This blog post contains an affiliate link for your convenience. I have many students on my caseload this year working on vocabulary. I recently purchased Linguisystems' Word Feast Middle School (I plan to do a blog post on why I love it, so if you're curious stay tuned!), and I needed a way to organize all those new vocabulary words my students are learning! I couldn't find exactly what I wanted, so I decided to create my own. My graphic organizer includes space for the vocabulary word, definition, part of speech, synonyms, antonyms, and a space to write a sentence using that vocabulary word. Check it out below, and head over to my Teachers pay Teachers store to get this FREEBIE for yourself!
100 Common Antonyms in English with Example Sentences: Learn 100 opposite words to increase your vocabulary and speaking skills.
Are you interested in getting your upper elementary students to spell more words correctly, understand the meaning behind more words and read more words independently? If so....then code based instruction must continue in the classroom. What is code based instruction?? This is when students are taught phonics skills in an explicit and specific sequence. Research tells us, code based instruction is the most effective way to teach students to read and spell. If a student is taught using this approach they will have the skills needed to apply learned patterns when spelling or encountering the unknown word in text. According to international literacy expert and co-author of LETRS, Dr. Carol Tolman, orthographic learning should continue beyond phonics concepts into morphology and etymology. Morphology is the study of morphemes. Morphemes are units of meaning in language (i.e. prefixes, suffixes and root words). Etymology is study of the historical development of words (i.e. identifying if the morpheme is of Greek, Latin or Anglo Saxon origin). Typically instruction on morphemes and etymology would happen at the end of third grade progressing into middle school and beyond, although younger students can easily learn basic morphemes. Dr. Tolman uses the hourglass figure below to clearly illustrate the multiple layers of direct instruction teachers should provide, progressing from phonological skills all the way into etymology. The video is about 20 minutes in length, but well worth the watch if you want to learn more about all of the layers. There is a sort of natural progression of instruction with morphemes. You will notice the progression goes from easier to understand to more difficult concepts that require background knowledge. One might first start with Anglo Saxon and Latin compounds which are free morphemes. A free morpheme is a morpheme that can stand alone and have meaning (i.e. dog and house alone mean one thing, but combined make doghouse, which means something else). Compounds are a great introduction to illustrate word chunks are meaningful. Next, one might progress to inflectional morphemes. Inflectional morphemes change what a word does, but doesn't change its meaning (i.e. ing, ed, etc.). Then, one might progress to irregular past tense plurals (i.e. catches, catch and caught). After that, one might teach common prefixes (un, re, pre, etc.) and then move to less common prefixes (macro, mono, fore, etc.) Next, one might instruct on derivational suffixes, which are suffixes that make a word change a grammar class. For example this means a word can go from being a noun (ex: pore) to being an adjective (ex: porous) by adding a derivational suffix (in this cause -ous). Finally one might teach Greek and Latin roots. Greek roots are not as common as Latin roots and are more scientific and technical. After a prefix, suffix or root word is explicitly taught there needs to be multiple exposures and chances to engage with the learned morpheme. Some great ways to further explore taught morphemes are by creating word webs, thinking of a visual or action that represents the morpheme, word hunts, graphic organizers, cloze activities or playing games. Ready to better instruct on morphology? Prefix, suffix and root word graphic organizers are a great way to deepen understanding of morphemes! Send me morphology graphic organizers!! We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered By ConvertKit > Bottom line--the more students understand about the structure of words, the better they will be at reading them independently, understanding their meaning and how to correctly spell.
Having writing as a second career and a full-time job is not exactly the easiest thing to do. Often, time never seems to be enough and as soon as
This is a list of names that mean forest or other related words.
LEARN TO WRITE YOUR NAME It is so exciting when children become curious about how to write their name. I believe teaching them to write their name should be the first word they learn how to spell . It is personal, concrete and helps them realize that putting letters together in writing has me
Learn how to teach your students tone and mood in writing, and get access to exercises to help them practice – read on to find out more!)
This week I tried something new with the vocabulary in the story. I got the idea at a First Grade Conference in December. The student writes the vocabulary word in the middle of the sheet and then there are four things to do with the word. We completed two of the boxes together as a class and they finished the last two boxes independently. The kiddos sure had a great grasp of the vocabulary after this. When we read the story they had fantastic comprehension.
Teaching prefixes and suffixes in upper elementary is an important language skill. Use these tips and resources to help your students!
Your students are bright, but they don't always sound like it. Help improve student vocabulary with these 600 ways to say common things.
Persuasive writing is a form of nonfiction writing that encourages creative word choice, the development of logical arguments, and a convincing summary. Elementary children can be guided through a series of simple steps in an effort to develop their persuasive writing skills. Practice is the key to successful paragraph
Writing your wedding vows requires careful thought and reflection. If you’re looking for some wording inspiration, check out these great examples!
I have been meaning to update my Read and Sequence pack for a while now. This pack is a combination of all of my Read and Sequence...
Language is like a big, colorful puzzle, and words are the pieces that fit together to create beautiful pictures, or in this case, sentences. Prefixes and suffixes are special pieces of this puzzle. A prefix is a little group of letters we add at the beginning of a word to change its meaning, like adding […]
Let's dive into some new options to teach vocabulary, for those who have the time and energy to pursue them. In this post and podcast, I'm sharing ten ideas for making the study of vocabulary something students might even look forward to.
