Favorite Chapter Books - Workshop Wednesday

So, when my BBB Jivey mentioned that the topic for this Wednesday's linky was to write about ONE chapter book that we use in class, I knew that I'd have a really hard time with it. 

I mean, of course I want to write about Wonder by RJ Palacio, but I've already done that! Go check that post out if you're interested in hearing more about that awesome book, and check out my novel study unit for it while you're at it! I can't rave about this book enough.

I could always talk about Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger too, which is a super fun chapter book to do with kids, but I've done that already too! I made another novel unit and lapbook set for that book as well.

So, I figured rather than rehash the same info about those two books I'd talk about one that won't just sound like an advertisement!  ;) 

Picking just one chapter book to focus on is impossible! We always have a novel going on in my classroom, whether it is a full blown study of the novel or just a class read-aloud. I have so many favorites! I know a lot of teachers have some old stand-bys that are favorites of mine as well like Frindle, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Phantom Tollbooth (which this very blog is named after!), Holes, etc. but in the end I figured I'd share about our next read-aloud, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

We are about to begin our next Social Studies unit, which is all about Japan. So obviously this is a perfect time for me to read this book with the kids, but you could read it whether you have a Japan unit or not! It tells the true story of a girl named Sadako Sasaki who was two years old when the bombs were dropped, and ten years later develops leukemia from living in Hiroshima. In the hospital she set the goal of folding 1,000 paper cranes, but only makes it to 644 before she succumbs to her illness.

Sadako's memorial

I've read this book with my 2nd graders when I taught the Japan unit in GA, and I think every year the kids were absolutely shocked that this book doesn't have a happy ending. We're reading Gooseberry Park right now, and I have several kids worried sick about Stumpy the Squirrel (who has gone missing during an ice storm)...but today I overheard one of my boys say to a girl, "Chill out, you know everything's going to work out...these stories always have happy endings." The story of Sadako doesn't end happily, but I think it does do a great job of showing kids that sometimes our actions can have lasting implications. Being exposed to a story that doesn't end with everything wrapped up in a nice bow is a good experience for them, and this piece of historical fiction really cements one of the big ideas behind why we study history...to not repeat the mistakes of the past.

The book is pretty short and easy to read. I will probably finish it with the kids in a week and a half. I usually use it as a whole class read-aloud, and will model some of the CAFE strategies as I read it with the kids. Noting the point of view, character traits of the characters, cause and effect, and making predictions based on evidence from the text are all good places to go with this book.

There are a ton of activities available to go along with this book out there on the web. I've included a couple of sites you might consider checking out if you plan to read the book with your class!

Kids Peace Station - an illustrated timeline of Sadako's brief life.
The site also has a place to send and read letters to Sadako, and lots of other information about the bombings, Japan, and peace.

Fold a paper crane - this includes step by step videos for folding a perfect crane. In past years my classes have folded 1,000 cranes and shipped them to the shrine in Hiroshima.

Don't have time for the chapter book? Consider checking out the picture book version! Sadako by Eleanor Coerr is illustrated by Ed Young, and tells the story in a somewhat shorter version that the illustrations make up for greatly. 

Be sure to stop by all the other links to learn about some more great chapter books!

Monday Made It - Capitalization poster freebie!

Just a quick post today to link up for Monday Made It!

When I taught primary I felt like I must have gone over the rules for capitalization a bajillion times. Then when I got to 5th grade and realized all my efforts were in vain for about half those kids, I nearly lost it.  So, now that I'm in 3rd/4th I figure I may as well make a last ditch effort to get as many kids on board with correct capitalization as possible so that at least half have it before they get to 5th!   ;)

It's great to just be able to say the word "Mints!" to serve as a helpful hint to students that they might need to edit for capitalization. This isn't my idea, and honestly I'm not sure where I saw it originally because one version or another of this poster has been up in my room for years, but since I made a new matchy poster for my classroom I figured I'd share it with all of you in case you can use it! It's a forever freebie (as are ALL of my freebies) and positive feedback is all the payment I'll ever request for it! Click the link to grab your copy! Enjoy! 

I know that was a quickie...but can you believe that it was my 100th post?! Thanks so much for reading!

Classroom Management and some new (for me) Whole Brain Teaching methods

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm linking up to Tried It Tuesday with Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper! I DID start this post on Tuesday...

