Word Choice Posters and a Free Worksheet

Words can make or break a piece of writing. If there are too many overused words, the writing is dull and boring. If words are too bold, the meaning of the sentence can become confusing or without fluency. Choosing a few "better" words can jazz up a boring piece of writing and bump up an overall score in an assessment. You need just the right words to capture your reader's attention and make the writing come alive. Words can create lots of different moods, images, and meaning in the reader's mind.

By introducing more words in the classroom, students will increase their vocabulary! Vocabulary is the foundation of reading.  Learning new vocabulary will increase reading and comprehension. Knowing more words will help students express themselves better and communicate more. One way to express themselves is through writing. When students know more words, they will be able to increase their reading and writing skills.    

One way to increase vocabulary is to have a word wall. A wall that is dedicated for just words will help students grow as good readers and writers. The word wall should be in a place where all students can see and utilize the words on it. Words can be added or taken away from the word wall. I always added spelling words, HFW, vocabulary words from our reading stories, and even our science words we were learning for our unit to the word wall. 

These Word Choice Posters will help students increase their vocabulary and improve their writing skill. The words on the posters can help students jazz up their writing and bring it to life. The 24 posters take overused words and give students a choice of 15 "better" words. Each poster also has 7 sentences to practice replacing the overused word. Theses sentences are perfect for mini-lessons or as examples for novice learners. Keep the posters whole or cut them in half. Use the posters for your word wall and use the sentences at your writing centers. Either way, students will be exposed to some new vocabulary, learn how to jazz up a piece of writing, and make your word wall look fantastic! 

Word Choice Posters include these 24 overused words:
bad, big, cold, easy, fast, fun, get, good, happy, hard, hot, little, mad, make, mean, nice, pretty, sad, said, see, slow, ugly, very, and went

Start collecting words and adding them to the word wall. Once a word goes on the word wall, it's expected to be used and spelled correctly for the remainder of the year.

Another thing I know that helps students improve in writing is to share other student's writing. I learned to NEVER show a student's writing with a name on it. All papers are anonymous. But what I do like to do is to show the students some examples of writing from students that I've had in the past. They seem to really like this! They love to pick out the errors and give their input on how they would've written it. Start saving those papers to share with students the following year. Other student's writing will be beneficial in many ways! 

Here is a FREE worksheets to help replace 8 overused words from the Word Choice pack. Students rewrite the sentences by replacing the underlined word with a better or juicy word. Adding better words can make sentences come alive! Click the picture on the left to download this FREE WORKSHEET.

Here is another Word Choice pack that I created years ago. This pack is more for older students with a fun sense of humor. It's a great unit or lesson to use during Halloween time. This pack has more centers and activities using word choice. "Said is Dead." Click the picture on the left to read more about it. I would not do this pack with 2nd graders or younger. They don't seem to get the humor in it. 

Have an outrageous time educating students about words!
See you soon, 

Click the picture on the left to see more WRITING resources from Teacher's Take-Out.

Turkey Pie Fractions and a FREEBIE

Turkey Pie Fractions are just in time for your November planning. If you are working on fractions or just getting started, this pack is for 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. This pack includes:
28 Turkey Picture Pie Fractions
28 Fraction Numbers (to match)
3 Task Boards to use with the turkey pie task cards
18 Task Cards asking the amount of pie that is missing
8 Fraction Worksheets
The 28 turkey pie fractions include:
1 whole, 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 5/5, 1/6, 2/6, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6, 6/6, 1/8, 2/8, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 8/8
This pack also comes with recording sheets to use at math centers.  Here are some preview pictures: Click any picture below to see the preview more closely.

I am not going to leave you empty handed. Here is a free fraction worksheet from the pack just for you! Students write the fraction of pie that is in the pan. Click the picture to download your freebie.

 I made the turkey clip art too. These are original! If you would like to make your own worksheets or other turkey fraction activities, click the picture to take a peek at the clip art.


