Interactive ELL Practice: Great for Vocab on the Promethean Board!

Learning Chocolate is a wonderful resource for teachers who teach English as a Second Language Learners or any of the primary grades and want to reinforce basic vocabulary. If you have a Promethean board or an ActivSlate in your room, even better. These activites work well on the board AND you do not have to make anything! First, choose a category of basic vocabulary words. I chose "Animals 2" for the example below. Then you have a chance to review the vocabulary words: view a photos of the words, see them written out, and hear them pronounced (click on sound icon).


Then move on to matching. Click and drag the vocabulary word from the bank below and drag it into the box next to the matching photo. The best part?? The site is SELF-CHECKING! Just click the "complete" button and it will mark your work with red Xs or green check marks.

Next, another matching activity appears. But this time you click the sound icon from the bottom of the page, listen to the word, and drag it to the matching picture. Click "complete" to check your work.

Then students have a chance to type in the vocabulary word into the matching field under the photo. Click "complete" to check your work.

Next is the dictation section. Click the sound icon. Listen to the word pronounced. Then type the word into the field. Click "complete" to check your work.

There are many different categories of words on the site for teachers to use immediately in their classes. Don't reinvent the wheel. Check Learning Chocolate first!

Word Magnets: Great for Promethean Board Vocab Activities!

Word Magnets is a free resource where you can type in words and then move them around the page against different background templates. You can use this idea to create phonics activities, vocabulary and sight word practice, timelines, Venn Diagrams and more! When you get to the home page, click the big arrow at the bottom that says, "Use the resource". On the next screen where it advertises the upgrading to Word Magnets 2, wiggle your mouse and another arrow will appear that says, "Next". Finally, you will arrive at a text box where you can type or paste in a list of words that you want to move around the screen. Then click "next". In the example below, you can see I made a simple sorting activity with long vowel words and short vowel words.

Here I made a sorting activity that would be appropriate for ELL or primary kids learning sight words. If you click on a color before you choose a word, the word will change to that color. Now you can visually differentiate words as well. There are several different template backgrounds to choose from: Venn Diagram, Webs, Timelines, Ordering, etc. Check it out!

See and Spell: Practice Vocab or Spelling!

Remember the old See and Say toy from years ago? Now there is a website called Spin and Spell based on the same idea, but this time children practice their vocuabulary or their spelling online! (There is no string or cord to pull to make this work! Ha!)

Basically, you start off by choosing a category of words: animals, transportation, food, clothing, and home. The virtual board will populate with pictures. Students click the picture to make their choice, and then "spell" the word they chose clicking the letters on the see and spell wheel. When they are finished, they can check their work.

If you're students are not ready to spell yet, use it to teach vocabulary! Click the picture, and then instead of spelling it, choose 'Show me the word". The picture will appear with the corresponding vocabulary word.

This is a wonderful site to use with ELL students or primary students, depending on what your focus is. Enjoy!