Language+Arts+Ideas

[|Online Scrabble Games] [|Bones] [|Many games from PBS] [|Spelling Bee] [|This] website offers many ideas for integrating technology into language arts lessons.
 * Spelling Games:**

Have students use spreadsheets to track how many books they have read on their own throughout the year, as well as the difficulty level of the books. Each time they reach a certain number of books, either individually or as a class, have a rewards system..such as a pizza party or "money" to use at the school store. This will encourage students to read more, and better yet, they get to decide what they want to read!

[|Quia] is a great website to find online activities and games for students. There are games for all subjects, but I specifically looked at the language arts category. There are "challenge board" games, hang man, battleship, java games, and more. I think these games are a fun way for students to practice what they've learned.

http://www.eduplace.com/tales/ This site allows students to create "wacky tales." It's like an online version of madlibs and is good practice of knowing parts of speech. Students fill in blanks for adverbs, plural nouns, etc and then the site puts them into an already created story to make a wacky tale. It's recommended for grades 3 and up.

http://www.funbrain.com/scramble/ This site is to help with spelling. It's called the scramble saurus and it integrates other subjects into reading by allowing students to choose the subject that they want their puzzle to be in

Have a "Reading Corner" or library in one of the nooks of the room. Be creative! The "Reading Corner" can be a tent, a couch, bean bag chairs, or whatever you can think of! Just make sure there are a lot of pillows...comfort is key. Provide a little time each day for the students to choose one of the books to read or write about. Each week, choose 1 student to be the "librarian" who is responsible for straigtening up the library when everyone returns their books to the library after reading period.

This a website for a discussion board where teachers from all over the world exchange instructional ideas for teaching reading/ language arts: http://www.proteacher.net/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=28

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001577.shtml is a website which provides activities involving literature and skills for discussion of literature. It is designed for grades 4, 5, and 6. There are also links to other resources included.

http://www.sldirectory.com/libsf/resf/bookplans.html is a resource intended for librarians which provides a database of websites which cover multiple styles of literature as well as age groups.

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/childlit.htm is a link to the Internet School Media Cneter Children's Literature and Language Arts index page. It is well-organized and useful for teachers, librarians, parents, and students.

http://www.primarygames.com/reading.htm this website has games that cover reading, writing, spelling and a review of the ABCs. use this in the classroom to enhance reading skills in students and maintain what they already learned

review phonics in the classroom individually wtih students [[http://www.dositey.com/langk2.htm|http://www.dositey.com/langk2.htm

]]**Poetry for Kids!**

[|For Kids Only]- Shel Silverstein is one of my favorite authors and I think his poetry relates to children because the topics of his works, such as allowance and brussel sprouts, are things that kids care about and have experienced first hand. His poetry is fun, silly, and creative and inspires children to become a poet themselves. This site has plenty of resources for teachers and parents but the part that I like best is for children which has games that relate to some of Shel's most well-known poems.
 * Shel Silverstein**

A great reference guide for teachers and students on basic forms of poetry that would be used at the elementary level: http://www.kathimitchell.com/poemtypes.html

This site if fun because it allows students to publish thier work and read poems that other students have created. Also, the nursery rhymes section is fun because it actually plays the musical tune for you to sing along with. http://www.gardenofsong.com/kidzpage/

Acrostic poems are fun for any age. Here is a site devoted to this type of poetry. http://www.holycross.edu/departments/socant/dhummon/acrostics/acrostics.html