Classroom Tested/Teacher & Student Approved

Today I am *FINALLY* posting about an awesome Smart(homo)Phone Craftivity that I received from the very creative Deb over at Crafting Connections.

When Deb first contacted me about trying out one of her craftivities over the summer, I was just digging into my new 4th grade curriculum, so I chose homophones, knowing that it was a 4th grade standard AND tough for kiddos to master.

In my district we use Evan-Moore for spelling; so I began the year with the two homophone lessons that are included in the book, knowing that I would need to review and work on homophones for the majority of the year. After spending two weeks on our homophone lists, we worked on the Smart(homo)Phone craftivity.

Most importantly, the kiddos got a big kick out of it! They were hooked as soon as they realized that they were making "iPhones." My favorite part is that Deb included 2 separate sets of sentences to make differentiation very easy. I was able to give the majority of my 4th graders the more difficult set - some sentences were a bit more challenging than others, but they worked through it. I would prefer that they be challenged that whip right through something that is too easy for them.

The idea is that "your friend" needs help studying for a test and "texts" you a sent with an underlined homophone. You have to write a response sentence using the other homophone. One sentence that still stands out to me that the majority of the kiddos struggled with had two homophones (scent and flower) in it. Many of them had Grandma's who sent them flour to make cupcakes! Haha.

When the kiddos had finished writing their sentences, we stapled the smartphones together and they glued them on construction paper. I used these to make a bulletin board for a few weeks and then the kiddos were able to take their creations home to share with their families. They loved sharing and reading each others, as well!

In conclusion, this was a great craftivity. I fully intend to use it again next year and for years to come with my 4th graders. I believe that it was very self-explanatory for teachers, as well as for the kiddos. I would highly recommend this as a great homophone review! Thanks so much Deb!

P.S. Note to self - take more photos next time.

Click on the button to head over to Deb's blog where she has a rafflecopter set-up to give this awesome craftivity away one of her lucky followers! :o) Good luck!

Thanks for reading!