Herny and Mudge and -dge -ge Word Work

We have been having a grand time reading lots of Henry and Mudge books this week and last.  I am so proud of our student authors because they each created, wrote, and illustrated their very own Henry and Mudge book.  After the books were completed the second graders had the opportunity to read their book to their study buddy.  So, so, sweet!

I planned to do Henry and MuDGE activities for these two weeks because we are focusing on the -dge -ge spelling patterns.  I've been hiding these little bones under students' desks for them to find in the morning.  I just love how something so simple can make word work fresh and exciting!

A Window into our Work Work Time

This week for word work we are continuing our study of the /oo/ sound as in shoe.  I thought I would share a glimpse of what the children who come to room 8 for work work have been up to this week.  As you know we stick with our spelling patterns for two weeks at a time and the children work in their word work class Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday for 30 minutes.  So we meet for a grand total of 6 times before moving on to the next pattern.  This chunk of time seriously goes by in the blink of an eye and I have found that sticking to a no-nonsense routine is an efficient use of our time. When I introduce a new pattern we always spend the first day learning all about it through direct teacher led instruction. Then for the next four times we meet, I do a mini lesson and the children quickly disperse to work on their word work center.  I change the centers each week so keep things fresh.  Below you can see the centers we have been working on this week.

Spelling Cents ~ Finding the value of your spelling words

Spelling City

Spelling Sentences

Contractions

Hairy Money

By the way...have you ever heard of "hairy money"???  Well if you know someone who is having a tough time counting coins read on!  This noteworthy tool was shared with me by our resource teacher.  I have used touch money in the past as a visual aid, but hairy money totally takes the cake!  Basically for each five you put a hair on the president's head.  A nickel gets one hair, a dime gets two hairs, and a quarter gets five hairs.  Poor penny is bald because its value is only one cent.  When my little kiddies want to find the total value of a group of coins all they have to do is put they correct "hairs" on each coin and then count by 5's and add the 1's.
I have found this to be super duper successful!  Which makes me happy!

Working With oi and oy

For the next two weeks we will focus on the vowel diphthongs oi and oy.  A diphthong has two parts that glide together through a noticeable change in  mouth position.  When making the /oi/ sound as in the word oil and toy, the sound  starts at the front of the mouth and moves to the back of the mouth.  Using a  mirror to watch mouth position change is a helpful tool for students.   Lucky for us  there is a pretty regular rule for this sound. Don’t you just love that! The oi spelling is used when the sound is in the beginning or middle of a word.  The oy spelling is  used when the sound is at the end of the word (with a few exceptions ;).  Our test  is on Thursday, March 13th.

If you are in room 8 for spelling our words are:

1. join                    High Frequency Words

2. boil                      1. enjoy

3. joy                       2. boy

4. soil                      3. would

5. noise                   4. head

6. avoid                   5. enough

7. voice

8. point

9. toy

10. coin

Happy Spelling!

Word Work

For the next two weeks we are working with what I like to call "interesting digraphs".  Digraphs are two letters that when combined together make one completely new sound.  We are studying gh and ph, which both make the /f/ sound as in graph and tough; wr, which makes the /r/ sound as in wrap; and kn, which makes the /n/ sound as in knuckles.   This is the perfect opportunity for us to learn about homophones as well.  Homophones are two words that sound the same, however, they have different spellings and different meanings.  Some examples are knew, new; knot, not; night, knight; and know, no.  Please remember to practice your spelling words on Spelling City throughout the next two weeks.  I have added a quick link to spellingcity.com on the top right of this blog. 

If you stay in room 8 for spelling here are our words:
1.  knot               9. phone
2. wrong           10. laugh
3. know             11. not
4. wreck            12. knew
5. graph             13. no
6. wrap              14. new
7. knife              15. enough
8. tough

Valentine's Day!

Phew!  Today was jam packed with learning and love, and I am officially exhausted!  This morning we  took our spelling test on those tricky r-conrolled vowel spellings, ir, er, ur, and ear.  I was so impressed with the student's understanding of the concept.  A few things we have been working on within the last two weeks are:  Sound spelling word mapping (By Kathrine Grace LOVE this!)  Going on a "Bossy R" word hunt (see below for a cute pic).  Word sorts.  Playing Sparkle.  Which is totally a student fav!  I switched things up a bit and found it super successful.  If their turn landed on the /er/ sound they needed to tell all the letters that spell the sound (ir, er, ur, ear).  And of course lots of reading to transfer and apply the skill.  I'm a big believer in the value of decodable text, and we also met Mr. Putter and Tabby this week as well.

Next we moved on to our study of The Mighty Mississippi River.  My teacher heart was bursting during our writing block today because the kiddos were completely immersed in their research and were writing fantastic paragraphs with little support from me.  Success!

During reading centers the students finished up these adorable Valentine bags.  I just love the way they turned out!

For math today it was all about Sweetheart math!  The students estimated, counted, sorted, solved equations, compared numbers, and found fractional parts -all with a box a Sweethearts!

I just have to share these super cute cupcakes our room mom made.  Aren't they just the cutest ever!

Happy LOVE Day!