DIY Word Wall Folder

Have you ever heard of a word wall? It’s basically a word bank or listing of words {often sight words} that kids have worked on and need to remember how to spell. Most classroom teachers use up an entire wall of the classroom. I did and I carried the idea over to homeschooling; but a word wall can take up a lot of room. And they’re definitely not portable.

Enter the word wall folder. It takes up a small amount of space and is portable. Super genius idea! I thought so when I saw one for the first time years ago as a classroom teacher. And they are SO easy to make. It seriously will take 5-6 minutes…tops.

*This post contains affiliate links.

 

It’s true for most kids. As I explore in my book, Teaching Kids to Spell, spelling words accurately doesn’t come as easily as reading words accurately. You’ve probably seen in it your child’s independent writing time. The very words you worked so hard to teach her are misspelled in her writing. That’s where this handy, dandy word wall folder can come into play!

Once you’ve taught words to your child, you can add them to your word wall folder under the appropriate letter and they have a portable resource right at their fingertips during writing or editing time. If you want to see more about how we use ours, I encourage you to read The Teaching of Sight Words: Part 2.

 

Simple DIY Word Wall Folder

So…here’s the skinny on how to make one. It truly is simple. If you teach older kids, they could even make their own!

 

Materials:

• a manila folder {cream color works best so kids can read the words}
• Sharpies {I chose red for vowels and blue for consonants, but any color will do}
• a ruler
• a pencil

 

With your pencil and ruler, lightly draw a center horizontal line on the front of your folder. Then draw two vertical lines, dividing the front into 6 equal sections {for letters A-F}.

 

Taking a permanent marker, draw the line in darker. I like to use squiggles because it just makes it look more fun. To save time, you could just trace the straight line.

 

Do the exact same steps with the middle and the back of the folder.

 

Then add your letters, A-Z to the folder. Again, I write vowels in red and consonants in blue, but you can do it any way you’d like.

The only catch is that you have one space less than you have letters. But I usually combine X & Y or Y & Z, since there aren’t many sight words or high frequency words that start with those letters.

 

Now, add your words. We are using this one for the sight words from Reading the Alphabet.

 

More Spelling Resources:

• 50+ Hands-On Spelling Activities for Kids
• 1-pg Spelling Resource for Common Vowels
• Short Vowel and Long Vowel Spelling Apps 
• Teaching Kids to Spell: A Developmental Approach to Spelling
• Spelling Dictionary {The Measured Mom}
• Find a printable word wall folder at  1+1+1=1

 

 

 

 

 

~Becky