IT'S ABOUT TIME, TEACHERS, for a DIGITAL ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

 As St. Patrick's Day approaches, take the TIME to check out these digital resources, especially for the holiday. Digital learning means that you have little or no prep TIME to make them ready for your students. Who doesn't love saving TIME?

IT'S ABOUT TIME for HINK PINKS!

 

If you are not familiar with HINK PINKS, you are in for a treat.  They are word riddles that pack a ton of serious learning into a super, fun activity.  The clues to the riddles lead to a 2 word answer.  The solution words must rhyme and each have just one syllable.  Here's an example:

The answer is SWEET TREAT.

The vocabulary skills exercised include definitions, synonyms, parts of speech, rimes, & tenses.  Research skills are involved, too, if you provide dictionaries, thesauri, and their technology versions. At the same time, learners will interpret data, make inferences, draw conclusions, and analyze new information; i.e. work with H.O.T.S. In addition to all these good things, HINK PINKS are so popular among students that you will be amazed.  Mine literally beg to do HINK PINKS every day.

If you are curious about them, check out this free set:

HINK PINKS have been a staple in my teaching for decades.  Hence, my TPT Store offers more than 3 dozen HINK PINK products and their cousins HINKY PINKIES and HINKITY PINKITIES.  I even have HINK PINKS and HINKY PINKIES for Kinders that challenge students to determine the rhyming words based on pictures; no reading required.  Here's the FREE version of those:

You can find HINK PINK units at a 30% savings if you opt for the bundle.

There are also bundles for HINKY PINKIES and HINKITY PINKITIES.

There are combination units for holidays, also bundled for additional savings.

I offer combination units with specific themes, too.

Now is a great time to stock up on HINK PINKS, et al.  There are a few hours left in TPT Site Sale.  But, if you missed it, my store will remain on sale 3/30 & 3/31/23 at 20% savings.  That's 20% off the already reduced bundle prices.  

IT'S ABOUT TIME for a NEW YEAR and NEW HINK PINKS, et al.

 

There are new HINK PINKS, et al. available!  I just completed this product and uploaded it to TPT.  Fans of these fun riddles will find these challenging, both in subject matter and vocabulary.  Creatures from myths, folktales, and fairy tales are the focus.  Some may be unfamiliar to students. To help your learners out, I've included a 3 page Mythical Creatures Guide.

You can decide if you want to provide this aide, or compel your students to do some research.

Here's a sample:

There are so many things to love about HINK PINKS, et al.  These task cards provide work on definitions, synonyms, parts of speech, rimes, vocabulary, & grammar.  They also promote critical thinking; specifically making inferences, interpreting data, & drawing conclusions. The very best part is that students absolutely love them.  Year after year, my charges literally beg to do these word riddles.

If you love HINK PINKS, et al., and I'm sure you will, you will find about 3 dozen products in my store.  Several are FREE!  Try them before you buy them.  MYTHICAL CREATURES HINK PINKS, et al. are also available digitally on TPT Easel.

It's About Time for Some Monster Love!

Children love monsters.

Monsters love synonyms.

Therefore, children love synonyms!

At least they will when you set up this literacy center:

Monsters Love Synonyms is a literacy center in which your little monster lovers will find pairs of synonyms. 36 monster cards are provided, allowing your students to find up to 18 pairs. You should tailor the number to fit the age and stage of your students. 2 versions of the recording sheet allow you to easily differentiate the task. Moreover, 2 versions of the cards are included: 1 in color, 1 in grayscale. If you choose the ink saving version, I recommend printing the cards on colored cardstock to add a little more pizzazz.  

Don't let the love stop there! Try Monsters Love Antonyms, too. In this center, your learners will find antonym pairs.  

Share some more monster love with Monsters Love Homophones. Did I mention that all of these centers include an anchor chart for display in your center?

You can share even more love with Monsters Love Contractions!

But wait! There's even more love to be had. Get all of these centers in one big bundle of love:

While these monster-ous centers have overtones of Valentine's Day, monsters know no season. There are no references to the holiday, so you can use these centers any time of the year. Remember, children love monsters!

The Great Vocabulary Divide

Educational research is replete with studies about THE GREAT VOCABULARY DIVIDE between successful and unsuccessful students; a fact every teacher knows without benefit of those studies.  

While the research shows that the gap begins in infancy (with a 30 million word difference in exposure to words by age 4 between socio economic classes), the import to education is that vocabulary development is crucial to all learning. It is no surprise that children with larger vocabularies are better equipped for learning when they enter school.  After all, by virtue of hearing more words, they are exposed to more grammar, sentence structure, cadence, expression, and countless other aspects of language that are vital to success.  By 3rd grade, when reading shifts from learning to read to reading to learn, the gap is wider; the consequences more pronounced.  Bottom line, children with larger vocabularies are stronger readers and perform significantly better on standardized tests.

What are teachers to do about this divide? Clearly they must create word-rich environments that entice their students to revel in the power of words.  Direct, daily instruction is key, yet research shows that dictionary work is the least effective method. According to Blachowicz, Beyersdorfer, & Fisher (2006), young children need 4 conditions to develop vocabulary knowledge:

1. exposure to new vocabulary
2. engagement and motivation
3. multiple experiences with new words that promote context and definition
4. independent word-learning strategies.

I will argue that children need 3 additional things:

1. teachers who model a love of words
2. interest in and curiousity about words
3. active involvement in "playing" with words.

I am a self-professed logophile.  Words have always intrigued me and word play delights me. It is only natural, then, that I consistently incorporate word play into my curricula. I call it "play" because that is what it feels like to my students.  It's learning disguised as fun and it fulfills all the conditions cited above. 

One example of word play in my class is Hinky Pinkies.

Intrigued? These vocabulary building, critical thinking exercises are so popular with students that they literally beg to do them. How often do you get enthusiasm like that? 

Hinky Pinkies are often thought to be for gifted students. Certainly G/T students love them and engage easily with them. But there is no universal law that restricts them from being used with regular ed. kiddos. I have decades of experience using Hinky Pinkies with heterogeneous groups as young as 2nd grade. In fact, special ed. teachers and speech and language therapists have left positive feedback about using them with their students.  

As a result of working with Hinky Pinkies, your students will not only increase their vocabularies, but gain facility with syllables, phonemes, synonyms, parts of speech, and verb tenses. They exercise their problem solving and critical thinking skills. My children have been known to voluntarily seek out dictionaries and thesauri!

The vocabulary benefits alone should be enough to convince any teacher to try these riddles. But my favorite outcome is the look of pleasure and satisfaction on my students' faces when they solve their first Hinky Pinky all by themselves.

You can find lots of Hink Pinks, Hinky Pinkies, and Hinkity Pinkities in my TPT store, but you can try these for FREE!  And they are just in time for St. Patrick's Day.