I introduced the word wall this week. I started off by saying it was going to be a place for some of the most important words in our class. Words we need to know how to read and write quickly. I asked my kiddos if they knew what words would be the first up there. One of my cuties raised his hand and said "community." Love this!! It means all of that talk about building a community, working together, and being respectful of each other is working. Yay!!
What I was really getting at though were names. We put our names on the word wall and used them at some of our centers this week like the stamping center, the I Like You poem, and our Brown Bear book. Now that they are experts at reading each other's names it's time to expand our repertoire!
We spend a lot of time in first grade working on recognizing spelling patterns or "word families." These spelling patterns help children read and write words quickly and more efficiently. Each week we'll learn a new spelling pattern or phonics rule and reinforce it through word study centers. All of their center work, including a spelling card with that weeks word list, will come home stapled together on Thursdays.
Here are some of the highlights of the week....
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| The start of something special....our word wall! |
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| A close up view. The word wall is a major resource so it's front and center of our classroom. |
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| A center group using the word wall to complete a Read Around the Room activity. |
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| Rainbow words....another way to practice reading and writing word wall (aka High Frequency) words. |
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| Our first word family brainstorm list. We practiced coming up with -at and -ap words. |
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| Working on "ap" family words at a word study center. This center is called Build, Mix, Fix. Children work with letter tiles to build a spelling word, mix up the letters, and then rebuild or "fix" the word |
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I just loved this moment :)
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I am looking forward to meeting many of you on PIN. I'll have sign up sheets for volunteering opportunities and fall conferences. Also, check out my "wish list." We are always very appreciative of any donations to the class.
