Differentiated Kindergarten Is Taking the Segmenting Plunge
What happens when you have 5 days of inside recess and then get two new students in 48 hours who have segmenting challenges? You break out the plungers that’s what! My students were super squirrelly last week when a couple of new students arrived and although we segment in TONS of different ways, I hadn’t broken out my plungers yet this year and it just seemed like the time. Of course, I use a boat load of other methods to practice segmenting, but face it, variety IS the spice of life.
Now this is NOT an original idea by any means. My teacher neighbor and my own kinder’steacher, Kerri, introduced me to plunger segmenting a couple of years ago. You can sometimes pick plungers at the Dollar Tree, but these little cuties were purchased for a dollar or two each at Walmart. They actually come with a little piece of black rubber on the bottoms which I take off or you will have plungers that stick to the table and don’t unstick as easily when you need them to move to the next sound.
Without the rubber part, students can look at a picture (I use my Word Family WordPackets or my I Can Do It Myself Self-Correcting Segmenting cards if students are working on their own. ), say the word and plunge out the sounds they hear.
It is surprisingly engaging and another way to get them to move.
We need as many tricks that we can get to keep students engaged, interested and having fun so why not break out the plungers?
It’s time for the Word Work Plumbers to go to work, plunging out words!
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Marsha Moffit McGuire
With more than 20 years of teaching experience, it is my pleasure to bring you my most favorite ideas and activities to keep young learners engaged and loving learning.
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