PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Monday, January 10, 2011

Fancy Nancy's Favorite Words


Fancy Nancy books are very popular among my second graders. To enhance their vocabulary and writing I created a "Fancy Nancy" wall this year. On Fridays we add a new "Fancy Nancy" word to our bulletin board (okay it's a door, but wall space is very limited this year!!). I ask the students to give me words to replace tired and boring words like "said" and "good" and I write their correct responses on the board. When we are out of ideas I grab the Thesaurus and help them out. Later in the year when they have been taught how to use a Thesaurus I have students help me with this. I then have the students who gave me responses write the new fancy word on an index card strip (I cut 4x6 index cards to make my strips). I give a strip to students, who didn't give a response, to write the words that we came up with as a class using the Thesaurus. We usually have about 10-11 fancy words to replace each boring word. The pockets that I use came from the Dollar Tree! Excellent bargain :) I then stick 4 mounting tabs on the back of the pocket and stick it to the bulletin board..or door.. I discovered those mounting tabs at a Lakeshore store over the summer and I'll never use tape again. It's the middle of the year and nothing has fallen off my walls yet ::knock on wood:: you can also peel them off at anytime and it doesn't ruin the walls or the items you are taking down. Here is the Fancy Nancy poster I created. These are the word labels I printed on Avery address labels. You can also add as many more as you would like. I chose to use the most overused words. Now during writing activities the students will get up and pull out a "Fancy Nancy" word from the pocket and use it in their writing. This takes up a lot less space than creating a word wall and I like that the kids are part of the process; they write the words and can carry the strip back to their seat during writing. 

10 comments:

Cindy said...

That's awesome! My son loves the Fancy Nancy books. I'll have to keep this in mind! ;)

Ms.M said...

This is just the activity my class is missig! Thank you. My students were less than trilled with our "put said to bed" activies. This will be perfect because I'm always talking about "fancy words".

Ms. M
www.msk1ell.blogspot.com

Allison said...

I just found your blog, and have been browsing around. I absolutely had to comment on this post (even though it's an older one) because I love this idea! It will be immediately implemented in my room- as soon as we get rid of all this snow!

ashley said...

Very cute and easy idea! Thanks for sharing!
http://firstgradebrain.blogspot.com

Mrs. S. said...

Thanks for sharing! :)

Melly <><

Second Grade Strategies for Sizzlin' Second Graders!

Sarah Adams said...

This is a MUST do this year! Thanks for sharing it's too cute! Expanding vocabulary is what I work on often!

Http://californiaenglishteacher.blogspot.com

Mrs. Hoang said...

great idea. i will try it this year. thanks for sharing! :)

Amanda Lynn said...

I LOVE this! Thank you so much!

paulas said...

Love this! I don't suppose you could fire me off a copy that spells favorite "favourite"

Anonymous said...

Hi there - The link to the poster is broken, could you repost please? Many, many thanks!

Post a Comment