Children have words all around them. As teachers, we work to help our students learn to read, spell, and understand words. For that reason, word work activities are a wonderful tool for the classroom.
What is word work?
Word work is hands-on activities that allow students to explore patterns, spellings, and/or meanings of words. In the classroom, students may be working with sight words, phonics patterns, word families, or prefixes and suffixes during word work.
When’s the best time to do word work activities?
Many opportunities exist throughout the school day to integrate word work. Word work activities can be completed whole class, in small groups, or independently. Daily 5 and literacy stations are other times you can integrate word work activities.
Editable Word Work Activities
The following activities can all be purchased here. This product is completely editable to support differentiation and meet all of your students’ needs. By changing the words and keeping the word work activities consistent your students will develop independence.
Write the Room
Write the room gets kids up and moving while working on words. Choose the words you want your students to work on and print the cards. Hide the cards around the classroom and have your students hunt for them. Give them a clipboard and recording sheet and they can work to write the words they find.
3 Ways to Write
Enter the words you would like your students to practice and copy the recording sheet. Students will write each word three times. They will use a pencil, marker, and crayon to write each word.
Stamp It
The words you enter will autofill onto the paper. Grab some alphabet stamps and a stamp pad and you are ready to go! Students will read the words and work to spell them using stamps.
Spin a Word
A paperclip and pencil or spinner overlay will work for this activity. Students will spin the spinner and read the word that it lands on. Next, they will find and color a word that matches until all words have been colored.
Rainbow Words
Markers, crayons, or color pencils will all work with this word work activity. Students pick a word and write it several times across the rainbow using a different color for each row. When they are done they’ll have created beautiful rainbow of words!
Dry Erase Words
Word work activities using dry erase markers can be used repeatedly. Simply enter the words you want your students to practice, print, and laminate. Once laminated the word cards can be wiped clean and reused for endless practice.
Spin and Color
A paper clip and something to color with is all that is needed for Spin and Color. Simply spin a word, find the word on the board, and color it in! This could also be played with a partner. Each partner uses a different color and then when the board is filled count to see who colored more words.
Red and Blue
A red and blue writing tool is all that is needed for Red ad Blue. Students will choose a word card and then work to write that word using red for vowels and blue for consonants. This is a great way to emphasize spelling their words but also the difference between a consonant and a vowel.
ABC Order
This ABC Order activity comes with 2 different options. Students can practice 6 or 12 words depending on time and level. Words will autofill in random order. Students then work to write them in alphabetical order.
Hidden Words
Become a detective with Hidden Words. Use a magnifying glass and find the tiny words hidden in a variety of pictures. Circle or highlight the words found and then write them on the recording sheet.
Magic Words
The white crayon that seems to serve little purpose now can create magic! Students choose a word to write in each space using white crayons. Once the words are written in crayon color over the crayon with a marker to see the words magically appear.
Spin & Cover
Spin & Cover is a partner game you play like Connect Four. Make a spinner using a paper clip. Once you have a spinner, take turns spinning and covering the word spun. The player to get 4 in-a-row first wins.
Rainbow Roll
Grab a die and something colorful to write with and you’re ready for Rainbow Roll. Each number on the die represents a color. Students choose a word card, roll the die, and then write that word in the color rolled.
Smelly Spelling
Smelly markers are fun and engaging. There are so many different scents available and your kids will be begging to use and smell them. With Smelly Spelling, students will use scented markers, crayons, or pencils to practice writing and spelling their words. Even better they have their paper to keep sniffing when they’re finished!
Word work activities are an excellent way to review and practice spelling, sight, or vocabulary words. If you’d like to try out word work in your classroom or home subscribe below for a word work sampler!
