A Window Into Our World
Pictures from the story, "Sarah, Plain and Tall"
While students listened to this story on tape, they drew two pictures. The first one is of the sea. They used coloring pencils and real sand and sea shells. The other picture is of a prairie farm.
Daily Assignment: The picture below is an example of what our classroom looks like on any given day. First, each day's work is posted on the board. I have found that this helps students manage their time better.
Spelling: Assignments are posted daily. Student's only do 5 spelling words per day. They do not do entire pages in one day. This is overwhelming for most students. Instead, I break the workbook pages into five-word segments. We have a word wall where I write the day's spelling words.
- First, students sort the five words of the day into the correct categories according to spelling patterns. Then they take those same 5 words and do the second spelling page.
- After student's finish their workbook pages, they do Snap-and-Clap. This is a hands-on spelling game where spell out each word one letter at a time. They clap for consonants and snap for vowels. They do each word 3 times.
- The other spelling tool is the "laptop". The laptop is a printout of the keys of a computer keyboard. Students type out the spelling word while spelling it out loud. The do each word 3 times.
Vocabulary: Vocab words are also on the wall. We discuss the meaning of the word. Then I ask students to help come up with a picture representation of the word. Vocab words are also in the reading assignments and workbook pages.