This practice has students match common idioms with their real-life meaning. The answer key is included.
Do you need parts of speech posters for your classroom? This post has several classroom décor resources to help teachers prepare an engaging learning environment.
Teaching how to solve word problems is a challenge. These strategies show you the most efficient way to teach how to solve word problems.
UPDATE 02/11/2022: We now offer the movie version with recreation of 10 pages seen in the movie with the rest of it being blank. As seen in Trisha Paytas' ASMR Regina George video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qaWIXZT4S0 Here's where you can write all the hot gossip and the latest 411! Just make sure no one sees it, scans it, and pass it around at school. Great to use as a guestbook, journal, or whatever other use. 360 pages.
Positive adjectives (aka 'describing words') help us to describe someone's characteristics in a more positive light. To give you some ideas
How to set up and organize a writing center in your pre-k, preschool, or kindergarten classroom. See pictures of my writing center and material suggestions.
(teacherspayteachers.com) If your students are like mine, they struggle with powers of 10. With this fast-paced game, students have fun practicing and mastering this tricky concept. Simply form your students into two teams and project this exciting game! The student who says the correct answer first gets the point.
This resource includes everything you need to teach students how to use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots to determine the meaning of a word. Everything you need is here! These materials will allow you to explicitly teach, reinforce, and assess this important language concept. What’s Included: •PowerPoint Lesson (Monday) •Practice Printable (Tuesday) •30 Task Cards (Wednesday) •Sketch Notes (Thursday) •Assessment (Friday) •BONUS: Interactive Notebook Activity Download the preview for a detailed overview of the resource. NOTE: This resource was written based on fourth-grade content standards. However, none of the student materials are labeled with a grade level. This will allow teachers to use this resource across grade levels.
Ok, so the year is off to a good start. Your bulletin boards look great, all your cubbies are labeled, your parent letters have all been sent. Now you have to teach them to write….. Today kindergarten is so much more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. We often have kids coming to us that need so much more than the basics. With each year that goes by I find myself feeling more and more like a social worker, a mother, a counselor and that’s just to the parents!!!! If we want our student to be successful in school we need to make sure they leave us being able to read and write. Let’s look at writing. How on earth do you get kids to write when they barely write their name? This is the challenge of kindergarten. So let’s roll up our sleeves and figure it out. Kindergarten writing begins with drawing pictures and dictating. If we begin to think about writing as thoughts on paper we begin to see drawings differently. Let the kids draw! Let them draw about themselves. Draw about their family, their favorite foods, what they did on the playground. Let them be free, and you do the writing. Have them dictate what is going on in the picture and you write it down. Every kid I know watches you write their words with intensity. For many of our kids it will be the first time they have “seen” their thoughts in print. It’s a powerful moment for them, and it sets the tone. It tells the kids “You have a voice, and that voice can be written down and read.” Let them see themselves as authors. Each journey begins with a single step. True for us and true for them. It’s so important for them to see themselves differently. Kindergarten is a sacred time, when kids start to see themselves as more competent, more able. They will learn to read and write this year and that transition is so empowering. We have “book talk” in my class. It’s a time the kids are able to read their “book” to the whole class. I have an authors’ chair they sit in when they read to the class. For some it may be just telling about their drawing, “This is me and my mom” for others it can be way more elaborate. “The owl uses his talons to catch the mouse”. The point is to have them change their mindset to believe they are writers and their writing is important. Start the first week. Make it a habit. Writing, like reading and tying your shoes, takes practice. They need to do it everyday. Make sure you have a writing center they can access daily. Add all kinds of fun markers, pens, twisty crayons (I don’t know what it is about twisty crayons but my kids love them) to entice even the most hesitant student. Add paper that is typically not used, envelopes, note pads, long thin register tape, anything that looks interesting. There are 3 types of writing that kindergarteners need to accomplish opinion, informative and narrative. Opinion is so easy and the kids are very familiar with this type. I have never met a child who didn’t have an opinion about a topic. “My favorite animal is”, “My favorite food is” the list goes on and on. Informative writing is giving more detail. Informative writing tells something about a topic. Using non-fiction books and having the kids respond to the text is a skill they will need throughout their years in school. If your state has adopted Common Core you will hear text dependent writing over and over. An apple has seeds. The pumpkin is orange. Finally there is narrative. This type of writing tells a story. The kids describe an event and put some order into a story. We go to gym and then we have lunch. I eat dinner then I have a bath. The princess went into the woods and a zombie ate her. (actual story by Jayden, my kids were seriously into zombies last year) Giving them the “write” tools (get it?) the “write” tools. Seriously our job is to give the kids the tools and strategies they need to be successful. Unit word walls, writing prompts, sentence starters, and cooperative writing these are all the strategies to help them on their way. We’ll be looking at each of these in detail in the coming weeks… stay tuned. Remember writing in kindergarten is really just storytelling, and kindergarteners love to tell stories, so we are half way there. Don’t forget that being a kindergarten teacher is powerful work. We begin to shape how kids see themselves. Take this super power seriously. Grab these writing prompts. Check out my newest post in this series, How to make writing more than just narrative.
120 commonly used Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes
The difference between FEW and LITTLE in English with a chart to explain the meaning including example sentences.
One of the most time-consuming things teachers deal with is student absences! I no longer worry about this because my students completely take care of it!
