Well, still no blog layout! I have had this post ready for some time now and I was waiting for my new layout so that it could be extra cute hehe. It is a little delayed though because poor Tessa is in back to school mode. We all now how crazy that is! Anyway, I wanted to share my favorite center activity with y’all. It’s one that a lot of us do but I mold it to my lessons and make it tricky! It is Write Around the Room or Write the Room. I encourage kids to write any words they see but I specifically like them to find vocabulary words from a lesson. Since I like to focus more on that, my partner Veronica and I made an entire year’s worth of themed vocabulary cards for Write Around the Room. The kids obsess over this center and it is mostly because of what we do to it. We make it a scavenger hunt! I’m not joking when I say the kids count the minutes until they get to the center. We start off hiding them in easy spots and as the year progresses, we make them harder and harder. The kids tote their clipboards and worksheet around, crawling under tables and giggling. I love when they shout out “I found ____!!!!!” I have to remind them not to give the hiding space away but they are just so proud. They take tremendous pride in reading the words also! Here is what one set looks like: Now, I couldn’t fit all the cards but you get the point
I print the cards on cardstock and laminate them so that they last a long time. Each kiddo gets a copy of the worksheet, a clipboard, and a pencil and goes around hunting for the words. The pictures on the cards and worksheet match and the kiddos are responsible for reading then writing the words. Their faces beam with pride when they complete the whole sheet, I LOVE IT. Now, I also like to use these cards in my lessons. I use them to complete rebus sentences in my pocket charts and also to go over vocabulary at the beginning of each lesson. Since I use them so often I have to keep them organized!
I bought these coupon files from Walmart for 98 CENTS! Score!
I sorted each set so I can glance and grab the ones I need.
Now I will admit the coupon files get FULL. They fit but it’s tight.I also needed four because I have so many sets. I don’t mind because they fit in my bin perfectly but if you like a little more room or want the files to to sit flat, I would get the larger size. Now for the FREEBIE! I am going to give you one of the sets! The one pictured is my Welcome to School Write Around the Room set. Click it to download! If you would like my entire year of Write Around the Rooms please go to my TPT store. Or if you prefer, my Teacher’s Notebook store. I have 41 sets in the package and I will continue to add more. So if you purchase it, you will get all of the updates for free! I mentioned my partner earlier. She is amazing! She teaches the Spanish part of dual language at our school and we have such similar teaching styles and personalities! We are pretty much work BFFs
. We agreed to work together on all these projects and I will be in charge of the English versions while she will do the same for Spanish. We love working together! I am currently
begging asking her to embark on this blog journey with me. I think it would be great to share both our ideas and ways we implement things in our classrooms. Time will tell if she will join me. She is currently setting up a TPT store and putting the last touches on her Spanish Write Around the Room set. When I get the link I will surely share it with you! Let any bilingual teachers know about it if you think they would like it! I know a lot of you are getting ready for school and some are even back…. I go back on the 19th so I am starting to freak out just a tad! Stay sane my friends!
This is great!! What a fun way for students to practice reading, writing, and spelling! I bet your kids had great vocabulary by the end of the year!!! I will share with kinder and 1st grade teachers at my school. I'm going to pin this too. What an awesome center!
Okay, I'm going to have to see if my team will chip in and purchase this with me in the Fall. I looked at your previews on TPT, and I think it would work with 2nd grade too!
Thanks Kelly!!!! I hope they like it 🙂 It really helped with vocabulary. I teach a lot of ELLs in my district so we always have to have vocabulary as a high priority. Thanks for the kid words, it made my day!