ECE Level Word Work Activity Sheets Part 2

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! Make sure to read the previous posting to help this one make better sense because I'm going to be brief.

Differentiation is a key assessment and evaluation approach in today's classrooms. Over 20 years ago, effective outstanding teachers were doing this practice without using the specific term "differentiation". Effective teachers knew if they wanted every child to succeed and learn concepts and skills, often activities would need to be tweaked in order to accomplish the goal of learning.

Yesterday I revealed my version of a word work activity that had written clues with the intent that the teacher would read those clues to the children at the start of the day, week, or before the ELA station/center activity time started. Decoding skills are extremely helpful in learning spelling rules and with so many variations in the English language, our youngest school learners need different ways to practice decoding. Scrambled order and rearranging of letters is 1 approach to try.

For the 4 letter words that I picked for the word/letters in WATER, I was able to find clip-art images. I still have some partial typed clues but now there are image clues for each word puzzle:

My blogging and sharing classroom ideas are for inspiration. I'm not a TpT or have a company website where I sell my resources. At this point, I just want to share and inspire aspects in my own teaching journey with readers in blog-land.

As I mentioned in the previous posting, the very first word work activity took the most time to construct; however I had brainstormed a bit in thinking how I would format my version of "JUMBLED WORDS". For this pictured activity sheet with answer key, I already had the full written clues made so it was a matter of using the 'make a copy' and then deleting a few clue words to make room for the pictures. I also had to adjust font size in order for it to still fit on a half sheet.

REVIEW:
1. "tear" off the gift wrap
2. to "wear" an uniform
3. a "wart" on my hand
4. a 5 letter word suggestion is the title word "WATER"

Kids love puzzles and they will feel very empowered when they successfully complete each word work activity sheet. So far I've made activities for "WATER", "FORUM", "FLOWER", "HEART", and "PARTLY".

Have creative learning fun making your own word work activities for primary level students.

Key words:
a. word work
b. ECE
c. decoding
d. differentiation

Loving learning and teaching,
Becca S/Mrs. S

M. Ed. in Elem Ed. w/ ECE emphasis
Illinois certification in Birth to Grade 3/ECE self-contained classrooms

ECE level Word Work Activity Sheets Idea Spark

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! Oh, my creativity learning heart has loved what I've created this week! And the idea was sparked by my new cell phone games of "Cross Word Jam" and "Word Trip" along with seeing lots of word work activities by a dozen or so teacher/author/bloggers during the past year or so.

I think I've made about 7 sets using either 5 or 6 letter words that have three puzzle words with 4 letters and three puzzle words with 3 letters! I formatted this on landscape view so the activity is just a half sheet and the answer key is the other half. After making the first one, the rest have been easier using "make a copy" and deleting the parts that need to be switched out.

Here's what I did for the letters in "FLOWER"--

What's fabulous with this activity is that it can easily be differentiated! The clues can be left off. The reason why I added was I plan on sharing these when the station or activity is introduced. That I would read the clues to the kids and have them repeat back to me at least twice and hopefully they'd remember the order or could figure out a word or two within the clue words to get things figured out.

A picture clue can be used instead of the typed ones.

Children who are struggling could attempt the 3 letter ones and can come back in a month or so when they've made some progress and try the 4 letter then.

Advance students can try to come up with additional 3-letter, 4-letter, and/or 5 letter words if it's possible.

Note: Separate the answer keys and place them in a special reference binder that you can decide whether or not the children can access if they are stumped in the midst of center rotation time. You will need to decide if not being interrupted with your small group is more important than giving them a bit of assistance when they're struggling.

Fine motor and literacy skills can be expanded by having the children draw pictures of the words on the reverse side. They may not be able to draw a wolf but they can sketch a simple dress and a simple owl.

Word work in a variety of formats is very important for primary age students to develop the decoding skills and learn all the spelling deviations in the English language.

This post's key topics would be:
*letters
*word formations
*decoding

With a love for learning and teaching about ECE and with ECE-aged children:
Mrs. S/Becca S

M. Ed. Elem Ed w/ ECE emphasis; UMSL; 2003

DAP Kindergarten word search activity with words ending in -eg and -og

What makes this activity developmentally appropriate practice?

Reason #1: word list is kept to 8 words

Reason #2: words are kept to 3 letters using CVC pattern

Reason #3: words are kept in traditional English language reading format of horizontal or left to right

Once kindergarteners have been introduced to CVC pattern for making words, they should be able to sound out and read the words in the list and be able to find all 8 words without confusion or frustration. 

To make it more challenging, more words can be added to list and/or have more than 1 word on each line. Then after that level  of difficulty has had successful completions, word search puzzles can be created that introduce words going vertical or that include a third group with a new word ending.

Note: I've created these with color coding for the 2 endings and printed them with the color instructions in their hue, so when copying or printing with just black or grayscale, you will need to use a colored pencil or crayon to key the students' papers.

Kindergarten Word Search Activity by Rebecca Morris Sadler

When you find a word, color it in puzzle green if it ends in -eg and orange if it ends in -og. Words to find are:

• peg
• leg
• beg
• Meg (meg)
• fog
• jog
• dog
• hog

Words will only be found in horizontal order.

h	o	g	z	p	s
w	q	p	e	g	i
y	t	c	d	o	g
l	e	g	k	r	v
s	h	v	j	o	g
q	b	e	g	m	r
u	x	f	o	g	a
a	y	c	v	t	z
b	m	e	g	l	n

Kindergarten word search with -eg and -og words 2017 by Rebecca Morris Sadler

Suggested bedtimes for little ones

Just not for children in daycare or preschool or school settings

Young children tend to rise early so they need to be in bed ready to sleep at these times.

It is not fair to the family dynamics if you force all the children in the household to go to bed at the same time. Children require more sleep than adults. And by teen years, their body clocks sometimes shift and some require as much sleep as preschool-age and others will shift to late night owl status but struggle to be perky at 7 a.m. The educational and medical communities of professionals agree that there are ages and stages for developmentally appropriate practice. These bedtimes are part of that DAP for preschool and kinder age children:

Age..................................... Suggested bedtime
3.....................................................7:15 p.m.
4.....................................................7:30 p.m.
5.....................................................7:45 p.m.
6.....................................................8:00 p.m.


For each birthday milestone after age 6 continue to add 15 minutes. I've seen some children put themselves to bed long before their usual time and even before either parent hints that it's getting close to beddy-bye time. If they are tired from being out of routine, make an adjustment with an earlier bedtime for a night or two. Same for when they are sick, battling a new tooth cutting in, having leg cramps due to a growth spurt, bedtime may need adjusted to an earlier time.

Also children like to have structure and a routine for bedtime, so try to keep that consistent, too. They feel secure and loved when consistent household routines are kept. Laying out clothes for next day, putting on pajamas, brushing teeth, washing face, reading a book or listening to a lullaby tape, dim the lights, and then tucked into bed with a kiss and a hug.

Pleasant dreams.