{3rd Grade Spelling Lists}

So Beth Newingham has been a long time hero of mine. If you have not checked out her site you have to. She is A-MAZ-ING!

http://hil.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/

She has inspired me in so many ways, but more recently has been the way she teaches and assesses her spelling and word work. Here is a link to her explanation of her word work program: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top_teaching/2010/10/my-november-top-ten-list-word-study-in-action. I have always been discouraged by just handing students a list on Monday for them to memorize for a test on Friday. Does this show they have mastered the spelling pattern? Can they apply the rule in their own writing? Something needed to change. This new "method" I have adopted pleases those parents who love to see that weekly spelling list and allows me to truly assess whether or not they can use the rule. I have created a 40 word list for each of the spelling list in our curriculum, Reading Street. The first 10 words is for a Pre-Test, the next 10 are for a "regular list", the next 10 are for a "challenge list" and finally the last 10 are words that use the pattern but my students will not see these words until the day of the test. These final words are how they will truly show me they understand the pattern.

So here is how I use these lists in my classroom.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.    <!--[endif]-->On Monday, I give a pre-test. I use the first 10 “pre-test words” for this test. If students get 9 or 10 correct they receive the “challenge” list (which I call Star list because the list I give them has a star at the top) to study for the week. If they miss 8 or more they receive the regular list.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.   <!--[endif]-->Throughout the week we study and practice the list through word sorts and various games. They are also responsible for studying the list they received on Monday.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.   <!--[endif]-->On Friday, I call out the first 10 words on each list. (ie. Number 1 – happen, Did you happen to see the game on TV last night?, happen Star list number 1 – collar, The collar on my shirt feels tight around my neck., collar, etc.) Then, I call out the “new pattern words” to the whole class. These are words they have not studied, but follow the pattern we have practiced all week. This will show me if they truly understand and can apply the pattern to their own writing.

I have created a product for the first 6 spelling lists in the Reading Street series. Here is a link to where they can be purchased in my TPT store. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/3rd-Grade-Reading-Street-Spelling-Lists-858843

{Scoot Activity}

This is a very popular activity, so I'm sure that many of you have used or seen it. But I really wanted to post it because of how wonderful it is! My students LOVE it and after you do it once, it is a quick easy way to review in ANY content area!

This week we are studying place value in the hundreds place, so I whipped up a version of scoot for review before our test.

All you need to do is cut this sheet up and put one square on each desk.
place value scoot

Each student will get one of these sheets.
Scoot

When they get to a desk they match the number on the paper to number on their own paper. I use a timer to countdown 30 seconds at each desk (time depends on the difficulty of the problems.) At the end of the 30 seconds we say "3,2,1 SCOOT!" This cues the students to move to the next desk and repeat the process. The first time you play you will want to practice just the scooting part without doing any problems first. They tend to take the problems with them and leave their pencils and such, haha. After you play once, they have the hang of it and it's such a simple process!

I use this game at least once a week. Most recently for sentence editing practice, homophones practice, and compound words.

Try this activity. I'm sure you'll love it!

TEACH ON!!

{Homophones}

We studied homophones last week and in while in the spring spirit we made some kites! It was a simple, fun acitivy that turned out so cute... in my opinion.

They wrote a homophone pair on each piece of the kite, with an illustration of each on the diamond shape. I wanted to hang them from the ceiling, but they were just too small. :( The bulletin board is not a disappointment though!

Sorry about the lighting. The sun was hitting the hallway strangely.

The pair of homophones on the diamond is "moose" and "mousse."

"buy" and "bye"

This could be applied to many other phonics/grammar areas, such as contractions.

Enjoy your weekend and then.... TEACH ON!

{Word Work Sheets}

Word Wall Words Activities

Wow, this is one of the first pages I ever made! It looks so simple now with all the fonts I've recently become obsessed with. Haha. But it still works great! :)

This is the Word Wall Activity sheet that I use each week. I use this time to have my students practive their Word Wall, or Sight, Words for the week as well as do some phonological awareness activities. This is what a typical weeks activities look like:

Monday - Put this weeks sight words in alphabetical order

Tuesday - Rhyming words

Wednesday - "Word Detectives" I give them clues to which word wall word I'm thinking of (from all of our words from the year, not just this weeks). It would sound something like this... "I'm thinking of a verb. This verb has one silent letter. If I changed the "t" in talk to a "w", I would have this word. My word is... walk!! 

Thursday - Use your word wall words in a sentence. 

Friday - Students are assessed on their ability to spell the words and use them in a sentence on their spelling test. 

This is just an example, every week looks a little different. That's why I like the flexibility of this sheet.

Spelling Tic Tac Toe Homework

Here is my weekly spelling homework. I change out the activities every few weeks. This is just my regular list, I also have a challenge and modified list. The activities are a little different on these version as well. Make sure you download the text version so you can change it and use it in your classroom!

Hope these are useful! Have a fantastic weekend!

TEACH ON!