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Word Family Write The Room
This is a well loved writing activity for students Kindergarten — 2nd grade.You cut up the word cards, tape them around the room and students then use the recording sheet to walk around the room, find words, identify which word family they belong to and record them on the appropriate spot on the she…
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FREE from May 6-7, Happy Teacher Appreciation Day!
Write the Room — Rhyming Activity
$3.00
Use this engaging game to practice, revise and write rhyming words. A great activity for the whole class or as an independent activity in literacy groups or rotations.
There are two versions of the Word Family Write the Room activity in this resource.
THIS RESOURCE CONTAINS:
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12 illustrated hiding cards with labels
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12 illustrated hiding cards without labels
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Recording sheet
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Answer key
HOW TO USE:
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The teacher hides the illustrated cards around the room for the students to find. To create a fun challenge, hide some of the cards in more difficult places. I usually use blu-tac to stick them around the room.
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The students need a pencil and a recording sheet each. They can rest their recording sheet on a scrapbook or use a clipboard while they walk around the room searching for the hidden cards. When they find one, they write the word on their recording sheet next to the matching picture.
DIFFERENTIATED VERSIONS:
EASY — Hide the labelled cards around the room for the children to find and copy. This will help them see that rhyming words have the same ending.
DIFFICULT — Hide the cards without labels around the room to encourage students to listen for and spell the rhyming words.
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Teacher Jeanell
Your students will enjoy this version of Write the Room. Students will work on identifying the missing word family in each word. Then write each word in the correct column.
Your students will enjoy this version of Write the Room. Students will work on identifying the missing word family in each word. Then write each word in the correct column.
Your students will enjoy this version of Write the Room. Students will work on identifying the missing word family in each word. Then write each word in the correct column.
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I am a true believer in the power of FAMILY…specifically Word Families. In my own classroom, it’s an essential part of my Daily 5 Word Work.
Word families, or some people call them chunks (families is just so much more friendly sounding to me but to each their own), help readers look for patterns when decoding. When your students recognize those patterns, they can more easily sound out words they don’t readily know.
It is always amazing to watch when a light suddenly turns on as a students starts decoding with the help of word families. I think they surprise themselves as much as they surprise us. I won’t soon forget hearing one of my most struggling kinders this year, yell across the room at me in the middle of one of our first Ball Word Celebrations. “Hey Mrs. McGuire, I just read KitKat. Kit is part of the ~it family and Kat is part of the ~at family. I read that!!” Confidence, independence and joy…pure joy is what they experience when they ‘get it.’ So yes! I spend a ton of time practicing and using word families with my kinders.
After I feel that the majority of my students have mastered their letter sounds, I start introducing a new word family each week. When a new family is introduced, it goes on my word family wall (above my regular word wall, for quick, easy reference for my kinders and then another set on a ring goes in my writing center.)
We have a routine of whole group, small group, center and independent practice activities that allow my kinders to get plenty of practice and familiarity with the word families.
SCHEDULE
Here’s kind of a typical schedule of some whole group activities I like to do:
Monday: Introduce word family words as a class and make words using letter placards. If at all possible, I like to give my kinders plenty of opportunities to move and this Is a great kinesthetic activity. By the way, if you don’t have any letter placards, you can get a FREE set HERE and learn how to put them together.
Tuesday: Mini Lesson-Use the picture cards from two or more sets of word families to sort (thumbs up thumbs down) whether the word is or isn’t part of that week’s word family. Hand the students a card and let them sort into a labeled pocket chart. (This can move to a Daily 5 station with a recording sheet.)
Wednesday: Mini-lesson-Students find all the ‘word family’ words hidden in my morning message. I have students come up and underline, circle with wikki stix, use a pointer or flyswatter to identify word family words.
Thursday: Mini-Lesson-I call out word family words that may or may not be part of that week’s word family. If it is, then students perform a specific physical act like standing up, raising an arm, lifting their right leg, waving hello…It feels like Simon Says because then can only perform the act IF the word is part of that week’s word family.
My goal for whole group mini-lessons like this is always to give my students a chance to move.
