Words...Their Way

Words...Their Way If you teach Kindergarten, or any primary grade, have you ever noticed that sometimes the students really struggle with common patterns in words? Something as simple as rhyming can sometimes be a huge task. Words and word parts can be such an abstract concept for little minds to grasp. Luckily, there is help! Words Their Way is a fabulous resource that I first learned about while completing my bachelor’s degree. I used it during my final internship and fell in a deep, academic, slightly nerdy love with it. It is a resource that teaches orthography to benefit spelling, vocabulary, reading and writing. This is an amazing tool for differentiated instruction and to allow students to engage in word meaning and word patterns as opposed to simply memorizing the spelling.I am currently using this version:I purchased this copy from Amazon because I know that all of my little Kinder Friends are emergent spellers without using the diagnostic assessment. If you teach a mixed level or ESE group s, you absolutely need to purchase the book that has all of the assessments and how to score them. This will let you know which book and whichword sorts to use with your students. It may sound like a lot of purchasing in the beginning, but it is well worth every penny!At the beginning of the school year, each of my students decorate their Sort Book. I found these adorable labels on Pinterest.I have found that labeling every notebook really helps my students with organization and being independent.We begin the school year with sorting pictures that begin with like sounds.Words Their Way designed their productlike thisso the students get comfortable with the idea of sorting. Each page in their notebooks has a new sort and they get progressively harder as the year goes on. Also, I often am able to find themed sorts on Teachers Pay Teachers. We have done sorts with the theme of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, syllables, rhyming, fiction and non-fiction illustrations and even sorts from other content areas. I include all of these in their sort book.The sort we completed today piggy backed off of the classic nursery rhyme “one, two, buckle my shoe…three, four, shut the door…” Weused theillustrations provided from the bookto help us create rhyming words with numbers. I could not believe how much the students loved this! were singing the little rhyme for the majority of the day.Currently in my classroom, weare completing one sort a week that compliments our phonics work of the week (short and long vowel sounds, rhyming, dipthongs, digraphs). One of my goals for next school year is to take Words Their Way one step further and to incorporate the sorts in our lessons as spelling lists and to create meaningful games for small groups.This would also be a fun and E A S Y activity for students to do while on summer vacation. It will keep the little wheels running in their minds without feeling like they are doing work, work, work.