Word Study Cafe

Word Study Cafe Fun!

Each week (or almost every week!) we work with a new word study pattern.  Research has shown us that students need to look at these patterns and learn to generalize them to new words to improve as spellers.  We send home a set of words that match these patterns for parents to practice with their students each week on our weekly calendar page.  Throughout the week we work with these words by examining their patterns, completing word sorts, and our favorite- the word study cafe!  The word study cafe is a multi-sensory approach to practicing words. The students enjoy using different mediums to practice their words.  Here are a few pictures of our "Word Study" Cafe in progress....

Practicing our words using wood tiles.

Using magnetic letters to build words.

A classroom favorite- Practicing on the SmartBoard.

Using apps such as magnetic letters and doodle buddy to 

practice our word patterns.

Stamping our words...

It is a challenge to write our words using wikki stix.

It takes a lot of hard work to become a speller.  We are all at different levels, but by reviewing and practicing common patterns and spellings we can keep improving our skills.  We also spend time learning to use resources such as spell check (when using electronic devices), dictionaries, and word models to help us in our everyday writing.  Each student has their own orange Being a Writer dictionary book that lists high frequency words and they also add words to it.  It is a great resource for our writers as they work on mastering the English language!  Keep encouraging them at home!  Students were also excited to receive their own paperback dictionary from the local Kiwanis group.  Words can definitely be fun!