Wild about Word Work!!

Do your students just LOVE word work?? Mine do!! I try to keep a delicate balance between paper/pencil based practice and very hands on, interactive materials!! Take a peek at some of our favorites!!

In many of the photos in this post, you will notice small, laminated word list cards. These are our weekly spelling words. The little cards allow students to take the list around the room with them and they make it convenient for students to practice their weekly words. ALLLLLL of my spelling lists and homework are available for FREE in my TpT store. I created these lists in collaboration with my first grade team so I don't feel right about profiting from them. However, I still wanted to be able to share them with you! I hope that all of our hard work helps you to lighten your work load a little bit!!

Here are the links to my word lists!! Click the photos to be directed to these FREEBIES in my TPT store! Please help me out by leaving feedback!

BEADS:

Let's start with my students' favorite center! BEADS!

I started using beads in my classroom about a year ago. I went to Michael's Craft Store and bought two different kinds of beads. I also got these cute little organizers for the small beads. I took this photo before I used the beads in my classroom and these little containers did NOT work out... the covers didn't snap shut and I had many spills of the beads... all over the floor.... Also, because the sections of these containers were small, students had a hard time getting out the beads that they wanted to use.

After about a week, I moved the beads and pipe cleaners into old pencil cases. They have worked out well ever since!!

WORD SORTS for POCKET CHARTS:

This center is a new addition to my word work centers!! I use these pocket chart word sorts with my class as a whole group sorting activity at the beginning of the week. We revisit it during guided reading practice and I use it as an interactive word work center. Students sort the cards by word family. Once the cards are sorted by word family, students put the words in ABC order. Super simple and fun!

I have these available in my TPT store for both Long Vowel and Short Vowel words!!

Want to try these out before you purchase the whole set? Grab my LONG E word sort cards for FREE!!

FOAM LETTERS:

The other fun interactive center that I started using last year is foam letters. I found these on clearance at Michaels... not sure if they have the same exact ones anymore, but I know they have similar things!! I find that any letter manipulatives work well with my firsties!! The key is variety... I switch out the centers weekly so they don't get bored with the same ones! Then, I reintroduce the centers a few weeks later!

BUILD A SENTENCE:

This is one of my newest, most popular centers!! Students take color-coded word cards to build sentences! Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other words (articles, etc) are all printed on different color cardstock and laminated. Students explore different combinations of the words to build sentences. This center also includes a recording sheet for students to write their sentences on after they build them!!

I also used these cards as a whole group... we took a "random" group of words in a pocket chart and arranged them into an interesting sentence together!!

To grab this fun word work, click the photo below!

BOGGLE WORD SEARCHES:

Here's a GREAT freebie that I found in Krista Wallden's TPT store!! Boggle boards!! Students search for 2, 3, 4, and 5 letter words and record them on a simple sheet! So fun!! Her freebie has 6 different boards!

INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS:

One of my favorites additions to word work and Daily 5 has been interactive notebooks! We use these notebooks for many language arts activities and WORD WORK is one of them!! During word work, we use our notebooks for long and short vowel practice! PHONICS! Earlier this year, I started using some FABULOUS short vowel notebook pages from The Sassy School Teacher...

Here are some of my favorite pages from her product that we completed!!

After seeing my students' success with these short vowel practice pages, I created some of my own for Long Vowels!! Take a peek!

Grab my entire set of long vowel interactive notebook pages here!!

MAGNETIC LETTERS:

We love using magnetic letters as a part of our word work routines!! These long vowel sorting mats are perfect for my first graders as we explore long vowel spelling patterns! The majority of these cards feature the CvCe spelling patterns. Students add magnetic letters to the beginning of the word families to create words. Then, they write their words down on a simple recording sheet.

These are FREE in my TpT store!! Enjoy!

SIGHT WORD STICKS:

I got this idea from Reagan Tunstall! She has a great set of Sight Word Stick sheets to go with her center!! Visit her store to see her product!!

Grab my Stick ABC Order sheet here!!

Oh my gosh! I feel like I've still only scratched the surface of word work!! I hope that you find these activities helpful and simple, just like I do! They have all been tested and LOVED by my students!!

My Love/Hate Relationship with Long Vowels

Okay, for my topic of the day... a huge focus in my first grade classroom right now is LONG VOWELS.... oh the bane of my existence. We spend the first half of the year learning about the short vowel sounds and by Christmas, I'm always very pleased with my students' progress. I feel like they "get it"... even my intervention students are on the right track with short vowels. Then we start to throw long vowels into the mix and it is what I like to call "intellectual chaos." Ahhhh! This year, I am definitely more prepared to teach these long vowels than I have in the past and I've made some great, interactive activities to get my kiddos up to speed with these tricky vowel patterns!! Right now, we are focusing on Long A, but all of these activities have materials for ALL of the long vowels! My favorite thing about these activities is that they are NOT seasonal. I can pull these out at any time of the year for students to use! Take a look at my favorite long vowel teaching tools! LOTS of FREEBIES here!

Also, in the process of writing this blog post, I realized how MANY long vowel resources I have! If you want to take a peek at all of them in one place, use the my TPT store custom category "Long Vowel Resources." The freebies are available in that category as well!

