We've provided the SnapWord™ Games as individual file downloads for a long time, but now are happy to be able to offer them to you in a 439 page resource on CD! Buy The Reading Teacher's Encyclopedia today! You'll reach for it again and again!
Distinguish between ME and MY
FREE printable poster
Distinguish between b and d
FREE printable poster
Words for List A Group 1:
a, at, on, by, in, me, no, not, the, and, go is
Words for List A Group 2:
it, sit, to, up, or, help, I, my, see, now, do, he
Words for List A Group 3:
out, so, big, has, will, can, like, stop, but, get, play, down
Words for List A Group 4:
said, we, come, did, here, little, want, you, call, for, look, this
Words for List A Group 5:
have, make, ran, an, back, his, are, jump, as, if, hi
Words for List B Group 1:
am, ask, be, cut, got, him, into, its, let, run, us, yes
Words for List B Group 2:
away, must, that, from, of, them, funny, put, they, may, say, went
Words for List B Group 3:
any, many, try, fly, she, what, just, show, when, last, than, why
Words for List B Group 4:
ate, pull, too, fast, saw, took, good, sing, who, our, then, with
Words for List B Group 5:
about, all, eat, gave, new, read, still, take, tell, work, your
Words for List C Group 1:
after, going, man, bring, had, old, cold, her, told, giving, hold, was
Words for List C Group 2:
began, kind, over, better, never, soon, far, next, under, find, off, were
Words for List C Group 3:
another, made, there, came, oh, think, give, other, very, live, ride, where
Words for List C Group 4:
around, know, pick, before, more, these, found, much, those, how, own, which
Words for List C Group 5:
again, does, long, day, first, some, didn't, gone, walk, don't, hard
Words for List D Group 1:
across, full, most, best, hot, open, both, I'm, same, fall, left, yet
Words for List D Group 2:
always, light, small, clean, might, upon, high, need, well, keep, right
Words for List D Group 3:
animal, leave, sleep, close, mean, use, even, myself, while, every, near
Words for List D Group 4:
been, only, today, draw, round, turn, grow, start, warm, hurt, short
Words for List D Group 5:
buy, laugh, their, could, once, would, done, pretty, goes, should
Words for List E Group 1:
basement, playmate, clapped, stove, upon, drink, stuck, wash, prize, thank, wish
Words for List E Group 2:
because, bicycle, company, flapping, giggle, hitch, imagine, passenger, stumbled, willing
Words for List E Group 3:
careful, carry, certainly, decide, husband, hundred, together, toward, twice, write
Words for List E Group 4:
breath, heard, indeed, instant, mother, pleasant, please, pleasure, tomorrow, wonderful
Words for List E Group 5:
accident, different, enough, it's, realized, thought, through, shall, struggled, whole
1379 S Aspen Street, Lincolnton, NC 28092 | 704-240-9957, 704-240-9998 fax
I recommend displaying one group of words at a time in a pocket chart visually accessible to the children at all times. Use the games and activities in our Encyclopedia as the children learn and practice their reading skills. When they have learned one group of words, put the plain version on your word wall and display the next group of words in the pocket chart. You will be amazed at how quickly the children learn! Here are the words taught in each of the 25 levels:
The National Reading Panel Report identified five areas of skill that must be addressed in order to produce successful readers. Those five areas appear on the flower petals on the left. We add the skill of writing as we believe that what a child is learning to read, he or she also needs to learn to write.
We have created a resource that addresses all these areas and also meets the needs of visual, right brained learners who rely on patterns, visuals, hands-on means of learning for success.
This comprehensive resource is full of fun activities that provide necessary practice with the five essential components of reading as identified by the Institute of Educational Achievement: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The book contains activities on five difficulty levels that correspond to the five lists of SnapWords™, while each list is also divided into five sections of activities based on difficulty. Simply print or photocopy the activity that meets your students' reading needs to provide them with valuable practice. Activities include ABC ordering, reading assessment, vocabulary bingo, vocabulary crossword puzzles, fill-in-the-blank, go fish, illustrate the sentence, making phrases, making sentences, making words, picture cards, sentence unscramble, sound manipulation, word searches, word sort, word wall games, and a write about it section.
Getting Started:
1- For each section (there are 25 in all) find the supplied word wall words first and display them in a pocket chart clearly visible to all your students. If you want to jump-start your class, use our SnapWords™ in the pocket chart, and then post the supplied words on your word wall.
Get all our SnapWords™
here
2- Print off your reading assessment and have it ready on a clipboard to use in your small groups as you are finishing up each section. Each child will read the sentences and read as far as he or she can go in a minute. You will then record the date and how many words he or she read. If you make a copy for each child, this report will be great to have to share with parents during parent teacher conference time.
3- With your lesson planner in front of you, lay out plans for two weeks at a time. Divide the activities into groups: teacher-led, independent center, whole class games, partner or small group games, writing, etc. Then simply record in your planner which days and times you will use each activity.
4- Any activity that is recorded on paper would make a great contribution to a student portfolio. It would be so easy to tell how each child is doing, where he or she needs more support, and how parents at home could help reinforce their child's learning.
