This week we learned about homophones. Homophones are words that sound the same, but are spelled and mean something different.
We began by reading Dear Deer: A Book of Homophones by Gene Barretta. This story is about clever Aunt Ant who has just moved to the zoo. Speaking in homophones, she describes the quirky animal behavior she sees. There's the MOOSE who loved MOUSSE and ATE EIGHT bowls, and the WHALE who was ALLOWED to WAIL ALOUD--and that's just for starters.
We then made a list of homophones and put them into sentences.
The students used the book and our list of homophones to create their own.
This was a fun way to reinforce their understanding of these troublesome words.
What ideas do you have to teach homophones?
Alexis
We have our school's annual Career Day approaching. So to coincide with our Social Studies unit of Our Community and It's Workers, we had the children think of what they think their future endeavors might be.
In order to complete the task, the students had to:
- Think of their career choice
- Explain what they thought they would have to do with that job
- Decide how they would spend their money
The students had so much fun imagining themselves 20 years from now. And I thought it was really interesting to see how they would spend their money!
They turned their writing into shapes of themselves and we displayed them on a bulletin board of our city in 20 years.
What interesting ways have you taught about the future?
Alexis
Do your students love to write stories, but hate to draw? Do you teach little ones who can dictate a story to you, but have a hard time "writing" a story? Are you a "non-artist?" Then Storybird is for you!
This wonderful site can be used by all grade & age levels to write stories using beautiful illustrations.
Early Childhood: The class can choose an illustrator that appeals to them and use the pictures to dictate a story to an adult.
Elementary and higher: At this age level, the individual students could choose their illustrations and write their own stories. The program also has a feature where you can use your own illustrations.
The site is extremely user friendly. The user can just drag and click the illustrations of their choice. They can then type their words into the text boxes.
Teachers: This can be used to add your students' names to a class and the teacher can then add assignments that follow a theme that the students will create stories for. There is even a fundraising component where the students' stories could be used to raise money for the school.
If you're anything like me, then you aren't the best artist. Storybird is the site for budding writers without artistic abilities.
Have you ever tried Storybird? How would you use it in your classroom or your home?
Alexis
