As teachers, we have a million things to plan for. Math lessons, reading lessons, writing lessons, social studies, and science (is that it?)… the list goes on and on. Once we have our whole group and small group lessons planned, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Until we realize… crap! What are the rest of the kids gonna do while I’m teaching my small groups?!
We start to stress out (please tell me that’s not just me) because now there are MORE things we need to plan for. And did I mention this is just for ONE week?!
But fear not, my teacher friends. We have been making this WAY more complicated than it needs to be. You CAN plan engaging, meaningful, and differentiated literacy center activities for your students to do without having to reinvent the wheel EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. And the best part is… without reinventing the wheel, you won’t have to reteach your students EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK.
It’s possible. It’s effective. It’s simple.
Let’s dive into one of many literacy center activities that will help you achieve this goal.
Word Work
Word work in my classroom focuses on sight words. You can choose to focus on sight words, spelling words, whatever works for you.
Each of my students has a personalized word ring that contains the sight words they have mastered so far. When I’m teaching a small group, some of my kids go to word work. They take their word ring and use the words on it to complete one or more activities. I believe that choice leads to increased engagement, so they choose the activity(ies) they want to do.
Word Work Choices
- White boards
- Wikki stix
- Letter stamps in play doh
- Boogie boards
- Magnet Letters
- Rainbow writing
- Letter beads
- Magic words
I introduce each activity in my small group at the beginning of the year, and they remain the same for the whole year. Let me say that again. They. Don’t. Change.
Now, I know some of you are probably thinking: Don’t your kids get bored of the same word work activities? And here’s my answer… no!
They don’t get bored for 2 reasons. Reason one: they are constantly mastering new sight words that are added to their ring, so they are always using new words. And reason two: They get to choose the activity they want to do. So if they get sick of an activity, they have 7 more to choose from.
Can you imagine having 8 independent activities that your students can do while you’re teaching small groups that you DON’T have to teach them every Monday? I can’t wait to dive deeper into each one with you!
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