The students I tutor have often not had success with basic skill mastery in a normal school environment - for whatever reason, they just need some extra help. So I strive to make learning not just interesting for my students, but FUN as well. This is why I often work learning concepts into games - while drill and kill might work for getting math facts into your head forever, it's a tedious process. I KNOW that kids need to have all the multiplication facts memorized, but I also know that they can't see the value in it yet . . . thus using games to reinforce the concepts makes it more pleasant for everyone involved.
The same thing applies to word sorts. Oh GOODNESS, does it apply to word sorts! Elementary teachers know that word sorts are one of the best ways to learn about and explore our language - we need to get kids thinking about the similarities and differences in words and sounds, to discover these connections for themselves . . . but it can get boring, just moving one white piece of paper around after another. And when kids are bored? They disconnect from the learning process.
I've been thinking for a long time how to make word sorts enjoyable - and I came up with a great solution: rather than holding a stack of words on white paper and placing them in one of two long columns, what if we had a file folder board game we were trying to fill up? And what if the boards were a fun concept, like a garden or a pet store? And what if the word cards had flowers or pets on them to hold the kids' interest?
The focus of this activity is still sorting the words - but there's an element of fun added. The sets I created, which are in my store at Teachers Pay Teachers, are blank and the files are editable - so teachers can use the same set for as many word sorts as they need. Each set has 2 themes in 6 color variations each - so 12 different sorts! Right now I have a blank garden-themed sort (with a Flower Garden and a Vegetable Garden), and a blank pet-themed sort (one is Pet Store, the other is Doggie Daycare.)
The Garden Sort also has an option with 11 vowel and vowel-team sorts already created; this product ALSO contains the entire blank Garden set.
Blank Pets Word Sort: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Blank-Board-Games-Pets-Word-Sort-796914
Blank Garden Word Sort: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Blank-Board-Games-Garden-Word-Sort-794103
Garden Word Sort with 11 vowel sorts: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Garden-Vowel-Word-Sort-File-Folder-Game-794092
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