I just attended an exciting workshop with Cheryl Sigmon. I have always been a fan of her work! I find that she is practical and gives me ideas I can always take directly back to my classroom. I am sharing two things today, one thing I learned today, and one thing I have done in my own classroom with vocabulary for years.
Cheryl's tip: (One of many things I learned!) She shared an activity called "Mystery Word." The link is http://teachers.net/4blocks/ella_mystery_word_match.pdf. (credit to Ella Frazier for posting on the site). If you go to this site, and look at #1, you have to take a word part from "mother" and a word part from "pansy" to find a word that fits the blank. "Standing in the field of corn was a __________ (7)." The answer is "panther." I love this idea!
My tip: There are many ways to transition from one subject to another. One day, I heard a teacher counting. She was counting to 20 to give her class time to get out their book to a certain page. Later that day, I had a brainstorm (at one of those stressful moments of beginning chaos). We were studying Electricity, so I said, "I would like you to be seated knee to knee with your partner by the time I finish spelling electricity." Wow...it worked wonders! Now, I use it all the time. I use content words normally, but sometimes I use a short word like recess if it's appropriate for the situation. I also use Vocabulary Ladders (not sure if that's the correct name, that's just what I call them), so there is a visual that I can often pull words from. (Posting on Vocabulary Ladders coming soon!).
If you try any of these, let me know how it worked or if you put your own spin on it for others to try.
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