I Heart You, Long O Words!

Oh, long vowels.  They are exciting for first graders because they open the door to more advanced reading.  On the flip side, they can frustrate little learners with their many rules to remember and different ways to spell the same sound.  What's a first grader to do?  My answer is always the same - practice, practice, practice.  Practice reading them, writing them, using them any way you can.

So, last week, in the spirit of Valentine's day, I put together a little heart-themed activity for my kiddos.  I created a spelling scramble (which you can grab here - the pages are intended to be the front and back of the same sheet of paper) using long o words. Using this recording sheet, students thought they were playing some strange version of musical chairs, when in fact they were racing against the love-themed playlist on my ipod to unscramble the word and write it down correctly.  I paired up the class and put a baggy with a scrambled word at each desk. Each baggy had a number on it that corresponded to a heart on their recording page.

Ready, set, go!

Sorting it all out.

The music stopped - hands in the air!

The finished product.

When the music started, the kids could open their bags, unscramble the words, and jot them down in the correct heart.  The pictures on the back of the phonemes provided scaffolding for those who needed it, and my high students challenged themselves to figure out the word without using the picture clue for help.  When the music stopped playing (I gave them about 30 seconds for each word), students put the phonemes back into the baggies and rotated to the next desk.   Simple, right?  This was such a hit!  I have kids asking me if we're going to start doing these each week.  I sense a whole lot of weekend work ahead of me.  Happy spelling!

Cheers!
Meghan