All About Word Work (Freebies!)

When I pull my 3rd grade intervention groups, we always start with a phonics lesson.  I try to have a variety of word work activities on hand to keep our lessons engaging and not the same boring activity every day.

I keep all of my small group materials in a binder.  I've printed off 7 copies of each activity and placed them in a page protector.  That way I can reuse all of my materials and kids love writing with a dry erase marker.  Of course, I had to make a cute cover for my binders.  

You can download a copy of my covers by clicking on the picture below.

With my low group, I like to start off reviewing the short vowel sounds.  Why is it that 'e' and 'i' are so tricky?  I love using these vowel sound cards that you can download {here} for free.  The graphics and hand motions really help my students remember the correct sounds.

When we are introducing new phonics patterns, I typically start with a card sort.  I give students several cards (depending on group size) and let them take turns sorting the cards into our pocket chart.  We then read the cards up and down, as a group and individually calling on students.

After the first introduction to the phonics patterns, I try to switch up our daily activities.

The sound boxes are really great if you're wanting students to concentrate on middle sounds, blends, or digraphs.  We just spent last week working on R-blends.  Oh man, I didn't think we were ever going to gr, tr, and dr with my lowest group!

Word Ladders are always fun and my kids love manipulating the letters to make new words.  This is also a really great tool to see if your kids are catching onto the patterns.  They really have to listen to your directions to know what letters to change. 

Analogy charts are great if you're wanting to kids to compare 2 or 3 different patterns.  I used this last week when I wanted my students to really focus on gr- and dr- patterns.  They were having a hard time determining when to use which pattern.  The Analogy Chart made them really have to pay attention to the sounds.

I usually save the Spelling Sort for the last day of our work on those specific patterns.  This is another tool that really makes students think about which vowel sound they hear in the word and which phonics pattern they need to use.

I wanted to give you guys all of my Word Work Printables as a freebie.  I've added them as a Facebook Fan Freebie.  All you have to do is visit my Facebook Fan page {here}, "like" my page, and click the Fan Freebie button.  Then you will be able to download these for yourself.

Do you have any tips to help make word work interesting with your students?