Making Words

Each morning, as part of our literacy program, we do word work.  Word work consists of many different activities and games that help the children develop reading, writing and spelling skills.  This morning, we investigated a new activity that we will be using during word work throughout the rest of the year - making words.

Given a set of letters, students move the letter tiles around to form and spell new words.  The students started by finding WOW words from the word wall.  They then started finding "chunks" or "word families" they recognized (e.x. -ig, -ed, -an) and added other letters to make new words.  When making words, students also practice reading, writing and decoding new words.  They stretch the words apart and then blend the letters back together.

This morning, the word presented to the class was gingerbread.  Using only the letters in that word, the class worked together and built 53 other words (and there are even some we missed)!  The students really enjoyed making words, and we will try with a new set of letters next week.  Take a peek at the students in action...

Why not try this at home?  Find some scrap paper, and print the word snowman.  Cut out each letter.  Work together with your child to see how many new words you can make.  Have your child record each word you make on another scrap of paper.  Please send in your list - the students would love to see them!