Making Words and Themes 2-28

I am so excited!!  All the kids were so enthusiastic this week about the "mystery word."  Also, they are getting the concept of homophones because they can identify them without prompting.  I don't know that this has anything to do with the phonics instruction and their fluency, but they do have some useful information to help them understand what they are reading.  Success again when I told them they could have partners during this activity.  It's weird, though, because they don't actually use them.  Just the thought of a partner activity excites them. One theme I am finding is that having social interaction/cooperative learning motivates them and they perform better, going above and beyond my expectations.  One example is when several students add more words to their word sort categories in their word study notebooks. Nate was successful again.  I showed him hw to just switch the begining letter in pale to sale instead of moving all the letters.  He didn't make that connection that they rhymed so they probably have the same ending letters.  All the students were focused and engaged.  I had to redirect only Becca a couple of times.