Saturday, September 29, 2012

Word Families and Paint Chips

Clark's article about techniques teachers can use when helping readers sound words out was extremely helpful. The article also reminded me of strategies my past teachers had used on me as an elementary school student. I was reminded about "word families" and how helpful referring to them while reading was. It's a great way to associate particular letter groupings with the sounds they make. It's also a helpful way to break a word into pieces, sound each piece out, and then put each piece together again to make a word. I found an exercise that would be very helpful to students and something I will use in my future classroom. 


Will you emphasize "word families" in your future classroom?
What are some fun activities that can incorporate "word families?"

6 comments:

  1. I love love love the "Paint Chip" idea! Admittedly, I have seen it, and saved it on my Pinterest before. Reading your blog just reinforces what a clever idea it really is. Like you, I will definitely use the paint chip idea in my future classroom.

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  2. I love the paint chip idea, too! I have used them before for an arts and crafts project with my niece, but never ever thought of using them for learning to read. It's a great idea because kids will automatically become a lot more interested in anything that has lots of color!

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  3. I would never think to use paint chips in this way. This idea is very creative and fun! I'm sure that I will emphasize word families in my classroom in the future. A word wall is also a fun way to incorporate word families in the classroom.

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  4. I really love the paint chip idea, it is something I never would have thought of but is so creative and helpful! I hope to use a word wall in my classroom and maybe somehow use a puzzle to help with word families!

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  5. Although you have already had four comments, I had to add my own! LOVE love love this paint chip idea. I honestly cannot believe how creative people are. I think that this is a great tool that enables students to manipulate letter patterns and form words on their own! I actually saw another educational paint chip idea on pinterest. In this activity students wrote synonyms on a paint chip strip. The idea being that similar colors on one sample strip correspond with the similar meanings of synonym words on that strip.

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  6. This idea has gone viral on pinterest. It's a great idea that is quite cheap! Thanks for sharing.

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