Vocabulary Activities/ Games

Today, I called in sick because I wasn't feeling well. Yes, I'm writing this while I'm sick. Anyone who is a teacher knows that you have to write out substitute teacher lesson plans. Well, much of what I do on any given day is guided instruction and group discussion. Since I don't expect the substitute teacher to do that, I had to find some filler. Therefore, I Googled "vocabulary high school" and got these two sites:

* Vocabulary University
* Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun

There is a blog at the latter site that can be found at this link.

I love the Internet. It makes finding good activities easy.

Writing Prompts for Journal Writing and Other Activities

At the beginning of each class, I have my students write on a topic of the day. Also, I've begun having my students write compositions. Therefore, I need writing prompts. I found these on the web:

* Writing Prompts/ Journal Topics in CanTeach (these aren't meant for elementary students, but many of the writing prompts can be used in secondary classrooms, too.)

* An interactive page of Creative Writing Prompts in CreativeWritingPrompts.com

* Writing Prompts from EverydaySpelling.com

* Daily Writing Prompts from TheTeacher'sCorner.net includes PDF documents that you can print!
y Writing Prompts
...and many more can be found by doing a Google Search.

Suggestion: As with my sponge activities, I've created a folder for lesson plans. I could put these prompts either in lesson plans or in sponge activities folders based on how I used them.

Sponge Activities

I've been running out of stuff to do in my classroom. I've discovered that wasted time leads to classroom management problems. So I've been looking for "sponge activities" to soak up that extra time. Below are sites that offer these type of activities:

* Sponge Activities from InspiringTeachers.com

* Sponges from Dr. Mora's Cross Cultural Language and Academic Development (CLAD) website.

* Don't Waste a Minute!, Five Minute Fillers Archives (40 volumes), Substitute Survival: Mini-Lessons for Unexpected Moments, Word-Zles and Ten Games for Classroom Fun! - all from Education World

* Sponge Activities from the Northside Independent School District

... and there are many more sites on the web that I found by just doing a Google Search.

Suggestion: I've created a folder for just sponge activities. As I have come across a good activity I either print or copy it and put it in the folder. I've placed the folder behind my desk so that I can access it anytime that I need something to do.