To support the whole group lessons, I provide extra practice for each new word family in small group and independent Daily 5 stations. I usually introduce these activities the first several weeks to my students in small group before placing them in my Daily 5 Word Work Station. But after I’ve introduced several word families, most students can use these independently.
ACTIVITIES
Here’s a few activities that I choose from each week to allow for practice:
Say-It-Make It-Write It I like to use this with some of my small groups before it goes into a station so that I am sure that students understand the words and concept. I have enough copies of the playing mat laminated for each child in the group. I only use magnets for the ‘making’ part of this activity, and I hold onto the playing card until everyone has made the word and written it,
I open the card to show them the answer. Once this activity moves to a station, students can choose to ‘make’ the word with magnets, beads,
Play-doh stampers or whatever letter manipulative you would like to offer. Differentiating can be accomplished by giving your students choices. Here’s one way to make that happen.
Memory Match: Played like traditional memory but students will match the picture card with the word card.
Sorting Word Families: Place the sorting picture cards in a bucket, a basket or even in your sensory table with some seasonal shredded paper, pasta or rice. Students can sort the pictures into canisters labeled with a thumbs up or a thumbs down, indicating whether they are part of that word family or not. You can also have them do this in a pocket chart or onto ropes hanging from your ceiling.
Be creative and make it fun. For students who need an additional challenge, have them record their findings on the word family sorting sheet.
Word Family Hide n’ Seek: This activity gives your students an opportunity to practice reading word family words while playing a fun interactive game. Place word family word cards in a small pocket chart. Behind one word card hide the picture above. Students then point at and read a word where they believe the picture is hidden. If they guess correctly, they get to hide the card next. You can use cards from more than one word family or just one word family. (You can find the playing piece in the ‘extras’ section at the end of this unit.
Write The Room For Word Families: Laminate, cut apart, and mount the write the room cards below with masking tape around your room. Based on your students readiness level, select a recording sheet for them to use. You may either laminate these (my preferred method) or print them off to use with a pencil if you prefer. Hand your student a clipboard and have them search the room for the word family pictures. I have my recording sheets differentiated so that students are adequately challenged but not frustrated because the task it too hard. One level just has them entering the onset for the rhyme, another level has them writing the entire word family word and yet another level has them writing the word in the context of a sentence.
Homework/Morning Work/Extra Practice I like to have the option of having something for students to take home for homework or just a little extra practice so I also provide some EXTRA differentiated printables including a differentiated word family slide, I-spy, word maze, Count, Graph and Write, and Say It-Make It-Write It sheets.
Once my students have a couple of word families under their belts, I can add a few more games and activities to extend their learning.
If you would like to see learn more about my word work, you can click on the picture below. I have a whole set of activities available (193 pages!!!) for letter ‘a’ and am working on completing the next vowel groups.
These sets are available as a bundle (6 weeks worth of Word Family Work in this set) or as individual units for you to pick and choose.
A post about the importance of word families and how to teach reading with word families. Daily suggestions, ideas, and activities for teachers provided.
Today I am sharing about one part of my word study program, how to teach reading with word families. I will be sharing how I run my schedule during the week and provide you with a day-to-day plan of action. I have seen a lot of success with this program. My students are thoroughly engaged, actively learning, and building their reading and spelling skills.
Why Teach Word Families?
Learning to read the English language is a difficult task. The English language follows so many different patterns and rules that it is often confusing for our younger students learning to read.
Word families, also called phonograms or “chunks,” provide us with groups of words that have a predictable pattern or “chunk.” These words have the same ending, and they all rhyme. This makes learning a set of words (a word family) easier on our beginning readers.
Word Families Throughout the Week
After learning our word families for the week, my students can read and spell a group of words independently. They feel incredibly successful at their accomplishment. They now have a larger bank of words they can read in the books they are encountering.
Teaching my students word families is an incredibly efficient way for me to teach my students how to read. Since we learn word families each week, I wanted to create a set of activities that students find fun and engaging, yet help them to become fluent in reading the words within a word family.
Monday Activities for Teaching Word Families
Each week we focus on two-word families at a time. I start with teaching the short vowel word families and start with the short ‘a’ word families. The words within those word families often follow a CVC or CVCC pattern. They are simple words that children often know and understand.
