Making Words

I LOVE MAKING WORDS!  I mean, not making new words myself, but the task that the students have to make new words using the letters of one big word!  It was so much fun last year to see all of the words that students came up with that they didn't think that they could spell.  There were also some creative words that they made up (which weren't correctly spelled but they phonetically spelled them out so I had to give them some credit for that!).  For example, I remember last year a girl came up with the word "innit" and I circled it on her paper and she said "Ms. Schifano that can't be wrong because I know 'innit' is a word!" and I asked her to use it in a sentence and she said "I went in it (innit) when I went to school".  So as you can see this activity gets students thinking about words and I encourage them to use the dictionary if they are stuck on spelling.  
I use making words as a literacy center that I keep every week but just rotate the words used.  If I had the time to, I would make 4-5 sets of the letters, laminate, and put into envelopes to be used every week so that the students didn't have to cut out their own words.  Maybe it's something that I can work on during the year, but last year I had great success with having them cut out their own letters (that way, I can staple them and they can take it home and practice when they are done with the center!)

I just re-did my Making Words pages for the upcoming school year to move the letters to be cut out from the top: 

And now the letters are at the bottom and I made it a little prettier.

The letters on this one make "pilgrims"

The letters on this one make "september"

You can pick up all 10 fall/winter themed making words for your own literacy centers here.  

If you have any comments or ideas of words to use for making words, please post them in the comments section--thanks!!

Now taking a break from planning and time to start packing to move!!