New Year, New Ideas, New Possibilities Linky Party!

  Hi Everyone! I'm so excited to be guest blogging here at Primary Possibilities.  We are having a

Let me introduce myself...

I am Cynthia Vautrot (pronounced Vo-tro...long o sounds).  I am a veteran teacher having taught 24 years.  I have taught kindergarten, first, and second grade.  My heart will probably always belong to kindergarten, but my body and stamina does much better in 2nd grade!  lol

    I would like to discuss with you today some "old-school".    Basically that of SPELLING!   It absolutely drives me bonkers the trend of the last several years of not teaching spelling in the traditional sense of the word!   So, this year, I decided...it's MY classroom and I'm putting spelling BACK IN!   After all, it's one of the Common Core Standards!   First, we started off the year with this cute craftivity I created.  (Who DOESN'T love them??)    

  I, personally, think it's time we teach students HOW to spell and WHY to spell a word a certain way.   Remember those rules you learned in school such as "i before e, except after c" and "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking?"   I think students NEED to know those rules to help with their spelling.   (If you don't believe me, just read a few posts on Facebook...AB.SO.LUT.ELY makes me cringe!!!)     In my room, we've made spelling FUN!     We posted this original poem (by me :-) with our craftivity.    

The kids get so excited wondering when the Spelling Bee will visit. 

It keeps them on their toes (or at least using their best spelling! haha!)

When they get 5 positive cards, they get to turn them in for a trip to the treasure box.

Other ways that I have put spelling back into my room is by having a SPELLING Literacy Station.

The kiddos love going to this center because they know it will have some fun activities.

I am sharing one of these with you.  Maybe you'll decide to put "old-school" spelling back in your room as one of your NEW YEAR, NEW IDEAS, NEW POSSIBILITIES.

Just click on the picture to download your own free game to use for spelling words in your classroom.  If you like what you see, I would LOVE to have you become a follower!!!

You can also purchase my The Spelling Bee unit here.

I'm also offering all of you a special deal.  Just send me an e-mail to

cvautrot@gilmerschools.com

with your TPT user name and that you purchased this unit. Then you can choose another item $5 or less for FREE!  Just let me know which one you would like, and I'll e-mail it to you.

 Thank you, Cynthia, for guest blogging for us today!!  If you head on over to Christina's Blog Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge, we are guest blogging over there!!  Just follow the links below and you will meet some of our "new friends" and really nice and innovative teachers!!  They all have "new ideas" and "new possibilities"!!

(Stephanie, Stephany, and Kathi)