RIP Overused Words!

As the end of the school year quickly approaches {so crazy!}, I find myself reflecting back on some of my favorite activities and lessons I tried out with my fourth graders this year.

In my classroom, I use a combination of Daily 5, CAFE {adapted to CRAFT}, and 6+1 for guided reading and writing instruction. I love using all of these different 'methods' and 'techniques' in my classroom, but every once in awhile I add-in a couple of random CRAFTIVITIES, as I like to call them, to get my kiddos practicing a skill that they seem to be lacking, as a whole.

One of the things my kids all REALLY needed to work on was spicing up their writing! I do a couple of mini-lessons with my kids on Word Choice called: Spaghetti & Meatball Words.

They. Love. This. 

Basically, I tell my kids that every piece of writing they do will be full of spaghetti words, the words that really hold everything together and give the reader the information they are looking for. BUT, every piece of writing should also have a few 'Spicy Meatball Words' {side note: you MUST say 'Spicy Meatball Words' in your best Italian chef accent, every single time you say it, or this just will not be effective. Seriously. Do it. They eat it up... see what I did there?! ;)} Anyways, THEY LOVE THIS!

As much as they LOVE adding in their meatball words, some of them still struggle with SUCH boring spaghetti words. It can be painful to read some of their writing because it is so mundane. One thing I really stressed this year was the use of the thesaurus. I taught my kids how to use an 'old-fashioned' thesaurus, as well as the tool on Microsoft Word, and online. Once my kiddos were equipped with the tools needed to find more interesting words, things were improving.

One 'craftivity' we completed together was RIP Overused Words! I split my kiddos into groups and had them come up with a list of words {based on their own writing in their writer's notebooks} that they thought they all really overused. Once everyone had a list, we gathered back together whole-group and decided on our top 5 words we were NEVER TO USE AGAIN in our writing!

*Some of the groups had words like "and", "but", etc. We talked about how these words are kind of the glue throughout our writing, but we acknowledged the fact they are used often. 

Once every group was assigned one of our 5 overused words, they set off to find a new list of words that we could replace their 'chosen word' with! They were able to use the 'old-fashioned' thesaurus, as well as any online options. We then added our new word lists below our "NEVER TO BE USED AGAIN" words onto our tombstones. 

The kiddos are able to use these as a tool for their writing, to make sure they are getting rid of some of those boring, overused words, and replacing them with some SPICY MEATBALL WORDS! {said in Italian chef accent, I'm telling you, it's a must.}

Our Overused Words Cemetery! 

This is an activity I will definitely use year after year in combination with my other Word Choice mini-lessons. Anything that gets the kids crafting is always fun, in my opinion! 

Who says crafting is only for art class anyways?! 

This could definitely be adapted for other grade levels as well! :)

Happy Crafting!

~Kristen