Spelling and Word Work Ideas

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be posting over here at Kinderland. This is the first post for me on this collaborative blog. It has been so wonderful to be a part of this great blogging community that gave the opportunity to be a part of the kinderland collaboration. Anyway, I'm Ms. Kerri from Ms. Kerri and Her Krazy Klass. You can check out my blog (but not until you've finished over here.)

I am a k-1 looping teacher. I get my students in Kindergarten and then keep them for 2 years. There are things I love about it and then things I am not so crazy about. One of the things that is difficult is that I have to keep things fresh more often. I need to change things up so the kids don't get bored with the same activities. One of those areas that needs a little work is word work and spelling. In the fall I implemented a menu for word work and writing. I love this idea and it helps me to not micromanage the kids. So here are a few things we do already: On Mondays, my kids take a pretest on the spelling words. Then we build each spelling word. On Tuesdays, we play the game sparkle. (This is one of my kids favorite games. The students get into a circle. I usually start with the student of the day. I tell them a spelling word. The first student says the word, then each student afterwards says a letter until the word is spelling. Then the next student says the spelling word again and the person after that says sparkle. The student after the sparkle has to sit down.) We also sort the words as a class on the promethean board. Wednesdays, we do a making words activity. I love this book. 

I think this is the book I have but it has a different cover. I think mine is an old print of the book. But I can look up words by spelling patterns or by the final word I want them to make. Thursdays, we play a game on spelling city. Have you checked out this website? My kids love playing hang mouse on it. I love it because they can do it all by themselves so it's good if I need to keep them occupied for a few minutes.  Fridays, we take our final test.  Meanwhile they have homework 2 night a week for spelling. I use a packet from Maggie from Maggie's Kinder Corner that is editable and I love it. It's her Editable Seasonal Word Templates for Spelling and Sight words.  They do a variety of activities during word work time. 

• One is the game boom. This is one that I learned from my mentoring teacher while doing my student teaching. I took a pringles can and craft sticks. I write all the sight words for the units on the craft sticks. Then I write boom on about 10-15 of them depending on how many words there are. The students pull out a stick, if they can read it they get to keep it. If they can't read it, it goes back in the can. If they pull out a boom, all their sticks go back in. 
• Another game is the Stinky Cheese game. It's similar to the boom game but there are different action cards. This game can be found in my Words that Pop Up Units on TPT. 
• They can use the ipods. I desperately need some new apps for these for word work. Any suggestions?
• They can use the computer.
• Write the room (I'm using my Wintery Mix pack on Tpt)
• Magnetic letters - They make the spelling and sight words with magnetic letters on cookie sheets.
• Popcorn words three ways. This is another activity from my Words that Pop Up Units. They color, stamp, trace and rainbow write the sight words.
• Write a card

It is time to change it up a bit. So I went to trusty old pinterest and found a few new ideas to try out.   I've seen this idea floating around and I think it's time to try it out. I have several cans of shaving cream that would be perfect for an activity like this.

Source: scribbledoodleanddraw.blogspot.ca via Kerri on Pinterest

Source: aturntolearn.blogspot.com via Kerri on Pinterest

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I think this idea has a variety of uses too. The kids could go by that word all day or play a 20 questions type game to figure out what the word is

Source: 1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Source: icanteachmychild.com via Shuna on Pinterest

So this post has gotten much longer than I planned on it being. But before I go, I have freebie to share with you. It's a sheet to have students rainbow write their words. I didn't put any words on it. They can choose whatever words you want.

Click here to get the file.