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Words of the Week!

The purpose of this page is to supplement word work for the Words of the Week that are frequently used in primary classrooms. Teachers who use these words as part of their Word Wall have requested these activities. Each packet may include activities for 5 new words with a review packet after four weeks: configuration, cloze, sentence writing, word search, antonyms, rhyme time, handwriting (words for lists one and two and then sentences thereafter), story comprehension, and alphabetical order. There are different genres for the story comprehension component. For instance, it may be a personal narrative, a poem, a song, a how to, a letter, a poster and maybe even a menu, etc. I also plan to write letters to children to explain my motivation to write some of the stories or to let them know where I get my ideas. This may generate more student interest in writing. I hope so!

I originally developed and used these packets in an academy for at risk second graders. Initially, I allowed the students to write their own sentences for the Sentence Sense page. However, they were having so much difficulty with it that I decided to dictate sentences that included words that we'd already worked with as well as the new ones. It was very successful and I would suggest  using that format, especially with your struggling writers. Why? I found that I was able to use language that facilitates the development of good writing strategies. We talked about using capitals, correct punctuation, spacing, etc. They counted the number of words in each sentence before writing, reread as they wrote to see what came next, etc.  With one student I was able to work on reversals (p, d, and d) during the dictation sessions. You may want to try using the dictation process and see how it works for your children.

I love it! My group of second graders grew in leaps and bounds. They took more ownership of their work, neatness and accuracy improved and they revisited the stories to check their work. I added some extras to my group work. For instance, I brought in a book on skunks for the 4c comprehension story. The kids really enjoyed learning  and writing about skunks. If you think of any other extensions to some of these packets, please let me know and I'll share them on this page.

Parents and teachers seemed to be happy with the progress in the academy and I was very proud of my little guys! Who else gets up three mornings a week to spend an hour working on their reading and writing skills before school?! My sister, a Resource Specialist, reports that her academy kids especially like the reader's theater scripts, songs and poems. I guess that means that I need to write more scripts!

One word of caution: The review components may be too complicated or difficult for some of your students. For instance, in Rhyme Time, some of the rhyming words sound the same, but don't have the same spelling. Alphabetical order has some words that begin with the same letter and sentence writing uses two words from the word bank in each sentence. Pick and choose wisely.

Source for the Dolch Word List:

http://www.theschoolbell.com/Links/Dolch/Dolch.html

I would highly recommend looking at this site for other activities to go with this page. It  has phrases, student practice books, game boards and much, much more! It's worth the time to look at it.

Just a note:  If some of you have other ideas for ways to use these materials, or if you can think of other activities to include, please let me know. I'm open for new ideas!

Debra Grice, who teaches a K-1 in Pasco County, Florida, loved the activities on this page. However, she took it one step further and has allowed me to share her fabulous suggestion with you. She is focusing on fluency, so she numbered the lines in one of the stories below (Story 3a) in order to quickly count correct words per minute. She sends the stories home as nightly reading assignments. I'll be adding fluency drills to each comprehension packet, so check back for new ones. They begin with lesson 2b. Here's Debra's recording sheet. Thanks, Debra, for sharing!

Fluency Drill Recording Sheet

Word Wall Activities
 

Louder and Louder: Have students begin reading the words on the word wall in a whisper. As they go along, have them gradually increase the volume until they are shouting the last word.

Swat!: Divide students into two teams, each standing on one side of the word wall. Give the first student in each team a flyswatter. Read a word from the word wall. The first team to swat the word gets a point. The swatter then passes the flyswatter to the next team member.

Read the word wall quickly. Read it backwards from z to a. (All go at the same speed to develop fluency and increased rate.)

     Pick one letter list. Read it fast. Read it faster. Read it faster.

What's My Rule? 
(specific directions and rationale)

What's My Rule? or Guess the Rule: 
Read three words from the wall that contain the same attribute.  Children will guess your rule for selecting these three words and see if they can add a word or two that follows that rule. A good comment to make in response to student guesses:  "That's a great rule, but it's not the one I'm thinking of." (Some suggested commonalties: They all have:  prefixes, suffixes, double consonants, silent letters, blends, etc. They are: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, plurals, compound words, foreign words, opposites, etc.)  

Four Clues and Four Guesses: Teacher or student gives a word clue (i.e., I'm thinking of a word that starts with b) from the word wall. Students write their first guess on their individual white boards. Provide a second clue (It's a noun.) Students write their second guess. Continue with clues/guesses (examples: It ends with a silent e. It has two syllables. It rhymes with, etc.). By the fourth clue, everyone should have the correct word. You will need to model this activity.

Timed by whole group

Chants: Pick a list and spell it. Assign vowels to one group (boys, girls, this side of the room, etc.) and consonants  to  another. As you spell each word, the students stand and chant their assigned letters and then sit down. This is an excellent way to practice spelling while getting the wigglies out!

I'm Thinking of a Word: This is a good activity for developing scanning skills. However, be sure to build in success for all. You need to have many words on the word wall for it to be effective. I'm thinking of a word. It rhymes with, means the same thing as, is the opposite of, we use this word when, etc. When you know it, raise your hand. Kids can provide the clues later.

Word Wall Menus Seven Pages of reproducible ideas for independent word study while interacting with your word wall. Kids love this!