Love of Language-Studying Words

I know it's been a while! It seems like tons of teacher-bloggers are apologizing for the lack of  blogging and blaming the "end of year" craziness. I will totally jump on that bandwagon! We have been out of school for one week and one day, and I have yet to take a break. Last week, I went in to work on my classroom for 4 days and had a Common Core committee workday. Lucky me, I get four more committee workdays this week. :)

Anyway, the guilt is piling up for not having shared some of my "Love of Language" ideas with you. I will thank you ahead of time for bearing with me as I try to verbalize ideas that I have yet to try out. (Many of these ideas I have tried in various years of my teaching, but never have I tried to implement them all in one day). I'm sure when my new year starts (the 3rd week in July!!!), and I start to implement these things, I will tweak and change things, so follow me into this journey of creating and honoring a "Love of Language" in my classroom. :)

• I will be using a number of resources to implement my "Love of Language" Fridays to help students increase their vocabulary and develop an appreciation for interesting words. I also know the "studying words" component of the day will help students deal with multi-syllabic words that they encounter in their own reading.

One of the resources  I will be using is the "A Word a Week Vocabulary Program" from Teacher Created Resources. The book provides one page on each of the words using interesting stories and poems that elaborate on the word using a vast array of synonyms and antonyms. (Awesomely, this will also help students develop their knack for using context clues.) I plan to have students complete a frayer-model-type graphic after listening to a read aloud of the passage. I have also typed up each of these words with the definition and printed them on cardstock so that we can post them in the room and refer back to them constantly. You could also prepare sheets with each word and allow a different student each week to record a definition and illustrate the definition card.


I will also be using the Nifty Thrifty Fifty word list that contains 50 words based on root words, prefixes, and suffixes. The Nifty Thrifty Fifty program claims that for every NTF word a student can read, they can read at least 7 other words.  I have to do a little more research and make some decisions about how I want to implement the Nifty Thrifty Fifty word list, but other teachers at my school have implemented this list with great success. Here are some helpful websites I have found as I am trying to get my ideas and plans together for this component of "Love of Language."
- A Month at a Glance PPT I really like the idea of having students create their own cards with the prefix, suffix, and root words on different colored index cards. I plan to give students time every week to work with a partner to create new words from the word parts. I also like the idea of letting them make up words and define the meaning because it will help them solidify and transfer the meanings to other words.
- Nifty Thrifty Automaticity Powerpoint (go down to # 2)
---Click on # 4 of the same website above for a great color coded set to post in the classroom
-Another idea I have is to play "Word Storm" with my students. I will give them a word part or root from the NTF and set a timer for them to brainstorm as many words as they can before time is up. We will then share them as a class.
-I also love this idea I found at Steve Gipson's teacherspayteachers store (The Greek/Latin Roots Art Book) and think it will be perfect for NTF work.
-Here's a template we will use to collect our NFT words and record related words.

Hope you found an idea you can use!