Five Spelling Rules Posters {Freebie}

There are five spelling rules that help us know when to double, drop or change letters in words.  Check this out for a more in depth look at these rules.

I developed these posters (8.5" x 11") in hopes that they would help my students become more confident spellers. Hopefully they will help yours too!  Don't forget to check out my post about my free multi-sensory spelling activity cards. 

Grab your free copy of my {Five Spelling Rules Posters} today.

Have a blessed week and enjoy!

Multi-Sensory Spelling Activity Cards {Freebie}

We have 9 days left of this school year.  That's right; we're in the single digits, people! I'm looking forward to the summer, and I'm working on a training class that I'm doing for my district - Multi-sensory Spelling Instruction.  As part of this professional development, I'm offering these multi-sensory spelling activity cards along with these spelling routine cards.  The first cards (done in color as well as black and white) can be used as a reminder as you go through your short, daily spelling routine.  These can be laminated and laid on the table, posted on a white board, used as a bookmark, etc.

Spelling Routine card for students

The activity cards (below) can be used during your students' daily practice.  In researching and preparing for my training class, I came across this quote:

The act of tracing with fingers on a texture helps make a sensory imprint on the brain that increases memory and retention.

With that in mind, many of these activities intentionally provide an opportunity for students to practice their words by tracing.  They also focus on getting as many senses involved as possible and hopefully your students will find them fun.  This is a compilation of ideas targeted for students who struggle with spelling and need something different than the typical ways we ask kids to practice spelling words.

Multi-Sensory Spelling Activity Cards

Have a blessed week and enjoy!

Singular and Plural Nouns Foldable {FREEBIE}

Helping kids understand when singular base words stay the same and change when becoming plural is a part of the journey of 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades.  Giving them tools they can refer to can definitely assist them, and foldables glued in notebooks can do just that.

Here's another one that I use.  (See this post, this one, and this one for more ideas and some background on how to use them.)  For this one, I usually model a couple of singular base words in each category along with their accompanying modified plural words.  Then I ask my brilliant word nerds to offer suggestions and we add them.  Finally, I tell them to hunt for words in their reading that they can add to their foldable.  (If they run out of room on their notebook paper, they write on the back of the flaps.)

I've included a black and white version which you can print on white or colored paper as well as one that has some color on it.  Use this colored one however your little fancy pants heart desires.

Glue on the back under the words Singular, Plural and Nouns.  Cut flaps for all other words.

If you like the fonts I used, get them for FREE at Rowdy in Room 300.  Love them!

Have a blessed week and enjoy!

Onomatopoeia Lesson & Activity {Freebie}

Woo hoo!  It's time to practice understanding and using onomatopoeia with my little authors.  I've combined ideas that are swirling in my head as well as those found on the web into one lesson.

In my classroom, I use PowerPoint for nearly every direct teach lesson.  Due to terms of use on graphics that I've purchased or snagged for free, I cannot share a PowerPoint with you.  But I can convert a PPT into a PDF.  Although it does lose some features, the content is still there and if I design my PPTs knowing that I'm converting them to PDFs, then I can make them without animations and such.

Anyway, back to the fun figurative language device known as onomatopoeia...such a fun word to say.  Here's a sample of my {free Onomatopoeia Lesson}.  Go on...grab the complete lesson & activity with all 15 slides for free and follow me while you're at it.






If you grab this free lesson, I hope you find it engaging and helpful.  I'd also love some blog love by having you follow me.  Thanks!

Enjoy!

Word Endings Foldable with Rules {Freebie}

Last week I shared a foldable to be used with exploring adding -ing and -ed to base words especially for words where you have to double the last consonant.  Find that post {here}.  My little word hunters loved using their story of the week to find examples of base words that don't change when these word endings are added and examples of words that the final consonant must be doubled.

I was SUPER excited when my 2nd graders began to noticed that there were base words that had changed but not by doubling their last consonant.  Yahoo!!!  So here's a foldable that includes all of the rules.

