I've been searching for ways to increase student engagement this year along with maintaining rigor and covering the Common Core standards. It's been sort of like a puzzle to see what has worked and been successful for my fabulous first graders. We've tried A LOT of new things, and this group of students I have this year are awesome, adventurous, and it makes for a "laboratory" full of ideas. Here are some of our favorites! The kids love playing Slap it! There are many versions, but ours is best played with 4 in a group. So much fun!
The next video and photo shows a Guess My Word game. The word pages are differentiated so that all students can play regardless of language or reading level. Having the different versions of the I have a word page helps a ton. The kids love it because they get up and walk around having their friends trying to guess their words.
This kids love reading about the "Phonics Friends". They get interested in the characters, and they love highlighting and sorting words from the stories. To the left is an example of one of the oo stories in the oo word work packet. I always include several versions of the same story to accommodate all learners. I even put simple pattern text mini-books in the units for emergent readers.
If you are interested, the following products explain these fun phonics activities in more detail and include many more ideas and resources. They are centered around the combination of learning phonics through reading and Common Core Reading Foundational Skills.
OO Word Work
Long e Word Work
Oi/Oy Word Work
