Those Tricky High-Frequency Words

The school supplies are out, the teacher discounts have started, and the coffee is flowing.  It is that time of summer.  The time when we begin to pull out our curriculum and dust it off in order to give it a fresh new look.  It is a time to reflect on what worked and what didn't from the past year and begin to make some planned changes.

A few years back we adopted the McGraw-Hill Wonders curriculum for language arts and now that we feel like we have a handle on its ins and outs we have started to make it our own.  This summer we have been working hard on some new phonics and high-frequency word resources.

We don't know about you but we absolutely LOVE any sort of trick or short-cut that can help our students.  Over the years we have discovered that using visual and mnemonic tricks can be really helpful for student when learning words that just "don't fit the rules."  These high-frequency "rule breakers" are a pain to spell and an even bigger pain to teach! So this year we have decided to put all of those tricks and shortcuts together and organized in one place.  We have put together a great resource designed with the first grade McGraw-Hill Wonders curriculum in mind but adaptable for any first grade curriculum. Check out these handy High-Frequency Word Memory Cards that we just uploaded into our TPT store!

1st Grade High-Frequency Word Memory Cards

Each week we give ours students the blank high-frequency cards for that week’s lessons. Then, during one of our whole group mini-lessons we introduce each high-frequency word and model each trick on our interactive white boards.  We usually have our students write and draw along on their own white boards.  Once we have gone over all of the tricks for the week we post them in the front of the classroom where we can refrence them over and over again throughout the week.  For our struggle-rs we use small group instruction time to help the students draw the tricks right onto their blank cards.  On level and beyond level students are encouraged to fill out their own cards during their word work time.

We encourage students to utilize these tricks as they write and read their high-frequency words.  They keep their cards right in their take home folders where they can access them throughout the week and reinforce at home.  It is amazing how much our students actually use these tricks.   Often times they even draw the tricks right onto their spelling tests! 

So, if you haven't already, grab another cup of coffee and start that planning!

As always,

Keep on dancing in your teacher shoes!

Deanna and Jenelle

PS...here is a sneak peek of our next TPT project!  Enjoy a free download and keep a lookout at our blog for updates!

Phonics Word Construction Practice Preview: Short a