I introduce our word families one at a time, and as a class, we brainstorm all the words we can think of that end with that sound pattern. Then, I encourage my students to use our alphabet posters above our whiteboard as a reference. I will say, “take each letter one at a time and put it in front of the letter pattern. Does it make a word that makes sense?” If it makes sense, I ask them to put up their hand and share with the class. I record the words they come up with on our word chart. We discuss the meaning of each word.
Some weeks I like to switch things up, and I will have my students line up and rotate one at a time or in pairs to write down a word that they have come up with. I will sit close by and help if needed.
After we have our list of new words on our chart, my students will copy those words in their word family books. They are practicing their handwriting skills and rereading their new words at this time.
I send our word family book home on Monday for families to practice at home all week.
Tuesday Activities for Teaching Word Families
Each morning during our carpet time, we review our word family words. I use a pocket chart to hold our word family word cards. Our star of the day enjoys pointing to the words as the class reads them aloud.
We also play phonics games to review our words and build our reading skills. I have these activities ready during my small groups and available for students to use during free time or “fast finisher” activities. We enjoy doing puzzles where you have to match a word with a picture.
We use our letter magnets or whiteboard markers to spell out our words. This activity makes a great literacy center!
I use metal drip pans for everything. They are so versatile and functional. They store easy and sit nicely on a shelf or against a wall. Check them out HERE!
I also put up a poster of word family words in the classroom for students to practice reading during the week. They can use this poster if they need ideas during our making words activities.
Wednesday Activities for Teaching Word Families
We review our words again during the morning meeting. I have the students close their eyes and spell words together or one by one aloud. We complete morning messages that have word family words missing. I switch up the activities we do together at the carpet to keep things fresh, so they are thinking in different ways.
We work on our reading fluency. Together, we print, build, make, spin, stamp, and draw our words. We do things where we are reading these words over and over. My students enjoy these activities because they stay busy and have fun too!
We spin to make word family words using a paper clip and record them in our booklets.
We complete our word work with our word family words. By repeating each word in different ways, my students are learning how to read, spell, and understand word meaning.
Thursday Activities for Teaching Word Families
During our morning meeting, we take out our small whiteboards and markers and practice recording our words. Sometimes they sit with a partner and quiz each other, and sometimes I will give them words to record. This exercise is a quick assessment for me to check how they are doing. This activity could also be a part of your small group time. We work more on word meaning. We have a few activities that we rotate through each week to keep things interesting. For instance, we complete our fill-in sheets for morning work, where we have to pick the correct word to fit in an empty space. We also create read, draw, and color books where we have to read a sentence, dray its meaning, and color the picture.
They also have read and write the room mini-books to work on during literacy centers.
Friday Activities for Teaching Word Families
On Friday, we do one final review of our words in the pocket chart before adding them to our word wall. We also have a spelling quiz where I give my students a mix of our spelling words, sight words, and word family words together. They do an excellent job after all this review!
I also have a few simple and fun activities set up for small groups, literacy centers, and “fast finishers” for students to complete for further review. They love to “create” words using Play-Doh and recording the words they find.
Making their word family ties to wear around the class is fun too. They bring these home to show their parents their learning.
Word Families Homework
After printing the word family words in their books, they take them home in their home reading folder. Read about how I set up my home reading program and grab some FREE folder handouts HERE.
Once at home, I instruct my students and their parents that they should be reading through their words each day. They can make them, spell them on a sheet of paper, or any activity they want. Occasionally, I will send an activity home if they are looking for something extra.
Resources for Teaching Word Families
You can check out all of the materials and activities you’ve seen in this post, in my Phonics are Fun comprehensive word family units for short vowels HERE. There’s a bundle available too!
See the word families resource in action!
Classroom Materials for Teaching Word Families
Wanting to grab some of the great learning resources that I used in this post? Check them out on Amazon.
FREE -AT Word Family Activities
To get started, check out the free downloadable resource: short ‘a’ vowel word family pack of activities. Click the image below to get your copy!
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