We glue this foldable into our notebooks, and my kids use a story to search for words that fit the flaps.  They write base words under the left side flaps (on the notebook paper) and write the base words with the endings added on the right side flaps (on the notebook paper).  If they run out of room, they can write on the back side of each flap.  They actually wanted to run out of room so that they could write on the flaps.  They had a FANTASTIC time doing this Word Endings hunt!

Don't forget: If you like the fonts I used, get them for FREE at Rowdy in Room 300.  I used Rowdy Writing and Rowdy Funky.  Love them!

Enjoy!

Word Endings Foldable {Freebie}

My students are reviewing which words have to be changed when adding -ing and -ed.  I figured a foldable would be fun as well as flexible enough to meet my kids' needs.  I tweaked my free Prefix and Suffix Foldable.
Here it is before the flaps are folded back revealing what's underneath...

My students glue their foldables inside their interactive notebooks.  For this foldable, your students will only apply glue behind the "Word Endings," "-ing Happening Now," and "-ed Already Happened" sections.  They will cut all of the other sections to create foldable flaps.

As you talk about inflectional endings (letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning), you can have kids generate their own ideas for base words where nothing happens when an ending is added as well as words that have the final consonant doubled before adding the ending. (I've expanded this foldable to include more ending rules and you can find it {here}.  I tell my kiddos that most CVC words will need to have that final consonant doubled.  They will find that the vowel has a short vowel sound, and yet we always find exceptions...like words ending in /x/ like box.

So underneath each flap, students can generate words that fit each section.

If you like the fonts I used, get them for FREE at Rowdy in Room 300.  I used Rowdy Writing and Rowdy Funky.  Love them!

I hope this is something you can use.  I'd love it if you could follow me.  Thank you!

Enjoy!

Prefix & Suffix Foldable {Freebie}

I'm not a fan of worksheets as you know, so when it comes to understanding and using prefixes and suffixes, a foldable came to mind.  I searched the web to see what was out there.  I found something here that had a prefix foldable and a separate suffix foldable.  Love it!!  Since my objective included both prefixes and suffixes, I decided to play around with the foldable idea and here's what I came up with...

We just cut the three prefix flaps and two suffix flaps and folded them back.  Little drops of glue were applied to the back of the sections that say, "Prefix," "Word Parts," and "Suffix."  My second graders loved assembling their word parts foldables.

After we had everything in place, we talked about the meaning of each prefix and wrote it on the back of each flap.  Then I encouraged my kiddos to generate examples of words containing each prefix which were written on their lined paper.  (Please excuse any spelling errors...we continue to work on that skill.)  :)

One of my teammates suggested that I modify the foldable to replace the "Word Parts" section with "Base Word."  Brilliant!  So I've included both ways in the freebie.

Finally, I have included two pages that have blank sections next to "Prefix" and "Suffix" so that you can have your kids write in the prefixes and suffixes they are practicing.

Click on any of the images above or grab your {free copy here.}

Enjoy!

Teaching Context Clues is Baloney! {FREEBIE}

In searching for a new way to teach context clues, I ran across this blog post showing how to use the book Baloney (Henry P.)  In Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith's story, Henry is an alien schoolkid who needs to come up with one good reason for why he is late for szkola again. Otherwise, his teacher promises that he will have detention forever.

I decided this would be perfect for my 2nd graders.  I read the book to my little aliens, and we made a chart just like Mrs. Whitehurst.  Since my kiddos are a year older than hers, we were able to talk a little bit more about word parts, word roots, and derivatives as the clues to the words and their meanings.

After reading the book, I told my students that they were to come up with one more reason to explain why Henry was late for school.  They had to include a nonsense word in their excuse which could be figured out using the context clues given in their explanation.  It was a lofty goal, and I wasn't sure if they could do it.  With a few examples and a little tweaking, they got the hang of it and they LOVED it!

I was late for school because I couldn't find the page that came off my zeading log.

 

I was late for school today because my mom's zack broke down on the way to school.

 

Henry P. Baloney was late to school because he forgot to put grape junes on his bread.  The bread would be dry without it.

I wish you could see all of the Henry P.'s they created; they were ADORABLE!  I know what you really want...the files!

Baloney (Henry P.) Alien Body

Grab the writing paper {here}.

Enjoy!