So this week I decided to implement another level of Whole Brain Teaching methods in my classroom. If you're not familiar with it, check it out here. Now for the longest blog post in history! I hope you hang in there and earn the freebies I've included!

I have had a lot of success with the "Class - Yes" method for the last several years. I love using different attention getters that have a choral response. October's was the ever popular "Hocus Pocus - Everybody Focus."

For the last several years I have mentored a yearlong intern from Penn State, and each year I am reminded what it is like to be in a classroom as a brand new teacher with limited classroom management skills. This year I was able to attend a brief training about whole brain teaching and it made me think that there were some things I could put in place to help my intern. I decided to give two of the Whole Brain basics a try in my classroom that I had heard of but never tried. I've been really impressed even after just one day!

The two things I'm trying are "The Rules" and "The Scoreboard."

The Rules are simply a list of 5 expectations. The catch is that kids are expected to learn them, and be able to repeat them AND a motion that matches the rule, on command. I modified two of the rules slightly, so here are my "rules" and motions.

Rule #1: Follow directions quickly and quietly. 
(hand shoots out at quickly and comes back as one finger to lips at quietly) I added the "quietly" part.

Rule #2: Raise your hand for permission to speak.
(hand raises quickly then drops to mouth level and makes talking motion)

Rule #3: Always be in just the right place.
(kids point straight to the ground with both hands over and over)
This takes the place of the more typical "Raise your hand to leave your seat" as that goes against other procedures in my class, ie. getting a tissue, going to the bathroom, getting a sip of water, etc.

Rule #4: Make smart choices.
(kids point to their temples and twist their hands back and forth, like winding gears)

Rule #5: Keep your dear teacher happy.
(kids use their two index fingers to make a heart shape on their chest at dear and then do jazz hands at happy)

Whenever kids are sent off to a situation where one of the rules will be in effect it is good to say something like, "Okay, before you go...Rule #1?" Then the kids say the rule, make the motion, and off they go quickly and quietly to follow the direction!

Now comes The Scoreboard!

This has already been a lot of fun. And it is pretty basic. The teacher simply draws a simple scoreboard on the markerboard. One side has a smiley face (that's where the students' earned points go) and one side has a frownie face (that's where the teacher's earned points go.) Whenever the kids are following the rules flawlessly they are given a point. If they aren't following the rules, or something grievous happens then the teacher earns a point. If the kids have more points than the teacher at the end of the day then they win.

Now, here's another fun part of this. Anytime the kids get a point they get to have a "One Second Party" while I write the point. Anytime I get a point the kids have to let out a "Mighty Groan." When the party/groan is over the kids are focused on the teacher. It is recommended that to use the scoreboard correctly, the students should never be more than 3 points ahead, so a little system manipulation is needed. I think breaking that rule occasionally would be okay though, just to show that it can be done.

Click the image to grab the
tags for free!

In my class we decided to implement a leveling system like in a video game. We're at Level 1, and we need 10 experience points to "level up." Each day any points that the kids have over me go into that pot. When we reach ten points we'll level up, receive a reward, and then start over. Just like in a game, higher levels are more challenging and rewards are greater. Our reward for reaching level 2 are these sweet little brag tags I whipped up using the template from Fifth in the Middle!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how these methods play out, and I'm hoping that they are valuable to my intern when she begins teaching some lessons and being in front of the kids more and more.

Now, to toot my own horn for a second, even before implementing these things I have always thought that classroom management is a strength of mine. Disclaimer: Let me start by saying that it is a HUGE pet peeve of mine when fellow teachers discount my hard work in this area when they say things like, "Well, you're a man so kids must listen better." Aaargh!

Aside from basic attention getters, and the whole brain things I've mentioned, I excel at classroom management because I do these things:

I build a strong classroom community.

We take time at the beginning of the year, and throughout the year to learn about and celebrate each other. Positive reinforcement is the norm. Additionally, I make it a mission to get to know each and every one of my kids. I have a kiddo that is obsessed with Star Wars, so I watched all 6 movies again one Saturday so that I could actually talk to him. Otherwise I'd have had no chance of getting to know him. 

I plan for every part of my school day.

I literally have a plan for every minute of every day. I make that plan a week in advance. I then e-mail that plan to all of the paraprofessionals that work in my classroom throughout the day, and all of the learning support teachers that serve any of my kids. I'm not required to do this. If kids are going to need a material for the next lesson, that material was prepped the day before. Little things like "we need index cards for this and I don't have any" or "hmmm...what are we going to do next?!" are the quickest way to wreck your day in my opinion.