Hope this pack enhances your fraction unit!
See you soon,

You can find Turkey Pie Fractions Task Cards and Worksheets right here on Teacher's Take-Out for a discounted price:

Click the picture on the left to see more fraction resources from Teacher's Take-Out.

Fact Drills Free Trial

I have a free worksheet to practice addition facts 1-9 from my Fact Drills Pack.  This worksheet comes with 2 half sheets. Students should be able to complete all 32 facts on the half sheet in under 2 minutes.  Check your child today to see if they can do all 32 facts in under 2 minutes. If not, you might want to think about purchasing the Fact Drill Pack for addition and subtraction. This pack includes 70 half sheets to practice addition and subtraction facts 1-10. The worksheets in this pack are separated to practice one fact at a time, all mixed together, and with missing numbers. This pack has enough variety to meet the needs of the students in your classroom.

Here is a helpful blog post about teaching addition facts:

Need something more challenging like multiplication? Here is a FREE Worksheet to practice the facts of 2. Again, students should be able to do all 32 problems in under 2 minutes. Click the picture on the left to download a free multiplication fact drill worksheet. Test your students today to see if they can pass. Here is the Multiplication and Division Fact Drills pack for purchase if you need more practice:

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy drilling!

See you soon,  

Here are more ideas for learning facts:

To be notified of my next freebie:

Weekly Spelling Words

Here are some helpful teaching ideas to use with your Weekly Spelling Lists:

• Write the spelling list on the chalkboard or chart paper. Display the list so all students can see and refer to the list at any time.
• Read the spelling list together as a class. This helps students pronounce and say the words correctly. Saying the word AND spelling the letters aloud as a class can be helpful for some students.  
• Discuss the meaning of each word with students. Help them provide definitions or sentences that indicate the meaning of each word.
• Discuss the rule or specific spelling pattern of the words on the list. Use this to guide your teaching lessons.
• Provide a spelling word list for students to take home. If students copy the list, make sure to check each student’s list to ensure they have spelled the words correctly. 
• Transfer the weekly spelling words to your Word Wall or other special place in the classroom. This will keep students accountable and to keep spelling those words correctly all year long. By encouraging students to practice using the word wall, you help them integrate these words into other forms like vocabulary and speaking skills.
• Repeat frequently misspelled words. It's okay to keep adding the same words to spelling lists over and over again. Many students need more than one week to study a word. Reviewing can be helpful for many students. 
• Pair students up to quiz each other. Each student takes a turn saying the words as the other spells the words aloud or on a white board. This is a fun classroom activity. It also gets them up and moving around. Plus, they like it. 
• Administer a pretest. Students only need to study the words they missed. Then, administer a posttest each week to assess students’ learning and retention

. 

Here is a FREE poster to help students study their spelling words! Practice doing the steps together as a class. Then, students will be able to repeat this process at home. Hang this poster in your classroom or send it home for homework. A black and white copy is included. Just click the picture on the left to download it.

Need some help with studying spelling words? Here are two packs that will help students study for their weekly spelling words. The task cards are easy to set up at a center and the worksheets are instant so you can send them home on a moments notice. Just click the pictures below to be read more about them. You can also snag them both in the bundle below.    

Happy Spelling!
See you soon,

To be notified of my next blog post:

New Clip Art and Some Freebies

I have discovered a new adventure! I am exploring the world of clip art. There are many products I want to create and I can't find the right clip art to match. So why not make your own clip art, right? I made one tiny, little caterpillar and the next thing I know I'm making a kid, a dog, a cat, a star, pencils, etc. Once I started, I couldn't stop. They turned out so cute that I had to share my creations. I ended up opening a clip art store and call it, Clip Factory. I'll be producing clip art for teachers over there and hope you stop by to grab some freebies. I'm just starting and have a ton to learn. I only have a few creations right now, but I have a few fun ideas itching to get out.  

