Word Work and Cool Cats!

We are learning how to do the next part of the Daily Five.  (The first two that we've learned are Read to Self and Work on Writing.)  Word Work is when students use a variety of materials to practice spelling words.  The pictures below show some of the different things we use to learn how to spell our popcorn and word family words.

This student is using a tracing template to spell words.

Wikki sticks (kind of like thick pieces of wool dipped in wax) can also be used to make letters!

Dry erase markers on plastic plates.  We use a "magic" mini glove to erase the letters.

Big lima beans can spell words too.

Play dough rolled to form letters.

In Art this afternoon we made Crazy Cats.  First we learned about how artists use different kinds of lines in their pictures and paintings (straight, thin, thick, wavy, zigzag, etc.) Then we looked at different pictures of cats.  Some were sitting, some were lying down (lazy, fat cats!) and some were standing.  We practiced drawing different kinds of cats before students got their "good" paper and drew large, beautiful cats.  Then, they divided the body of the cat into sections and drew a different kind of design or pattern using a variety of lines in each section.  We think these cats are pretty cool!

Artist hard at work!

 

 

See the cat with the hat?

 

Final product!

Here is the link to a website that teaches children how to draw animals step by step:
http://www.drawingnow.com/how-to-draw-animals.html

Our class collected $32.50  worth of pennies yesterday for Terry Fox!  (That was nearly one third of the amount that the entire school raised!)  Way to go Grade One!