Word Walls

What is a word wall you might ask? Well, it is a place to put words so that children can view them on a regular basis. They can then refer to it to help them along in their reading. You can use a bulletin board or any empty space on your wall. At this time I am using the fold out poster board that you might use for a Science experiment. Word walls are especially helpful to beginner readers.

Guidelines for your word wall.

1. Add word to your wall gradually

2.Make words accessible by putting them where your student cans see them. Make the word wall in a prominent place in you home.

3. Write words in big black letters be sure the words are printed neatly

4. Be selective about which words go on the wall. Have a specific reason for adding the word to the wall. At this time my son has site words only on his wall. My older child has her spelling words or words she stuggles with in her writing.

5. Do a variety of review activities with the words on the word wall. Be sure to provide enough prcatice so that words on the wall become easy for students to identify, read and spell

6. Encourage students to use the words on the walls during writing activites. Make sure these words are spelled correctly in students writing.


Word Wall activities

Make a list have students make a list of all the homophones and homonyms on the word wall. They can list nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc..

Define in a sentence Daily you can chose a word for your child to write one sentence for that word.

Whats at the end Find words on the list with similar endings

See it , say it, sing it, chant it, clap it Children need to become familiar with the words

Be a mind reader Student selects word and gives mom clues in finding which word from the wall they are trying to think of.

Guess the covered word Write a sentence for a word on the wall and child has to figure out which word fits in the sentence

Whats at the beginning Child finds words with the same beginning sound

Seek and find Locate words in a newspaper or magazine and highlight them.


Fun Ideas for practicing sight words

Play a matching game . Write the sight words on index cards and play matching.

Make Bingo cards with the site words on them

Creat a site word jail on the wall. Put the sight words in jail because they dont follow the rules. Hae teh student read the words throughout the day . After they have mastered the word set it free.

Select a word and call it sight word of the day. Have the student keep tally of how many times in the day they see that word.

Use macaroni or cereal to practice spelling words or shaving cream and finger paint in it. Use cookie cutters to form letter out of cookie dough. Bake letters to your word.