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I've done a little bit of revamping in my life these days.  My blog has moved to a new server.  Same web address ilovecommoncore.com.  Please stop by and check out my new look!!!  

New Spelling Activities

This week I wanted to work on expanding my activities that I put in rotation for spelling practice.  I had a few in mind that I wanted to try out after exploring different blogs and a few that I thought up last minute.  

The first thing I wanted to try was getting or making some play dough for my kiddos to use to form letters and spell out the spelling words.  I never quite got around to making my own play dough last weekend so I popped into Target to pick some up.  As I was cruising the aisles I spotted a tub of Crayola Morphix on sale for under a buck.  I've actually never used this before but I figured for the price I'd be insane not to try it, right?!  We've been using it for a couple of days and it seems to hold up just fine.  The packaging does state that it will dry out if you leave it uncovered, so make sure to have students seal it up tight! It has a very interesting texture and consistency.  It's almost a mix of sand and play dough, with a little bit of stretch to it.  It packs up firm and holds shape, but most importantly, it doesn't leave a residue on desks or hands!  

My second activity that I have thrown in the rotation is using moldable wax strips to form letters and spell out words.  I found a killer deal on Amazon, a 500  pack for just over $12.00!!!  These are fun because they have a little bit of stick and texture to them which gives them some sensory input but, again, no residue is left behind which makes for quick transitions after spelling practice.

This last idea is something that I whipped up last minute.  I wanted to incorporate some more visual/motor activities with my spelling practice.  I have a stack of pegboards and some rubber bands that I use for specific visual/motor activities but they haven't quite been getting as much use as I would like them to.  The students have really loved doing this one and I think it really helps them to slow down and connect the individual letters in a word together.  

To start I used a label maker to print out each letter of the alphabet.  I then cut them out and placed one below each peg.  I was short a peg so I had to combine y and z, but I don't think that will impact them since there are not many words that have y and z next to each other.

I store my rubber bands on a metal book ring which helps minimize tangles.

Students will take rubber bands and go from letter to letter until they have spelled the given word.  They then remove the bands and start over with the next word.  The example below is the spelling of the word cat.

  

So far I am beyond pleased with how well my students are responding to the activities.  When we were practicing spelling the same way every day I found that they were easily distracted, chatty, and not having as much success as I knew they were capable of on their weekly spelling tests.  Since changing up our spelling practice routine they have generally worked for the whole 15 minute time period with no reminders to stay on task.  But the absolute best part is when they verbalize how much fun they are having while they are working or say things like, "you're so nice for giving us all these fun things to do".  Moments like that make me love my job even more!!!

   

March Madness

A good day for me is when I only feel about three steps behind where I'd like to be.  It is the nature of special education and I love the constant activity.  I wouldn't change it for the world.  Every day is different and I always have new things jumping on my to do list.  In my opinion, this is truly the best time to be a teacher because of the unlimited resources we have available to us at our fingertips.  

I have recently taken on three different math intervention groups (first, second, and third grade).  What this means is that I need to very quickly whip up programs materials that my instructional aides and I can follow.  Lucky for me, Teachers Pay Teachers has a million wonderful games and units to choose from.  I did some browsing and found some winners that have gone over well with my groups and I thought I would pass them along.  

To start, Second Story Window, has these spectacular homework add-on packs.  These are common core aligned, which is always a plus for me.  I ended up printing these out and making them into packets for my aide to work on in a small group.  There is just enough content in each page to cover my 30 minutes with them and there are a lot of learning opportunities embedded in the content.  

For my third grade group, I went over to In The Math Lab and I found this seasonal packet of math activities for the month of March.  They have several different packets for each month of the year so take your pick!  These are meant to be daily activities, but with my group meeting only once a week I can stretch them out a little longer.  

With conferences, report cards, progress reports, and evaluations looming it feels great to have these tasks checked off my to-do list!