Buggy Word Families

Since our Reading/ Language Arts unit is now over, and we have finished the alphabet, we have been working on word families.  I have been racking my brains for different word family activities to do during reading groups. 

My partner in crime, Cori, found these cute fly swatters at Wal-Mart for $1, so I was also trying to think of something we could do with these.

Here is what I came up with:

I cut out a bunch of different color bugs, glued them to a piece of white construction paper and laminated it to keep in nice and neat.  Each color is a different family.  There is one word on each poster that does not belong in that word family.  The kiddos have to find the word that doesn't belong and swat it with the fly swatter.  Let me jusy say, that they LOVE it!  They were hitting the words as hard as they could! 

Let me also say that this is not how this activity started off. I had a huge piece of bulletin board paper that I taped to the chalk board (easy clean up). Then I taped and grouped the different families together. We did the activity, and they thought it was fun. After reading groups, I started to take it down and throw everything away, but I decided that I spent so much time cutting and writing on the bugs that I didn't want to throw them away! So I was trying to think of a more permanent idea that I could use over and over for centers, etc., and this is want I came up with!  I thought it would look really homemade, but it didn't turn out half bad!

P.S.  This is what my desk looks like right now.

It matches my currently chaotic life.  I feel like all I do is run around like a chicken with its head chopped off.  From the time I wake up until about 10:00pm it's rush rush rush!  On it, you can see my purse (which I didn't have time to put away), lesson plan ideas, printable books, progress monitoring tests (which I can't seem to get done no matter how hard I try), Relay for Life flyer (which I finally finished and sent home with all the students at my school), among other random papers that I don't know what to do with!  YIKES!  It all comes with the "end-of-the-year-finding-a-full-time-job-craziness".  But the good news is, I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Yay!

Happy Tuesday!