Word Walls in the Primary Classroom Made Easy! Editable Word Cards

Word walls are a great way to encourage correct spelling in writing as well as a wonderful classroom resource to teach high-frequency words. I want my second graders to learn all of their sight words and heart words and MORE, including content vocabulary and theme words to use in their writing. I'm excited to show you these versatile resources!

You can edit the cards by typing in the words that you want, whenever you want them!

 This chalkboard set is simply black and white with a tiny bit of chevron for some cute! 

It would go great in a chalkboard or black and bright themed room.

The other is a cute and colorful polka dot set. These cards can be edited too!

You may also like some letter circles for cute bulletin board headings in your room. You can print them on bright paper, or print in black and white, cut them out and glue them on fun scrapbook papers with a triangle cut out of the center to make a banner or bunting!

If you like EASY too and want to see more images and read the full descriptions, just click on the pictures!

:)

Spelling Words Practice Ideas and Printables for Second Grade!

Techr I reele need hlp wif bein a good spelr! Not many, thankfully, but a few of my students are still struggling with applying good spelling in their writing. This year, rather than using Words Their Way, I've decided to focus on phonics skills and on correct spelling of all high frequency words from the first through the third grade list. These are the words my little writers need to use most often and the ones I need to be able to read!

These same words are also my word wall words. 

They go on the wall after a week of daily practice in a variety of ways. 

I use my cabinets in the background to display the words alphabetically.

 They are printed on colored cardstock. 

When I introduce the ten new words of the week, we look at spelling patterns and talk about word families and all of that good phonics stuff. Then we PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE in a variety of ways ~air writing, using pom-poms to cheer, march and spell, looking at the shape of the word (as in letter boxes) and of course, lots of written practice.

I am not giving a weekly spelling test! That's not to say that I won't resume regular testing next year, but I'm giving it a try. Students often memorize well for the test, but then go back to their comfortable ways of writing those same words during Writer's Workshop as their creative minds are busy thinking of other things. I feel that the true test of spelling, for my students, is being able to apply the rules and demonstrate accurate spelling (age-appropriate of course) in the context of their writing. I assess spelling in their written work. My hope is that with regular written practice, the correct spelling of these words will become automatic in time!

There are lots of favorite written practice activities I've used for years, like writing silly sentences with spelling words, and they are the kid's favs too! Sadly, some of my copies were old, dirty, outdated and probably passed along for twenty years from teacher to teacher. I refuse to send home an ugly paper :) and so I made a new and much cuter packet for use with my kiddos! I included wide primary lines on the pages to encourage handwriting practice at the same time.

If you are looking to update your spelling practice pages or just want to add a different twist to your routine, you can grab a copy of this set at my TPT store! Just click on the picture to download a copy!

I hope they will help your class "bee"come more fluent spellers!

Common Core Math Vocabulary

I tell my students that I teach them reading all day long, they just don't know it! We teach them during our reading block, sure, but that instruction continues all day long by introducing vocabulary and teaching strategies in content areas too. 

Recently, our team reviewed our Little Darlins' test scores on the third grade MEAP test. We sat around saying, "But we taught that...they knew that well..." Does that sound familiar? After analyzing the released test items, we decided that the reason for some poor performance on specific items was that the students were confused by or had trouble reading certain math vocabulary terms. They made reading mistakes on a math test! How often do we see that happen?

Well, that got us going to create a plan to help remedy this. My team will be displaying and teaching math vocab with a math-only word wall. I made this for our rooms with cute graphics for our owl mascot theme. 

If this is something you've considered doing, head on over to my TPT shop and check it out! Just click on the picture to take you there. 

During each unit, we will teach students to read these words well and understand the meaning of each of them as we go through the Common Core Standards. What if the kiddos are asked to partition something on an assessment? We just won't know. No problem, we've taught that word!

Since this is a transition year, the students will need to have a handle on all of the words from our grade level content expectations too. I researched many reliable sources and compiled a massive list (over 150) of words specific to second 
grade. 

So, we will get this up and running following winter break. I'm excited because my students are doing a lot of writing to explain their thinking in math and now they will have a word bank to use to help them! 

Hey Friends, I am on Facebook (in the cappuccino in the sidebar) and it's a little lonely there at my page. I haven't done much, honestly, to promote my page, but just wanted to let you know that it does exist! I could sure use some Likes if you know what I mean! Thanks for helping out with my self-esteem :)