I follow through on everything I say to kids.

If I say it, then it will happen. Conversely, I don't say things or fight battles that don't matter or that I can't win or back up. Empty threats are pointless. I'm always ready to follow through on any claim I make. Usually I don't have to back up a "crazy claim" more than once. Case in point, if my kids are riled up on Halloween and having a hard time lining up quietly for lunch...we'll sit down and line up again until they get it right. Late for lunch? Oh well. I'll tell the next teacher to jump us in line.

I have high expectations for behavior, independence, and academics. I expect respect.

I know all of my kids can learn what I need them to learn. I know they can do a lot of activities independently. I trust them to make good decisions, and I give guidance when they don't. I expect students to treat everyone with respect and I let them know how completely shocked and flabbergasted I am when they don't.

I make consequences match the offense.

We don't use a card pulling system or a clip moving system in my room, though I did for many years. I became disillusioned with it for a couple reasons. They seemed to focus on the negative, and the consequences seemed rather static. I know some teachers have clip charts that go in both directions (kids start in the middle and can move up OR down in level of behavior) and I think that helps a lot. 

My biggest problem is when a kiddo moves two clips and then has to lose 5 minutes of recess. Why? What did she move the clips for? In my room the consequence matches the offense. Kiddo purposefully writes on the board in sharpie? She gets to locate the head custodian and ask for the supplies to clean it. After she cleans it, she sends an e-mail to him (CC:ed to Mom and Dad of course) to thank him for the use of his materials. (This activity may have had to happen during recess or another desirable time of course!)

Obviously there are always some exceptions to the rules. There are always going to be those kiddos who just have a really hard time following rules or being kind to others. Special circumstances may call for special solutions. Good classroom management isn't magic.

But while there are always going to be some cases where nothing I know works, I've found that classroom management mostly takes care of itself when I do the things I do. That makes me a happy teacher! What do you all think about classroom management?

And if you hung in this long and want a copy of my rules...grab yourself a set here by clicking the image of Rule #1 to the left!

November already?! - Five for Friday

Surely I'm not the only teacher out there thinking this, right?! The memories of setting up my classroom and anxiously awaiting meeting my kiddos for the first time are still fresh, yet here we are...November! Time flies when you're having fun though I suppose!

And today I thought it'd be fun to link up with Doogle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday linky! It's been a full week since I have last blogged, so there's plenty to share! It's that whole time flying problem again!

1. Best Idea Ever:

Today is actually a district-wide in-service day for elementary teachers! Whoever thought up having a professional development day the Friday after Halloween deserves a prize. I love Halloween as much as the next teacher, but the lack of routine and all the excitement of the day makes me need a nap! 

PS - I will never wear this costume again. Questions like, "Are you a penguin or a fly?" got a little bit old. Haha. I'm a SPIDER! Geez people! ;)

I'm actually presenting to a small group about using Social Media for Professional Development today! This someecard sounds like a joke, but it's actually true! Where would I be without blogging, Pinterest, Facebook, or Teacherspayteachers?! Seriously though, sharing ideas and finding great ideas and products is one of the best benefits of reading teaching blogs. I think I could easily say that I've gained more insight from reading the blogs of my colleagues than all the trainings I've been sent to in my 13 year career combined! Props to all those teachers out there who did this job pre-internet is all I have to say! 

2. New Read-aloud beginning!

We just finished up our reading of Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger, so on Monday we'll be starting a new favorite of mine, Gooseberry Park by Cynthia Rylant. I've read other works by Cynthia Rylant, but had never read this one until it was recommended by a colleague this year. As an avid reader of children's lit, I was kind of surprised I hadn't heard of it. If you're like me, head on over and read the summary here.  I think it'll be the perfect book to read as Fall gets colder and colder. Even better, when I pre-read it I was able to find a ton of opportunities to address my CAFE strategies with the kids! Our next book will be the ever-popular "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" to go along with our Japan Unit. 

3. Baby Trout are on the way!

We'll be raising Brook Trout, which is
Pennsylvania's state fish, and the only native
species of trout in the state! I'm learning already!

Well, eggs really...but still! I've worked really hard to get my trout tank all set up, and the eggs will finally be arriving Tuesday afternoon. I've been learning more about trout care than any one man should know...Who knew that caring for trout was so complicated anyway?! I'm really nervous that something will go wrong and we won't have any survivors! I'll be sure to keep you updated on their progress!

