Vocabulary Victims -- A Vocabulary Review Game

I'm excited to link up with my friend, Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching, for her Saturday linky party, Spark Student Motivation.

Are you looking for a fun, easy way to help your students practice their vocabulary words?  Vocabulary Victims is the answer! (I know the name 'Vocabulary Victims' sounds like a bad thing....I was going for alliteration here! :)  It is not as painful as it sounds.)

Here's how it works...

1.  Choose a student to become the 'victim.'  In my class, I draw a number stick so it is completely random.  This way, everyone has an equal chance of participating, not just the kids who raise their hands.

2.  The student comes to the front of the room and sits in a chair with their back to the board.

3.  Write a vocabulary word on the board.  

 4.  Students in the audience (the rest of the class) raise their hands to offer definitions or clues to the meaning of the word.  They cannot say the word (obviously, but they do need this reminder), but they can give a definition, an example, a synonym, an antonym, etc.

5.  The 'victim' calls on two students to offer clues. (I like for two students to offer clues, but you could do more or less depending on your students or the quality of clues being offered.)

6.  After the two clues, the 'victim' tries to guess the word that was written on the board.  A quick turn around by the 'victim' confirms their guess as right or wrong.

7.  Repeat as needed.

I use this game to review for science and social studies tests, math vocabulary, Flocabulary words. etc.  It is also a fun way to review synonyms and antonyms because you can require the students who are giving the clues to only offer these as hints.

My students LOVE this game and it is so simple to play!  No prep, no stress!

For a little teacher motivation today, I am headed to the Midwest Blogger Meet Up in Palatine, IL.  I'm looking forward to meeting many of the awesome teacher bloggers from the midwest area!

Have a great day!

A Peek at My Week {9-21-14}

Welcome to A Peek at My Week!  Thanks for visiting.  I hope you will link up and share your plans for this upcoming week.

Here we go with week 4....

In writing, we have been using this resource that I found online from Portland Public Schools.  (Have you seen it??? Simply amazing!)  We have been exploring ways writers get their ideas, the habits of good writers, and doing lots of quick writes. This week, students will choose one of their quick writes and turn it into a published piece of writing for their Treasure Chest.  (This is what we call their portfolio.)  I am so thrilled with my students enthusiasm for writing!

We also have our next round of MAP testing, this time for math.  Last week was reading and let me just tell you....I have work to do.  There was a 50 point range in my scores (about five grade levels).  Can you say.... 'differentiation?'

We have also been chugging along improving our vocabulary by learning five new Greek or Latin word parts each week using my product, Word Parts We Know. The students were excited to see some of these word parts show up on their MAP test....I am excited to see that they are recognizing new words and figuring out their meanings in their independent reading.

Finally, this week we will also write our first letters to our pen pals in Ohio in Mary from Fit to Be Fourth's class.  On Friday, we spied on their school using Google Earth.  :)  We are excited to begin this new relationship with other fourth graders!

Oh...and one more thing.  Rosie the Puggle turns 5 on Thursday!  :)

An InLinkz Link-up

I hope you have an amazing week!

A Peek at My Week {September 8, 2013}

Hey everybody!  Welcome to another addition of A Peek at My Week!  I'm glad you are here!!  :)

I am excited to say that I had an AWESOME first week of school!  I forgot how absolutely exhausting it is to be back.  (Hence, no blog posts last week...)  I have a really wonderful class this year.  They are very sweet and ready to learn...how lucky am I???

Here's what I have on the plan for this week...

This week we are off and running with our learning adventure!  We will begin working on my 12 week Word Parts We Know program to learn 60 prefix, suffix and root words. 

I have used this program for three years now and have seen AMAZING results!  The kids are able to decode unknown words and their fluency and comprehension have soared as a result. 

 

If you'd like to check out this program for yourself, you can find it in my TpT Store.  I'm even putting it on SALE through Wednesday!!

Last week, my teammate Mickey and I decided that we would switch classes for writing and math.  That means that I am now teaching two sections of writing and she is teaching two sections of math.  How awesome is it that you can teach to your strengths???  Don't get me wrong....I enjoy teaching math, but I LOVE teaching writing.  I'm very excited for this opportunity!

Clip Art:  Creative Clips by Krista Walden 

So this week in Writing Workshop we will be setting up our Writer's Notebooks and learning the procedures and expectations. 

I found this cute video to share with my 4th graders.  You shouldn't have to remind them that sentences begin with a capital and end with punctuation, but you know how that goes...

