Word Work Still Works With Ten Days to Go (and a Freebie)!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
With only a few more days of school this year, the kids are getting restless!  The kids were starting to get bored of all of the ways they could practice their Word Work for Daily 5.  Luckily, my friends at MyBinding.com (shout out to Hillsboro, Oregon!!!) sent me C-Line's 9x7 Reusable Dry Erase Pockets, a fun, new product to try out with my students!  These pockets are heavy-duty and they are reinforced and sewn all the way around the edges of the pocket.  Plus, they have a little eyelet so you could hang them for easy access.  All I had to do was slip in a paper that I wanted my students to practice and voila! a non-prep, fun Word Work center was born! 

I tried having the kids use Crayola's Dry Erase Crayons first.  Here is one of my cuties practicing on his own.  At first I loved the crayons because they weren't stinky, but eventually it stopped erasing on the pockets because the eraser mitt it came with got covered in greasy crayon. Then, the kids decided to put the mitt and crayons INSIDE the pocket! Teacher FAIL! That is what happens when you don't give enough specific directions with a new tool!  So, I had to scrub it clean inside and out.  We won't be trying the crayons again. 

So, I got out the EXPO markers, which wipe off easily with a tissue or white board eraser.  Here are two of my kids playing, "Spelling Test."  I put a spelling practice sheet facing one way and a blank paper with handwriting lines on the other side.  That way, kids can practice with a buddy or one their own.  I wish you could hear how the "spelling test" was going!  He was giving the spelling test using it in a sentence, then he made up a sentence dictation sentence using the words (just like me!).  Too cute!  CLICK HERE FOR FREEBIE SAMPLE OF MY SPELLING PRACTICE SHEETS!

We are currently studying about plants and the kids have been working on adding science vocabulary words to their Plant ABC vocabulary sheet.  I slipped a few blank sheets into the dry erase pockets so that kids could add one of their words to the class ABC list.  Talk about easy motivation!  Some of the kids who don't always want to get their work done were scrambling so that they could get their hands on one of the dry erase pocket activities!  CLICK HERE FOR A FREEBIE OF MY ABC VOCAB SHEET!

MyBinding.com has other colors and sizes of these fun Dry Erase Pockets. Besides getting more of the large pockets,  I want to get some of the smaller 6x9 versions, too!  They'd be great to use with some of my other centers.  Instead of copying off a tree's worth of paper class set for every center game, I could just put out a few of the Dry Erase Pockets and I'd be set!  I think they'd be great as response boards, if you had a small or whole group set.  Thanks, MyBinding.com!!!


Sorry for the quality of the next picture, but it was too good not to include in my post.  When my kids turned in their homework yesterday, I came across this one that didn't quite get signed by the student and the parent...  LOL!!!   This little guy spent his Work on Writing time to draw me a picture and wrote me a note that said, "My teecher is a delaket flower and she is always HAPPY!"

We have only ten more days!  How are you spending the last day with your students?  I get to keep mine and loop up to second with them!  Yay!

Happy Teaching!
♥Corinna

I'm Back!

Hi Teacher Friends!  I'm sorry I've been missing from the blogosphere lately.  I've had too many things on my Must-Do-ASAP-Before-Everyone-Realizes-I-Am-Not-As-Fabulous-As-I-Want-Them-To-Think list.  However, since this teacher forgot her MDABERIANAFAIWTTT list, I'll have to just do this blog post!  LOL!  So, here's a freebie to make you forget that it has been 17 days since my last post.  This is a 4-Square Writing Organizer for kids to write about a fun day with a friend. I love using the 4-Square because it is very simple to use and my kids feel comfortable using without needing an explanation each time.

With this organizer, we were doing a writing sample about friends and we were practicing using transition words.  We also had been trying to remember to indent our paragraphs, so I put the pointer finger in box 1 as a little reminder.  We were also working on a wrap-up sentence that shared our feelings about the subject, so I put a little heart shape in box 5 as a reminder.

This version can be used to allow your students to write their own topic sentence.

This version omits the transitional words so your students can choose their own.

 

This is one of the final copy writing paper options.  

There is a matching page with a full page of handwriting lines.

This is one of the other final copy writing paper options.  

There is a matching page with a full page of handwriting lines.

I hope you can find a use for these in your classroom! Click on the cover photo to get your own copy!

We have eleven school days left!  How are you keeping your kids learning until the last minute of the school year?

Happy Teaching!
♥Corinna 

Teacher Appreciation Sale at TpT!

CLICK THE PICTURE TO SHOP NOW!

I think we all deserve to buy a few items on our wish lists, right?  Head on over to TpT and treat yourself! Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, Everybody!!!

Happy Teaching!
♥Corinna