5/17/06

Summer Activities 2006

They’re up and running! Those PDFs I promised in my last Ellie’s Word are uploaded to the teachers’ section of our website (www.WordWebVocabulary.com). There are three of them, any or all of which will serve well if you host clubs in your room, or as summer pursuits for all students, even those with various learning problems. The three I chose this time belong to our visual world. They’re easy to find and perhaps eye-opening to many.

One of these is architectural features, which, as I say on the front page of the document, “Whether you live in a small town or a large city, you are sure to find almost every one of the architectural features I show on the next pages. Wherever you walk, ride a bike, roller blade or pass by in a car, you will see these types of roofs and windows.” I forgot to include, “or see on television.” You can add that. I limited the terms to two types of roof styles and window types.

I provided space for a picture of each roof or window style that students could cut from a newspaper, magazine or real estate brochure found at most supermarkets, as well as those they might take with a digital camera. There are also lines on which students can write the addresses of buildings they see with these specific features.

The other two activities cover the names of eight automobile models and ten sports teams. For the former, I provide the definition and ask students whether they think it is or is not a well-chosen name for a vehicle. There are plenty of lines on which students can write their opinions. There is also space provided for them to describe other car makes they see, along with their explanation of the names. I give no explanation of the teams’ names; I expect students to do that. All three activities have an answer page. It is up to you whether you want to hand those out with the work pages.

I hope these will be of help to teachers in all grades. In addition, I mentioned at this time last year, that if a class has not quite finished the vocabulary volume in which they have been working, assign the rest of the lessons for summer work and notify their teachers for next year that they will be bringing this work to class the first week of the new school year (you hope!).

Also, in my Ellie’s Word of a year ago, I suggested that students utilize their creativity by making a display of Periodical Pearls. In addition to finding these “pearls” in print media, they could use their digital phone cameras to photograph various objects they studied this year. Then, they could write a caption for each photo that showed the meaning of those names and produce an interesting poster with them. They could also make a colorful and imaginative exhibit of their volume’s color lesson — green for Volume I, blue for Volume II, red for Volume III.

For more of my suggestions, go to our website, click on Newsletter and read Ellie’s Word dated 5/24/05.

I wish you and your family a lovely, productive and interesting summer.

That’s my word this time, Ellie

Word Web Vocabulary - recommended on Heidi Hayes-Jacobs' website - Moving vocabulary from the edge of language arts to its center