This Lesson Comes from the Making Words Block of the Four Blocks

Karrie

Demonstration

Making Words Lesson

This lesson comes from the Making Words block of the Four Blocks

Literacy Model. The Bethalto School District has had numerous trainings in

Four Blocks over the last few years, and this is one activity that I use repeatedly in my third grade classroom. There are several reasons why I think these lessons are beneficial for my students. Most importantly, it helps them to become better spellers and decoders. I use Making Words to teach students that there are patterns in words and that a little change in the letters of a word changes it in a predictable way. My students also find out that words can be sorted into patterns and then used to read and spell other words. Making Words is a lot of fun if you keep it fast paced. When you are finished, the students are still eager to make other words with the letters.

1)The students will first cut out the letters that we will use for this lesson. Then they write the capital of the same letter on the back of each lowercase letter they were given. There is always a secret word that will be spelled using ALL of the letters given. They try to figure this out right away so they can be the first one to find it.

2)I tell them to use 3 of their letters to spell art. I give them an example of a sentence for each word I ask them to spell. (We draw and paint in art class.) Use 3 letters to spell air. Use 3 letters to spell tip.

3)Then I tell them to add 1 letter to spell trip. (We are planning a trip to Disney World.)

4)Change 1 letter and spell trap.

5)Use the same letters you used for trap but move them around to make them spell part.

6)Change 1 letter to spell port.

7)Use 4 letters to spell pair.

8)Use 6 letters to spell parrot.

9)Now it is time for the secret word. I give them a minute to try to figure it out. Most of them have a guess by this time in the activity. If they do not know, I may give them a clue like airplanes land here. Usually someone in the class will figure it out fairly quickly.

10)At this time, I will have the students give me some more words that they have found that can be made using only these letters. I will let them come up to the pocket chart and use my letters to make the words for the other students.

11)After all the words have been made, I have the students sort by patterns such as beginning sounds, rhyming words, prefixes, plurals, etc.

12)We will use these patterns to complete the Sort and Transfer sections of the worksheet.

13)At the end of each lesson, I always remind the students that rhyming words can help them read and spell other words.

Variation: Another way to do this lesson is to just let the students give you 3, 4, and 5 letter words from the beginning to let them see how easy it is for them to spell their own words when given certain letters.

Standards:

1.A.1a Apply word analysis skills (phonics, word patterns) to recognize new words.

Helpful Books:

1) Month-By-Month Phonics by Patricia M. Cunningham and Dorothy P. Hall.

Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company, Inc.

2) Making Words: Lessons for Home or School by Patricia M. Cunningham and Dorothy P. Hall. Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company, Inc.