Simple and Effective Literacy Activity: WORD WALL

This post is part of a series of FREE Simple and Effective Literacy Activities. To read more about my personal philosophy on how to help teach a love of all things literacy, head here.

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WHAT IS A WORD WALL?

A Word Wall is a collection of words displayed in large visible letters on a wall where students are able to easily visually access the words. A Word Wall should be a dynamic resource with an ever-growing list of words.

WHY IS A WORD WALL EFFECTIVE AS A LITERACY ACTIVITY?

Word Walls are an effective LITERACY ACTIVITY for several reasons:

• they improve spelling skills by providing easy access to high-frequency and high-interest words
• they build phonics and spelling skills by helping students see patterns and relationships in words
• they provide reference support for children during reading and writing activities
• they expose students to rich and pertinent vocabulary

WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM A WORD WALL?

Simply put, just about everyone! Most readers and writers in various stages of literacy learning can benefit from having a large collection of useful and meaningful words at their visual disposal.

HOW SIMPLE IS IT TO MAKE A WORD WALL?

Maintaining and utilizing a Word Wall is very simple, however, depending on how you opt to do it, building it can take a wee bit of time. But, it does not need to be complicated, especially if following the directions found in the this free PRINTABLE.

In the free PRINTABLE, you will find very clear directions and 26 individual letter pages.

Once you have the individual letter pages mounted on the wall, simply start adding high-frequency words. You’ll want to begin with basic sight words such as:

• about, after, again, am, an, and, animal, any, are, as, ask, at
• ball, be, been, before, boy, but, by
• call, can, cat, come, could, cow
• day, deer, did, do, dog, down, duck
• each, easy, every
• find, first, fly, for, fox, frog, from
• get, girl, give, go
• had, has, have, he, hen, her, him, his, horse, how
• I, if, in, into, is, it, its
• just
• know
• let, life, lion, live, long, love, look
• made, make, man, many, may, more, me, mouse, my
• no, not, now, number
• of, old, on, once, one, only, open, or, other, out, over
• part, people, pig, put
• rabbit, round, run
• said, see, she, so, some, stop
• take, than, thank, that, the, them, their, then, there, these, they, thing, think, this, tiger, time, to, turkey, two
• up, use
• walk, was, water, way, we, were, what, when, which, who, will, with, woman, words, would, write
• you, your

But including high-interest words that are commonly used by your students will also prove to be very effective. Words such as:

• family names
• pet names
• friend’s names
• your city/state/street
• hobbies
• TV shows/movies/books
• favorite foods
• favorite sports teams
• random things your kids are currently obsessed with 🙂

The objective is to include words that your kids will use most often in their writing. Once these words are displayed, your students should be expected to use the correct spelling every time they write the word.

CAN A WORD WALL BE MODIFIED?

Absolutely! In addition to high-frequency and high-interest words, adding rich vocabulary words can be very beneficial. Anytime you read a new book with your students, add any unusual or interesting vocabulary words. Another way to modify a Word Wall would be to include images with some or all of the words. This would be particularly effective with the vocabulary words mentioned above.

Simple and Effective Literacy Activity: WORD WALL

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