K Daily 5 CH 6 Linky Party WORD WORK FREEBIES

Word work is one of my favorite activities to do during our literacy time.

Here are my answers to this week’s questions. J

1. Experimenting with words for learning and practicing a spelling pattern (brainstorm a list of ways you can do this)

Before students can learn words, they need to learn letters. I will start the year by working on their names. We can do this in many ways. Each week we will also introduce new sight words. My activities will include:

·       Play dough mats

·       Magnetic boards

·       Letter sorts

·       File Folder Games

·       Matching and sorting letters and words

·       Stamping

2. Memorize high frequency words (How often do you introduce new words? Do your students have their own lists of words that they can work on? How will you keep track of words that they already know?

I introduce one or two new sight words each week starting in week two of school. We sing songs, have games, and have flash cards to practice. Focusing on the word wall is very important too. Students are required to read thirty sight words before first grade, but my goal is much greater for them. This year, I think I will put a word list in their take home folder each week for them to practice at home and with me. We do regular assessments to test whether or not they have memorized their sight words.

3. Generalize spelling patterns (brainstorm a list of ways you can do this).

This is an area I don’t plan on focusing on at the beginning of the year. I need to think about this more. I think the more phonemes students learn, it will increase the learning opportunities and works that can be done.

4. Adding to our knowledge and curiosity of unique and interesting words. (What is the best way to do this?)

Students love real vs. nonsense word activities. So much of our learning in Kinder is driven by VOCABULARY so we really have to seize every opportunity to teach students all words, even the “big” ones. This year, I think I will have a word of the week. Who said that a five year old can’t use “big” words? J

Other things to think about:

· What materials do I already have?

   I already have a writing center and shelf I plan to use for word work activities.

· What materials would I like to get?

   As I take the plunge to do D5 next year, I am sure I will create all sorts of stuff.

·       

How will I store them?

I will have a plastic tub that I put activities in large ziplock bags.

· Where will students work?

   Students will work at the Word Work Table.

Here are a few activities (coming soon) I created for the beginning of the year. Click the pictures to download. If you do, please let me know what you think. Happy hopping!


Give students magnetic letters or letter tiles and have the sort capital or lowercase letters, or letters in their name vs. letters not in their name. 

Use these play dough mats to work on fine motor skills and letter formation. Students can use two different colors of play dough too...one for lowercase and a different one for capital letters. Start with letters in their name. Here are mats for all letters.

Students can use this center to practice writing their sight words or print out the sight words, tape them to a magnetic board and have students create the words with magnetic letters. They can also use them as a play dough mat. If you have stamps, give students a blank piece of paper and have them stamp the sight words. There are tons of things you can do with sight word cards!  

Make sure you leave a comment telling us about your favorite word work activity!