Post by Contributing Writer Kim of Life Over C’s
We are in full swing getting ready to head back to school! So I have been working on new activities for the kids to get their first week started off with some fun! I created this free back to school word building activity to go along with the Valentine’s and Spring ones that I did last year that my daughters loved. This “Learning is Fun!” create-a-word activity is fantastic for assessing your children’s needs for spelling and vocabulary without them even knowing that it’s ‘work’.
For this activity you will need paper, scissors and a pencil. Just print the Back to School Word Building activity and cut out the individual letters.
I was super excited that Target had this phrase in their Dollar Spot, but it you are not lucky enough to snag it, you can still do the activity with the letters that are included in the printable.
In fact, my daughter wanted to just leave the gel clings as a display while she used the printed letters to rearrange into words. (She liked the rainbow…)
Even kindergarteners can use this activity. They will choose easier words like: a, an, is, are because that is the level they are at.
I’ve done these activities with all three of my older girls, ages: 12, 10, and 7. Each of them demonstrates a different level of thinking.
The older girls immediately see more complex words and show deeper vocabulary skills. My 5th grader wanted to spell “lear” and “sear”.
It’s also a good way to see if they understand the different ways to spell the vowel teams, use word families, and understand “word ladders”.
You can have your child do it open-ended to see how many words they can possibly think of or you can have them see how many words they can create in 5 minutes. It doesn’t have to take long.
In fact, short & sweet is a good thing with this, so that the kids don’t get bored or frustrated if they can’t think of anymore words.
Or just ask them “What five words can you create out of these letters?” Whatever fits their learning level.
We like it just because it’s fun!
Download the Free Back to School Word Building Printable
Kim is a work at home mom of four awesome daughters {12, 10, 7 year olds and a special needs 4 year old}. She is wrapping up her 7th year of homeschooling and, before recently returning to the States, lived overseas for 9 years. Kim shares free printables and educational activities over at Life Over C’s.
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