Word Wall Party!

 It's a Word Wall Party over at Ms. M's blog! So I'm a few days behind in blogging but thought I'd update with multiple years photos to help catch up. So the first picture is my current kindergarten word wall. Kindergarten words are on pink cards all with cut out Elkonin boxes and the 1st grade words we teach or use are in yellow. I use sentence strips to add all my students names to our Word Wall too. The words on my K word wall are large enough to read from a distance but they also have magnets on the back so when I teach the kids about how to use the word wall I teach them to go take it off the wall if they need it for writing. They love playing I Spy games on the word wall! Oh through the middle are my Beany Baby Reading strategy posters!

Next comes my second grade word walls and I'll explain the reasoning behind each.  The Word Wall withthe yellow tape (plastic gym tape) is from my first room in second grade where I taught for 2 years.  The word wall with the black tape (electrical tape) is from my return to the same room 3 years later. I had a period of 2 years out in the portables between. The word wall words I made on the computer and are on magnets so students can take them to their seats to write down. I originally only posted the 2nd grade word wall words.

Year number 5 and 6 in second grade had me move back into my original classroom which I was excited to do! The WW got a new outline in black and additional words. Now I will point out this picture looks very cluttered but it was actually quite organized. Yellow words were 2nd grade words, blue was 3rd grade words, green was science words. We are required to have a separate math word wall in our room but I did post some of our math words up on the wall in pink.

Last but not least comes my Word Wall that was my labor of love. For my first year out in the portable I had problems with my word wall. I had it high up on a wall as a Word Wall Caterpillar with the words stapled into the wall so kids could read it. problem #1 some kids wouldn't even try to look at words because they were up high and far away. #2 it was in a bad place in the room (the only place to with the space so I thought). So my second year in this portable came along and I tried to think outside the box (literally)! I had a great idea! I had purchased some cheap pocket charts from Target during their back to school sales. I cut up 3 pocket charts with 10 pockets in half and stapled them along the front wall below the dry erase board. Then I lined it with border to cover any rough edges I made. Yellow stars became my alphabet for each section. There's not rhyme or reason by the different colored words other then that's what my teammate printed for me.

Suddenly by putting my word wall in a pocket chart my two problems were solved, the kids could see the words, and they could access them and take them to their seat to write! I spent countless hours on this project putting it up and the teacher the next year in the portable loved it! I was so disappointed two years later when the room became a parent resource center and the parents who organized the room took the pockets down and threw them out!!!! the following year when teachers were back in the room they wanted the word wall and it was nowhere to be found! :-( The teacher next door tried to hot glue cork board below her dry erase board and then use thumb tacks to put her word wall words in but the problem was her kids couldn't put the words back in so she said it was more trouble than it was worth. I hope this helps give some ideas out there to different people. Please let me know if you have any questions or want to know more!

Lindsey

St. Patty's Day and Catch a Leprechaun Activity

With St. Patrick's Day approaching I've been reflecting back on what I have done with my students the past few years and looking to this week. Since this is my second year in K and last year I was in survival mode, this year I've been working on stepping things up and making new centers. I created a word wall game for my kindergarten class called "Catch a Leprechaun" and thought I should share with the blogging world! Enjoy!!

I come from a big family that loves St. Patrick's Day so I love to entertain my students with my fun and crazy family activities. The majority of my family are Irish Catholics (my immediate family are the oddballs as the Presbyterians) but pretty much everyone lives for St. Patrick's Day and lives in the area. And when I mean a big family, I mean big. My Aunt is one of 10 kids each of which has at least 3 children plus grandchildren now! We're described as a little bit nutty because how many families do you know that have their own float in the Washington, DC St. Patrick's Day Parade?

Marching down Constitution Ave.

Usually we have a showing of 50-75 family members for the parade every year rain or shine. I'm posting photos from the parade two years ago, last year it was rainy so I didn't take any photos. So one of my family traditions is as we
pass the judging booth we sing, "The Unicorn Song" by The Irish Rovers and everyone participates in the dance to the chorus from adults and grandparents down to our "stroller brigade" we have following the float. It's a big hit and we've won our section of the parade quite a few times! So the part I teach my kids is the chorus, during the rest of the song they Irish dance around the room. I do teach them a few Irish dance steps but they take it from there!

My cousins and I on the float.

Here's the chorus with the movement:
"There was green alligators (clap your arms together)
and long-necked geese (hold 1 arm up to the sky)
Some humpty backed camels (hands over head making humps)
and some chimpanzees (hands scratching under arm pits)
Some cats (use finger to make cat ears)
and rats (fingers to make rat teeth) and elephants (long arm out in front swinging back and forth),
but as sure as you're born
The loveliest of all was the unicorn" (one finger up on top of head)

The Leprechaun always comes to visit at school! Last year I left little green footprints using a stamp I bought at a craft store plus glitter all over the room and chairs and things all out of place. The Leprecaun then hid a box of gold coins (beans spray painted gold) and a bag of gold nuggets (Rolos candy) for the kids to find. I was lucky last year because I had a student who was taking Irish Dancing classes so he came in and led the kids in a dance.

We also made Leprechaun Hats and frosted cookies with sprinkles.
To make the hats cut paper with the dimensions below:

• Green rectangle 9"x 24"
• Black rectangle 4"x 24"
• Yellow buckle 4"x 5"
• Black buckle 3"x 4"
• Dicut 1 dark green shamrock

~Lindsey

Valentine's Day Word Wall Center

So on any trip to Target, I try to shop with a purpose and on budget and always end with a ton of stuff I didn't plan on buying. On this trip the dollar bins provided a great word wall literacy activity for Valentine's Day! I found pink and white foam hearts, a pink pail, and heart measuring cups. I put the kindergarten word wall words using sharpie on the hearts. I'm going to have the kids use the scooper to scoop out a heart and use the words to write sentences.

I also found these dry erase clock activities for when we start on time in a few weeks.



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