It’s the thirty-second day of school. Over half my kinders are ‘Top Bananas,’ I’ve introduced and we’ve reviewed over half the letters of the alphabet, they are showing signs of segmenting and blending, they totally ‘get’ patterns, and I’m feeling like it’s time to introduce word families. Since you all have had so many questions about this part of my classroom routine, I thought I’d show you a bit more about how I introduce, differentiate and maintain this part of my ELA instruction. I’m ... VIEW POST
Ingredients For Successful Word Family Instruction
Differentiating Word Family Study
This marks my class' sixth week of word family study, and I absolutely love the routines we have establish for participating in word family activities and the success my kinders are feeling in recognizing and reading these important words that will make reading so much easier in the coming months. They are recognizing chunks and referring to the word family wall regularly, and I can really see how confident they have become. Needless to say, we love word family work. I've had quite a ... VIEW POST
All In the Family (The Word Family That Is) and a Freebie to Get you Started
I am a true believer in the power of FAMILY...specifically Word Families. In my own classroom, it's an essential part of my Daily 5 Word Work. Word families, or some people call them chunks (families is just so much more friendly sounding to me but to each their own), help readers look for patterns when decoding. When your students recognize those patterns, they can more easily sound out words they don't readily know. It is always amazing to watch when a light suddenly turns on ... VIEW POST