Spelling games and creative writing for elementary students

I have always believed that children learn differently when FUN is added to the lessons.

In this article I will take you to a journey of learning vocabularies, spellings, grammar, and creative writing in a fun way.  We have to make sure as teachers that the expectations for your learners are reasonable and not expect the children to have better language skills.

Boggle sheets are easily available on google, so there is no need to buy the game. All you have to do is print them and you’re ready for the game!

Print out each of the Boggle sheets, which easily available on google. Make enough copies for 1 of each page for each player.

Each player also needs a pen or pencil. You’ll also need a watch that can time for 2 minutes.

How to play Boogle

Distribute 1 copy of one of the boggle game pages and a pencil to each player. Pass the page to each player upside-down so that nobody has an advantage of seeing the page first.

Start timing for 2 minutes and players will turn over their page and start looking for words.

Players can write down words they find in the grid that match the following rules:

• The letters in the words must be connected in the same order in the grid.
• The letters can be connected by an edge or a corner.
• The word doesn’t have to appear in a straight line. It can be tangled around.
• Each letter in the word must uniquely appear in the grid. For example, if the word is ERASE, the letter E must appear twice in the grid. The word can’t just loop back and re-use the same E.
• Words must be at least 3 letters long.
• Words cannot be a proper noun, such as a name or place.

Teaching vocabulary as an instruction that student’s cognitive skills and gives the opportunities for the learners to actually use the words.
Having different learning opportunities will help improve learners ’overall language ability by improving their vocabulary

Visible thinking routines

Routines exist in all classrooms; they are the patterns by which we operate and go about the job of learning and working together in a classroom environment.

A routine can be thought of as any procedure, process, or pattern of action that is used repeatedly to manage and facilitate the accomplishment of specific goals or tasks.

Classrooms have routines that serve to manage student behavior and interactions, to organizing the work of learning, and to establish rules for communication and discourse.

These learning routines can be simple structures, such as reading from a text and answering the questions at the end of the chapter, or they may be designed to promote students’ thinking, such as asking students what they know, what they want to know, and what they have learned as part of a unit of study.

I used one of the routines using Think, Pair, Share:

The think, pair, share strategy is a cooperative learning technique that encourages individual participation and is applicable across all grade levels and class sizes.

Students think through questions using three distinct steps:

• Think: Students think independently about the question that has been posed, forming ideas of their own.
• Pair: Students are grouped in pairs to discuss their thoughts. This step allows students to articulate their ideas and to consider those of others.
• Share: Student pairs share their ideas with a larger group, such as the whole class. Often, students are more comfortable presenting ideas to a group with the support of a partner. In addition, students’ ideas have become more refined through this three-step process.

Today I thought I’d share a strategy I use to help my students communicate their thinking during the inquiry process.

See, Think, Wonder is a thinking routine I use with my students to help them think critically about an object or idea and express their ideas with others.

In reflection,it was good to watch their interactions since was able to look at the learner’s development in oral- and written language skills.

Also, it helped my students acquire new vocabulary words and they were able to comprehend any literacy activity / Provocation.

So dear fellow teachers, don’t forget that giving different opportunities in learning will help learners overall language ability by improving vocabulary.

Bonus point for reading: Here is a website full of printables Boggle Word Games here.