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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

***SPARKLE*** Word Wall Fun

So one of my favorite parts of teaching emergent and early readers to read and write is using a word wall!  While I am no longer in a first grade classroom, I am working with many struggling readers in my intervention office and I still like to utilize a word wall.  It is just difficult as each group has a different set of words they are learning and no one set of words works for each of my eight groups I see throughout the day!

However, if you use a word wall and share that passion as I do, you may be looking for some fun activities to get your students looking at the word wall regularly.  While I did not create this first activity, it has certainly gone very far in my teaching career with countless groups of students.  The game is called ***SPARKLE***.  For some reason, I feel the need to put twinkly asterisks around it to make the word kind of sparkle. (OK....at least it is sparkling in my mind while I am writing this post! So humor me please!)

Here is how you play ***Sparkle***, if you don't already know.  And if you already know, skip down below as I am promising you a FREEBIE which I definitely authored and you don't know this one and if you do then you are psychic.  So back to  ***Sparkle***. Have all your students stand in a circle facing each other in close proximity of the word wall.  You want them to be able to peek at the wall so they can see how to spell the words properly but I love when they are trying to be really sly about looking. You give a word from the wall and start in one direction around the circle. Each student in sequence will spell a letter in the word.  So if I say "the", student #1 says "t", student #2 says "h", and student #3 says "e".  Student #4 says at the end of spelling the word ***sparkle*** and student #5 sits down.  The goal is to be the last one standing so often times luck is involved.  You cycle through the words on the word wall. And let this be a warning....it can get competitive even though luck is involved.  So be sure you set the scene for that!  No tears are necessary!

OK....game #2 doesn't really have a name.  Students do not need to be in a circle this time.  They can be facing the word wall and sitting down.  Whatever works best for the geography of your room is fine...as long as the students can see the words! All you need is a laser pointer and the words on the word wall. Also, you need to give a word of caution that only the teacher can use the laser pointer...no kid hands on it allowed!   I came up with this chant ages ago when I was trying to figure out another way to get my kids using the word wall.  It goes like this:

Laser, laser, 
Oh so bright. 
Tell me what word 
comes to sight.

Simply point the laser at a word and pick a student.  If the student reads the word correctly, he/she can have the privilege of picking the next student to read the sight word!  Sound easy?  Sound fun? If you answered yes to those questions, please stop by my TPT store and you can download a poster of this chant for FREE so you can use this activity with your students!  It of course, has to have a picture of my adorable mascot, my Westie, Izzy on it!

Click on this link:

Laser, Laser Poster Download....Get your free download here!

If you play this with your kiddos, please let me know on the blog how it goes.  Also, if you download this, leave me some love in my TPT store and you will earn credits towards future purchases!

Again, many thanks for your interest in my products and my blog. I'm thrilled to know that you are sharing my activities with your students! That's a pretty cool thing!

Until Next Time,