Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Vowel Team Football Games

We have been learning about different vowel teams over the last few weeks and this week I wanted to add a bit of excitement to our daily practice and review of the OA and OW teams.  I had purchased these football banners a while back at Walmart on clearance and this week was the perfect opportunity to create a football field for us to "play on".  
When my kiddos came into our classroom yesterday they went nuts for the football field and the room was buzzing all morning wondering how we were going to "play" football to get some practice with our OA and OW vowel teams.  

The field was super easy to make.  I just used tape and wrote the numbers on the tape.  For the goalpost I used old pool noodles I had at home.  I knew I saved those extra pool noodles for a reason!

Here's how the game works... I divided my kids into two teams, the Green Goals and the Orange Throwers.  Then the team selected a quarterback to stand on the field with the mini-football egg (also found at Walmart in the Easter section!).  

As I shouted out words each team member needed to spell the words on their individual recording sheets.  If every teammate spelled the word correctly, the quarterback would get a "first down" and move 10 yards towards the end zone.   

Having individual recording sheets worked well because every team member was working and engaged the whole time, not waiting for their turn to do the "work". On day 1 after each team scored a touchdown, I gave them one additional word to earn the "extra-point".  So at the end of quarter 1 (or day 1) the score was tied 7 - 7.  I did the same thing for today for day 2 and the score is now tied 14-14.  

On Thursday and Friday we'll step it up a bit. I'll either give them a word and they'll have to use it in a written sentence or I'll give them a sentence using the OA and OW words that needs to be edited.

To add a bit more excitement I gave one member of each team a pom pom so they could cheer on their teams as they were working to earn their first downs. I also played the NFL on Fox theme song.  I only had a few kiddos that knew the song... but it still made it exciting for them to play!  After we played today and the score was tied we did this victory dance on GoNoodle to celebrate the first two quarters of our classroom football game.  

It's always amazing how little things can truly keep the kids engaged and motivated to work hard!  

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