word+work

​ What ideas do you use for word work? Please add to this list.  [|spelling task cards] Our PLT really liked these; they were shared by fifth grade teachers who are using them.

word work stixy This is a STIXY you can direct your kids to--serves as a launch pad for them for word work internet sites. I made it so that anyone can see it, but only invited people can edit. So, if you want to edit this particular one, let me know and I will invite you. You can use this one, but I think you will want to create your own that is tailored to your kids and that only you can edit! If you do make one, link it here so we can all see it.

cheez-it letters, letter-shaped pretzels, word wall on chalkboard using chalkboard markers, white boards, magnetic letters and cookie sheets (available at the dollar store), letter stamps, Spelling City (website), Sitton Spelling (website), Wikki sticks, play dough, rainbow writing, letter tiles (Oriental Trading), scrapbooking letters, Bananagrams, Pairs in Pears, Reading Mentor (expensive), have kids write words in a journal or spiral, dice with letters and word endings, pull words from dictionaries, Word Building Blocks (like legos but with letters on them), picture stamps--then child writes the word, playdough or clay lids(form words in clay or playdough disk filling lid by making indentations with unsharpened pencils/store in sealable plastic bag,) alphabet stencils, letter [|dominoes puzzle] personal word walls- I got mine from Really Good Stuff. These are folder size tagboard and can stand up on a student desk. They contain basic grade level vocabulary with lots of room for additional words you can write in. In first grade I go through student writing and choose perhaps 5 words that the child is misspelling often. Then I write these on the child's personal word wall and they practice those when they do word work. When you give them a new set of words after several weeks you might want to write them in a different color. My students love these. I didn't start using them until March. By then they were really used to using the big word wall and beginning dictionaries, so it was a good "fit" for them. Another great website is [|www.spellingcity.com] for word work--oop's I just saw that website up above!! __Name Game__: Kids or teachers write their student's first and last names on a sentence strip with spaces between the letters, then they are cut out and placed in a baggie for use for making words. I also give the students a class list so they can try to figure out whose name they are spelling and a paper to write all the new words that they can make from someone's name.

I have decided to differentiate my Word Work baskets. Each basket will be color coded (red-beginner, yellow-transitional, green-advanced) with activities for differnt levels of spelling, word recognition, and language skills. Each student will have a "Word Work" notebook to record their work in and to refer back to as a resource.