Monday. Our whole wing, 1st and 2nd grades, dressed up to celebrate. Click here to learn the history of "Talk Like a Pirate Day." We had fun, pirate-y learning going on all day. The day began by choosing pirate names. They were pretty silly. The students had new names like Big Buckle Charlie and Fearsome Pegleg Patsy. Some students put their pirate name on all their papers! Ha! It sure made correcting papers a little more interesting!
In math, we counted and tallied pirate objects. Then we had to use those numbers to solve addition and subtraction problems. The children worked cooperatively in pairs. They understood how to work as a crew! We also had a crab race relay. The relay had us moving and practicing our math facts. We needed the answers from the math facts to decode a secret pirate message leading to a treasure hunt clue. More on that later in this post. Another pirate-y math activity we did was a cannonball toss. The students tossed a cannon ball (a black balloon filled with rice) back and forth. Each pass they had to say a number in the sequence we were practicing. Some students were practicing counting backwards from 100, some practiced counting by 10's and 5's, some were even skip counting backwards from target numbers given by the captain. Yo, ho, ho!
Later, we folded some pirate hats and learned about the "ar" chunk. We filled our hats with "ar" words and practiced reading and spelling all the words. Then, we tested our ability to read "ar" words with a Q-arrrrr hunt. In the QR hunt, the students scanned QR codes with their ipads. The QR code revealed a word. Students had to read the word and find the picture of the word. When they found the picture, there was another QR code. The students completed the series of clues on the first try! They were an awesome crew!
Toward the end of the day....we found a secret clue! We had to follow a series of different clues to hunt for treasure. The first clue described one of our classroom graphs in the hallway. When we looked behind the graph, we found another clue. Inside the clue back was a series of numbers. We had to have our crab relay races, then the answers to those math problems revealed letters for the message.
The message told us our next clue was outside the counselor's door. There we found another clue that could only be revealed if we painted on it with sea water. That secret message sent us to Mrs. Crum. She had a clue that was a puzzle. The puzzle sent us to the nonfiction section of the library where pirate books could be found.
The students who checked the library found a treasure box! Inside was gold for everyone!! What a grand adventure.
At the end of the day, we had a little more fun with a cannon ball fight. I just adore this crew!
Shiver me timbers! This is a long post and I still wasn't able to include it all! I have even more photos! Our day was filled with learning and fun. We read all sorts of wonderful pirate books, made a pirate graph, played new pirate apps, and all sorts of interesting things. There are two great pirate apps, one for spelling and one for math. Check out Pirates Love to Count and Pirates Love to Read in the App store. Click on the names of the apps to find more information. Yo, ho, ho!
