If you're a kindergarten teacher who dreams of thematic centers that are BOTH...
Thanks so much for stopping by today! I’m excited to share with you the new kinder kiddo in town – – KinderWordBuilding! Now my husband did not agree with the name but I thought it had a little jingle to it 🙂 KinderWordBuilding is a 20 week literacy intervention program! There are actually 15 built in assessment days so the program is 115 academic days! The natural school year is longer that that I know… However, with intervention groups those usually start a little later in the year! The program makes its way through short vowels, mixed short vowels, digraphs, mixed digraphs, double ending consonants, long vowels, and mixed long vowels! Below is a look at the pacing of KinderWordBuilding!
KinderWordBuilding is a very versatile intervention curriculum created by a teacher for teachers! The program is versatile for implementation and varying student levels. You can find success in using this program in your intervention groups, RTI groups, guided reading, whole-group phonics, or as a resource for non certified staff members assisting in the classroom. The program is based upon a slotted thirty minutes of instruction. However, this too is versatile as you can limit or extend this time frame to best fit your classroom needs.
KinderWordBuilding is broken down into four major areas; word building, word writing, reading fluency, and sight fluency. For word building all students participating in the program will need access to magnetic letters. You can find those online and in teacher resources stores. Students will also need a magnetic surface like a whiteboard or magnetic cookie sheet. For word and sentence writing students will need their own writing journal which has been included within the unit. Reading fluency will be accomplished through the included interactive whiteboard sentence files and/or through the blackline sentences. Lastly, sight fluency will be conducted during transitional periods of your lesson using the included fluency cards.
Lakeshore Magnetic LettersKeep in mind that all lessons can be adjusted to fit your needs. However, a sample whole-group KinderWordBuilding lesson could look like this; students meet at the carpet, students retrieve their letter boards, teacher gives students the first word to build, students build word, students verify their words by viewing the teachers interactive letter board {included in the unit}, students clear their board, students build and check remaining words, students place their boards away and retrieve their journals, teacher prompts students to write each word into their journal, students do so then verify the accuracy of the word by using the teacher’s interactive journal, students write and check sentence, students place journals away and sit at carpet, students read interactive fluency sentences, students read fluency cards, teacher wraps up lesson.
If using this program as a whole-group intervention you can look into splitting up your grade level students into different groups based upon their current level. All students should progress their the program from start to finish without skipping any levels. This will guarantee that students are confident in the skill. All students will take assessments to progress to the next level. If students are not ready to progress then the teacher can use the editable plans to add additional words for that skill. If the students are succeeding at an abnormal rate then the teacher can speed up the lesson. However, it should be noted that the highest success comes from using the program with fidelity and not skipping any steps unless necessary for time constraints.
Now let’s take a closer look at KinderWordBuilding! Below you can see what’s including in the unit! You’ll get 20 explicit weeks of lesson plans. There are also include fluency cards that match the words students will be building and writing. For building reading fluency you will have the option to use the “let’s build reading fluency” interactive slides, blackline fluency sentences, or easy readers! Included in the unit is also the student journal blacklines and high frequency cards!
Alright, let’s run down the “day to day” of KinderWordBuilding! Here is a snippet of the building and writing portion of the lesson!
STEP ONE: Students will build their words on their board {the teacher can use the included interactive whiteboard files to use as your own magnetic letters}
Students have their letters already on their boards so they are ready to build!
Students will pull down the letters to build their words and then push them back up after each word.
Below you can see the use of the interactive file within the units! These will work on any interactive whiteboard! They are made in powerpoint and the letters are able to be moved around!
STEP TWO: Students will write their words into their journal
After the students have written the word the teacher will also write the word on their board for students to self-check. You can also draw attention at this time students properly utilizing the handwriting lines!
Students are able to easily write their words after practice through building words!
STEP THREE: Students will build reading fluency! Within the packet you have a few choices between the fluency whiteboard slides, fluency blackline sentences, and easy readers!
STEP FOUR: Students will build sight reading fluency! There are included word cards that the students have covered in the lessons and high frequency cards!
The following are options if you have an interactive whiteboard! I’ve included a teacher set of magnetic letters and a whiteboard version of the journal paper! This will allow you to model building the words and writing as the kids build and write their own!
Now let’s talk about organizing your KinderWordBuilding material! I have placed mine into a three ring binder! I will be able to turn to the lesson page I’m teaching and have it right there at my finger tips! I like to keep my plans in a sheet protector so that I can easily see them and then place them back into the binder after that week!
Assessment in KinderWordBuilding! The assessment piece is completely optional as yes I agree we do a lot of assessing! However, it’s quick and painless! Within the unit I’ve provided a list of words you will use for each assessment and students will simply take the assessment in their journals! I’ve included an assessment tracker so you can see how the kiddos are progressing through the levels!
I’m super proud of KinderWordBuilding and have used the program in my classroom for four years! You can try out a free week of KinderWordBuilding HERE.
I’ve seen its success and want you to be able to easily get your hands on it as well! You can click below if you’d like to check it out on TpT! If you have any questions about this program fitting into your classroom feel free to comment below or email me at ta******@ho*****.com
KinderWordBuilding is now a big kid because there is another new kid in town- – Firstievention! I knew a first grade version would be necessary for my firstie teachers AND for those of us with advanced kindergarten kiddos! Firstievention runs just as smooth as the kindergarten version! The only difference between the two is the skill focuses covered!
Below you can see the scope and sequence including all of the skill focuses covered in the firstie edition!
Firstievention includes all of the same goodies as the kindergarten version minus one small difference! In the first grade version I removed easy readers and added the one page fluency skill builders! For these the kiddos will read through the words three times to build that continuous fluency!
Below you can see the three versions of fluency building included the new “Look at my Build Reading Fluency” sheets!
The Firstievention also includes fluency word cards in two versions and high frequency words!
Firstievention follows the same pacing routines as the kindergarten version!
The students will build the words from the lessons using magnetic letters!
Firstievention includes an all new assessment tracker as well!
If interested in Firstievention you can click below to read more about the packet!
Click HERE to download a free week of Firstievention
