Word Work for Older Kids

As an elementary teacher, one of the most important skills I can teach my students is how to read, write and spell. The use of word work in my classroom is essential, even in the upper elementary grades. Word work is when students practice spelling, vocabulary, frequently used words and word parts like prefixes, suffixes, and roots. This helps them continue to grow as young readers and writers.

In order to keep your students interested and engaged, you have to find age-appropriate word work activities that they will enjoy. A fourth grader most likely will not appreciate rainbow spelling the way a first grader would. In contrast, solving vocabulary puzzles would be an excellent choice for older students. I like to incorporate word work in my third grade classroom during centers and reading groups. During centers, they often independently practice a skill that we have worked on during reading group.

One really important skill for understanding language is the ability to break words down into their individual parts to extract the meaning. This requires instruction in word analysis: specifically prefixes, suffixes, and Green and Latin roots. When students understand the individual parts of a word, they are much more successful at determining the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.

This resource consists of word wall words, a Word of the Day worksheet, and word building cards including prefixes, suffixes, and many Greek and Latin roots students will encounter in their reading. {Click the picture to see more.}

In addition to analyzing words, students in third, fourth, and fifth graders still need practice with more advanced phonics and spelling patterns, and vocabulary.

Listed below are a few really great and age-appropriate activities for your students to try:

• Vocabulary Crossword Bulletin Board: Laminate squares of blank paper (so they can be used over and over again) and use them to create a giant crossword grid on your bulletin board. Post the clues about your weekly vocabulary words next to the grid. For example, if one of your vocabulary words was "pointless", then 1 across might say "Having no purpose". Students can record their answers on their response sheets or you can have them write their answers on the grid using dry erase markers.

• Scrabble Spelling: Older students don't often like to practice their spelling words. One way to add some fun is to turn it into a game. Scrabble tiles work great for this. Put all of the tiles into a bag or box. Each student should also have their spelling list handy. They take turns pulling a tile from the bag. If they can use it to build a spelling word, they keep it. If not, it gets set aside. Keep pulling tiles until they are all used up. Any completed words get scored by adding the points on the tiles used. Incomplete words do not count. The person with the highest score wins.

• Word Sorts for Big Kids: Word sorting is typically a primary grades activity but it can work for intermediate too. There are plenty of advanced spelling patterns that lend themselves well to word sorting. One example is the "shun" sound. The tion, sion, and cian patterns are confusing and take a lot of practice.

Students can complete these activities in groups or centers to practice sorting words by the suffix “tion, sion and cian”. At the same time, they will be building their vocabulary. (This resource includes word cards, definition cards, a recording sheet and a cut & paste worksheet.)

• Stamp Challenge: Since students love competition, this game is perfect! With a partner, two stamp pads, and a set of letter stampers, students take a word from a work bucket, and stamp out the spelling of the word as quickly as possible to beat their partner. This game is strictly for spelling practice but it sure is fun! 

While word work is essential for the younger grades, it is important to keep reinforcing spelling and vocabulary skills as our students progress. Students will enjoy games and group activities that increase their knowledge of words beyond just how to spell them. I hope you and your students find these ideas helpful! Enjoy!

Close Reading? Nah, Not Today!

As most of you know, I am a math teacher at heart. I just love teaching my students how to tackle a problem, fit all the pieces together, and make sense of numbers. When the math light goes on, it's a wonderful thing!

But alas, I must still teach reading. Not that I don't LOVE to read. A good book is actually one of my favorite things. What I do NOT love, however, is close reading. What?!! Did I just say that? Will the School Board Gods strike me down for uttering such blasphemy? Cover your eyes, don't look!

The main reason I dislike close reading is because my students dislike it. Our reading lessons used to be fun, full of personal connections and enjoying the author's words. Close reading often feels like pulling teeth. I fully understand the need to dive deep into the text but can't it be a little bit fun...sometimes? I'm really not sure where they got the idea that close reading means 3 separate reads of the same long, tedious text. Who really reads like that? Here's a great article on the effective use of close reading:

International Reading Association

The big problem I'm seeing is that we spend so much time dissecting text and looking at minute details (like why the author's choice of this one word could change the course of history) that the children are forgetting the big ideas... main idea, theme, moral, and personally connecting to what you've read. Summarizing and retelling? Forget it.

So this week I've broken the shackles of close reading! That's right... I'm not doing it. I feel like a crazy rebel, a lunatic who escaped the loony bin. Instead, we are SUMMARIZING!

This is a skill my students really struggle with. They want to give every single detail or include minor points instead of the most important ones. I tried using index cards and post-its, telling them they could only write what would fit on the card. They just wrote really small. So today I gave them a graphic organizer with guiding questions along with a passage about the Puritans. I had them read it to themselves...once. Then we worked on answering the questions using phrases and words rather than complete sentences (as in taking notes). Finally, they used those notes to write a summary in paragraph form. Here is what we used...

You can download a copy for yourself HERE.

Guess what... Their summaries were beautiful. They got the main point of the text. They understood why the Puritans needed to leave England. Who cares that the text wasn't the most complex? Next time, I'll make it a little harder. Today reading wasn't something to moan and groan about. Today they felt successful. 

Throwback Thursday

Thanks to Katie at Mind Sparks for starting this great linky idea! We're digging up old blog posts and bringing them back for a second go-round. The post I'm revisiting is one that I wrote on my first blog, "Making Waves in 2nd Grade." It's all about my favorite read-aloud ever...


I don't know about you but the hardest part of my job right now is teaching writing. The kids either love to write and won't stop...even when they've gone wildly off topic... or they won't even pick up the pencil. One of my goals this year is to really build their vocabularies and hope (pray, fingers crossed) that it transfers to their writing. But I've done the explicit vocabulary instruction, the "colorful words" charts, etc. and decided someone else could probably do a better job of it. And who might that be, you ask?  Edward Tulane. More specifically, Kate DiCamillo, author of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

I decided to jump straight into really good chapter books as read-alouds... chapter books full of challenging vocabulary. Edward Tulane just happened to be the first one I tried and wow, did it pay off.  First of all, the kids were totally captivated by this book. I even had two little ones cry in the middle of it (not that I want to make my students cry) and they begged, yes BEGGED, me to read it as soon as they got to school every morning.

But the vocabulary... that's the best part!  We talked about all of those big words and we practiced using them and they put them in their writing notebooks. And guess what...I'm seeing them in their writing, along with other fantabulous words we've come across in books.

So, first I'd like to suggest reading The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane to your class. But I'd also like to ask for your suggestions. Do you know any really great chapter books that will challenge our kiddos to think harder and deeper?  Leave me a note if you do. I'd love to hear what must-have books are on your read-aloud list.



Edward Tulane Comprehension Pack