To help students make a more concrete connection with "magic e," I like to begin the study of each long vowel by taking a look at how Magic E changes the way that we say many of our favorite short vowel words. I make a "Magic E" wand. As a whole group, students read short vowel words on a poster. Then, we add Magic E and see how the word changes! Students LOVE this activity and it is soooo simple to prep! I revisit this poster with my lower guided reading groups. My proficient and advanced kiddos seem to "get it" after the first exposure!

I also have sets of cards that I print back to back with a short vowel word on one side and a long vowel word on the back!

Grab a set of the cards here, Magic E Flash Cards and Fluency Phrases!

This Long Vowel Interactive Phonics Resource Bundle has made the BIGGEST difference in my long vowel instruction. These activities are easy to prep and effective for my little learners! I like to have a balance between paper/pencil tasks and interactive resources. This fits my needs exactly!

Let's begin with some of the paper/pencil activities! We begin our day in the classroom by completing a whole group phonics lesson, followed by a paper/pencil phonics practice page! While students are working on the phonics skill that we focused on in the mini lesson, I take the opportunity to pull a reading group! Here is a peek at some of the paper/pencil activities that my students complete for each long vowel!

Following our seat work round, students complete a round of word work within the structure of Daily 5. During this time, my students practice word family words as well as sight words. These interactive practice activities are perfect for centers or Daily 5 word work!

LONG VOWEL PUZZLES: 

LONG VOWEL CONNECT FOUR:

LONG VOWEL MEMORY:

Grab LONG A MEMORY GAME for FREE by clicking this link!

LONG VOWEL WORD SORT CARDS:

I use these cards in my big pocket chart for whole group practice. I also use them in my guided reading groups as a warm up for my kiddos! They are the perfect size and I've found sooooo many ways to use them in my instruction! (These are also sold separate from the Long Vowel Resource Bundle.... in my Long Vowel Word Sort Cards for Pocket Charts & More!)

My newest addition to my long vowel word work is Long Vowel File Folder Games and Activities! This photo features two of my favorite activities for long a, but my bundle includes 30 different file folder games and activities!

One of my favorites is a long/short vowel sort for each vowel sound! It is simple and interactive!

My other favorite is a sentence building activity! Students use word cards to complete sentences!

The other file folder activities include a Board Game, ABC ordering practice, Spin a Word (real/nonsense word practice), and a Bingo Game! Grab a FREE copy of my Long A Board Game here!

Grab the entire set of Long Vowel File Folder Games and Activities by clicking this link or the photo below!

These have been a huge hit with my firsties and add some variety to the word work that we do each week!

This is my FAVORITE new word work center as part of my Daily 5 rounds!! Students build long vowel words on these simple mats using magnetic letters!

I printed them on thick, colorful cardstock for some more visual interest!

Each long vowel set in my freebie has 6 building mats for different word families!

For word work, I simply put the laminated mats and magnetic letters in a gallon Ziploc. I keep my sets in a small bin! Students can just grab and go!

Students record their long vowel words on a small recording sheet. I love this part because it holds them accountable at their center and it gives them great practice in writing their words!

This little firstie rocked her word building word work!! What a darling!

If you are interested in downloading these FOR FREE from my TpT store, click this link or the photo below! Please help me out by leaving some feedback in my store if you do choose to download this fun freebie!

If you have read some of my other recent posts, you know about my new LOVE of interactive notebooks. I downloaded some FABULOUS interactive notebooks pages from The Sassy School Teacher to practice short vowels, blends, and digraphs. I've branched out and started making my own long vowel practice pages!

Here's the page that some of my students completed this week! Long A Words Brainstorming! Students glued three long a word family headings at the top of their pages. They brainstormed as many words and they could under those headings. It is a great challenge for them! We talked about using our alphabet on the wall to see if we could add those letters to the beginning of the word families. We had great discussions about real and nonsense words! My teacher heart was happy as I saw their excitement in each word that they thought of!

Now, the above brainstorming activity was a perfect challenge for my students that are "at grade level." Next week, I'm going to do a similar activity with my intervention firsties! Instead of them brainstorming the words themselves, they are going to sort existing words under each heading. See my example below!

This is an idea that I took partially from our Title 1 Reading teacher. She has students sort word family words and then read the words down the columns. After practicing reading DOWN each column, she has her students read ACROSS the notebook page. Then, the students are switching between word families as they read and it is a lot more challenging! Perfect for helping to build that fluency and automaticity!!!

Two other forms of practice that we are going to use are...

Word/Picture Matching! (for my intervention students)

Fluency strips! (for all of my students)

Poor color choice on this paper... I was running out at home for my examples! Oops!

If you are interested in using these Interactive Notebook Pages for Long Vowels, please click the link to my TpT store or click the photo below!

My students LOVE anything that can be referred to as a PUZZLE! There is something so naturally engaging about puzzles! I use these for my early finishers! So fun!! Click this link to grab puzzles for each long vowel!

My final long vowel teaching tool that I have been using is my Long Vowel Word Sorts!! I use this as a small group activity in my reading groups and I also put it in my word work centers for Daily 5!

Students sort word family words under headings and then record them on a simple recording sheet!

You can grab these in my TpT store as well: Long Vowel Word Sorts!

I hope that you find this little post helpful in your teaching of long vowels!! Like I said... these activities have helped to cure my hate for long vowels... and I'm NOT saying that I LOVE them now, but I do feel more prepared to teach them!