Using Wordle in Language Arts

Our oldest daughter is completely crazy over Wordle!  What is Wordle?  To put it simple, an online tool that can easily spice up your curriculum and make learning, dare I say, FUN!  It takes a list of words and makes a word cloud.  Simple idea, right?  Anyway, in between her lessons, she hops over to my computer and creates a new Wordle: song lyrics, her cousins' poetry blog, words form the first page of Genesis, and her list of pronouns.  Anyway, you get the point.  The girl is crazy over Wordle.  She even taught her younger brother and sister how to make Wordles of their spelling lists. 

****You can check out a few of her creations at our St. Francis School- Building Language site.****

Due to all of the excitement, I decided to think of a way to utilize Wordle in her grammar lesson.  We use Michael Clay Thompson's Grammar Town program with her.  It is both "outside-of-the-box" and challenging.  His philosophy is to spend the early part of the year teach the basics of grammar and the rest of the year learning how to apply them.  Last year, she learned the eight basic parts of speech and the basics of clauses and prepositional phrases.  This year, she builds on that prior knowledge by learning about the different types of pronouns and phrases, verb tenses, and clauses.  She is now at the point of reviewing the eight basic parts of speech. 

So, I thought it would be a fun Friday activity to use Wordle to review.  I created the "cloud" above of the basic parts of speech and printed a hard copy for her to use during the lesson.  Now, she basically will go on a scavenger hunt and color code the basic parts of speech based upon the following legend:

• red= nouns
• pink= adjectives
• purple= verbs
• aqua= adverbs
• green= prepositions
• yellow= conjunctions

I know the basic lesson is simple but sometimes the best lessons are not too cumbersome.  I thought this would be a nice way to fuse together a new passion with an old standard.  I have a feeling, though, she is going to find a way to do it all on the computer before all is said and done.  The wheels are constantly turning!  I would love hear how you have used Wordle or if you have any ideas or suggestions on how to take this further. 

*Just a note:  I have already been informed, by her of course, that she wants to do a final project for her  Bridge to Terabithia