How Word of the Week works...

A couple weeks ago, I posted a video on here as a test-run for my new Word of the Week program... and now I am excited to announce that Word of the Week is up and running! One of my favorite things to do is to introduce new, challenging words that the students can incorporate into their writing. We have had a few different vocabulary programs in first grade learning services in past years, but this year I decided to try something new. Here's how it works!

Each Monday, I have a new word posted on my door, on a chart that looks like this:

I got the chart at Knowledge Tree, and I ordered the third/fourth grade level. So far I haven't liked any of the pictures that go with the words, so I've been drawing my own. I also made a QR code for my Word of the Week blog (click here for a QR code maker) so that parents can quickly access the blog on their smart phones.

Which brings me to... the Word of the Week blog! I am so proud of my blog. Every Monday, I post a new video on the blog. The first grade classes watch the videos on Monday mornings, and then the students can go back on the blog anytime, at school or at home, and watch the videos as many times as they want (the theme song, which was written specially for me, is pretty catchy!) The students are also encouraged to comment on the blog posts. Sometimes I have special instructions for their comments, such as naming a synonym for the word of the week, and other times they just have to use the word in a sentence in their comment. I have to approve all comments before they are published, so that keeps strangers from posting inappropriate things. Within the first two hours of school today, 15 kids had already commented on this week's word! Amazing! I've even had moms and other teachers leave comments! Click here to view the Word of the Week blog.

Finally, the weekly videos... I thought they would be a pain to make, but (knock on wood) I've made three so far and they've been pretty easy! I love iMovie :) Our first grade students have "buddies" in fifth grade, so I've been using the fifth grade students' help in filming the videos. Each week, different faculty members present the word and definition, and a few fifth graders give examples of how to use the word in a sentence. The whole things requires about 15-20 minutes of hunting down volunteers and filming, and about 30 minutes of editing. I'm pretty OCD about iMovie, so I have to keep reminding myself that the videos don't have to be perfect. I did go a little overboard for next week's video--I mean, the word is going to be introduced on Halloween, so I had to use some special effects to make the video look a little spooky!

Writing about Animals

Blogging during the school year is harder than I expected! I have done a great job of documenting students' work and saving pictures in iPhoto, but I can't ever remember to post them on here.

I love creating enrichment projects for first grade, just little things that they can work on in their free time, and this year's group is just doing an awesome job with these projects! One activity I've given them is to imagine a day in the life of an animal. I have a box of animal names written on slips of paper, and they have to reach in and select an animal. I wasn't sure how well they would do at this, since they have to think from the perspective of an animal and then write about it--two things that are hard for first grade--but they are really blowing me away with their responses! Here are some of their stories:

"Slizzer"... how cute is that?!