New Kindergarten Word Work Ideas

Word Work - let's talk about it at a kindergarten level. 

To do that, you have to know how my literacy centers are set up.  I have a Read to Self (book bags with chosen books), a Writing Center (read ALL about it here), Teacher Time, and Word Work. Same groups, that are still fluid when I need to change people, rotate through each daily.

As a first year teacher, I was kind of grasping at straws and figuring out what my students need as they go.  Honestly, I feel like I've done a pretty good job especially since the other teacher does not do centers/Daily 5 version.  I'll walk you through what I started with in the center and what we have moved toward recently.  So much growth in one grade and I love it!  I leave one type of word work out at a time, with the option to do a 2nd (already familiar) option when finished.  I usually leave the option out for around 2 weeks or until I feel students are ready for something new.

1.  Starting the year I use a couple different printables to give my students more experience with letters.  We use pattern block templates and play doh mats for the first month.

They use the energy that students have in a productive way.

After mastering letters we move into our sight words.  Since we do not have spelling lists in kindergarten these words can get repetitive so I try to shake things up and find new and interesting ideas for students to do. 

We love Hidden Words! I call it magic words and boy is it really magic! White crayon and color over with marker - genius.  The idea and FREEBIE can be found using the link picture below!

Another way we love to practice words is through a Small Seek and Find! Again, a magnifying glass changes everything! My students LOVE these! I find some on TPT that are seasonal that I throw in as well.  Otherwise I'll just use these EDITABLE ones from that align with our curriculum and I know the words will be familiar. 

Once these are introduced once, it is easy for students to quickly pick up on what to do when I set another one out!

Another great idea I grabbed was from Mrs. Olson's Lucky Little Learners! LOVE HER BLOG! Scribble writing is perfect for our level! Draw big circles or overlapping design and write one word in each space and have the students fill in.  We loved it! I could choose the words, they could choose the colors and practicing words has never been SO EASY!

Granted it may not look like much - but believe me, with each student having a part we were proud to display these! They work great in a pinch.  I even did a heart one on valentines week with red paper.  Easily customized for the season. 

Snowball words - got this idea from the First Grade Parade! She includes the freebie there! You pull out words from cotton balls, spell with snowball and practice writing! This was great for winter time. It can be customized for different seasons as well and is very little prep. My students really enjoyed this one!

Of course you can't forget about rainbow words! So easy and effective! For my kinders, I write a list of words and copy for them to trace over in the beginning.  Otherwise here, and here are some free templates that you can use in your classroom. 

Another recent favorite has been spin and write! These are great for seasonal words along with sight words you might see.  The pack comes with some great templates! 

My Connect the Dots Sight Words are another favorite! Great for beginning of the year to practice numeracy along with writing.  This would be an option for when students are finished. 

Of course if you want some of all this combined you can check out my Word Work aligned with Treasures curriculum.  It contains links to each seasonal pack: 

Any more great ideas I should add to this list?! I would love to hear your word work ideas!