Vocabulary Sets

I hope everyone's had a great weekend!  We got the chance to go see some dog sled races in the Alps and it was so amazing.  Hundreds of dogs, amazing views, and not a cloud to be seen.  :)

 

 

  How pretty is this guy... and his two different colored eyes?

I've posted 2 new vocabulary sets to TPT in case you're interested (just $2 each).  My kids have been learning about community places recently, so this has been a big help. Click on the picture to go to the listing.

 

The cards are the perfect for word walls, sorting activities, centers, bulletin boards, etc.  I've even included two adaptable templates so you can make your own... in case there's a word that's not included.  Check them out on TPT.  

Here's a free sample of each:

16 pet vocabulary words from the Animal Theme 

21 directional vocabulary words from the Community Theme

Click the Images to Download

     

Have a great Monday!

Ashley

Making Words

Making words is one of my favorite activities to do in the classroom.  It's perfect for a variety of levels and you can use it with literally anything.  If you don't know what it is then you might want to check out one of these books below... awesome buy.  I promise you'll use it.  I have the second grade one.


I use this activity every other week in my EFL classes because it gets them thinking about what words they already know in English.  Here's how we used it last week:

1.  I adapted this sheet below to say 'happy valentines day' on the bottom.  You can't see my lines very well because I copied it too lightly... :(

  

Tip:  Draw a straight line in the bottom of your boxes if you have kiddos who will mix up P's with D's and U's with N's.  They'll know which way the letters are supposed to face.  

2.  I made enough copies for my kiddos.

3.  When I introduced it, I modeled how to do the activity... cut apart the letters, made blends we've learned, added vowels, etc. until I had made a few short words.  I also wrote my words down.

4.  When I handed it out they got right to work and it took them about 25 minutes to get 20 words.

5.  I made a grid on the whiteboard and invited each student to come up and write 3 words they made... not duplicating words that were already written.  They're o.b.s.e.s.s.e.d. with writing on the board.  I mean obsessed.  So, the ending was their favorite.

There are tons of ways to adapt this activity.  It can be done as whole group, small group, partner work, centers (after they've done it once before), etc.  You can make paper letter tiles each time or use some you already have.  I used little plastic letter tiles when I had this as a cernter.  You can choose any word (6 or more letters works best) and it's easy to make it relate to your current unit of study.  Studying animals?  Use the word animal!  You can even use a phrase... "we love animals."  More words that way!

I even use it with my high school EFL students.  It's great for any English language learner... gets them thinking about all the English words they already know.  I put a minimum letter count so they avoid writing down a ton of short easy words.

Sites to generate lists of words that can be made from a specific word:

ScrabbleFinder.com (up to 12 letters)

WordSolver.net (up to 15 letters)

Wordplays (up to 16 letters)

Wordles (up to 30 letters)

I posted all of the adaptable sheets I use on TPT fo $2.  You'll get a zip file with...

14 recording sheets (similar to the one above, but different styles for various needs

5 different word/letter strips to adapt before copying

1 workmat for the kids (I laminated a few to use when I do this as a center)

Here's a FREE download so you can check one of the sheets out.  This one has adaptable boxes at the bottom.  Just write your letters, copy for students, and they will just cut the strip off the bottom.  :)

Happy weekend everyone!

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Adaptable Labels... Giveaway!

I've posted a few sets of adaptable labels over the past few days.  I use these guys for everything!

Labeling...

• supplies
• student cubbies
• notebooks
• word wall words
• card games
• little mini vocabulary lists for students
• little notes 
• center signs
• steps in a series of directions
• library tub labels
• ... and more.

Here's an example of what you can do with them.  (This is just one of the styles)

You open the document, customize the labels, and print.  There's none of that 'shifting box' mess that I hate. The boxes stay the same size and you can edit whatever is inside of them.  Pretty easy and quick.  You can 'Save As' each set you make to use again if you need to.    

Here are the ones I've posted so far.  Click the picture to get them on TPT for $1.50 each.

Style A: 6 per page, 2x4.5 inches

Style A: 6 per page, 3.1x3.3 inches

Style A: 12 per page, 2.3x2.3 inches

Style B: 6 per page, 2x4.5 inches 

 

Style B: 6 per page, 3x3 inches 

Style B: 12 per page, 2x2 inches 

Style C: 6 per page, 2x4.5 inches 

Style C: 6 per page, 3x3 inches 

Style C: 12 per page, 2x2 inches

Style C: 3 per page, 2x9.5 inches

Style C: 4 per page, 3.5x4.5 inches

Current Followers are included in this already.

Click 'Follow' before 5pm EST.  

February 3, 2012

Did you like how I did that?  Used my own labels?  So tricky.

Ok.  That is all.

Also, if your interested in winning a Build-A-Board-Game set... click here.  That ends tomorrow too.

Ok.  This is the end.  Seriously.  Happy Thursday!

Update:  Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner... Melissa!!!  Woohoo!  

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

I Have, Who Has... a cold.

Well, I'm officially sick.  I've been in denial.  We went to Verbier this weekend to ski and I finally accepted it on the way home when I found that I was 'mouth breathing' and wiping snot from my upper lip every thirty seconds.  Turns out it wasn't the skiing or altitude.  :(

That's me in the hot 'lemon' pants.

I'm excited that I've reached the 6 follower mark!  Woohoo!  I might throw myself a wine party when I hit double digits.  I'm really enjoying having this blog.  It's fun and I'm making some new connections in the process.

Onto business...

You know the ' I have, who has' game?  Hopefully.  I love it and it's a great activity for vocabulary, reviews, math... basically anything.  I have found that this game even works well with my EFL kids.  It tackles the listening, speaking, and reading components I work into each lesson.  

