I don’t care what you call it…winter has arrived in the Midwest with a vengeance. It reminds me of a favorite word finding experience with a group of 3rd graders. Last winter was the awful polar vortex, which may just be repeated this year. In the Chicago suburbs, we had snow days and days cancelled because of extreme wind-chill conditions. So of course it was important to be able to retrieve the term “polar vortex” in order to discuss the weather. So I went to work thinking of a phonemic mnemonic cue…aha!! “Polar for Tex[as]”. So I drew a cute little picture of a polar bear reaching down over the globe toward Texas. He was reaching for Texas, right?
Not being content to reinforce the syllables sitting down, I asked each child in turn to stand on my table and act the part of the polar bear. My friend Jason was standing on my table, reaching down to touch the back of David, who was kneeling on the floor. Polar vortex, polar vortex, polar vortex. Say the word, but THINK the cue….
And who appeared at my door? The superintendent of schools! How to explain my multi-sensory lesson on retrieving the term “polar vortex”? Oh, my… children standing on tables…. So of course I had the “polar bear” explain to Dr. Superintendent how he learned to retrieve the term more efficiently. It was a hit! (phew….).