Soup-er Spelling Review

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     Well, my friends, today was one of those days that even I had a hard time staying positive. As usual, nothing to do with my kids or school, just the general nastiness of what's happening to us as professionals. But, also as usual, sitting with the kids and working on a project together lifted my spirits a bit. I did succumb to a little pity-party after school, but then venting talking to a good friend made me feel better. What a roller coaster day. Keep Calm and Carry On, right? The alternative is just too depressing.
     So, in keeping with the focus on the sunny side, I present to you the cutest spelling review EVER!

     First, we looked through our spelling notebooks and made a list of 20 words that were hard to learn, interesting, new or just fun. Then we painted paper plates red to resemble soup. Are you ready for this? My kids don't know about alphabet soup! How is that possible?? I grew up on alphabet soup!  So when I showed them an example project, they looked at me like I had 2 heads. It was really hard to resist the urge to stop at the store and buy cans of soup for the next day's snack, but I'm already waayyy over the spending limit for school supplies. (Who isn't, right?) Instead, I told them to ask their parents to let them try it and then did my best to convince them that this project was way cooler than they were giving me credit for.

     They won't fit all 20 words on the plate, but I wanted them to have plenty to choose from. One box of alphabet pasta was enough for my entire class of 18 with leftovers to do this project again for the next five years! Man, there are a lot of little letters in that box!  I had the kids find the letters for one word at a time, then I squeezed some clear Elmer's glue where they wanted the word to be on their plate. After I helped the first few kids, I had them act as helpers for the rest of the group. We just cycled in and out of the craft table over a few days to complete everyone's project.

     Check out the spoon! One of my kids came up with the idea of adding a word to the spoon. Some kids added a spelling word, some added their names. It works better if you hot glue the spoon to the plate for them first, then let them add the word in a pool of clear glue.

     Here are some other pointers: The letter Y is hard to find and much thicker than the rest of the letters. The M moonlights as the W. The I and H are also locked in a struggle for their own identity. There are also selected numbers thrown in just for fun, so that every new kid who sat down could tell me so. Hey, look! A 5!

    These will be on my bulletin board in the main hall with the "Soup-er Speller" title in the first picture. I've actually done these projects once before as a welcome back board with the title "Welcome Soup-er Second Graders!" I had the kids add their name and then words that described them. That time I used actual bowls instead of plates -they are much harder to tack to the board and got knocked off about 10 bajillion times a day. This time I used small Chinet paper plates. They took the paint really well and they have a bit of a dip in the middle that resembles a bowl, at least enough to give the illusion for the bulletin board.

     I hope you are all feeling some love this week for Teacher Appreciation. Goodness knows we need all that we can get lately. I think you are all just soup-er!