Word Building Kits

Do you have your students build words? It is part of my guided reading routine and my students love it! It really shows me what my students know and what they need more practice with. My problem has always been trying to figure what letters the students need in order to make the words I wanted them to make. So I created a tool to help me with this.

I wanted something that I could look at while I am teaching my reading groups that would tell me what letters they needed, and the words they would be making. This is what I came up with.

This binder holds all of the levels A-J word building activities. Each level has a one page guide with ten word making activities. I usually have my students make words every day.

Now I will be honest. I don’t always have this binder on my table.

My space is limited.

So for each level, I have also made the word sets onto strips. They are combined with a binder ring. This is what I keep at my reading table. It’s easy to store and I just flip to the set that I need for the group that I am working with.

We are fortunate at our school because we have a lot of parent helpers. I wanted to have some of them practice this activity with my students, so I made word building kits. These could also be used as an RTI tool for your students who need extra practice. Each set is put into a manilla envelope, along with the word building directions. Cut apart letters also included in for each set. The parents can have them cut apart the letters, build the words and then record their work on the paper.

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I use magnetic letters with my students to build words. Our grade level had money, so we purchased the magnetic letter set from Lakeshore. We love them! But if you are not able to get your hands on magnetic letters, I have included letters that you can laminate and cut out, or the paper ones for the word building kits.