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Saturday, August 6, 2011

Vocabulary Spelling City

Last year was the first year I became acquainted with Vocabulary Spelling City.  I was web surfing looking for something to work with our new Reading Series and keep reading about Spelling City.  I followed a link and ended up buying a classroom subscription for my class.

SpellingCity

My students loved it.  I could see where they were "playing" on it after school, on Saturday and on Sunday, just because they liked playing the games.  They also realized they were learning.  If I didn't get their list in on Friday night for the next week, trust me they shared it with me on Monday morning.  One week I didn't get it put in until Sunday, and you would have thought the world was going to end.  lol

After a couple of months into the year, the building I was assigned to rearranged the schedule and all our students were grouped into instructional levels.   I now did not have enough students in my allotment.  I hated to break the news to my home room, but not everyone would be allowed to be in Spelling City because I didn't have enough student spots in my subscription due to having to add my new Reading students.  I literally had kids in my home room in tears.

Since I purchased the subscription out of my budgeted personal funds for my class, I just didn't feel I could justify purchasing another subscription.  I told my home room that they would just have to wait until my budget would allow me to purchase an additional subscription.

A young lady came up to me the next day and wanted to know what a subscription cost for her.  She said she wanted to pay for her subscription so she could keep working on Spelling.  I am very honest with my students, so I told her that they had to be purchased in group.  She then wanted to know what it would cost and I told her. She walked away to her desk and began working.  In a few minutes, she came back and told me she had done some Math and wanted me to check her work.  I looked at it and couldn't figure out what she had done.  It wasn't even close to what she was supposed to be doing.  She explained to me what her allowance was and she had figured out how many weeks it would take of her saving her allowance so that everyone could have their student account.

I wanted to cry right there.  I asked her why it was so important to her.

She said Spelling was hard for her and a lot of kids and they were learning.  She told me that she knew that I had purchased everything for them and it was expensive.  She said that she was sure that if they all got to keep their accounts it would help them reach the goal of being the smartest kids in the building at the end of the year.  (That is always a goal I tell my kids for motivation.  They often come in telling me that they are dumb, they are in sixth grade and they can't learn.)  She told me Spelling City helped her learn and that her brothers and sisters were playing games when she logged in.  She wanted me to be able to see how much they were learning and how hard they were working.

I am sharing this with you because I know my students learned and enjoyed it using Vocabulary Spelling City.  Once I know my placement I will once again buy a subscription for my students this year.

If you have read this far, I want to tell you that Vocabulary Spelling City has given me a subscription to give to one of my blog friends when I do my Back-To-School celebration, which will be next week!

This testimonial was not requested or required by Vocabulary Spelling City to receive the subscription to give to one of my blog friends.  They offered it to just wish all my blog friends a wonderful Back-To-School.  How cool is that!

Look for more details next week when Vintage Teacher celebrates Back-To-School.  One more thing, please join in and share!

Clicking on the picture above will take you to Vocabulary Spelling City's website.

Clicking here will take you to Vocabulary Spelling City's Facebook page.  If you choose to visit them and like them, which I hope you do, would you please tell them Vintage Teacher sent you.  Thanks

SpellingCity
 

4 comments:

Ashleigh

This is very interesting. I'm definitely going to check it out!

Dr. Cara Whitehead, NBCT

Great site! My students love VocabularySpellingCity! They play the free games using their weekly spelling and vocabulary lists daily on our interactive whiteboard during literacy centers. There are also words lists for math and science vocabulary!

Unknown

My kids love spelling city! My 1-2 graders don't get much computer time so they love any time on comp. I send a note home and they practice at home too. I put my daughter's list on their too.

Readers 'R' Leaders

My student have access to a portable laptop lab. They love Vocabulary/Spelling City because they can work with it independently. Also because we use it at school they are comfortable using it at home. The site provides a meaningful and motivating way to practice spelling and vocab.

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