5- When you have determined that all your students know that group of words, post them on the word wall in ABC order and take out the next group of words.
Love Learning!
Teaching All Reading Skills to All Learners
My last school used a reading program that utilized books we selected from the book room to read with our small groups. We were supposed to choose books on the groups' levels, and then make sure and teach all the necessary reading skills through the books we read. What I know happened all too often is that when teachers got overwhelmed with the planning, they selected new books to read, but they "taught" the same skills over and over again. It was not a great system! What would have helped tremendously and what would have benefitted the children greatly would have been having a resource for the teachers that would cover ALL the necessary reading skills so that they would know they had covered all their bases if they would just complete all the activities in the resource.
Puzzles and tactile activities help
We know that puzzles and tactile activities help to engage children in learning. It is really good to get away from too much that is about pencil and paper. The Encyclopedia has a really nice mix of activities. There are teacher-led activities that utilize the word walls provided - children using white boards and markers to write their responses on. Teachers can do a quick visual scan to make sure concepts are caught, and then children wipe their boards clean and voila, the activity is done.
Some activities are in game format, such as vocabulary Bingo. Children can cut their vocabulary words out and glue them in place on the board provided so that every Bingo board is different. My students LOVED playing sight word Bingo! Of course they had to be able to quickly recognize their words if they were going to be able to mark them with a chip! Go Fish cards allow kids to play a game in small groups while practicing reading their sight words. I liked to have time reserved for games on the rug at the end of the day while we were waiting for busses to arrive. Also, on Fridays in the late afternoon, we looked forward to games and activities that would truly benefit the children academically. Our Word Sort is a tactile game that is great for children who need the hands-on experience.
Our writing pages are great because on one hand, the writing sheets contain visual prompts so your children won't whine "But I don't know what to write about!" The prompts go along with other activities in terms of their theme. For instance, Level B-5 is all about sea creatures such as sharks and whales, so of course while we're on the subject, the writing papers have images of those creatures. The kids are already primed for the topic, so getting started is easier. Another type of activity included is "Illustrate It" - a sheet of paper with a sentence also related to the theme. The child will read the sentence and draw a picture of what it said. This is a good way to reinforce comprehension and visualization. Doing this activity regularly will help greatly with reading comprehension.
If you have early finishers, why not give them a puzzle to do that will use the vocabulary words they are currently learning? Fill in the blank will help with comprehension; Crossword puzzles also help with comprehension and might be a great activity to do in pairs. I mean, really, go up and check out all the free sample pages from the Encyclopedia. You'll love what you see!
Wow! Just having this huge binder in front of me makes me want to go back and do it all over again! This time, however, I would have a mini-version on CD to toss into my purse by my lipstick and gum - lesson planning on the weekends would be so sweet!
It hasn't been that long since I was in the classroom, so I can remember vividly some of the challenges I had as I tried to provide meaningful and useful activities to the children in my classroom. First of all, I had a wide range of ability levels, had many children with learning challenges, and had several ELL students. There was no way I was going to ever be able to do lesson plans for my class and expect to reach all the learners - unless I planned for all the different needs represented in my room.
Small group instruction helps
One thing that helped was that I taught a good part of the day in small groups. It meant a lot of planning, but at least I was able to teach groups of kids and reach them with materials they needed to grow to their fullest potential. For example, in one group, we focused on reading non-fiction books that also taught science concepts so that the children, who were already pretty fluent readers, could learn vocabulary terms across the curriculum. Another group focused a lot on reading comprehension, another on sound spellings which were calculated to help them smooth out their reading and make it less of a chore. Finally, I had a group of ELL students and the materials I chose for them focused on learning basic English vocabulary, correct sentence structure, and comprehension. We avoided nonsense words or slang as much as possible.
I managed the materials for my groups by using white bins to hold the week's materials which were marked with brightly colored dots. The reading folders for each group matched the dots on their bins. When I checked their center work as we were getting all set for lunch, it was easy to recall what the tasks had been for each group. I made sure that in each independent center, the children had to record something in their folder so I could see that they truly did their work. For example, if they were working on a sentence unscramble activity, they would write the unscrambled sentence in their folder. If ABC order, again, they would write the words in the correct order. If they were playing a sorting game with words, they would write the words in groups. (Ex: if their activity sheet had these words, "we, did, call, look, book, mid, she, mall, cook, the, sid, etc., the children would group them by sound spelling and write the groups in columns like this: "we, he, she, me, the" and "did, mid, lid, bid, sid" and "call, tall, ball, hall, mall," and etc.
Well designed, comprehensive resources help
The reason I recently finished designing The Reading Teacher's Encyclopedia is because I still shudder when I remember some personal experiences: lugging all these big huge heavy curriculum binders home for the weekend so I could plan lessons for the week, and the mad scramble to come up with fun and educational activities to use in independent centers. I also remember being bedeviled by the suspicion that as I searched for materials to use (we had very little provided to us in terms of curriculum) that I was very likely omitting some really important reading skills that I should cover. It was my own "pain" that inspired this resource.
