Word Work Your Students Will Love
It’s pumpkin time, which means it’s time for October Word Work! Who doesn’t love fall? Any time I can incorporate all things pumpkin, apples, leaves, etc. is a good time! I’m excited to talk to you about the October Word Work Station today. You can read a little bit about my word work stations here. You can find this word work center here.
An Introduction To Word Work
First, let’s talk a little bit about my word work center. I created it after realizing it was the least useful center in my classroom. I would look out at the back table where my word work center was and watch the kids at that group never.stop.talking. In a 20 minute center, they would make about 4 words. It was not a productive center.
October Word Work In Action
Picture Spelling
Kids love colorful pens. I feel like that’s not a secret, but did you know they will flock to an activity that involves colorful pens? When I introduced my word work center to my first graders, this was the favorite activity. How it works: they pull a sight word card from their sight word pack. Then, they use colorful pens to “color”, or to write the words inside the picture.
Build It
Build It is probably my favorite part of the word work center! Students pick from their sight word cards and build the word with their letter cards and write it below.
Spin It
Spin It gives students a chance to see if words are real words or nonsense words. I like this center because once student spin and build the word, they have to sound it out and really think about what their word is. After, students write their word down on an organizer underneath either “Real Word” or “Nonsense Word”.
Picture It
Picture It is fun because students look at the picture and fill in the missing letters. In October’s Word Work, it focuses on long vowels, -ck endings, and double consonants. I like to add a cookie sheet to this particular center so that students can put the card on the cookie sheet and use the magnetic letters on the cookie sheet.
Match It
Match It is fun, but so easy to differentiate for your students! There are a lot of different components to it, but can be tailored so easily to meet the needs of your students. To simplify, students match the word cards with the picture cards. This month’s cards focus on long vowels. Once they piece the puzzle pumpkins together, the place them on the corresponding wagon or hay bale. After, students write the word on the paper under the correct heading. That be a lot though!
So, there’s a few ways to differentiate. For your struggling readers, you may just want them to match the picture to the word. You could also have them match half the pumpkin (either the picture or the word) to the wagon/hay bale. Another option is to only have students match the puzzle pieces together. Another option is to not use the graphic organizer at all! You can make it meet the needs of your students.
Silly Stories
Silly Stories is just that- writing a silly story! Students use the word bank on the right to make up a silly story! What first grader doesn’t love silly stories? This month’s silly stories are long vowels. Students pick at least four words from the word bank for their story. A lot of my students liked this one too because they loved to share their stories at the end of the day when we had a free moment.
Word Roll
Word Roll focuses on long vowels this month, just like many of the activities. I included a pumpkin die this time to make it a little more fall-ish and fun! Students pick a card, roll the die, and read the word they land on. It’s great to build word fluency and practice those long vowels!
Poetry
The poetry component has students dive into the text to find the phonics skill they are working on. Students circle the words with the phonics skill and then write them on their comprehension sheet.
