Word Work, the beginning

Hi friends, I am a Daily 5 LOVER! Yes, it is true. I am now in my 5th year using this management piece in my room. I can't imagine using anything else now. Of course in the beginning of the year, it is hard to imagine they will become independent but now I know it can happen. I wrote a post last year on the first 5 days of the Daily 5 in my classroom. You can see the post if you click here.

Our principal reading to self with us!

Well...believe it or not it seems ages ago since the beginning of the year but Word Work is not as scary as Read to Self and the kinders pick it up pretty quickly.  I do not talk about Word Work until the class has reached 20 minutes of Read to Self (about two weeks).  As I said our Principal comes in and brings her book and reads along with us. We make it a BIG deal that they reached the 20 minutes. See the earlier post on our stamina graph.

Then I introduce Word Work and Work on Writing shortly after. 

For Word Work, I start with something easy for example: whiteboards to practice their letters, sight words and their name.  The picture above are cards I bought at the Target Dollar Spot. It is very easy letter practice.

The words are on a ring

I also use these sight word cards that they LOVE! Here is the Beginning of the Year Word Work freebie, click here. I laminated them and put them on a ring adding words as the year continued. The students love using the expo markers and I have little erasers too. I do have a full year version if you like this, you can click here.  I use play-dough activities, wikki stix, wax crayons....  I start with only one activity at a time and then give choice later. I introduce sight word worksheets in a few weeks.  I have the same worksheet for a week and then change them out. Here is another worksheet that requires dice. Here is a small freebie from this product. The kinders love this activity too. Click here for your freebie.

(Once I start Word Work) I usually have them practice Read to Self for 15-20 minutes and then the other 15-20 minutes would be word work. ( I split the class in half and some of them are reading and some are doing word work.)As soon as I see they have the hang of it I will introduce Work on Writing. I have a part of my room where students can find all the worksheets, sight word rings, markers, whiteboards. Then I have another location where they can find all their Work on Writing.

I do not take any guided reading groups until I feel they know Read to Self, Word Work, Work on Writing and Listening to Reading. I will write more about introducing work on writing and listening to reading. 
Here are some new posters I made

You can get them for free here.