There Poster

Here is a poster to help with the spelling and usage of there.

I didn't write these just made them into the poster form.  I can't for the life of me find who to give credit to, so if you know please tell me.  I also don't know the tune, if there is one, so I just use "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall".  :)  Use whatever works for you.

Click the image to go get it.

Last week was crazy assessment time as we have parent-teacher conferences this coming week...starting the day after Halloween.  Yes, you read that correctly!  Whoever planned that one wasn't playing with a full deck I tell you.

I'm praying that after dealing with the still sugar-high, wacko kids on Thursday I have a few positive things to say to their parents who are probably going to be tired and cranky as well.  It sounds like a win-win situation for us all doesn't it?

Saw this on Third Grade Thoughts blog and had to grab it...

Here's to us all surviving Halloween on a Wednesday!

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.

The Floss Rule for Spelling

Here's a little spelling rule poster freebie.  It's a rule from the Barton Reading program.  Hope you can use it.

Nothing fancy just something my kiddos put in their binder.  They LOVE putting things in that silly contraption.  Maybe it's the clicking noise they can make with it that I love drives me bonkers.

click, click, click

I hear that!  Stop it!

Now last years class would have snickered for hours over the word gas.  This year's class . . . not a peep!

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.

Spelling Freebie

Some of my kiddos are having a hard time remembering the spelling rules about changing the y to i and doubling the final consonant before adding a suffix to a word.

A few are still struggling with dropping the silent e.

We've practiced these skills all year, sang songs about them, and just about hammered them to death.

And still some of them don't get it.

So I whipped up these three little posters to hang on the literacy wall for kids to reference.

You can get them for free at my TN shop by clicking on any of the pictures below.

Really hard to get when you still don't know short vowel sounds, right?

Also, if you have a great way that you teach one or all of these skills I'd love to hear it.

I'm near desperate people!
Okay, not really desperate, but I'd love to hear what you've got.

Bonus Letters Song & Binders

Sunday night when inspiration struck, I immediately grabbed my cell phone and recorded this simple little ditty about the bonus letters. Hope you can use it along with the poster from my previous post. (My songs are always piggy-backed on a well-known tune or they just don't work for my musically challenged self. I also find the kids adjust well to them because they are usually familiar with the tunes also. We usually sing the original tune and then hum it before I introduce the new words.) This item is available for free on my new Teacher's Notebook store.

All of my students have a binder where we keep poems, songs, behavior calendars for the clip chart, and our daily calendar sheets. They love these binders and read from them often! Students take the binder home on Fridays to share all the wonderful things in them with their families over the weekend. At the beginning of the year I bought a ton of plastic tabbed dividers from the Dollar Tree and labeled the tabs using my Dymo label maker. I LOVE that thing! Do you have a binder for songs, poems, and other wonderful things you want your kiddos to keep?

Bonus Letters, I Forgot, & A New Look

In the blogosphere it seems like forever, but it was only a week ago that Ms. M asked for helpful ideas to teach the double final consonants. I read her post, since I follow her wonderful blog, but thought to myself, "Hmm, I teach those guys. How do I do it?" Well, the answer was BORING! :(

This week those guys are in my lesson plans for spelling and so I revisited Ms. M's post to check out the comments left for her in the hopes of finding inspiration. The fabulous Erica Bohrer left Ms. M a message about her word wall for words with bonus letters on TPT. I love the term "bonus letters" better than double letters. (So changing that this week!)

Then Bonnie of Living a Wonderful Life mentioned how they (in Foundations) line the alphabet up a certain way to highlight the bonus letters. Great idea!

Finally Mrs. Jackson wrote about an anchor chart she made. I tried to find this beauty, but couldn't so I have made my own. (If Mrs. Jackson is reading this, I hope she won't mind that I borrowed her idea.) After teaching this, the poster will go on my focus wall and the class will do a scavenger hunt for words with bonus letters. (If you call anything a scavenger hunt your kids will get excited...trust me!) This poster is available at my Teacher's Notebook store.

Now, those of you who know my love of all things songs know that I am going to try to come up with a song before Monday. I'll keep you posted. HA!

BTW, I had a great song in my head a few nights ago (in the middle of the night) for teaching about the hour and minute hand (cause my kiddos are struggling with that) and I didn't get up to record it. You know what happened! I forgot it. Dang it! I don't know why I worry about the husband thinking I'm nuts...he already knows that!

Hope you love the new look! I contacted Kenna at Project 3 Designs after seeing Ms. Preppy's blog and wanted a more polished look. Let me tell you, this young girl is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! It tickles me that Kenna is a high school student who designs blogs. Not only that but she is a follower of Jesus. If you are thinking of a new look, I would definitely recommend Project 3 Designs!

Please leave some love and let me know how you like the new design.