Welcome to the February Contest Page!
The word for February is
How many words can your class make with the letters in Valentine?
Click on the link at the bottom of the page to make words using Kidspiration.
| And the winning classrooms are: |
K-2 Winner
Ms. McFarland~Gr. 1
81 words
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3-5 Winner
Ms. Elder~Gr. 5
127 words
|
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Here are just some of the words that were found in February. There were also many first names found and even some foreign words.
a
ail
ain't
ale
alien
alien
alive
an
ant
at
ate
eat
eaten
eave
eel
elite
entail
eve
even
event |
evil
I
in
inn
invent
it
I've
lain
lane
late
Latin
lave
lea
lean
leant
leave
leaven
lent
Lent
let |
lie
lien
line
linen
lint
lit
live
nail
naive
native
nave
navel
neat
neaten
nee
net
nil
Nile
nine
nit |
t.v.
ta
tail
tale
talent
tan
tea
teal
tee
teen
ten
tie
tile
tin
tine
tinea
Vail
vain
vale
valet |
van
vane
vat
veal
veil
vein
Venetian
venial
Venn
vent
vet
via
vial
vie
Vienna
vile
vine
vital |
Not only have these contests been motivating to students, making words activities reinforce phonics and decoding skills while they build vocabulary. Students think about the component parts (either syllables, blends or single letters) in the word Valentine in order to build other words. They practice many of the skills used by good readers to decode text. They also learn new words. As they put letters together, they check the dictionary to see whether the word really exists. In the process, they (and their teachers) learn the meanings of unfamiliar words.
This month, there were several homophones found: ail/ale, eve/eave, lain/lane, lean/lien, in/inn, leant/lent, tail/tale, tea/tee, vane/vein, Vail/vale/veil, vial/vile. Learning homophones is an important part of mastering the intricacies and difficulites of English spelling and meanings.
There are several ways teachers have approached this activity. Some have used the Kidspiration file so their students could manipulate the tiles on the screen to make new words. Some teachers gave the letters inValentine to their students cut up and out of order and had them manipulate the letter tiles physically. One benefit of having students manipulate the letters: it creates a hands-on, multi-sensory activity. Other teachers simply had their students look at the letters in Valentine and list words they thought of.
This is an example of a student using the Kidspiration Program to make words.
Click here for the February Kidspiration Contest File. This file will only open in Kidspiration.
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