Word Study and Fluency Folders

Word study is well underway in room 8!  We have been working on regular short vowel words and the powerful magic e.  For starters we learned how to do word mapping.  I forgot to snap a picture of this, but basically we finger spell the word first, write out our sound markers, spell the word, and then finally swoop our fingers under the word and read it.  So...if the word is fist, we begin by counting out the sounds on our fingers /f/ /i/ /s/ /t/ four sounds so fingers go up.  Then we make four sound markers on our white boards ___ ___ ___ ___.  Next we say the sounds again and write down the corresponding letter (or letters) for each sound /f/ /i/ /s/ /t/.  Last we swoop a finger under the word and read it, spell it, and read it again.  And that my friends is word mapping in an a nut shell, a super effective researched based method for learning to read and spell. :)

For reinforcement and practice of our skills, we created short vowel books during reading centers.  For this project kiddos read through decodable books to hunt for words that have short vowel sounds.  They then recorded their findings and illustrated a few on each page.  They finished up the book with a word sort and some thoughtful sentences.

We also learned how to play a fun and engaging game called Kaboom!  For this game I loaded up some empty Clorox cylinders with popsicle sticks that had our short vowel and magic e words written on them.  I also included a few sticks with the word Kaboom written on them to make the game really fun!  The students took turns pulling a stick out of the cylinder and read the word to their partner.  The partner then tries to spell the word.  If they spell the word correctly, they keep the stick, if not, it goes back in the cylinder.  Play continues until someone pulls a KABOOM stick!  Then they have to put all their sticks pack in the cylinder and start over!  Ha! So very fun!  This is a great game to play at home to practice the spelling sounds we are learning.  It's fun for the whole family!  :)

In addition, I am happy to announce that Spelling City is now up and running! (Just in the nick of time!)  I hope you all found the instructional paper I sent home in the homework folders today.  Please let me know if anyone has any troubles getting in.

While we are on the topic of word study... I thought I would give you a preview of what the kiddos will be finding on their desks tomorrow morning...FLUENCY FOLDERS!  I am super excited about these helpful little guys!  The Fluency Folders will house high frequency word lists, word lists that reinforce our spelling patterns, poems, short decodable stories, and soon our guided reading books.  My plan is for Fluency Folders to go home and come to school each day so children always have them at their fingertips to practice.  We will practice reading in our Fluency Folders 5-10 minutes each day in class and I ask that the kiddos do this at home each day as well.  Becoming a fluent reader is oh so important because it frees up cognitive space for comprehending the text, which is the reason why we read.  :)  Fluency gets better with strategic practice, hence the idea behind our Fluency Folders.  I even included a white board and a marker which can be left at home and used for word mapping practice at home.

So that pretty much wraps up our word study for the week!  I hope you found this informative and helpful.  Please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have questions about
 spelling in second grade.