ANDREA RUNNELS
*Throwback to an activity from 2015-2016, my last year in the classroom
I wanted to share a fun activity I did with my homeroom this morning during writing involving one of Flocabulary’s Vocabulary units!! My 5th grade team is departmentalized and I teach Science and Social Studies. I love SS and I love teaching writing! Fortunately for me, we have a school-wide writing initiative this year first thing in the morning. I’ve made it my mission to tweak the prompts we are given (shhh!) to involve mini-lessons and activities to help unleash some creativity in writing. And the best way to do that is to work on style and having a clear voice in your writing.
I feel like my personality shines through when I write and I want to empower my students to do the same in theirs! Many of my students are English Language Learners and are still building academic language. And what about the rest of my students? Those few kiddos I have who read a ton definitely have a well-developed repertoire of fancy verbiage to utilize. However, video games and “Kik” take precedence over reading with these 21st-century students. So the best way I have found to build vocabulary is to use my favorite classroom website FLOCABULARY!! I use the WORD UP units for what I call “sparkle” words. SPARKLE=vivid verbs and descriptive adjectives. They are organized by grade level and the clips usually make for a great character education lesson!
I have started using Word Up Green with my 5th graders, which is the 6th grade level, so I can challenge them! Since I did a little impromptu pep talk with one of my classes yesterday I decided to use “Big Up Yourself” as inspiration. What I did this time was show the video and challenge my students to see how many of the “sparkle” words they could find. We talk about how the lyrics are great context clue hints to what the words mean. The key terms and synonyms are always highlighted in a distinct color, too. During the clip, the students try to write down as many as they can. Teacher trick to hold them accountable! I told them if they got at least 10, they would get a 1 minute dance party!
I had the students call out what they wrote down and recorded them on the board. I loved how they challenged each other as to whether or not the words were high enough level to be considered the “sparkle” word. Sometime the context clue word could have been considered higher level vocabulary for some of the students! Then I posted the actual list of key terms on the board. We had a great discussion about different parts of speech and how you can change the ending to signify a noun or verb since a few of them had a different variation of the actual term, like hazard. This “live action” list sure isn’t a Pinterest-worthy anchor chart but it’s authentic! They exceeded the 10 so they got a 2 minute dance party as a reward!! And of course I used Gonoodle! After that, I gave examples of how these words could relate to some of their writing prompts and they spent several minutes revising pieces by adding some sparkle.
I am a huge fan of Flocab and I swear I want to run away to the Big Apple to work for them!! In the mean time, I am doing my part as a volunteer for their PR department. I use the site almost every day. In case you had any doubts about my Flocab enthusiasm check out this post from September. After you read this one of course!
Clearly, that post is just one quirky redheaded teacher’s opinion. I know some of you are fans of facts. You need hard evidence and statistics. Well, you’re not my tribe but I want to make sure I have your back! “Teachers in more than 50,000 schools have used Flocabulary’s standards-based videos, instructional activities and formative assessments to develop core literacy skills and supplement instruction across the curriculum.” UM, 50,000?!?! WHOA. You need in on that!! “Flocabulary offers more than 700 videos with accompanying classroom resources and formative assessments to support instruction in math, science, social studies, ELA, vocabulary, current events and life skills, with new content every week.” Guess what?!! I know they are CCCS-aligned, too!!
You will definitely get your money’s worth. And don’t even worry about the money part yet because they often offer a code for a mega-extreme extension of an extended school-wide trial. And my math isn’t the greatest but 75 days would take you close to the end of the school year!! WOO-HOO!! Click the picture to join the Flocabulary party!!! Your students will thank you!
P.S. If you do use “Big Up Yourself,” here’s a free image of the words! Striped Frame by I Teach What’s Your Superpower: Megan Farve! Copy and save the image or contact me and I will be happy to email it to you!
