5 Ways to Use Your Word Wall
A Word Wall makes your room literacy-rich! The children refer to it often and it plays a huge part in building
children’s vocabulary. It’s always up, never comes down. It only continues to grow with words over the course of
the school year. Here are a handful of ways to make good use out of your Word Wall:
1. Missing Word
The teacher will say (or show) a sentence with a missing word. The students will use the word
wall to find the Word Wall word you left out. They can write the word in a journal or on a marker board. Tell
them it’s mandatory that the word is spelled correctly!!
2. Word Wall Story
For this activity, students should use as many words from the word wall to create a story. To modify, you can ask
the students to create sentences with a given number of word wall words.
3. Guess my Word Wall Word
This activity is fun for the students. The teacher gives clues about a given word while the students try to figure out the mystery word. The children may work independently or with a partner, writing on paper or a marker board. The teacher may give clues such as: rhymes with _____, has _____# of syllables, has _____ # of letters, begins with the letter _____, means (definition), or is a (part of speech).
This activity can be done during center time. For this center, you will need to provide: a paper with a chart to record word wall words, a pencil and clipboard to write on, and a single dice (tip: place dice in a clear Tupperware so it doesn’t roll all over the classroom). If there is more than one student in a center, they should take turns rolling the dice. If it lands on 3, the students should find a word on the word wall with 3 letters, and record in the chart. Whichever number gets the column filled first is the winner! I always printed the chart double-sided, so if they finish the game before center time is over, they can play it again! (I have allowed the students to use my giant foam dice to keep it fun!)
These are a variety of tasks that can be completed during center time. The teacher will post task cards that are to be completed. The tasks require students to complete lists of words that can be found on the word wall, such as: words with short vowels, words with silent e, words that are in the same word family, words that have 1 syllable. I believe we should always hold students accountable for center work, so paper should be provided for students to create their lists each given task.
If you like the center activity ideas for #4 or #5, you can download the Word Wall Dice chart and/or Word Wall Center Activity Task Cards with accountability sheets in my TPT store. There are 16 task cards that can be printed with 4 to a page (4 pages total) or each task can be printed on it’s own page. Whichever way you choose, I recommend printing on colored paper/cardstock and laminating it. Or you can place it in a page protector to post. The accountability sheets are also created with four to a page to conserve paper.
These Word Wall Activities can be found at:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-Wall-2264936
The Word Wall Dice chart can be found at:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-Wall-2264942
