Word Hunt and Bananagrams

Although I certainly haven't been consistent, I have been trying to do as many spelling activities with my students each week that support their spelling lists for the week.  Since we have two lists because of the two different grade levels in my classroom, the lesson has to include both.  The lesson below is a review of a mini-lesson we had last week about changing verbs that end in "e" to the "ing" suffix version of the word.  It also incorporates Timothy Rasinski's Word Hunt into it, which I would like to use regularly with all of the patterns/rules we have posted around our room.  Here is the lesson we are doing today that utilizes the Double Bananagrams I recently bought for our classroom.  At some point, I'd just like to leave some of these letter tiles out on my back table so students can show me how they think a word is spelled when they ask me how to spell a word.  They can create 2 different versions, and decide which one looks correct.  Here it is:

Directions for Today’s Version of Bananagrams

·       Teammates will take turns being in charge of spelling a word. 

·       Turn all the letters upright so you can see them.

·       Choose one person to be the first one to spell the word.  Once that person has spelled the word the way he/she thinks it is spelled, the rest of the team will check it. 

·       If they agree, go on to the next step.  If they don’t agree that it’s spelled correctly, they will help the person spell it correctly.

·       When done spelling the word correctly, and the group agrees, the person doing the spelling shouts Wordo!

·       I will check the spelling of the word.  If it isn’t spelled correctly you will have until one team gets it spelled correctly to revise it so it’s correct. 

·       The first team to spell the word correctly gets a point.  The person in charge of that word must also spell it correctly aloud so the other team can hear the word.

·       You can also earn a point by going on a word hunt.  If a team discovers that any of the words fit the rule for verbs where you take away the “e” from the base word to create the verb with “ing” at the end, they should send someone over to the poster to spell it correctly. 

·       The first person to spell it correctly on the paper in the middle of the room, he/she will earn an extra point for their team.