Helping Kids Read Longer Words {FREE Baseball-Themed Printable Pack}

Recently, I posted a freebie with reading strategies for helping kids read longer words. Today, I’d like to share a free baseball-themed printable pack to help kids read words that have inflected endings (particularly -ing and -ed). My son (currently in 2nd grade) had been doing well reading one-syllable words, but when it came to reading words in context with -ing or -ed added on, he began to question himself. The download link to the free printable pack is at the end of this post.

So, we spent a week studying just words that had the inflected endings of -ing and -ed. My goal was for him to be able to identify that base word in each of these words to help him decode the word faster. And because he likes baseball, I thought the theme of baseball would work well for him. And it did! I included in my pack is a 5-day lesson outline. Please feel free to adjust this lesson plan however you see fit for your learner. It is not meant to be rigid, but flexible.

Here are a few shots of ALuv with our Base Words Pack:

On day 1 and 2, we worked on finding the base words within longer words (words that had -ing or -ed added to the end), something that he was struggling with in the context of reading.

On day 3 and 4, we played this base word file folder game. After spinning the spinner, you have to read, identify and spell the base word within words that have inflected endings in order to run the bases and score runs.

And on day 5, he went on a word hunt, looking for words in his reading that had -ing and -ed endings. On the left side, he wrote the word and on the right side, he had to identify and write the base word.

More Resources for Helping Kids Read:

• How to Choose “Just Right” Books for Kids: Helping Kids Grow as Readers by Becky Spence (purchase for $3.99)
• Strategies for Reading Longer Words (free printable page)
• Getting Kids to Re-read for Fluency
• What to do When a Child Misreads a Word
• For young kids, try my free Reading the Alphabet curriculum (designed for emergent readers)

Download this FREE Base Words Pack HERE.

Enjoy!
~Becky