Making Words in Guided Reading

Say hello to my Little Friend!!

hehe...

Yes, I found a tree frog today at recess...isn't he sooooo cute!??!

(don't mind my STILL biting of fingernails -bleh!)

It's been raining like crazy (hurricane season and all), so our recess area is covered with standing water...in fact I had some students bring me over some tadpoles today...in their hands - haha!!

And while they are really excited and I'm excited that they are excited - ummm....WASH YOUR HANDS!! lol

Ok, onto today's guided reading post.

One of my favorite sites to help me with my phonics lessons is Wordles.

More specifically, their Words in Words part of their site.

With this site, you can put in a word, and then it shows you ALL the words that you can build using those letters. 

Example...

This week we are reading Click, Clack, Moo...and the cows DEMANDED a blanket...and the farmer DEMANDED they work...and then the ducks DEMANDED...

So I would choose to use DEMANDED as our mystery word. 

This is one list out of 3 pages...

I tried going to the next page, but wouldn't you know it, the site was working on maintenance, so I couldn't get a different snap shot of what you would see as your word list - lol...so I just covered it up - it works, right??

I would choose about 15 words, including "demanded" since that is the mystery word....

I am 2nd grade...when I taught 3rd, I might have done more, depending on the level of the group...or I would just pick more complex and longer words. If you are first grade, then you can do just ten words...

I write the words I want to use on index cards and move them around until they make a nice flow. Example

Cat—cap—cape—tape—shape—shade, etc...

(those aren't words that you can make with the letters in Demanded...

I was just giving a quick example)

After I have my words I want, then I get the teacher planning from my Guided Reading Plans and Resources pack...

After I get the words in order (the mystery word is the LAST word for the students to build), I then write them in the Making Words section.

 For the teacher page, I print out a copy of the paper and hand-write in the letters at the bottom, in alphabetical  order; NOT  spelling the mystery word. This way I know which letters and how many of each letter I need for each student.

Then, I figure out how I can sort MOST of the words. 

Example:

Short a, long a, digraphs.

 Or you can even do a grammar sort—

verb, noun, adjective, etc. 

Some words WILL fit into more than one sort. 

When the students are manipulating the letters, I have them use foam letters...

something like these:

this is what I have and LOVE them, because the bumpy side goes up - so the letters always face the correct way!

 or I included pages of letters to copy off and cut up to use.

For the student page, 

I print out a copy of the paper and hand-write in the letters at the bottom, in alphabetical  order; NOT  spelling the mystery word. They will have already done this activity with me in small group, so they will know what the mystery word is, 

but I want them to be able to spell it on their own, as well.

For the sorting section, depending on the group, I will hand write the way that I want them to sort the words, or I will tell them to sort them in three different ways that THEY see fit to sort them.

Depending on the group, I will have them do this activity in a group or independently.

So that's today's Guided Reading Linky part!

Make sure you go link up!!

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