Contact UsWord Work Storage and Yearly Plan
I have compiled my pictures of word work from last year into one post in hopes of showing how we organize and teach word work all in one neat and tidy post!
Let’s begin with how it is accessible to students. I have a drawer system. Students work their way down the numbered drawers through the week. You will see each drawer in this post and what they will do with it. At the end of the post, you can find these activities.
We do a whole group mini-lesson daily on our phonics rule for the week. Once we break out into guided reading workshop, students will complete a “must do” drawer activity for their word work rotation. My drawers are numbered so Monday is drawer 1. Each week students decode the new pattern. Sort by spelling if the pattern makes more than one sound example: au aw and then match a picture to the spelling. This way I know they are actually decoding the new pattern in order to match it with a picture.
Tuesday is drawer 2. Using any kind of letters, students build the words. I sometimes change out the letters just for fun. You could also use stamps if you like that. I am not a fan of stamp pads. 😉 Tip: When students color the words, they have to color the vowels red. You could also have them color the pattern of the week in a special color.
Wednesday is drawer 3. This one is for practice with both letter formation, handwriting and decoding again. Students follow tracing lines, write the word on their own and then match the picture to the word to ensure that they really decoded the word. The picture on the right at the top comes later in the year. Students arrange the word and then write it next to the picture.
Thursday is drawer 4. This is a favorite for sure! Students get their little book of the week’s pattern. They must read the three spellings for the word and write the correct one. Then they can dab it with the dollar store dabber. Thrills beyond belief.
Friday is drawer 5. The day of the spelling test. I use this Friday activity for a grade along with the spelling test grade. This is modeled throughout the week in mini lessons and writer’s workshop. Students can choose three of the phonics pictures used during the week to make sentences. They glue the pictures in the box and then write their sentence right next to it.
It has been a year’s work to create this complete set. I wanted our word work to really target our spelling patterns each week and not just be a mish mash of review. Once students finished the drawer activities they were able to do choice literacy stations {more on that in a separate post} 🙂
Now I can share where these products came from.
All of the following sets below come in the set called The Big Phonics Bundle. If you don’t think you need them all, you can buy every one separately.
These short vowels are bundled into a set {to see it you can click the picture} The rest of the sets are not bundled in any way.
I hope this helps you! 🙂 It certainly has been nice to have targeted practice each week built in to our guided reading block! Happy Summer!
I love this! Thank you for showing how you organize them along with the content! I hope to get there one day!
This is GENIUS!!! Oh my gosh–I love this system so much. I can't wait to try this upcoming year. Thanks for sharing, Reagan!!!!
I love how you have must do centers then they can go to choice. This makes so much sense! Thanks for sharing you brilliant ideas.
Thanks for the tips & pics, Raegan! Word Work has always been the area where kids get most off-task for me, and I'm really hoping to reign that in this year.
SweetSchoolMoments
Love this! Do you differentiate the activities within each drawer? I feel like that is why my word work is so all over the place- I have a million different activities depending on my students' level!
Miss Peluso's Kindergarten
Great question! I do not differentiate these phonics pattern activities, but the "may do" activities that follow these phonics lessons are a choice activity. I have them by review, target, and enrich. That's where the differentiation happens. 🙂 I will have to do a post on those too sometime!
I recently discovered your awesome blog – yay! I am beginning my first year of teaching and gathering ideas! I love this! How do you manage "twenty some" students during this though? You do whole group and send them off…and all twenty or so students head to drawer 1 on Monday? Are there enough supplies in each drawer for that many students at one time? Maybe I am misunderstanding. Are only some of the students doing drawer 1 on Monday and others are starting the week with another drawer? I would LOVE to do this – can you clarify 😀 Sorry – just trying to make sure I understand!
That's a great question! I have 5 reading rotations. Every student will go to drawer 1 on Monday, but only during their word work rotation. There are enough supplies to cover everyone going there plus a couple of extra for mess ups or lost papers. My five rotations last year were word work, work on writing, apptivity (ipads), comprehension {computer}, and read to self { or partner read}. Our rotations were 15 minutes each and we did all 5 every day. I had it on a timer so we didn't get off track. During this time I would call reading groups to my table. They would leave their rotation to come to me. I strategically called groups during certain rotations that I was ok with them missing.
Hi, I do 5 similar rotations each day too. Do you have your students in groups by mixed ability? I just wondered when you call them for guided reading if they all come from the same center. Also, what do you use on the computer for comprehension? I currently use Moby Max and love it, but would like something else as an option. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing how you use this wonderful resource! I love The Big Phonics Bundle. How do you store all the word & picture cards when the weeks are through? Mine are all in plastic bags in a tub for now, but there must be a better way! Any tips?
Do you use a reading series? If so, which one? Thanks.
I've been trying to brainstorm a way to organize my word work and rotate it so it doesn't get old for my kids! I love this idea!!
Emily
Munchkins Inc.
These types of activities were exactly what I've been thinking about doing. Thanks for sharing how you organize them and rotate the students through. I'm moving from 6th to 1st so I have A LOT to do!!
Shannon
http://www.irunreadteach.wordpress.com
Thanks for the post. I'm trying to figure out a new way to organize my word work activities. I think I may go the drawer route. Thanks again!
This looks amazing, but really, everything you do looks amazing!
We use words their way– trying to figure out how to work this type of stuff in as practice…. because it fits SO WELL 🙂 Thanks! 🙂
Hi Reagan!! I am such a huge fan and follow your blog faithfully I feel learning from you and actually being able to visual see how you set up, organize, and incorporate all your units, bundles, and activities has made me a better teacher. I just wanted to say thanks for sharing all of your knowledge and experience with us. I have a question, could you please let us know some of the sights you have the kids go on for their comprehension check during reading rotations. We have a "fusion" page where our parents can log on and view what we have students do in the class and I would like to try some fun websites that the kids would benefit from and practice on at home. Also do you have a Smartboard? If so what are some fun activities that I can use with my students that you have tried
Hi Regan- How long is your Literacy block and what does it consist of?
Love this product! I'm hoping to implement something like this next year!
Thanks,
Stephanie
I love this! I plan on using this in my first grade classroom this year and can't wait! 🙂
Question: Do you do these in a certain order throughout the year? Which words to you start with/end with etc.?
Hi, I do 5 similar rotations each day too. Do you have your students in groups by mixed ability? I just wondered when you call them for guided reading if they all come from the same center. Also, what do you use on the computer for comprehension? I currently use Moby Max and love it, but would like something else as an option. Thank you!
Are the word cards you use for the sorting activity included in the bundle? I purchased it, but I can't seem to find them anywhere.
What are some of the activities you have the students doing after completing the Daily required activity?
I have a question about what you do with all the student’s completed papers. I just started using this this year, and I love it! But I often become buried under mounds of papers from word work to check. My system is set up a little differently because of less time for reading.
Do you collect every paper that every student does each day? Or do they do it and take it right home? If you collect, how do you keep up with looking at them! Any tips you have on organization for this would be great!
Love this product!
Students keep their work for the week in a folder and on Thursdays I check the folders. Then on Friday they get 20 mins reward time (centers) while those that didn’t finish, get work completed.
Do you sell this as a template for different spelling lists?