It's in the (Word) Bag!

Have you ever heard that one person’s junk is another person’s treasure? Does that expression make you think of a garage sale or a thrift store? 

It makes me think of junk mail. We all get it; we all dislike it! All that paper junk probably goes from your mailbox to your trash can. Well, read on and you will never think of junk mail in the same way again. 

Step one: Start collecting your junk mail or old magazines. I keep mine in a box or bag. Nobody dares to throw away any junk mail in my house until I have looked through it. You could also have your students bring in junk mail or have parents help with this project.

Step two: Go through the mail or magazines and look for words that are at least a half inch tall. Cut out those words and put them in another box/bag to save for step three. Look for words that represent all parts of speech, and are in different colors and a variety of fonts. When you have gathered up a good-sized collection, you are ready for the next step. 

Step three: Glue the words onto pieces of colored copy paper. Use a variety of different colors. Try to glue them on in straight rows with a little space in between the rows and the words. This allows you to get more words on the page and will make step five easier. If you use a glue stick, the process will go much faster. You don’t need to glue down all the corners. Just give it one swipe and slap it down. I also look for punctuation marks or print some from my computer. 

Step four: When you have accumulated a stack of pages, have them laminated. You need to hunt for a school supply store with a laminator if you don’t have one in your school. Having it done at an office supply store can get a little expensive. 

Step five: Cut out the laminated words. Don’t cut too close to the words because they could peel apart. Start filling up your Word Box/Bag that you will use for many activities in your classroom.  

Step six: Once you have a good-sized box/bag of words, you are ready to use them with your students. Put students in small groups, and give each group a handful of laminated words. It is a good idea to let the kids have some exploring time with the words before you ask them to do specific activities. Kids of all ages and ability levels enjoy using these words because they are colorful and interesting. 

After the exploration time, what can you and your students do with the words? Here are some activities that will help the students improve their grammar and writing skills, practice reading, and see how words can be fun.
 

1.      Primary/English Language Learners: Give each student a handful of words. Have the students put their words into two piles. One is labeled “I can read these words” and the other “I need more practice with these words.”

2.      Primary/Elementary/Special Needs: Give each child a handful of words. Have each child find an action verb in the pile but not show it to anyone else. Then have each child act out his or her action while other students guess what verb is being demonstrated. (If their pile contains no action verbs, they may exchange some of their words for others.)

3.      All Levels: Divide students into groups of 3 or 4. Give each group a handful of words. Have students put the words into categories of noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, etc. (depending on their skill level).

4.      All Levels: Divide students into groups of 3 or 4. Give each group a handful of words. Have students use the words to make sentences, paying attention to subject/verb agreement, pronoun usage, etc. Share these sentences with the rest of the class.

5.      Elementary to Upper Level: Hand one word to each student, and have all students walk around and find other students with words representing the same part of speech. After sorting, have them find other students whose words can combine with their own to make sentences.

6.      Elementary to Upper Level: Divide students into groups of 3 or 4. Give each group a formula for building a sentence. Each group uses words from the box/bag to make a sentence using that formula.

Ex: adjective, noun, verb (Big dogs run.)

Ex: pronoun, verb, plural noun (She likes kittens.)

Ex: proper noun, present tense verb, plural noun (Amanda likes flowers.)

Ex: proper noun, verb, article, adjective, noun (Emma washed the dirty dishes.)

Ex: helping verb, pronoun, action verb, noun, preposition, pronoun, noun (Will you help Ricky with his project?)

7.      Middle to Upper Level: This game is played in partners. Each player draws 10 words from the box and then tries to make a sentence using as many of his or her words as possible. (The sentence can be silly as long as it is a real sentence.) The students earn a point for each word in their sentence. A bonus of ten points is given for using all the words. Play continues for a specified period of time or until players reach a predetermined number of points.

8.      Middle to Upper Level: Divide students into groups of 2 or 3. Each group draws a word and tries to use it in as many different ways as possible. For example, paper could be used as a noun, a verb, or an adjective. Each team receives one point for a correctly identified part of speech and can accumulate points over several rounds.

Watch your students have fun with the bright, colorful, and varied words while increasing their reading, writing, and grammar skills. 

And remember—junk mail doesn’t have to be junk.

Post by Judith Holbrook