Dry Erase Boards, Great For Practicing Vocabulary – This Week’s Teaching Tip

Dry erase boards are a wonderful way to enhance literacy skills by practicing vocabulary words. As a seventh grade Spanish teacher, I focus my practice activities on spelling, grammar and sentence structure. Teachers of any grade or language may have fun with their classes, utilizing this technique. For my own classes, I enjoy having my students practice with this about four or five times a school year.

The materials to create these “erase boards” can be purchased at any home supply store that can cut shower doors into thirty squares for classroom use. For a less costly version, laminated white squares of cardboard also serve the purpose nicely.

In order to implement this activity, I choose students from a list of rotating classroom jobs. One student passes out and collects back the dry erase squares, while another student passes out and collects back the dry erase markers. The student who passes out napkins for the “erasers,” collects them and throws them out at the end of the practicing session.

Once my students and I are ready to begin the activity, I start by saying a word or phrase in English, and the students write it in Spanish on their dry erase boards. Then they hold up their boards so I can see them. If their answers are correct, I say, “Excelente” and the student’s Spanish name in front of the class to hear. If they need to correct something, I explain to them what needs to be corrected. Once they correct their answers with the necessary changes, they once again show me their boards as they hear my “excelente” and their name in Spanish. Everyone has to show me their board, or I ask the student what his or her answer is for that question. After everyone has shown me their boards and corrected them, I say “borren los pizarrones,” which means in Spanish “erase your boards.” Then the process starts over and over again for the duration of the practice activity. Some of the students sometimes slip in an “I love you, Mrs. Blumberg,” because they find this activity a fun, interactive way to review Spanish words and phrases. I always get a kick out of that. I never grow tired of reading that! Some even ask when we are going to work with the dry erase boards again.

In addition, this is a great way to also encourage active class participation by all students at the same time. Furthermore, whenever visitors happen to be in the room while my classes and I are working on this activity, whether they are students or adults, they always seem to be fascinated as they watch the process take place.

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Today’s book for the daily Book Giveaway is Booger Boogie!

Take a jazzy trip through an elementary school encountering snotty noses, exploding sneezes, and of course dripping boogers. But the Playdate Kids know just what to do in this smart yet silly musical story–they share tissues with classmates and teachers encouraging all to blow it out! CD and sheet music have been included so kids can share the fun.

To enter the giveaway for today’s book, just leave a comment about today’s post!