Word Families

Last year my district created a new word study program to take the place of the phonics/spelling curriculum we had used for years.  In first grade this program focuses on word families.  My colleagues and I were thrilled, but there was definitely a learning curve involved.  Now that we know what to expect, things should go a lot smoother and our instruction should be much more effective!
I've been creating some activities to reinforce the word families we will be covering. The first activity is themed to go along with my "Popcorn Words" word wall. Each week we add words that represent the word families we are studying.  These words have a ticket on them to show that they are a ticket to reading and writing new words.

My word wall waiting for words!

An example of my "ticket" words.  The district high frequency words have a popcorn picture in corner.

The activity I created will help me highlight other words from the families and keep all of the word families visible.  This packet consists of the 37 common rimes from Wylie and Durrell as well as some additional families used in my district.  The cards can be used for display and can also be used with the workmat and recording sheet at a literacy/word work station.  Head over to Teachers Pay Teachers to check it out!

TPT

I also created a" Bang"! type Freebie game to practice the short a families.

Freebie!

Teacher Created Resources is going to be giving away an Ipad!  Click here to enter.  If you win by following my link, I win an Ipad mini!  You can enter every day!

Word Study

Attended my first staff development session of the summer this morning.  My district has decided to move completely to word study instead of weekly spelling lists.  Yea!  I love word study.   My team has already been using most of the resources that are going to be required next year.  One day will be making words from Pat Cunningham's books, one day will be word sorts and one day will be word wall work.  We have a choice of lots of different activities for days 4 and 5.
I use a folder with baseball card pockets to store my letters for making words and bought a bunch of the pocket charts from the dollar spot at Target and cut them into pieces of 2 pocket rows each. (I serged the edges so the nylon wouldn't fray.)  This system worked great for me.  Next year I  want to add a word study notebook.  I'm thinking that the kids could use these notebooks during word study lessons, during guided reading and maybe even during word work in Daily 5.

I also want to make a new word wall.  I'm thinking about using pocket charts, like this one from Fun for First.

I found this on Pinterest.  Don't you just love Pinterest?!!!