4. Science Mentor Text for Animal Adaptations

I picked up this fun book at my school's recent Book Fair to go along with our Ecosystems Unit. We've talked a lot about biomes, producers, consumers, etc. But we're finally getting to the really fun stuff...adaptations! This book presents a variety of different animal teeth and shows how those animals use their specialized teeth to survive. The illustrations alone would keep the kids engaged, but the information presented is great too! I think it's best to read some selections from the book, and then let the kids explore the rest of the book later. My intern is required to teach three science lessons this semester, and she is teaching them next week. They're all about animal adaptations, and I know the kids are going to love them. 

5. Two Random Non-Teacher Things

I recently invested in one of these Ninja blenders, with the cup that can be blended right into, and I love it. I used to drink a smoothie every morning for breakfast, but fell out of the habit because I just got sick of cleaning the blender every morning and the time it took to make them. Now I throw some stuff into the cup, put it right onto the blender base, hit the button for like two seconds, and then switch out the lid. Rinse the cup when I'm done and it's ready for the next day! I'm usually so busy in the morning that I won't take time to eat breakfast, so having a smoothie in the morning now is like a treat. It's really been brightening my mornings!

Speaking of bright... Please tell me that all of you other teachers out there are also dealing with this newest fad? The fun loom/rainbow loom bracelet thing has gotten out of hand. This kiddo has this many bracelets on both arms. It's all the kids want to do at recess. And I have like 20 tiny rubber bands on my floor every day after school. I keep telling myself it's better than those silly bands from a couple years ago at least. Those the kids had to take on and off all the time, (to see the shapes of course!) and at least these they just leave on!

The real question? Why couldn't I invent this?

Til next time!

Tried it Tuesday - Zoo Building!

Oh boy! I've become one of those slacker bloggers...sigh.  ;) Seriously though, I think I've fallen into the trap of working myself into temporary burn out. Sometimes I need to sit back and accept that not every cool idea needs to be done this year with my kiddos...

Speaking of traps, check out my class's Venus Fly
Trap! It's an attempt to cut down on our fruit fly
problem, which is caused by terracycling
juice pouches for the school.

Every time I've finally gotten myself to the point where I'm a good week ahead of the game in school, I notice all of the "home life" things I've been neglecting. It never ends, right?!

I definitely need to find that balance between working on school stuff, my personal life, and going to bed at 1 AM. Right now my time allotment is way out of whack leaning towards the teachery stuff. And I think it's time to come to terms with the fact that I'm not young enough to stay up til 1 o'clock every night anymore. I need to spend more time on "me things" too.

I'm so lucky to have such a great bunch of kids this year! They've made my transition into 3rd/4th a lot smoother than it could have been. One thing I love about the multi-age class is that I get to keep all of my 3rd graders next year as my new 4th graders!

But..on with the show:

I'm linking up with Holly for another Tried it Tuesday! This week we started regrouping for Math. I have taken on teaching the fast-paced, gifted learners group. We have a lot of those in my district, so my math class has 27 kiddos in it. That's a whole lot of kids that need constant challenge in order to be kept engaged. My plan is to do a lot of project based learning along the way. 

Matt over at Digital Divide and Conquer has a great project based product for teaching Area and Perimeter (and great practice for a bunch of other skills too!) that I am starting with this group. It basically tasks the kids with building a zoo and meeting multiple parameters while doing so. It comes with a lot of extension activities too, which I really like. There's also an entire set of the papers that allow a teacher to differentiate for a lower level group! We're also currently studying Africa, and this'll be a great way for me to hit some of that with the animals in the zoo. 

I love the fact that this product comes with everything ready to print and use, and that it can be done to different levels. For example, if a student finishes building the zoo, there are sheets to have the student "zoom in" on one of the animal enclosures, or write a quiz about their zoo. Definitely go check it out! At just $4.50 I'd say this is pretty much a steal. 

My mentor texts this week have included I Need My Monster (which goes along with Jivey's Mentor Sentences), Fake Mustache, and Galimoto.  We're a little more than halfway through Fake Mustache right now, which I use as our text to model our CAFE strategies. This week in reading we are focusing on recognizing character traits (personality and physical) and visualizing. Some of the activities in my Fake Mustache Unit have made planning for this week easy-peasy!

