September 20, 2016
Use Feed Me Words in Your Classroom
The Bee has always had a passion for helping students develop a love of language, and now thanks to a new partnership with Roaring Brook Press, we are reaching beyond the first- through eight-graders who participate in spelling bees every year. Feed Me Words, a book for children ages 6-10, includes stories, puzzles and fun word-themed activities to help young readers develop the English language skills that will help them all their lives.
Enter to win a free copy of Feed Me Words!
Available for purchase today, September 20, Feed Me Words was selected as an Amazon Best Book of the Month for September in the children's non-fiction category. The book is written by Kris Hirschmann and illustrated by James K. Hindle, and was developed in partnership with the Bee, which means you can expect to find great words and language information that students need to know like homonyms, synonyms and silent letters.
Want to throw a spelling bee party in your classroom? Use the Feed Me Words Spelling Bee Party Guide with word-themed games and activities to do with your students.
Purchase Feed Me Words at Amazon.com and other retail outlets.
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A New Word Wall for a New School Year
Last December, we asked our teachers to complete a survey about their spelling bee experiences and the Teacher's Beehive, and we received some great feedback. One thing that we particularly loved to hear is how you loved our Word Wall activities, so we're bringing them back again this year!
Each issue we'll include a new batch of Word Wall tiles that you can print, cut out and affix to the walls of your classroom. Here are the first tiles for grades one through eight, straight from the School Level Study List.
First Grade Words
Second Grade Words
Third Grade Words
Fourth Grade Words
Fifth Grade Words
Sixth Grade Words
Seventh Grade Words
Eighth Grade Words
Post photos of your Word Wall and tag us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We want to know how you utilize the Word Wall to help your students with their spelling and vocabulary skills!
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With Word Wise (sample) on a Kindle e-reader or with the Kindle reading app, short and simple definitions automatically appear above difficult words so your students can read more challenging books with fewer interruptions. Tapping on a word brings up a simple card with definitions, synonyms and more resources for students.
Word Wise is available with many popular titles for children, and this year, we used a selection of these Word Wise titles as the source for the words on the 2017 School Level Study List. Each week, we choose a title from our Source Book List and highlight even more words your students will use in their everyday lives.
 Cinder
By Marissa Meyer
Grade Level: 7
The first book in The Lunar Chronicles series, Cinder is about a teenaged cyborg girl who works as a mechanic in New Beijing. When she is approached by Prince Kai to repair an android, she finds herself caught up in an intergalactic struggle between the Earthens and the Lunars, the people who live on the moon. In the process, Cinder uncovers secrets about her past that have huge implications for her future and the fate of the entire world.
A futuristic, science fiction interpretation of the classic fairytale "Cinderella," Cinder is a fast-paced, original Young Adult novel that will sweep your students up into a world of cyborgs and androids.
A few of the words your students will learn with Word Wise:
alighted │ balmy │ cyborgs │ ethereal │ luminescence mangled │ piqued │ quarantines │ squeamish │ stifling
Cinder is available to purchase and download from the Kindle store. Visit the Kindle website for more information on Word Wise, Kindle FreeTime and other student-friendly features.
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Storm Shield meteorologist Jason Meyers breaks down the meaning of weather words in a way that is fun and accessible for your students. Storm Shield is the app that sends severe weather alerts for your exact location straight to your mobile device.
What is the SWEAT Index?
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Dr. Jacques Bailly, the 1980 national spelling champion, is a professor of classics at the University of Vermont and the official pronouncer for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. In "White Board Words," he explains the origins of words that your students know from the School Level Study List.
1. bus (noun) is a vehicle used for transporting children to or from school.
Justin sat at the front of the bus on the way home from school.
Some words are apparently too long for some people. For example, bus is a clipping of the word omnibus, which was invented in French around 1825 for a vehicle called an omnibus used to transport people. Omnibus was taken from Latin and means “for everyone.” Although one meaning of English omnibus and its shorter version, bus, is still a vehicle for anyone, bus has a more specific meaning for most children: “a vehicle used for transporting children to or from school.”
Among the many other words that result from clipping are tab (from tabloid), taxi (originally from taximeter but also taxi-cab), and ink (from encaustic).
2. janitor (noun) is someone who keeps an apartment, office or other building clean and who makes minor repairs.
Morris took a part-time job as a janitor at an apartment complex in exchange for free rent.
Janitor is from Latin janua "door" + -tor "person." Evidently the job of doorkeeping often expanded, and so it came to mean what it does today. January is from a related root, the name of a Roman deity called Janus who guarded the doors of things and also the beginnings of things.
3. lava (noun) is fluid rock that comes out of a volcano or from an opening in the earth's surface.
Lava can flow great distances before cooling and hardening.
Lava is from Italian lava, which comes from Italian lavare "to wash," which comes from Latin lavare "to wash." It was used originally in Italian of sudden streams that formed when it rains, but then came to be used by the people of Naples for the lava flows of Mt. Vesuvius, and from there it spread to English.
4. laundry (noun) is a group of clothes or household linens to be washed.
Mike's mother told him that she expects him to put his dirty laundry in the hamper.
Another word that comes from Latin lavare is the noun laundry and the verb launder "wash," which came from earlier English words lavendry and lavender, which mean the same thing as our laundry and launder.
You might wonder about the plant lavender and whether it is connected to washing. Well, it probably came from a completely different root word (perhaps Latin livendula), but it is likely because lavender was often used to perfume laundry, its spelling and pronunciation became similar to the word lavender that became launder.
5. wallah (noun) is a person who is associated with a particular type of work or who performs a specific duty or service.
Kumail flagged a rickshaw wallah who gave him a 15-minute ride to his hotel.
In Hindi, a language of India, wala means "pertaining to" and is often used in phrases or words for particular occupations, such as a young man I met whose last name was "Gaslight-wala" because his ancestor cared for the street lighting of an Indian town back when the lights used gas instead of electricity. English people simply assumed that wala meant "person" in the many Hindi phrases that end in -wala and not just "pertaining to," which gave rise to the English definition.
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Mignon Fogarty is better known as Grammar Girl, and these tips and tricks are perfect supplements to an English/Language Arts lesson. Mignon is the author of seven books on English, including 101 Misused Words You'll Never Confuse Again and the New York Times best-seller Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing.
"Affective" or "Effective"?
The word you almost always want when you’re thinking of something that’s effective--meaning useful, functional, or efficient-- is effective with an E.
That’s the word you want in sentences such as these:
- Squiggly is a particularly effective leader.
- Squiggly and Aardvark had an effective meeting.
- Effective immediately, we’ll have chocolate at every meeting.
Affective with an A has more specialized meanings that relate to emotions and education.
Read More...
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