Words and Sentences Activities

1. Move to a Word
   Have the children take a single step as they say each word in a rhyme or story. Be sure the children only take a single step for multisyllabic words!
   Variation: Change the movement to a hop, stomp, jump, or clap.


2. Be a Word
   Using a familiar rhyme or story, have the children stand up and say the next word when you point to them.


3. Follow the Conductor
   Act like an orchestra leader and conduct your class as they recite a rhyme. Conduct the children to raise their hands high on the rhyming words.


4. Word Hunters
   Have the children use various items to locate words in stories, big books, and on the walls and charts in the classroom. Over the year add or change the word hunting instruments. Try using magnifying glasses, window cards, sticky notes, highlighter tape, fly swatters, bubble wands, penlights, and so forth.


5. Word Match
   Invite the children to match a word to a word in the big book. Then, have them match the word on other pages and in other places around the classroom.


6. Sentence Match
   Have the children match sentence strips to the appropriate pages in the big book.


7. Unifix Cube Sentence Makers
   Using a familiar sentence, write one word on each cube. Invite the children to stick them all together to make the sentence.


8. Daily News Sentences/Words/Letters
   Write each sentence in a different color. Ask various children to come up and put their fingers around a sentence, a word, or a letter.


9. Pocket Chart Sentence/Word Matching
   Place sentence strips from a familiar rhyme or story in a pocket chart for the children to practice rereading. Have a second set of sentence strips available for the children to match to the ones in the pocket chart. (It helps if the second set is a different color, so the children can tell where they have matched sentences and where they have not.)
   
   

   Extend the activity to word matching by providing individual words to match to the sentence strips. Rhyming words can also be color coded.

10. Reading the Room
    Have the children work in pairs as they go around the room and read the familiar wall stories, poem charts, and language murals created by the class. Provide pointers such as paint sticks or wrapping paper tubes to emphasize the importance of pointing to each word as it is read aloud.
    
    Note: Frames from old pairs of glasses add a nice touch to this activity as well.

"When you look in the classrooms and see how teachers are integrating the use of books with our curriculum, you can see that Breakthrough has made it easy for them."

Sandra Cox
Principal
Norview Elementary School
Norfolk, Virginia