Word Work: Make Your Life Easier ;)

Last year I wasn't using the Word Work center exactly how I would have liked to and I knew I needed to change that this year.  My thought going into making these Word Work packs were to keep each month consistent so I wouldn't have to continuously explain the directions, keep them independent so I wouldn't have to get up from my reading group, keep them fun so the children are engaged, and honestly one of the most important things--keep them organized so the center is easy to set up for the month and not a lot of prep is involved on my part. 

These centers have accomplished all of the above for me...and more! I print each pack out, bag each center in a zip lock bag, then put all of the centers for each month into a 2 gallon ziplock.  Next year all I will have to do is pull out that 2 gallon bag and I am good for the entire month! Word Work made easy!

These centers focus on a wide range of skills.  You can see students working on CVC word families here.  I do provide them with a little 'Need Help' sheet to check their answers with when they are finished (included in the word work pack).  This way, some of my struggling readers can still work on this center. Even if they need to use the 'Need Help' sheet to spell their words, they are still working on letter recognition.  

Here you can see two students working together to complete the activity 'Brushin' Up on Beginning and Ending Sounds'.  That is another thing I love about these Word Work center activities, they really promote collaborative learning!

This little one is working on beginning digraphs. This activity was a little too hard for me to leave at the Word Work center and expect students' to complete it independently. Because of that, I actually used it at a different center with a parent volunteer. If you don't have parent volunteers this is an activity you may want to use for whole group learning or guided reading groups.  That is another bonus with these word work packs--you can easily use some of the activities to supplement your reading groups or even your phonics program.

The packs make it easy for differentiation. These students are working on matching letters to the correct beginning sound pictures.  This may be too easy for some students, but is perfect for others!

One skill that my beginning readers have really been working on is sorting real/nonsense words.  I LOVE reinforcing skills that I am working on at guided reading groups in their word work center.

These two cuties didn't want to use the magnetic letters to spell their words so they wrote them with a dry erase marker instead...easy idea and they finished faster which allowed them more time to work on another activity :) Love when they are having fun and don't realize how much they are learning!

Here she spelled her words with magnetic letters then used the 'Need Help' sheet to write the words and 'check off' whether she spelled them correctly or not--so independent!

Getting a little more difficult with CVCC words.

Here they are sorting images based on their word family.  Another skill we have been working on while group A LOT lately! 

Overall, my students are working more collaboratively, independently, and hitting more skills than in the past. I really feel like I owe a lot of that to these Word Work packs

All of these pictures were taken in February, using my February Word Work pack; however, the March pack is very similar.  

The pack for this month includes the following skills:

-real/nonsense words

-beginning and ending digraphs

-beginning and ending sounds

-CVCe words

-building sentences

-decoding sentences

-sight words

-CCVC words

-differentiating between b, d, p, and q

-short vowels

-CVC words

-word families

-long/short vowel sort

You can find this pack by clicking on the image below.

If you made it all the way through this post and you are still with me...leave a comment with your email included for a chance to win my March Word Work pack!! If you already purchased the March Pack, no worries, you can just a different Word Work pack of your choice!  CONGRATS to Shauna and Jean Ann Chisum...I am emailing you now!