Here are a few more of my freebies at the Clip Factory that I have completed already: 

I am also updating a few of my products by switching some of the clip art out. I've found that some of the clip art that I've purchased lacks the black and white copy for line art. I want to start supplying a black and white copy to my products so my customers have a choice on how they print them. One thing can be sure, Teacher's Take-Out will have original creations!

Here are some freebies I have already changed over using my new clip art!

 

I hope you stop by to take a peek. 

Check back later for some more freebies!
See you soon,

Base Words Lesson

This summer, I took a reading class and learned an activity to help teach students about base words. This activity will help students notice what happens when they add prefixes and suffixes (affixes) to them. The spelling of some base word will change and so will its meaning. This lesson will introduce or help struggling students with base words and adding affixes to them to make "new words". This Base Word's lesson would be ideal during small group time but can be used for whole group too. 

Some prep is needed, but very easy. You will need sentence strips or index cards to write the base words and affixes on. I would separate the prefixes, base words, and suffixes by color. For example: write the prefixes: un, re, dis, non, mis, pre on a set of "blue cards" Write: ness, less, ed, ly, ing, s, ful, able, er, and est on a set of "red cards". Write the base words on "white cards". Here is a list of 30 base words used for this lesson: agree, appear, believe, build, care, clean, color, comfort, connect, cover, forgive, happy, harm, help, hope, like, love, move, open, organize, pack, place, play, power, read, stop, test, turn, use, write, and view.  

Before you begin the activity, you should pair beginning students up with a partner. Students can help each other make words and verify with each other if the new words they are making are real words and not nonsense words. More advanced students can work independently.

To start the activity, choose a base word. Students use the prefixes and suffixes cards to move around the base word to make new words. For example: If using the base word, CARE, students can make new words like caring, careful, uncaring, and so on. They can also see how two suffixes can be added to the base word like, carelessness and carefully. Students need to be careful when adding affixes to base words. Some affixes will not make sense when added to the base word. For example; discare or carely. This is a good time to talk about nonsense words. If students are unsure of a word, encourage them to look them up in a dictionary to see which affixes can be added to the base word. I love "dictionary.com".

When student begin adding affixes to the base word, they will need to know some spelling rules as they write their new words down. This is a great time to discuss how the base word can change its spelling pattern when suffixes are added. Sometimes you have to drop the "e" and add "ing" or "ed," and sometimes you have to double the consonant to keep the short vowel sound. Either way, students will be learning or reviewing those tricky spelling rules!

Another thing this lesson helps with is how the meaning of the base word will change when adding affixes to them. For example; by adding "ing" to care this would mean you care for something at that moment. But when adding the suffix "less" to care, this would mean you are without care. This is a great opportunity to learn new vocabulary words!

Here is a FREEBIE that has a list of affixes used for this lesson. This will help students remember the meaning of each prefix and suffix as they create new words. Use the freebie for a poster to hang in the classroom or have students cut and paste the boxes into their writing journal.
Just click the picture on the left to download it right here on the blog.

As students move the prefix and suffix cards around to make new words, they should be writing their words down on a white board or in their writing journal. This would be a good time to check students understanding. Are they spelling the new words correctly? Are they making real words? Can they understand the new meaning when an affix is added? Can they recognize base words? Students will surly understand base words after this lesson.

I have created a set of worksheets that have the 30 base words that are listed above.  Each worksheet displays a base word and the affixes that can be added to the word to make new words. Instead of the students writing their words on a white board or in their journal, you can use these worksheets. The worksheets extent to separating the new words according to the spelling rule or by segmenting the new words apart by prefix, base word, and suffix. The worksheets also have students writing the definition of the new word or they write a sentence that displays the meaning on the new word. Use these worksheets for continued practice at a reading center. As students become more proficient, they will be able to work independently. You can also send these worksheets home for homework or to check understanding as an assessment. Here are some examples of the worksheets in this pack:

Here's to Base Words and students understanding them!
See you soon,

For more reading resources from Teacher's Take-Out, click the picture. 

To checkout my next blog post: