I’m not sure how feasible this is, but you can bet it something I am going to try to get going in my classroom ASAP. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, and I will try it in my niece’s and nephews’ rooms.
Wait for it…
A SCRABBLE WALL!!
This will probably work better with older students, but after working with younger students for the majority of my experiences, I have faith that this is something they could handle if they were taught how to play properly. I can think of countless uses for this Scrabble wall.
- Word Wall: If you don’t want to use this as something interactive, use your own creative juices to make it work as the word wall in your room
- Sight Word Center: Ummmm, hello?! What better way to practice sight words than to send kids back there and have them play a friendly game of Scrabble? You can modify this based on needs, either just using one week of words or have all the ones learned so far as options.
- Center Game: Why stifle students by making it only a sight word game? Let them build their own vocabularies by playing what they can create with their letters. A virtual station could be set up using a classroom computer to have a Scrabble dictionary pulled up.
- Ticket Out the Door: Let each student get a chance to practice on this wall daily by making it a “Ticket Out the Door” activity.
- Thematic Wall: I plan on teaching in units, and this wall would be a great way for children to add words that revolve around that unit as we discover more about the topics encompassed within.
- Classroom Community: This would be great at the beginning of the year, but it would also work throughout. Student names could be arranged on the wall, or favorite sports, colors, games, books, etc. of each child, and the class could guess who is who to bring them closer.
- Phonics Practice: For younger students still working on phonics, small groups can be pulled back with a teacher, and nonsense words can be made on the board. Children could practice sounding out and writing these words.
These are just some ideas off of the top of my head, and I’m sure I could come up with many more. I just love the idea. You can really arrange it for any purpose you need in your room. That being said, I just thought of the idea that if you created it so it was not merely a Scrabble board, tiles flipped and used on the other side as Dominoes for several math activities and games.
I know it is a big project to take on and could get pricey, but we are teachers. We are thrifty. I know if we put our minds to it, we can each think of ways to create this without spending a cent (think cardboard boxes, styrofoam, paint, velcro…). It’s for the kids 🙂 You know they will all want to be in the room with the larger-than-life Scrabble board.
minervateach. 