Do your kiddos have a tough time with sight words? Struggle to master word families? Mine were, too! I have been working hard to get meaningful practice into their hands.
Puzzler has been a constant in my classroom for the last 5 years. It has evolved over time.
My kids FLIP for these!
I have created both sight words and word family puzzler series. The sight word packs start as low as Pre-Primer in Dolch and go through Primer, First, Second and Third Grades.
My word family puzzlers start with our youngest readers. They start out with letter matching. Your children can start by matching uppercase to uppercase letters. Then, moving to uppercase and lowercase matching. Once they have that mastered, they will move on to pre reader puzzler for beginning sounds. The Pre Reader packs included initial, medial, ending and review sounds.
The next sets start with CVC and then move through the word families and cover ccvc, final blend, silent e, digraphs, double consonants, diphthongs, vowel teams and more!
Children as low as pre school can use puzzler. I have created puzzler in such a way that no matter what level your child is on, they will be working in a similar looking pack as their peers. There are no identifying marks on these activities that will single them out or level them above or below.
Click the picture below or here to see Pre Reader Puzzler
Click the picture below or here to see Pre Reader Puzzler
Organization
I have created the packs to go in a rainbow order.
Boxes start with Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue (and sometimes purple)
I did this so your students can remember what color they are on.
I then gave each set a "theme"
For example, the review sound puzzler has a red, orange, yellow, green and blue pack. In order for your children to not grab the initial or ending sounds pack in yellow - They know that they are on the yellow box with the words Review Sound on the front AND that they are working on the goldilocks pack. Their answer sheet has goldilocks on it too. When they are on yellow goldilocks box, their recording sheet will also have the words yellow box on it so they know exactly where they left off.
To PLAY
All of my puzzler packs are set up the same way - This way, once you teach your children, they learn it and are good to go all the way up through the packs.
Each pack has picture cards and either letter cards or word cards.
Your students will make a pile of pictures and a pile of words.
They then take the first picture card off the top. They place the letter sound (they are working on) on top of the picture card. M for Mushroom is an example. If they get confused, you can look at the sound cheater on the inside of the lid. Once they have their "M" on the mushroom, then, they look through the word cards to find their match. Placing the actual M on the card and then placing it on top of each of the word cards allows them to visually see if it is correct or not.
Each of the cards is labeled with what set it is in case one gets lost and needs to go back into the correct box.
The Pre-Reader sets have multiple recording sheet options for students who may not be ready to write on their own.
Storage
Each puzzler set goes into Iris Photo Boxes. You can find them on Amazon here. I give you labels that will go on the inside of each small Iris box and then labels that will go on the bottom inside of your large box. This allows your students to easily find and return the yellow goldilocks box exactly where it should go.
*these are affiliate links. I do make a small profit when you use these links. I enjoy sharing deals and organization and appreciate you clicking and buying from these links.
I have also included outside labels for your Iris Boxes, so your students will know BEFORE opening if they have the correct box.
After each work on words center, my students make a pile and I check those five students before they go on. My students may not move from say the Goldilocks set to the Three Little Pigs set until I have checked that the Goldilocks set has been completed correctly. That way, I know they understand how to complete the activity.
Click here or below for the magnetic letter tray return sheet that I use.
My students use this magnetic letter tray along with puzzler.
My students very rarely are on the same box. I only have five students in the word work center at any given time. I always have at least one child from that group at my table, leaving four children in the center. I group my students so that only one child per reading group is in a center group. This allows my students to NOT be on the same box at the same time. The great thing though about the boxes, is that as long as they are on the correct "theme box" they won't be too hard. They will still be practicing the same skill. So if a child does have the red box, they can just move to the orange box until the red is free.
Easily find what set you are on by looking at your answer sheet and comparing it to the box they need.
Word Family Puzzler also practices those word families that are more difficult for our learners!
I have also started Seasonal Puzzler for students to complete puzzler during morning work or on the day of a seasonal party of fun activity. This is great for vocabulary building.
Click here for Seasonal Themed Puzzler or the picture below,
I have listened to your feedback, but most importantly, my student's feedback. Each year, my students have given me more and more ideas on how to make this work FOR THEM. I value their opinions. Many of my higher students share at the start of the year and I implement those changes as soon as I possibly can.
Here you can see buyer feedback. It truly makes my heart skip a beat when people see what I see in a product that I make!
If you'd like to try this before you buy it, you can click the link below to try a small sample of this product. I am sure it will not disappoint! :)
Next up in sight word practice is my Fix It - Sight Word Sentence Pack.
Do your kids have as much trouble with sentence structure as mine?
Do they need help with sight words too - oh my word - sometimes I feel like I don't teach anything sometimes!!!
So I made this. My kids are practicing sight words, sentence structure, writing, sequencing and fluency all in one pack. If you want to check out the small set click the PREVIEW pack.
In this set you will get the first list of seven sentences. They are scaffolded for differentiation.
There are six different sets of seven sentences in the whole pack.
Be careful there is a difference!! One says preview and one says FULL!!!!!!
First they sort their pictures into like piles
They figure out which is the start and end of the sentence. For those that need help the third word in every sentence has the number 3 on the back of the card. Use it if you need it.
Order the sentence
then find the picture on your recording sheet. Write your sight word on the picture line, then copy the sentence.
My kids love this! I have them do a set a week. So it would be 7 weeks. Then I repeat - so this is 14 weeks of sentence and sight word practice!!! You can easily have this for longer as my kids forget quickly!
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