How to Sparkle at Word Level Activities

Description

How to Sparkle at Word Level Activities fits in with the National Curriculum programme of study for Key Stage 1 reading by offering practice in the following strategies:

Phonemic awareness and phonic knowledge

1. hear, identify, segment and blend phonemes in words
2. sound and name the letters of the alphabet
3. link sound and letter patterns, exploring rhyme, alliteration and other sound patterns
4. read on sight high-frequency words and familiar words
5. recognize specific parts of words, including prefixes, suffixes, inflectional endings, plurals.

An environment rich in words is an absolute must if children are to succeed at word level activities. Display word banks and have dictionaries close to hand. Hang the lists and words that you create as a class on washing lines so that the children can constantly refer to them.

Create a class word bank with a pocket for each letter and a card tucked inside so that the children can pull it out and write their word on it. As well as having a word bank for the letters of the alphabet you could also make one with blend pockets as well, such as ‘dr’, ‘fl’ and ‘gr’.

Make it fun to think about words with post boxes. Have one box for the children to post words with ‘oo’ in the middle and another for them to post words with ‘oa’ in the middle.

Set up a sheet on your easel and write a blend such as ‘br’. Challenge your children to fill the sheet by the end of the day with all the words that they can think of that begin with that blend. Encourage the children to spot patterns in spellings or little words hiding in big ones. Above all help them to become word detectives who will really enjoy the activities in this book.