Are you looking for new ideas to perk up your Daily 5 Word Work routine? Look no further!
I’ve been doing Daily 5 for almost five years now. I love that it gives students a choice in their own learning! However, after many, many days of this routine in my classroom over the past half-decade, I’m kinda bored with some of the choices! So, I thought I’d share how I mixed up my Daily 5 word work time a bit more this year!
Building Sight Words
We all know that tactile learning is so important for most kids. These Snap Cube Sight Words are a great addition to your Word Work Activities. They’ll get a chance to make the word, then write it out!
Do your students love Legos? Give them a chance to make words using these Building Sight Word mats. They will think they are “playing” but we all know there’s a little learning too 🙂
Easy Daily 5 Word Work Idea – Roll & Do
I created a Roll & Do die to give your students TONS of options!
To make it, you’ll need to print out the die and assemble it. I’ve included a colored version and black and white…along with an editable version for you to add your very own options!
If they roll an activity that requires writing, they can write all of their weekly words on My List of Words worksheet!
I have a stack of these ready to go so students can simply grab the worksheet and a die and get going!
Colored Sand
Another easy to set up and fun to use Word Work idea is sand! I went to the Dollar Tree and grabbed colored sand and plastic storage containers. The kids simply take a list of words, a fancy pencil and a bucket ‘o sand!
Type Out Sight & Spelling Words
One of the major skills we need to be teaching our little people these days is keyboarding! My goodness – I am afraid printing will even become a lost art in 20 years!
Students love this fun “keyboard!” I just printed out a few copies onto colored cardstock and they got peckin’ away on the keyboard. {I would laminate these little keyboards before dirty little fingers get on them! Lesson learned!}
Word Work Idea – Make Your Own Word Search
Making our own word search is definitely a fan favorite in my classroom!
The students simply grab a word list and a blank word search and get to town!
Later in the day, they are able to solve each other’s word search {if we have extra time!}
Are you wondering what words I use for these activities? Well, I’ve got two options for you!
Racing Through Sight Words
These lists are colored-coded! The “red” car has the first 20 words of the Top 100 sight words and they progress in color through the list!
Words for the Week!
Each week I type up the Words of the Week for my class {taken from A Year of First Grade Homework!} This file is editable, so you can simply type your words right onto the page, print onto colored paper to jazz it up and laminate!
Want all of these goodies? Enter your info here!
Daily 5 Word Work Ideas for 1st Grade Recap
Keeping your Daily 5 word work fresh and exciting is vital for any elementary classroom! These ideas should help your students, especially 1st graders, enjoy the time each and every day.
Here’s a quick recap of some fun word work ideas.
- Building sight words with snap cubes
- Roll & Do
- Colored sand
- Type out sight and spelling words
- Make your own word search
- Racing through sight words
- Words for the week
Have other fun Daily 5 ideas? Let me know in the comments!
PS- Don’t forget to snag the Snapping Sight Words, a classroom favorite!
And, check out even more word work activities here.
Looking for ideas to mix up your writing?
Check out this post!
