Kinder Writing Tool

 

I blogged about this before, but I thought I would review one of my favorite writing tools: THE SPACEBOY/GIRL! Why spend money on Spacers, when you can make them for $0.99! WHAT?!?! That's right, I bought a bag of clothes pin from the 99 Cent store and the students had fun decorating their Spacers. Since they made their own, they love to use it to create spaces between words and as reading pointers.

Here is how I introduced the Spacers:
1. I chose one student's name and use magnets to demonstrate that letters are only letters, until they are 'pushed' together to create a meaningful word.

2. Then I would create a simple sentence with the student's name: I see Johhny. While I am writing the sentence, I use Mr. Spaceman (my giant spacer - made from a paint stir stick - FREE), to separate the words.

3. We count the words in the sentence (there's 3) and read the sentence with Mr. Spaceman pointing to each word.

4. I would then rewrite the sentence, but this time, I smushed all the letters together: IseeJohnny. We compare which sentence is easier to read and the students would come up with the reasons (i.e. the words are too close, can't tell where a word begins, hard to read etc). Sometimes, I would purposely put two students' names together and someone would always raise their hand and state that "That's not how I write their name." Then Mr. Spaceman comes to the rescue!