I've had this template for a few years and just adapt it to whatever I've need.  I went ahead and made it TPT/follower friendly.  I also took pictures of my own sets, included directions, ideas, sample cards, and 32 adaptable cards. This template is so easy to use.  You click on the boxes, type text, enter pictures, and print.  The boxes don't shift and the pictures will re-size themselves to fit... no giant clipart overtaking the document when you insert it.  

I'm going to post some free PDF sets (various content) on here in the next couple of days, so be on the look out.  In the meantime, here is the set you can customize yourself.  I've posted to TPT.  It's $2.00 and you can 'Save As' to keep each set you create.  Make as many as you want!      

Hopefully you find it useful!  Also, don't forget to enter the 'giveaway' for the 'Build-A-Board-Game' in my last post.  The deadline is this Friday (2.3.12).   

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Build-A-Board-Game... & Giveaway!

I just posted one of my favorite things to TPT... after spending hours making it publishable.  Is that a word?  Publishable?  Anyway, it's something that I use and I thought I'd share!

Drum roll.........................   It's called Build-A-Board-Game.  You probably already guessed that.  You don't actually build anything, so don't worry.  Well, there is some cutting, gluing, and laminating involved.  No hammers or chainsaws though.

Basically, it's a board game that you can adapt to whatever you're doing in class.  It's pretty simple (similar to Candy Land, but they have to use their brains a little more) and I. LOVE.  IT.  My EFL kiddos love it too.  I can't show you their cute little faces (for risk of getting canned), but they got to play it in class on Wednesday and I snapped a shot:

I used it as a center for reviewing our first six chapters.  70 questions over any and everything: food vocabulary, sports, using 'this, that, these,those', verb tenses, family vocabulary, etc.  Here's what my questions looked like for this past week: (this is 1 out of 70)

Here's what the set looks like:

I've zipped everything together in a file.  You'll receive four documents:

• Introduction & Instructions: I show you pictures and give details on how to make your board(s), adapt the cards, etc.
• Game Board: the game board is approximately 11 x 16 inches.  It's two letter size sheets merged together after printing.  Make sure you laminate!
• Setup & Rules, Special Cards, & 'Number of Players' Cards
• 70 Adaptable cards (10 for each color), 10 Sample Questions, an Adaptable Answer Key, and an Adaptable Content Focus Sign and List

Want to see it?!  Watch...

Hopefully you can find it useful!  It's available in my TPT shop if you'd like to purchase.  It's only $5 and you can use it to make as many game sets as you like.  I will be posting different version soon too!  (different colors, themes, layouts, etc.)  If you would like me to make you a custom one, then please let me know.  I can change the way the board looks, colors, etc.  Just send me a message on here.

So far, there are 3 versions... click on the colors you like to check them out in my TPT store.

GIVEAWAY ALERT!  

I'll be giving one of these away (your choice of color) on Friday, February 3rd, at 4:00 pm Eastern Time (10:00 pm Swiss time... my time).  All you have to do is...

1.  'follow' this blog (click the blue button to the left)

2.  let me know you want it by leaving a comment below

I'm hoping to get my follower count up to 10... hahahaha.  

Bon Weekend! (French for 'have a good weekend!)

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

TPT Stuff

I've been on a TPT rampage the past 24 hours.  I keep finding goodies on my computer that are ready to post. :)  Here are some recent ones....

My EFL kiddos had a super hard time learning the concept of  "this is, that is, these are, those are."  So, I made this fun little packet of printables to use.  I laminated everything so they can't be destroyed easily... I have one kid who has a habit of folding everything in half. Click to go to the store!

Next up: Pick-A-Dot SmartBoard game.  My kids were O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D. with this thing.  Choose a student, they pick a dot, and then read the sight word.  I did this a lot with teams and it even made a great center... once I could trust them with the SmartBoard.  You can adapt it to anything... kind of like the Jeopardy setup, just dots.  Click to download!

This next little activity was always so cute.  I used them each time I introduced a new letter, but they can be used for other things too.  Very simple.  It says:  "They used to be a's, but now_______________." (fill in the blank) and they'd have to create a new picture from whatever letters were in the middle. My kiddos came up with some hilarious stuff.  Click to download!

Drum roll........ The Mystery Bag packet.  Ooooooo.  Aaaahhhhh.  I always did a little mystery bag in my classrooms and just recently broke it out again with my EFL kids.  They love it just as much and it's a great inferencing activity and vocabulary builder.  There are lots of things included: posters, clue cards, examples of questions, a journal page, different levels of worksheets to go along with your own mystery bag, guessing slips, and a lot more.  Click to check it out!

Lastly, Assessment Grids.  I recently did a post on them, but I decided to add a little more variety (2 more grids, plus versions with numbers).  I can't tell you how many times I used these bad boys.  I. loved. them.  They came in so handy when I wanted to assess my kids... for anything.  You can seriously use them for LOTS of stuff.  Easy peezy... lemon squeezy.  Click to download!

So, that's it for now.  I've got a couple more on deck for this weekend.  :)  

Bon weekend! (have a good weekend in French... my husbands favorite phrase over here).  

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Printable Postcards & TPT

So... I opened my own little TPT store.  I've been wanting to for a while and finally did it.  Super easy!  Now I can start posting all sorts of goodies I have saved on my hard drive.  :)

Here's the first product:

Click to download for FREE!

They're cute little reproducible postcards.  I used these a lot in my writing center.  The kids love writing postcards to one another or their parents.  There is a place for a stamp (or sticker) on each and they come in colors or bw.  I've included a full-size 8.5x11 one for use during group lessons, shared writing, etc.  Enjoy! 

{ashley}lllllllllllllll