Catchin' Up

Last week, we focused on poetry.  Specifically, we focused on writing acrostic poems.  after reading a few and writing some of our own, I asked the kids to write on based on their names.  I got the idea from Cara Carroll over at the First Grade Parade.  Here is a pic from her site:

While I didn't take pictures of our finished rainbows, here are some of their poems (in their own spelling):
Kevin - 

 Kind
Exlint
Vere creative
I am osum
Nis

Bryce -

Brave
Racer
Yong
Cool
Exolint redr

Aaralyn -
Asome
Apsalootley smart
Reader
Amazzing
Learning
Young
Nice

and my favorite (now, keep in mind that this little guy is very ADD, but is the cutest, sweetest thing on earth and I would take him home if I could):

David -

Discover a mistory (mystery)

A boy that is

Very nice and a
Ikxided kid that
Does not lisin

How funny is that!!!???

On another note, I did the most awesome activity the other day.  We were learning about the long a sound.  The week before, we had learned the different ways to make the long e sound.  This week, I wanted them to do more interacting with long a words.  Sooo, I printed out some long a words on index cards and made sure that I had 3 different ways to make the long a sound.  I did words with a__e, ay, and ai.  I passed them out randomly to the kids and told them not to show anyone at first, but just to read the word on their card.  I then told them that on the count of 3, they would have to walk around and find other people that had a word that had the long a sound spelled the same way.  Remember, at this point, I haven't told them the different ways to make the sound.  They had such a fun time trying to find their group.  The best part was to hear them discuss why they should or should not be together.  For example, in this group:

she was telling him that she belonged in a group with him.  He had the word "stain" and she had the word "pail".  He kept saying, "No, you have to have 'ain' in the word" (he had already found someone with the word 'train').  She was telling him that the 'n' didn't matter - only the 'ai' makes the a sound.  She was finally able to convince him that she, in fact, did belong to the group.  It was awesome to walk around and hear the kids having conversations like this all over the room. 

After they found their group, they had to explain to the rest of the class why they belonged together.  The first 2 groups did great, but when we got to the a__e group, they first said, "all our words have an a, then a 't', and then an 'e'."  One of the kids in the other groups said, "but that word doesn't have a t".  So they had to go back and discuss with their group again and came up with "our words have 'ae'.  And again, someone pointed out that the a and e weren't together in the word.  They finally came up with "our words have 'a', then another letter, then an 'e'." 

It was sooo great to watch those kids figuring it out on their own and discussing their thinking with their classmates. And it didn't take anything other than some index cards!  Have you had any "great" moments this week?