Vocabulary Fun

My right eye is officially twitching which means… PASS testing (our state testing) is near.  Very near in fact.  Tuesday.  I’m like 40 kinds of nervous and anxious but ready to get this over with.  My kiddos have worked their tails off but it’s my first year of testing so I am allowed to be anxious, right?  Yikes! 

I have had a huge focus on vocabulary this year.  I’ve been trying out some new things and it was even my focus for my Masters Practicum.  I have lived and breathed vocabulary this year.  But of course it took until April to really sink my teeth into Flocabulary. 

 

It has 10 words which are also the spelling words for the week.  It has a rap with all of the words in it.  Cutest raps ever!  The fourthies BEG me to play it more than once a day.   I’m ok with that…. They are SUPER catchy!  I have also been using Word Nerds…

This book has some awesome activities, games, and even celebrations to use for vocabulary instruction.  It’s great and my kiddos have been so excited the past few weeks.  I wish I would have known about the greatness that is Flocabulary earlier in the year.  It also opened up a great opportunity to whip out our nifty cameras that we got from Donors Choose.  Definitely added another level of complete excitement for vocabulary!  I had my students get into small groups and create silent skits (charades) for 2 of their vocabulary words.  We passed cameras around and them video the skits.  Oh man.  So stinkin’ cute!  I also played them as a way to review the words near the end of the week.  GREATNESS!

So I’m in love with my smartboard… But I have been saddened to discover that not everyone has a smartboard.  Ok, I already knew this but it became an issue when I uploaded my Writing Curriculum (Smartboard version) to my TPT store.  So not only can you buy the PDF version or the Smartboard version now BUT it’s now also available in PowerPoint!  YAY!  It has all of the forms that the PDF version has (attached) but you can use the PowerPoint to model the writing with your students.  Go over to my TPT store and grab a copy for yourself.

Smiles and Snapshots!