Words their Way and SpellingCity.com

In our fifth grade classroom we use Words their Way as our core for word study curriculum.  Now that my students have become fairly fluent with most of the word study activities, I have added I. The option to practice word study and spelling using the website Spelling City.  This website has a lot of engaging games for students.  Plus it is fair fairly simple to set up.  In my case, since is like the site, I have paid subscription, which offers more variety in activities, besides just spelling activities. Check out some of our fun today.

Making Word Study Fun!

Understanding how to create, spell, and analyze words is a very important part in becoming a successful reader and writer.  Using the Words their Way curriculum, we do a variety of activities to get better at our word knowledge ranging from meaning sorts and activities to several strategies for better spelling of words.  Throughout the day, students have many opportunities to get better at using words and to become better spellers in general.  Below are some pictures from some of the activities students did today:

"Banana Grams" with Large Magnetic Letters

"Written Blind Sort"

"Scrabble" with Magnetic Letters

"Secret Decoder" Spelling Cups

A Few Views...

In our classroom we integrate lots of technology and 21st century skills.  That said, we also work on becoming independent learners.  The below collage is just a mini-glimpse into our classroom during one of our "Daily 5" rounds this morning.  Along with independence, students have choice.  As you can see, books are definitely alive and well in our class, whether it is paper or electronic.  Magnetic letters are great for word study, but so is our SMARTboard.  Google Docs are becoming the norm for work on writing.  

Making Word Study Fun with Story Lines App

Image borrowed from:
http://goo.gl/vlM1j

This morning we introduced Story Lines, one of the many educational apps our students will use on our iPads.  Story Lines is similar to the traditional game "Telephone," where one person passes on the message to the next person, until the final person reveals what was (hopefully) the original message.

Story Lines is a bit different, however.  In this game, the first player writes down a word/phrase. The very next person's job is to draw that word/phrase without using any words or phrases.  The third person then guesses what word/phrase the previous person drew.  You can choose this option to go on and on for several rounds.

The way we will use Story Lines in our classroom could vary from using it to practice word meaning (vocabulary) to retelling an important part in our Social Studies text.  It is all about being creative, and of course having fun!

One of the best parts about this app...it is free!  Follow this link to learn more about the app and/or to download it to your iDevice.

iTunes Store: http://goo.gl/o5r7g

**Currently, this app is not available on the Android Market.