I've put it off long enough. I've wanted to do it, but haven't taken the time. Until now.
Diane from Fifth in the MIddle is hosting a party. This party helps us connect to bloggers in our own state (and other states that we wished we lived in...Hawaii, Oregon, Arizona...).
So, without further ado,
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"Come on down, you are the next contestant on 'Read Mrs. Bartel's Word'." That's what I said today in my best announcer voice.
It was silly. They giggled. We had fun, and they practiced reading.
I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the chart paper that I created. It has 52 words on it. Reading it was part of our word work today. The categories were: l blends, short/long a (spelled a-e), words with hunks and chunks, and words spelled with 'ai.'
After reading the word, they had to use the word in a sentence. Then they could give me a high five. But I kept my hand higher than my head, so they had to jump.
Several times I thought the student was falling backward, but lucky for me, all my students are athletic and stayed upright.
Smiles. Silliness. Laughter. And learning.
Several great teachers that I know have said: the children are children, they like to play. Make learning a game and all will be great. (This is my paraphrase.)
But (isn't there always a but?), keeping that level of interest or gaming is tiring. I'm not old, but I'm not young either. By 1:30 I was mentally done.
As I was describing this part of my day to my husband tonight I kept talking faster and faster. That is my signal that I really enjoyed it. Which means that I will probably do it again.
If you have any great games that you have created on the fly (like I did today) I would love to know of them. I'm going to need more.
Because I want the fun Mrs. Bartel (kinda like Maria--The Sound of Music) to show up again. Soon.
Thanks.
Ronni had fun reading words tonight! She read all of them on the page, needing help from me for only 5!! Wow! She then flew through her new book! Wow! You have lit a fire!
ReplyDeleteI also created a game last week reviewing for a test. Students split into two teams and "pitched" questions from the review sheet. The "batter" could get help from "line coaches and batting coaches". Depending on the difficulty they could would "run" the bases. It was fun!
That sounds like a fun game! This morning we did a game I will call "Pass the snowball" which is like Hot Potato, only different. It's mostly different because I made it up on the fly and so it will probably different again next time. We needed to do something fun and educational for about 7 minutes. I wrote a sight word on a strip, wadded it up and they passed til the music stopped. When the music stopped they read their word. If they could read it, they kept the snowball. I made a new snowball, we passed again. When time was up, the student got a sticker for every snowball they had. It was fun. It was something different than our usual sight word work. :)
ReplyDeletep.s. I love any time I can bring in a strange voice... somehow it changes everything and ups the interest level!
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI just linked up as a fellow KS blogger! I live in McPherson!
:) Carmen
www.exploringthirdgrade.blogspot.com