Galimoto was our writing mentor text, where we're focusing on having a bold beginning for our narratives. It also ties in well with the Africa unit I am teaching in social studies. It's the story of an African boy who goes along trying to find wire so he can build a "galimoto." The kids slowly discover what that is, so it's good for predicting and inferring as well. But we focused on the first page of the story, where the author begins by telling us the things this boy has in his possession. It makes you want to know why he has those things and what he's going to do with them. He wasn't introduced right away, and the setting wasn't discussed initially. It is a different way to begin a story, and it hooks the reader. I challenged the kids to write a piece with a bold beginning after we read the story.

I figured I'd throw in some of my favorite Halloween books too! Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich (and Takes the Cake) are both hilarious books full of rhyming short stories, comics, etc. I usually read a little each day to the kids just for fun starting a week before Halloween. Monster Museum is a funny book of poems about the different monsters. Vunce Upon a Time is the story of a vegetarian vampire who also likes candy, but has run out right before Halloween. I use these stories to reinforce the skills we've already introduced, but we read them mostly just for fun.  :)

And if you haven't already, it's not too late to start up some Monster Battles in Math! I recently finished my Multiplication Facts (tables 0-12) battle tournament. I also have multi-digit addition and money addition tournaments. The multiplication tournament has a totally different set of pairings and a different winner than the addition tournaments! Each tournament comes at the ridiculously low price of $5! We actually completed our tournament already and the kids LOVED IT. They want to do another one later this year!

In other news, my BBB Jess over at I Heart Recess is having a giveaway! I've donated my Roll and Draw a Monster activity! Go enter if you haven't already!

Five for Two Fridays!

So, I fully intended to write this post LAST Friday! It's hard to believe I let an entire week slip by without blogging at all, but it has been a crazy-busy couple of weeks!

So this might be a little bit more than 5 for Friday...more like the last two Fridays.

First:

Two weekends ago, Killer B and I participated in the Color Run! I've included a before and after picture. It was actually a lot of fun! As far as 5ks go I'd have to guess that it is pretty laid back, but it has gotten me interested in looking into other ones to run in.

Second:

This breakout session was on the birth of
the universe. Pretty intense, and WAY
over the limit of what I would need to teach
my elementary students.

Last weekend I attended the PA Earth and Space Science Teachers conference. There's nothing like being paid to attend a conference and getting put up in a suite for free...but I really wish there had been more opportunities geared towards Elementary teachers. That being said, the keynote speaker was great, and he showed us a great activity for getting kids to understand what scientists do. 

These inquiry cubes are placed on the students' tables and they are asked, "What question comes to mind?" Well, of course the first question you think of is "What's on the bottom?" So the kids work together to try and determine what's on the bottom using the clues they gather from what's on the sides. We never got a chance to see the bottom (just like a real scientist will never see the inside of the Earth, or the first stars) but we were all pretty confident that we knew the answer. There were other ways to extend it too, like introducing "new technology" that lets you see one corner of the bottom of the cube. This might make kids revise their theories about what's on the bottom. It was a great activity, and I'm looking forward to using it in my classroom.

Third: 

Still missing the chiller and the eggs! The foam covers it on
all sides all the time. I'm going to have my kids make some
signage for the front explaining the life cycle and telling
others to leave it alone!

I applied for, and received, a grant last year to participate in a program called "Trout in the Classroom." I've put a lot of work into getting the habitat ready for the eggs. My principal and head custodian were a HUGE help in the fact that I was able to get a sturdy rolling table to put the 55 gallon aquarium on in a nearby stairwell. This giant, green foam-covered monstrosity was kind of a safety hazard and frankly an eyesore. But, now that it has found a home outside of my room, but still nearby, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when our trout eggs arrive in early November! There's still a lot of work to do, but hopefully I'll be releasing a bunch of baby trout fingerlings into a nearby stream next Spring.

Four:

We've been studying Biomes and Ecosystems, so I thought I'd share this funny video that my kids loved. They were singing along with it. From a strictly grammatical standpoint it is kind of funny, but this is science, not grammar...ha. Find the video here.

Five:

This week we've been reading Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger. This is a fun book that cashes in on the current popularity of mustaches, but it's also by the same guy who did Origami Yoda, which my kids love. I wrote a novel unit for it! Check it out!

