Fun in the Box #15...

I was looking for a better way to have the kids practice their spelling words. I adapted an idea Jackson's 1st grade teacher used- spelling tic-tac-toe. I made a grid with 5 rows and 5 columns then filled them with every fun study-your-spelling-words activities I could think of. Some examples are: rainbow write your words (write in different colors), write silly sentences using your words, spell words using letter magnets, play Spell City, ABC order, etc. They get to choose what activities to do, but it has to result in a tic-tac-toe with 5 across, down or diagonal. They color in the box when they completed it. I tried to mix up types of activities they would have to do to get a tic-tac-toe like writing, moving, art or computer. That way they get a good mix of fun, serious, quick and longer. They loved it. It was way more fun than the traditional ABC Monday, 3 times each Tues., etc. Most importantly, any time you give your kids choice they buy into the activity much more. When they feel in charge they are much more into it which equals less fussing by mom! This is also a perfect workbox activity.

One choice was an activity I got on the A-Z Reading website when they had a free trial :)

They reach into the bag. They have to do whatever the cards they draw tell them to like "write a sentence with your word about a funny monkey" or "write a sentence with your word about a lollipop eating hippo". You wouldn't believe how much they enjoyed this, especially Ashton. You could easily type up some silly directions like this. For some reason drawing something out of a bag makes it more fun as well. I wonder if it would work for chores?

The only change I'm considering making is maybe going from 5 across to 4 or maybe even 3. That would give us Friday free for testing and maybe Monday for an introduction lesson.

I hope you can use this for spelling fun. I;m trying to think of how it can be adapted to some other subjects, hmmmm.........