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

Using Trading Card 9 Pocket Page for Primary Word Work

Welcome to Becca's Heart for Early Childhood Education blog! My artsy-crafty heart got inspired from an item used now for scrapbooking! Using a baseball/trading card pocket sheet protector page has been a variation for scrapping for a couple of years now. About the same time, artists and crafters came up with the mixed media or paper-crafting version of a baseball card called Artist Trading Card or ATC for short. The pocket openings are about 2.5" wide and 3.5" deep/long.

Last night I got busy sorting through some environmental print and photos repurposed from magazines and managed to get the total of 6 phrases made with the combination of cut-out text and photos.

Word Work for short phrases and/or sight words SIDE A=

Above: row 1= made with love
row 2= stand by me
row 3= save the plant

I penciled the words in lowercase letters unless it was a command sentence like "Save the plant." For now I'm going to leave that in pencil as if it is a subtle suggestion for the children. At some point in the future, I might go over that in marker.

Target age group: Kindergarten to Grade 2
Target subject: English Language Arts/ELA
Target concept areas within ELA: word work, sight words, starting grammar usage of nouns, verbs, prepositions, or article/adjectives

Target ELA focus: environmental print, picture identification to help prompt word choice

SIDE B=

Above: row 1= bake a batch
row 2= right at home
row 3= the new lamp

The trading card pocket pages are usually sold in sets of 10 or 25 and can be found in the office supply and/or scrapbooking craft supply sections of stores. I know teachers are using the full page sheet protector pages but may not have thought about how to use these 'bubble gum' cards-size 9 pockets for classroom use. (There is a slightly smaller version in the size area of the pockets known as the business card holder sheet protector pages. Take a look at those and see which size fits your class needs best.)

The sheet can be added easily to a 3-ring notebook binder or for a 3-prong center pocket folder.

Easy-peasy for adding to or taking away as students' needs change and need to be challenged!

Hope you like this activity idea and let it spark more re-purposing to think smarter and not work harder for your teaching needs.

From the USA heartland,
Becca S

B.S. Secondary-Home Economics
M. Ed. Elementary Ed w/ ECE emphasis

certification endorsements in IL for FACS grades 6-12 and Birth to Grade 3 (ECE); and approval for general science grades 5-8