manacah wrote:Hi, I was wondering if the activity cards for Spelling Power are the same as the activities listed in the back of the Spelling Power book (I have the 3rd edition)? Can anyone tell me?
Thanks,
Shelley
Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 6:56 am
Description overkill:
- The box contains 365 cards.
- These cards are sorted into 5 categories: Drills, Skills, Writing Prompts, Dictionary, Homophones.
- In each of those categories, you have 4 age/grade levels of activities with which to work. Those age levels are color coded. So all the pink cards are a certain age group, etc.
But wait, you’re thinking: isn’t that already included in the SP book? Well, not exactly. The box has more ideas than the book. Some things are repeated between both box and book. (Edited to add: The CD has the cards in the book, not the cards in the box. The book and, therefore, the teacher resource cd rom have 100 cards rather than the 365 in the box.)
Ready for information overload??
The highest number of duplicates between the book and the box occur in the section called "Drill" that is geared for Primary and Elementary. There are only a handful of these cards in the box that are not already in the SP book.
After that, in the drill section you still have 2 other levels -- intermediate and advanced. There are very few ideas in the book, and lots in the box, for those ages in Drill.
Then after that, the box set has a lot more than the book in all levels of "Skill", "Writing Prompts", "dictionary" and "homonym".
- In the book under "skill" there are about 7 ideas. In the box there are about 80 ideas.
In the book under "writing prompts" there are 13 or so. In the box 80 or so.
In the book under "dictionary" there are 10 or so and about 70 in the box.
In the book under 'homonym" 7, in box 40 or so.
I think the proofreading ideas are included in the box
I'm not sure about the teacher directed activities and other things that in are in the book.
I like the Dictionary and Homophone sections because my kid is weak in those areas and this is a quick and ready way to work with it. I’m not a big fan of the writing prompts with spelling word list --- we write sentences with the words during the 10 step study section, so for *my* kid, it was too much of a good thing.
An advantage: they can be used with any spelling program, not just spelling power. But, you have to use them to make it worth it. And – it can be done a little independently with some children.
Disadvantage to the Activity Cards: you have to use them to make it worth anything. Will YOU use them? I dunno.
Posted Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:51 am by cbollin
This is just my opinion. I have not found the Extra Boxed Set of activity cards as helpful as I had hoped. So they sit on the shelf to look at from time to time. I was ok with using them for a little while. But I have a hard time saying that they *need* to be bought. I thought, hmmm.. we'll use these on Fridays to cover dictionary skills or something. oh well. best plans.
There are about 100 activities in the SP book itself. The cards have about 200 other ideas to try so there are about 365 ish cards in the box.
I ended up picking out 2-3 activities from the SP book and rotate use of them with my kids. So, doing the activities is helpful. But you don't need the boxed set.
In the 4th edition of SP (current one being sold), you get a teacher resource CD Rom so you can print out the 100 or so activities and you can just use those.
however, if you find that after trying what is in the book and you can't pull it together, then I can see how having the box of activities could help. it is completely optional. I would try it without it and then add later if needed. There might be some teachers and student who find it easier to use the box and it makes it worth the price.
-crystal
