Word Nerds Ch. 6 - Celebrate to Validate!

Y'all I cannot get over how many good ideas are in this book!  I can't wait to do them all!  As I read I try and go back to past classes and think, "Oh yea, they would have LOVED that one."  or "They would have done so much better had I done this with them."  Anyone else do that???

Our lovely host for this chapter is Jen from Teaching, Life, and Everything in Between!

 

Here are some goodies (and of course my thoughts) from this chapter!  There are a lot of good party ideas and I thought to myself what a party means to my class.  Usually we have a compliment party (After they receive a certain amount of compliments from people around the school as a whole class) and it is a movie and popcorn, or maybe an ice cream party.  We also have a dance party if everyone brought their homework in on Friday!  Just a quick 4 minute song and the kids just rock out.  Occasionally I will let them pick the song and find the edited version, lol.  We also play "Sparkle Bang" right before a spelling test (it's kind of like Around the World) and the kids beg for it every Friday.

As I was reading I could only think of how motivating these "parties" would be for my kids to study more at home.  It is 5th grade and being "cool" is in full effect.  They don't want to be embarrassed by not knowing something and if they know there will be a party at the end where they can show off their stuff, they're going to work really hard all week!  Can you say LIGHTBULB???  If it works for homework and spelling, how have I never thought to do it for vocabulary?!  So while reading this I had a moment of epic failure and then turned it around real quick because now I have a huge source of good ideas that I will implement this coming year!  Here are some of the goodies they mention:

Block Party/Welcome, Words! (You get cookies!)

Toasting Party

Celebrating Velcro Words

Jeopardy! Party

Deal or No Deal Party (loving the game shows!)

Charades or Show Me Party

Dance Party

Luau Party

American Idol Party

Art Show Party

Holiday Parties (Fall Festival, Thanksgiving, Winter Holiday, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day)

 

 

If you want to get in depth detail of each party, don't forget you can look at the book free online at the publisher's website!  Also, head on over to Jen's blog and check out her summary and thoughts and ideas!  Don't forget to link up your thought as well down below!