Synonyms and Spelling

This week we were teaching synonyms in class. I was asking them for different words that meant the same as pretty. One girl said "Cute". A boy raised his hand and said, "Hot". To be honest I was so suprised by his answer, I don't remember what I said. Then another boy piped in "Hot and sexy". What? This is a class of first graders. The next day they were writing sentences using their spelling words. The "hot and sexy" boy asked me if he could write , "She is a hot girl." I told him he could, but he might want to take in mind that the paper will be going home in his Thursday folder for his dad to see. He changed his sentence. lol

Our spelling list this week is one of the tougher ones because it has er, ir, & ur all on the same test. Last year, I tried to come up with something to help them remember which vowel to use. Friday right before we took the test, I had a thought. Write one sentence for each different vowel. I showed one to the kids right before the test, thought maybe it would help someone. So I wrote "The girl saw the bird dig in the dirt." My thought was if they could remember the sentence, then they would know girl, bird, and dirt, were all ir words. I need to work on it, but I thought if I wrote it down, it would help me remember it for next year.

Finally....a Freebie.

This is like the sixth or seventh time I have tried to upload a doc. I'm hoping this time I will be successful. I found this idea on a special ed website. It is a vertical number line. I call mine the Addition-Subtraction Elevator.  My kids all know "Addition goes up and subtraction comes down".

 There are 6 on a page, just print, laminate and cut apart. You can use a paperclip to move up and down the elevator. Some of my kids could do it and others had trouble. If a student is having trouble with it, make them use both hands. put one finger on the number to start with and then the other finger starts on the next "floor" (number) counting.

Click the link below to download.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4viYvUGzTgqVFRiVW5HX3hTRGFRWV9jV05zaVJodw/edit

Kelly