Monday Made It #5

Holy cow!  Have I really posted five of these Monday Made Its?  Thanks to Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for inspiring me to flex my creative muscles with these Monday Made Its!

I need to confess:  I'm really a tech geek that is always looking for great ways to use technology with my students.  However...whenever drill and skill (or drill and kill, whichever you prefer) is called for, I like activities to be "hands on" and manipulative.  I've noticed that my students are also drawn to these types of activities.  No worksheets for this girl and her crew...just paper to record on...YOU BETCHA!

I'm a huge fan of Working With Words, Word Work and Making Big Words...but I find that my students get a little bored with the paper and pencil stuff.  During Morning Meeting, I'll often put a word, letter by letter, on  index cards and have the group try to figure out what the "big word" is.  The kids like this a lot...and they love collaborating.  For kiddos with limited vocabulary, Making Big Words can be a little daunting. They are terrific at finding the "little words" and can be successful there while kiddos with more of a "big word picture" will enjoy being challenged to find the big word. Having classmates collaborate to find words inside of words as well as the big words tends to be more exciting, and in the end, more productive.

So...this past spring, I ran across these carrots and I had a really tough time passing these little cuties up.  I found them at the Dollar Tree before Easter, so they aren't out anymore.  However, you could probably find something similar and equally as clear, glossy and fun at other places.  You might even have a few of these in your own kid's Easter stash.  The SKU on these little honeys is:  3927768617.  I also got some of these at Michael's.  They come in packs of three and are so stinkin' cute, you'll probably want to pick a dozen or so!

I put together this activity:  Digging Up Words.  Click on the link to get a copy of the recording sheet, if you'd like.

Each sweet little carrot holds cut up index cards with single letters on each card.  The letters are then placed in the carrot and can be taken out and manipulated by the group.  The group  is challenged to look for the small words inside the big word.  In the end, you want them to find the BIG WORD that is made up of all the letters in the carrot.  Each carrot has a different word, so if your group finishes early, they can just grab a new carrot and dig up some more words.  I placed these in plastic flower pots with 12 carrots to each pot.  I also made a little "garden sign" with the title and instructions written on the back of the sign.  Pretty easy...and fun!  (Note that for "confusing letters" like d, p, q, b, I always put a dot in the bottom right hand corner to let the students know what the letter is.)

See if you can tell what the big word is...bragging rights go to the winner!

Have fun with this and remember...sharing is caring!  Make another pot for a colleague like "The Wonderful Linda!"

In the spirit of sharing, I'm also linking up with Classroom Freebies.  It's a first for me!