Our CAFE strategy this week (using Fake Mustache as our text) was to "Read with emotion when appropriate." We're preparing for Fall parent conferences so I went with an easy one.  ;)  

Our VOICES strategies (Six trait writing - check out my free CAFE style menu!) this week were "Use interesting words" and "Use powerful verbs and adjectives."  To go with those strategies we read "Come On, Rain" with Jivey's Mentor Sentences, and then I read Crickwing to the kids.

With Crickwing, I have gone through and rewritten the first few pages and taken out all of the interesting words and powerful adjectives and verbs and replaced them with tired words. After the second page the kids have this look like, "What?!" on their faces. I stop reading and ask what's wrong. Before you know it we're launched into a mini-lesson about how impactful our word choice is to a story and why we should pick interesting and powerful words. Then I read them those first pages over again and they really see the difference. I read about half of the story one day, and the rest another day. This book also has a great anti-bullying message too!

Now I'm really looking forward to a weekend where I hopefully can balance having a little bit of a life with getting the work done that needs to be done! I have a full day of curriculum writing on Monday (and I'm missing my class's first field trip, Yikes! Sorry sub!) and this next week is a short week because we have two days of parent conferences at the end of the week! So maybe I'll get ahead of the game again...

Workshop Wednesday - Word Work

I'm linking up today with Jivey's wonderful Workshop Wednesday! The topic of today's linky is Word Work games and activities! I was excited to hear that because I have recently introduced Words their Way with my 3rd and 4th graders and am always on the hunt for more Word Work games to keep it fresh.

Only a few people in my district are using Words their Way in 3rd and 4th (I'm one of the two from my 7 person team in my school) so their aren't a ton of resources handed to us by the district. The district provided resource is Sitton Spelling. It is mostly based on high frequency words, and has a cloze style spelling test for every Friday. It just wasn't doing it for me, so I asked if I could do something different, was happy to hear that a couple other teachers were interested, and before you know it we're doing WTW! So far I've been really happy with it too!

It took me getting over one thing though...my brain kept insisting that I somehow had to fit everything into a Monday - Friday rotation, but then I read a blog post on Life, Love, Literacy and it clicked, why not do a 7 day cycle?! So that's what I've done, and it's working great!

Our system is basically this:

Day 1 - Intro New Sorts (word lists) - Initial Sort - students cut sorts and try to sort them any way that makes sense.

Day 2  - Sound/Spell Sort - students practice sorting their words by sound or spelling pattern. They check their sorts with a friend.

Day 3 - Game Day - students play a game with their words.

Day 4 - Alternate word work day. I didn't want to not be able to do all the other great word games and word study opportunities because I only had time for WTW. This day the groups do one of those other great games that don't necessarily relate to that week's sort.

Day 5 - Game Day - students play a game with their words.

Day 6 - Buddy Spell - students quiz each other on their words.

Day 7 - Each group takes their own spelling test.

So, on to the activities and games! Some of my favorites are really simple, and you could easily reproduce them! 

Kids in different groups have different
colored paper for their word cards.

I have printed off American Sign Language sheets and the kids practice signing their words to a friend.

We play a word game similar to Guess Who, where kids choose a secret word and the other student asks questions to narrow down which word from the sort it could be.

I have my kids make their own word searches and trade with a buddy. 

Long, long ago when I first taught 2nd grade and used WTW I made myself this "Words Have Value" page to have kids practice counting money and spelling their words. I've found that my older kids like doing it too! I went ahead and added this simple sheet to my TpT store for just a buck! 

One of my favorite activities for the kids on the alternate day is a new one for me this year! It's the Expand-a-Word pack from Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching. Basically, the kids get a sheet for recording, and a set of cards for the week (I give my kids 4 each time). The letters on the cards should be used to make as many words as possible by adding other letters without rearranging the letters on the cards. So if the card says "SOR" one word that a kid could make is "Source." My kids LOVED it when we tried it this week.

There's a year's worth of cards in the pack, so at just $3.50 you're basically paying 10 cents a week for a ready-made, worthwhile word work activity! Click the image to go and grab a copy!

And of course sometimes I have the kids practice alphabetizing their sort, or trying to find other ways to sort their words if they have a couple of minutes. But I'm excited to sit down and read all of the other link ups!

If you stuck around this long, you must have a kind heart! So go check out my class's current Donorschoose.org project! We're almost funded! We're asking for a bunch of "Who was" and "Choose your own adventure" books. My kids need some engaging biographies, and they just eat up the "Choose" books. Match code MALL20 will match any donation! (Thanks Jivey!)