Under Water Word Work

Last week I finally wrapped up summer school! Now that I am done, I could actually blog about some of the things we did this week. :)

Instead of trying to recap all of summer school, I decided to pick five(ish) word work activities that we did during literacy workstations this summer and link up with one of my favorite linky parties!

 


Popcorn word play-doh stamping. 


For this station, I give kids high frequency words that we have been practicing, play-doh, play-doh stampers, and some kind of manipulative to cover up the words they have stamped. First the read the word, then stamp it, write in in their journal, and cover it up! 

Once students have covered all of the words, I will challenge them to come up with sentences using the words in their journal.  


 Building vocabulary words at the sensory table.


At this station, I fill the bucket with plastic letters, thematic vocabulary words, and different types of sensory materials. Right now it is full of black beans and corn but other things I like to put in there are colored rice, sand, or water.  

Students dig through the beans and find the letters to spell each word, then record the words in their journal. 


The "necklace making" station.


For this workstation, I include thematic vocabulary and letter beads(which you can find here).
This is one of the kid's FAVORITE word work activities and that is for one reason and one reason alone. After they are done spelling their words on different pieces of string, they get to pick one word and wear it for the rest of the day. Gotta love kids! It's the little things that get the most excited. :) 


Wikki Stix word builders


This is another word work activity that is very easy to set up. I put out vocabulary cards and wikki stix and let the kids go to town! 

When I first introduce wikki stix word building, I make sure that the words are big enough that the students can easily form the letters right on top of the word. Once they have gotten a handle on creating letters using the wikki stix, I start giving them smaller cards to create and shape the letters on their own. You can find a small pack to get you started here or go for the big set here.


The last word work station that I am going to share today is a building words station. 


This year my principal purchased these cool word building blocks for us (you can find them here). They are perfect for small group and a fun addition to a word work workstation! To make my CVC words "ocean themed" I just added the pictures to these cute little fish, 

To make it even more exciting, you could add paperclips to the fish and have students "catch" a word to build using a magnetic fishing pole. I would have done this but that idea JUST came to me! Oh well, there is always next year ;)

So that was 5, but I want to share just one more thing....
 

One of my sweet teacher friends (who was not even teaching summer school!) made this adorable little backdrop for our dramatic play.



In this ocean themed dramatic play, students became oceanographers and observed all kids of sea creatures. 


They explored different textures and patterns. 

All of these items are from Lakeshore but when I went on their site to put the link, all I could find were the animals. The patterns and texture cards are both older so they may not make them anymore. :( 

Then there is my personal favorite, the taxidermy turtle...


3 things you need to know about this turtle:

1. When your dad has been married to a teacher for 30+ years, he finds you weird and amazing things you never even knew to ask for at flea markets.

2. Some kids are terrified of it, most kids think it is the coolest thing EVER!

3. I put a hand lends by the turtle for students to observe it in greater detail. Instead, most students held the turtle like a baby and fed it sand. LOL

That is all for today! To connect with other teachers for more great ideas, check out Doodle Bugs Teaching's linky party.

For other ocean themed ideas, you can check out these posts on my old blog!



2 comments

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