About a month ago I posted on Classroom DIY about my Two-Sided Dry-Erase Boards. These little boards were super easy to make, and my students LOVE using them.
I bought white and black bristol board to make the dry erase boards. I cut each piece of bristol board into 6 pieces of 8.5 x 11 size. Place a white and black sheet into a laminating pouch, and laminate. That's it! (Told you it was easy). Yes, I know you've all seen many variations to make the dry erase boards, but I LOVE the black side of this one ... know why? ... we get to use the neon dry erase markers! So cool!!! I don't have quite enough neon dry erase markers for a full class set (I'm waiting for a sale - those things are expensive!), so I hand out the neon markers as a reward to students when using the boards (students who have finished all their homework, or showed good character, or whatever I feel like rewarding that day).
Right now we're using the dry erase boards to practice our multiplication skills - and my students CAN'T WAIT to use the boards. Every morning they come in and BEG to use the boards ... so, of course, I make them use their best persuasive language (we're writing persuasive paragraphs in writing right now) and let them think they've convinced me. They work with their elbow buddies for a bit on some questions I've put on the board, then we do some whole class review. When all students are done, I call out, "One, two, three ... show me!" and the students hold their boards up for me to check. I can quickly see who needs some extra help in a small group, and who has got it.
At the end of last week, the students asked if we could use these boards in language, too. I think it would be a lot of fun to use them during our Word Work this week when we're looking at parts of speech. Do any of you fabulous teachers have any wonderful tried-and-true ideas for working with parts of speech and the dry-erase boards? I want to go beyond the obvious listing of them and really make it engaging for my students.
Happy Monday!!
Jen
