January Vocabulary and Spelling Choice Menu (Freebie)

Remember me?  I used to blog.

Well, I decided to enjoy my winter break.  I'm not going to apologize for that.  It was awesome.  I slept a lot and watched way too much Netflix.

I am looking forward to getting back into a regular blogging schedule though.  Today, I have a freebie for you.  My middle school students are doing SAT vocabulary words this year.  Back in October I made a vocabulary menu for them with writing choices themed for the month for them to choose from to do a writing assignment with their vocabulary words.  I decided to make another one this month and plan to keep making them each month. It is a fun way to give your students choice and challenge to be a bit creative.

You can get a copy HERE.  I made a version for vocabulary and a version for spelling. How do you give you students choice in practicing their spelling and vocabulary words?

October Spelling and Vocabulary Menu - Freebie

When I loved up to 7th and 8th grade this year, I decided we would work through some SAT vocabulary words for our vocabulary this year.  I found a book with SAT vocabulary words and divided the words into 12 lists.  They have around 35-40 words per list.  I am giving them about 3 weeks to work on each list.

I am most interested in their ability to understand the worlds in context and apply the words. For this month, I decided I wanted to give them some creative options for using their words in writing assignments.  (There are less opportunities for thematic, seasonal assignments in middle school).  I created a vocabulary menu to be made with any vocabulary or spelling list.  I love choice menus! They turn in their assignments today, so I am excited to see what they came up with.  Click HERE to get a copy.

What do you use to give your students choice in applying their spelling or vocabulary words?

Spelling and other ideas

So, I totally write posts in my head and by the time I sit down to actually finish the post, it eludes me. Then, my dog starts barking like crazy and my brain becomes more addled.

Lack of sleep is not helping.  I should be asleep, but blogging is where I sit.  We worked on our 9/11 activities today.  We started our Spelling list today.  We did a pretest and some games on Spelling City. I am creating my own Spelling lists this year.  I am doing about 10 words of a Spelling rule, five words of a root word, and five words of a prefix/suffix.  I figured this was an easy way to squeeze in some vocabulary study with spelling. As opposed to a typical Spelling test, we are going to apply our Spelling words in writing assignments throughout the week. I have a small class, so I would also like to create a running list for each student of words they misspell in their writing and have them either have a personal spelling list or use these words to make a personal dictionary/word wall. I am working on putting together a Spelling menu of activities for my students that I will share with you tomorrow.  I got some great inspiration again from Kristin at iTeach1:1.

I just purchased Jen Runde's comprehension question fans and math journal activities.   I decided I needed the fans when I read her post on using Daily 5 and her version of Cafe.  I would like to incorporate more lessons from CAFE, but I need time to sit down and skim through it again.  I am looking forward to incoporating Runde's activities.  I think I may use Kidblog and post questions from the question fans for students to respond to with blog entries or even write some questions down in a Reading journal and then respond to them. I may have separate posts for different groups or my different grade levels since I have a grade 4/5 class.  They can read the posts and questions that pertain to them.

I know I need to share some pictures or something with you, but my battery is getting low...on the PC...and me, too.

Night night.  Don't forget the Technology tips linky and giveaway.