Thursday, September 20, 2012

Word Wall Idea with a FREEBIE :)

So, I've always gone back and forth about using a word wall in fourth grade. What is the best way to use it? What will make my students use it as a resource?

A few years ago I made a priority word was by alphabet letter. In doing that, I realized only my very low kids utilized the board while the rest of my kids didn't need it. Now, I have Quick Word personal dictionaries for my struggling spellers, so a priority world wall is obsolete.

Last year we read The Boy Who Loved Words. After reading the story we made a list of all the neat words Selig (the boy in the story) used in the book. We wrote them on large index cards with the definitions and posted them on "Selig's Word Wall". I then had students look for interesting words in their own books and create word cards. It worked well in the beginning, but then the wall became overwhelmingly full and crazy.  It was a neat activity, but not for a whole year word wall.

So, this year I was trying to find a new idea for a word wall. Then, a lovely friend of mine gave me the idea to do a word wall using parts of speech. Every year I do mini-lessons reminding my kiddos the meanings and uses for the parts of speech, so this really fits into our state standards. The best part about it that it made it a part of our every day learning.

Here are some pictures of the wall:







I created bright neon circles the have the parts of speech. I did that to match all of the Bright and Clear Decor created by Kristin and Ladybug's Teacher Files (they have to match of course!) As we go through the year and I introduce new vocabulary words, we'll talk about the different parts of speech and where each word belongs. I color-coded the types so that I can use colored sentence strips to write each word. I made preposition, interjection, pronouns, and conjunctions smaller and all the same color because there are a limited about of words that will be in each of those sections. 

Click the picture to download your free copy: 


How do you use word walls in your classroom?

2 comments:

  1. Great idea, whenever we start with a new spelling list, I always reinforce parts of speech at the same time, is a win-win situation. Thanks a lot for the freebie!!!!!

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