Don’t be afraid to spend an extra week (or two!) on a challenging sort.Īnd there you have it! If you were hoping for more challenging long e patterns – stay tuned! That’s coming up next.
When you think your child has a good grasp on the pattern, give a spelling assessment. But if you’re homeschooling, you have a lot more freedom. If you’re a classroom teacher, you’ll have a weekly routine that will end with a Friday test. (I learned this myself when my daughter resisted this activity!) But even if your child isn’t crazy about word hunts right away, keep trying them - they are so valuable because they give your child an opportunity to apply spelling patterns to real reading and writing.ħ. I recommend doing a lot of modeling and sharing of this activity before asking a first grader to do this on her own. We searched for words that fit our pattern in familiar children’s books.
#Word sort printables free
(Some other games we’ve played are my free Spell It! and Climb the Ladder.) But since this week’s word sort was pretty easy, I thought I’d pull out an extra challenge: a word hunt. When the word list is tough – such as one requiring a lot of memorization like a-consonant-e and ai words, we do a lot of extra sorting and games. This week we played The Great Pumpkin Challenge - even though the word sort was easy, we played the game a few times because my daughter enjoyed it so much. You might find a game designed just for your word sort, or you can play a game that can be used with any word list. Some time during the week, pull out a spelling game. For ideas, see this great post from This Reading Mama.ĥ. You can try many different varieties of words sorts. On another day, start with a word sort again. Step, bed, men…”) Next, have your child g lue or copy the words into a word study notebook.Ĥ. Have her name the spelling patterns as she reads the rows. This is the time to correct mistakes if your child doesn’t find them herself.
After she finishes sorting, have your child read the words out loud. If your child makes a mistake while sorting, bite your tongue and see if she catches it later.ģ. I let my daughter work at it herself, but when she got stuck I named the patterns: short e (like best), long e with a single e (like me) and long e spelled ee (like queen). You may decide to name the patterns for her or let her figure them out herself. Guide your child as she sorts the words by pattern. Have your child (or students) cut out the words.Ģ. Lesson #3: a-e, ai, ay A lesson for spelling long e wordsġ. That just means that we’re working at patterns within words – usually differentiating between short and long vowel patterns.
#Word sort printables how to
Instead of endless reciting, copying, and workbook pages, children do hands-on activities to reinforce the spelling patterns.Īfter assessing my daughter’s spelling to find out her level ( learn how to do that here), I found that she’s in the Within Word Pattern stage of spelling. What are word sorts? They’re groups of words with two or more different patterns that students read, analyze, and sort. Each group is given a different word sort for the week. The groups are fluid and change as students advance or need extra instruction. Instead of giving everyone in the class the same list, you assess your students and put them in word study groups. Have you seen my Word Study series? It’s all about approaching spelling in a different way.