Tricky Too

We are working on this homophone bugger this week.  Do your kiddos struggle with using this guy correctly?  Mine do.

It is practiced all year long in our spelling program and some still don't get it.  It doesn't matter if I beg and plead or cry.  It doesn't matter if I stand on my head or run naked.  Some just don't get it.

But this little chant that is a take off on the their one I shared earlier seems to be helping . . . so far.

I figure if I beat it into them hard enough teach it enough ways they'll have to get it eventually right?!

Click to download

Do you have a magical way to teach too to your students?  If so please share.

My Musical Class

This class is so funny!  I love how they spontaneously burst into song.  It can be a real pick-me-up.

Take Friday for instance.

I wasn't feeling very well.  (well?  good?  I'll never figure those two out!  GRR!)

I've had this cold/sinus thing going on for three weeks now.  Got a prescription antibiotic about midweek but it's not kicked in yet.  So on Friday I felt like doo-doo and thought I'd get a sub.

HA!  With seven subs for preschool through 6th grade (that's 24+ teachers) I had a better chance of getting my tonsils removed on my dining room table.  Top it off with the fact that I don't have a book of sub notes on my special little guy and you can probably guess what happened.

I ended up having the principal sub for me going in and toughing it out.  (I'd probably have better luck with the tonsils again than the principal.  Will your principal sub for you?)

So with jackhammer sinus headache reverberating in my skull and every little noise setting off the jackhammer headache, I set out to teach to the best of my ability.

It wasn't a day I'm overly proud of but I know there are teachers who do less on their best days sadly.

I whispered as much as I could to keep the drilling headache on low and my class thought it was a game.  They love it when I sing so I sang some questions/directions in funny whisper voices.  Game on!

And then, probably because I was just way off a tad off I forgot to sing the "Name on Your Paper" song.  So they began to softly sing it.  It was so cute.  Those angelic voices!  In spite of feeling like something a dog dropped in the backyard or the cat left in the litterbox, I was smiling.  It made my whole day folks.

I thought I'd share this little tune.  I'm not sure if you have your kiddos do the same kind of thing on their papers, but if so you can grab it by clicking on the picture below.  Or maybe you could tweak it to fit your needs.  I have a lot less no name papers because my little peanuts will sing this as they write their names on their papers with or without me. :)

T-h-e-i-r

What a bugger of a word.  Not hard to spell really.  But to get a second grader to use it correctly. . . not easy.

I found a lengthy homophone song or poem somewhere on the internet that naturally I am unable to find now and there was no author listed on what little I had.  Basically the song/poem was too long for my kiddos but this one little snippet stuck with me for a couple reasons.  One it provided spelling practice (yeah, some kids can't remember if it's ei or ie) and two it was simple.

Song/poem?  Who knows.  I have no idea what it was initially intended to be but I say  this little itty bitty part somewhat to the tune of "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall".  My kiddos don't know that.  Or at least no one has said anything . . . yet.

Last year I know one of the kids would have caught it.  The little stinker I'm thinking of caught all those kinds of things.  If it was inappropriate or related to anything potty-mouth, even remotely, he got it and let everyone know it.  I got a kick out of that kid!  Most days anyways.  The other parents probably didn't though.

Wouldn't you know the year I had him my two male guinea pigs were fighting for dominance.  Most of the kids thought they were jumping on each other to play but not that little firecracker!  Oh, no!  He nearly gave a little biology lesson before I gave him the hairy eyeball.

Anyway, this is another little chant thingie that this year's class is famous for spontaneously reciting if they hear me whisper "Does that (insert object) belong to them?"

I whipped up this little sign for my language arts focus wall.

Click to go to download

Hope you can use it.

BTW, if you know the song/poem source please let me know.

The Sentence Song

So I got the copy of the sentence song from my school computer.  Remember this is not my original song but I changed maybe two words to make it fit my needs.  The author is Kim Shelley.  (If you know her tell her thanks!)

The kids LOVE this song.  In fact, every year that I've used this song the kids love it.  It's a keeper.

My classes quickly realize how much I love songs, music, and movement and this year's class is no different.  The big difference this year, however, is that this class will just spontaneously break out into song all on their own.

I love it!

It cracks me up!

For example, I'll walk by someone and remind them to write in complete sentences and before you can say "complete what?" the class is singing the sentence song.

How can you not love that?


I'm known for spontaneously breaking into song but I don't recall a class doing it like this.

In fact, a few years ago, the daughter of a fellow teacher that I had in my class once told her mom, "Mrs. Schaff will just start singing out of the blue and not even be embarrassed!"

When the mom told me I laughed so hard.  Then I asked, "Should I be embarrassed?"

Nah, these are little kids.  What do they care?  We all spend to much of our lives being self-conscious, embarrassed, and/or worrying about what other people think.

So if the kids that leave my room remember nothing else, maybe they'll remember to take a chance . . . because you can succeed if you don't try!

Click the picture to download.

Happy singing friends!

Noun Song

This week we are working on recognizing and sorting nouns. I teach the kids this song, which they LOVE! The song is available in my noun quilt in my Teacher's Notebook store.

If you can use it, please leave me a comment!