 

 This week is also the week when Mom's Taxi Service will report back to duty! 

Source:  http://mommystwocents.com/2012/09/taxi-service/

My son starts with Boy Scout meetings and my daughter is getting involved with the Drama Club at school (she's a natural born actress, especially in drama, I tell 'ya!).  The hubby just informed me that he is working several evenings so it looks like it's up to me to get my kiddos where they need to go.  Hopefully, I'll find some time to write some posts and check in with some of you.  :)

I hope you have a wonderful week!  Grab the Peek at My Week logo and link up.

Five for Friday and a SALE! {June 21, 2013}

Happy Friday!  I read on another blog that today is the first day of summer...I guess I should look at the calendar more often!  (Oh, the joys of being away from school and not needing a calendar!)

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!  I love this linky!  After the summer has flown by, I will have a great way to go back and look at what I did.  Love it!



I have spent a lot of time reading this week.  I am currently reading The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon.  I decided to pick up this book after reading about PMA Wednesdays from Kristin at Teach n Tex.  If you are looking for the perfect pick-me-up-and-energize-me book, this is it! I can't put it down and I've already recommended it to three other people.  

On Tuesday, I had my last pre-institute meeting for the National Writing Project at UW-Milwaukee this summer.  My three week institute begins July 8th and I can't wait!  I am working on narrowing down my inquiry topic.  I'm thinking something along the lines of how to help students REVISE their writing.  (I don't know about you, but for many of my students the word 'revision' is not in their vocabulary.)  What do you think?  Is there some area of writing you would like to know more about? I'm listening!

Last Sunday, I found this little guy on the floor as I was walking into my bedroom.

Yes, that is a SNAPPING TURTLE! 

 In my bedroom!

Granted, it's just a baby....but it's not cute and cuddly like baby puppies are. 

 This one will grown up to bite my arm off! 

Glad I found him before I got out of bed at night to visit the bathroom and stepped on him.

I'm sure he was brought into the house as a guest of one of these two little trouble makers....




Trust me, they are not as innocent as they look!

Last week, I wrote about my newly redecorated office.  Thanks to everyone who left comments from my "Made It Monday" post!  Your thoughts were really sweet and warmed my heart!

In case you missed the pics, here's a few:

Which leads me to my last highlight of the week...

This bright and cheery office came in handy this week because I have been spending A LOT of time in here finishing up my first products for my

NEW TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS store!!!

Last summer, I created a vocabulary program to use at my school district called

Word Parts We Know.

I have had tremendous success with building my students vocabulary, reading comprehension, and fluency with this product.

I have two levels and each level has 12 weeks of prefix and suffix work.

I will write more about it later, but if you want to check out my product (and new store!),

 please visit my TpT site here.

You can download a preview that has one whole week's worth of materials to check it out for yourself.

In honor of my new store and new product, I'm putting it on SALE until Monday!

(Who doesn't LOVE a sale???)

I would be most honored if you would check it out and let me know what you think! 

Thanks so much for your time!

Tonight I have to go to the Boy Scout camp to pick my Ryan up.  He's been there since last Saturday for National Youth Leadership Training with NO CELL PHONE. 

I don't know who had it worse...him or me!  I sure have missed my guy!  Can't wait to see him!



I hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

Vocabulary FUN!

I'd have to say that one of my greatest "finds" this year to motivate my kids to improve their vocabulary has been the Flocabulary program.  Have you heard of it?  You can check it out here for yourself.

For about $5 a month, I have access to the Flocabulary gallery of short videos for all subject areas, although I am mostly sticking to the Word Up program for vocabulary right now. 

Each week, my students learn ten new grade-specific vocabulary words that have a very catchy rap song and animated video that goes along with them.  Each week's unit also includes activities and assessments which makes my life SO much easier.  (And I think we are all in favor of working smarter, not harder, right???)

I have added one component to their program.  On Thursdays, I assign each student one of the week's words to draw a picture to illustrate the word for our word wall. 

 

 

My students absolutely LOVE watching the rap song video every day on our SMART board!  By the end of the week, they are able to rap along, which can be quite hilarious!  I love that it is an all-in-one program that truly engages my students and motivates them to learn new words.  It is so cool when they recognize one of the Flocabulary words in a book we are reading and they automatically know what it means.

Do you have any other great vocabulary finds you'd like to share?  You can sign up for a 30 day free trial of Flocabulary if you'd like to give it a whirl yourself.  Let me know how it goes!  I'd love to hear from you!