phonics

Word Work is such an important skill to practice in the primary classroom.  Word Work, or word study, is often considered “spelling practice” in classrooms.  While word study does involve learning to spell words, it is not your traditional spelling practice of simply memorizing words for a spelling test.  Word Work involves learning the patterns and meanings behind our written language.  Whether or not you do “spelling” in your classroom is up to you and your school district.  My district uses spelling words and gives spelling tests.  My goal is to make them the most useful for my students.  Instead of focusing on memorizing the spelling words each week, and then forgetting them right away, I want my students to understand the patterns in our spelling words.  Our spelling words are related to our phonics skill for the week, plus a couple of high frequency words.  We practice these words during our independent Word Work stations, in our whole group instruction, and small group instruction.  I created these Editable Word Work activities to use each week with my students.

These Word Work Activities allow you to use ANY words that you would like for your students to practice. Your students can practice spelling words, sight words, or word families. The possibilities are endless. Simply type in your list of words and 12 Word Work Activities are automatically generated for you to use in whole group, small groups, independent word work centers, or homework.  See how it works in the video below.

What are the Editable Word Work activities that are included?

There are 12 Word Work activities that can be used with 10 words and 12 of the same activities that can be used with 5 words. This allows for easy differentiation for your students who are not ready to work with more than 5 words at a time.  You will find the following activities:
•Rainbow Write
•ABC Order
•Spin & Write
•Writing Sentences
•Using Different Tools
•Roll & Color
•Pyramid Writing
•Wiggle Writing
•Roll & Write
•Roll & Read
•Tic Tac Toe
•Secret Code Words
•Flash Cards

“This is a brilliant idea!! Type the list once and instantly get 12 differentiated activities. I can’t wait to use this in my classroom. This has to be one of my all time favorite downloads.” -Darlene

This is truly a huge time saver in my classroom because I can use any list that I want to use for my students.  It is easy to differentiate for my students to work on sight words, word families, or spelling words.  I also included activities that can be used with 10 or 5 words, which allows me to cut my word list in half for struggling students.

You can learn more about these Editable Word Work activities by clicking on the picture below.

Teaching phonics is an essential skill for readers, but if it’s not jazzed up, it can be downright borrrring for kids.  I absolutely LOVE teaching phonics.  I enjoy seeing my students put the puzzle pieces of phonics together to make words and having it all make sense to them.  Even my higher readers need to know and understand phonics skills.  We talk a lot about how knowing the rules of phonics can help them with longer unknown words.  Since phonics is such an important part of the 1st grade curriculum, I am constantly trying to find ways to make it more fun for my students.

A new component that I have added this year is Digital Word Work.  We do not have iPads or tablets for our students, so I created something that we could do together using what we have.  We have one computer and a projector, so I created a Digital Word Work Slideshow that can be projected while my students record their answers or interact with the slides.

What is included with Digital Word Work?

These Digital Word Work packets come with three separate files.

1. Digital Word Work without Timers – This includes a Power Point Slideshow that you will display and click through each section at your own pace to allow for all students to complete the activity.
2. Digital Word Work with Timers – This Power Point Show has timers, which allows you to walk around your classroom and help students where needed.  This works well once your students have done these for a couple of weeks and know exactly what is expected.
3. Printable Recording Sheet- This includes a PDF that needs to be printed for each of your students.  I print this 2-sided, so each student only needs one paper.

How do I use Digital Word Work?

I personally use the slideshow without timers.  I have a huge range of learners in my classroom, and I want to make sure that I give my students an ample amount of time to complete the task.  Plus, my goodness…we have a really hard time keeping track of our crayons in my classroom 🙂

I hand out the 2-sided recording sheet and have my students go ahead and get their crayons ready before we start.  Then, I project the slideshow for the class.  The first activity has the students looking at pictures and saying the phonics skill sound for each picture.

The second activity uses the recording sheet.  A group of pictures are on the screen.  The students have to write down the picture that shakes on the screen.

Students need their crayons for the third activity.  They turn their recording sheets over and color the picture that matches the word on the screen.

The last activity gets the students up and moving.  When a picture flashes on the screen that has the particular phonics skill that you are working on, the students have to stand up.  If a picture appears that does not follow the skill, they stay seated.

These have been a great addition to our classroom.  It’s just a fun twist on phonics each week.

Which phonics skills are included?

I have each phonics skill listed individually, but I also have bundles available.  The Ultimate Bundle includes:

♥short a, e, i, o, & u  ♥r blends  ♥s blends  ♥l blends  ♥ending blends  ♥sh digraph  ♥th digraph  ♥ch digraph  ♥wh digraph  ♥long a_e  ♥long a (ai,ay)  ♥long e  ♥long i_e  ♥long i (ie/igh)  ♥long o_e  ♥long o (oa, oe)  ♥long u  ♥ar  ♥er,ir,ur  ♥or  ♥soft c/g  ♥ou/ow  ♥oi/oy  ♥au/aw  ♥oo/ew

Check out ALL of my Digital Word Work packets in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.