After ALuv and I had studied –at, -an, and –ad, we went on to –ap and –ag with the picture sorts from Words Their Way: Word Sorts for Letter Name-Alphabetic Spellers.
Here are some of the activities we did with the words and pictures:
- I introduced the words and pictures like I did with this lesson
- We highlighted the different chunks: AP in yellow and AG in pink ( See the Word Study Notebook picture at the end of this post).
- On several other days, he re-matched the words & pictures together-mostly with me at first and then independently as he became more comfortable with the words
As with each word sort we do, he picks 5 words from the sort and writes them after rematching them (Magna Doodle writing above). Eventually this will all be done in his Word Study notebook. But for now, I’m “keeping the peace” by making writing a little more interesting for him! He is, after all, only 5 years old!
- Played Memory Match (or Concentration) with the word pairs. Each time a card is turned over, the player has to read the word out loud. The awesome thing about making cards for Concentration is that you can use the same cards for Go Fish. Here’s a handout I made for the parents of my tutees: How to Play Card Games. It explains how you can use the word study words to play these games.
Spelled AP and AG words with magnetic letters on a metal cookie sheet
- He glued down his word/picture matches in his Word Study notebook to keep as a make-shift dictionary. This way, he can go back and review the patterns we’ve studied when he needs them for writing or reading.
ALuv and I mainly do these word sorts in the afternoon when MBug and NJoy are napping. Sometimes I can squeeze them in if MBug will take a morning nap, but those are few and far between these days. The great thing about these Word Study activities is that they don’t last very long. Word sorts and phonics instruction should only be a small part of reading instruction, not the entire focus. Combined with our sight word work, our Word Block only lasts about 15 minutes (and we don’t do it every day, yet). We do, however, read every day.
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~Becky
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Another way to make the most of your worksheets (where you used a highlighter) is to slip them into page protectors then you can you vis-a-vis markers to write on them then just clean and reuse.
What a great idea! Thanks!