Words From Earth/Words From Mars: Real vs. Nonsense Words

4 posts in 4 days... can you tell I am on fall break?  Well, I guess I am not taking much of a break, but I love when time off lends itself to some creative time in between paper grading!

So... nonsense words.  I used to have a HUGE problem with this.  I mean, we're always telling kids, "Does that make sense?  Does that sound right?" and then here I am, giving them nonsense words?!  I figured out something, though.  Well, I think I did anyway.  When kids are learning to read, don't a lot of their words sound like nonsense words to them as they are trying to decode?  Does it really hurt to show them how to decode any word, real or not, and then decide if it is real?  I have decided that it's not so bad, especially when I get to do a fun activity like this with the class!

Words from Earth/Words from Mars takes common word families like -an, -ad, -am, and -at and gives kids a list of real and nonsense words from these families.  They have to decode the word using the phonics rules (in this case using the short a sound), and then decide if the word is real (from Earth) or nonsense (from Mars).

Click here to grab this from my TpT page!

This came from one of my many many word works activity books I have stashed in the closet.

 
 I LOVE this book!  Sometimes I just don't feel like doing a worksheet, though, and if I don't, I can guarantee my kids don't!  As I said in the last post, I was looking for some brain breaks to work on reading skills and decided to turn this activity into something I could use on the projector.  A word flashes on the screen and the kids have to decode the word.  Then they make an Earthling face or a Martian face (see how quiet this one is... yeah!) to vote whether it is a real word or a nonsense word.  I made it self-checking by making the following slide have the same word with either a picture of a boy or girl astronaut or an alien.  This way it could be printed out and put in a binder for work in small groups or centers.  I was also thinking about printing smaller cards and laminating them to make flashcards and a Memory game! 

So far we have just done this either with the worksheet or I have handwritten the words on sentence strips and done them as a whole class pocket chart activity, so I am super excited to try this as a brain break when I get back to school on Tuesday!  The real test will be whether or not the kids find these as fun as Mr. Harry's songs.  I can only hope to be a close 2nd!










http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Practicing-Real-vs-Nonsense-Words-Short-a-Words-From-EarthWords-From-Marshttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Practicing-Real-vs-Nonsense-Words-Short-a-Words-From-EarthWords-From-Marshttp://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Practicing-Real-vs-Nonsense-Words-Short-a-Words-From-EarthWords-From-Mars