Showing busy teachers how to use this FREE ready to print word work mat six different ways in your math and literacy centers in an Early Years classroom.
Teachers are busy people. I'm a teacher so I get it.We all like to find resources for our classrooms that are useful and engaging and but are also easy to prep, set up and store when not in use.
Our 'Say It, Make It, Write It' word mats are one such resource.
Originally created to help my students practice their sight words during our literacy centre activities but like many of our printables, they can easily be used different ways making them an ideal resource for both the Early Years classroom and word work at home.
ONE PRINTABLE, SIX WAYS TO USE IT
1. PRACTICE SIGHT WORDSThese Say It, Make It, Write It word mats can, of course, be used to practice sight words or tricky words.
Some programs also refer to these words as high frequency words because they're ones that we use most often in our writing. Allowing young children opportunity to practice reading and writing these words will help them become more fluent readers and writers.
One idea is to write the sight words onto cards or we love to use pop sticks for ours then add some magnetic letters for children to build the word themselves before writing it with some whiteboard markers.
We've used other tools like stamps, erasers letters, glass gems, LEGO, letter tiles and our rock alphabet in place of the magnetic letters.
Another favourite are our alphabet beads which get used constantly in our classroom and the children love them! You can use them instead of magnetic letters to make the words.
2. MAKE LETTERS
Of course, you don't have to use letters. Why not use play dough!
For preschoolers, you can use these same mats to learn individual letters and the sounds they make.
Here we used our play dough to make the letter before writing it below. Obviously you're not going to be concerned about writing the letter on the line at this stage like you would older children.
I've had this Leapfrog Alphabet Magnet set since my eldest was little and it's still going strong! The children can put each letter in it and hear the letter name and sound it makes.
Another favourite are our alphabet beads which get used constantly in our classroom and the children love them! You can use them instead of magnetic letters to make the words.
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2. MAKE LETTERS
Of course, you don't have to use letters. Why not use play dough!
For preschoolers, you can use these same mats to learn individual letters and the sounds they make.
Here we used our play dough to make the letter before writing it below. Obviously you're not going to be concerned about writing the letter on the line at this stage like you would older children.
I've had this Leapfrog Alphabet Magnet set since my eldest was little and it's still going strong! The children can put each letter in it and hear the letter name and sound it makes.
3. BUILD NAME RECOGNITION
The 'Say It, Make It, Write It' printable is also useful for helping younger children learn their names. One preschool has been using these as their check-in station.
The 'Say It, Make It, Write It' printable is also useful for helping younger children learn their names. One preschool has been using these as their check-in station.
4. TEACH UPPER AND LOWER CASE LETTERS
I also use them in literacy work stations to help children recognise the purpose of upper case letters. Here we used student names but you could just as easily use other proper nouns.
I also use them in literacy work stations to help children recognise the purpose of upper case letters. Here we used student names but you could just as easily use other proper nouns.
We had also used some individual letter cards to see if we could make the upper and lower case letter before trying to write them too.
5. SPELL WORDS
We've been working on writing other words in class so we've been using some of our charade cards without their label to practice making and writing short words. This idea could be used with any age group to help spell both familiar and unfamiliar words.
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6. MAKE NUMBERS
Our 'Say It. Make It, Write It' mats haven't just been useful in our literacy block though. They've also been useful as a math centre when we looked at numbers to twenty.
The students chose a stick with the number word written on it then had to make the numeral and represent it with the dice in their play dough.
In fact we came up with even more ways to use our Say It, Make It, Write It mats in Maths! Check out all those ideas here.
You can see how easy each of these activities was to prep and set up. And the mats can easily be stored when not in use.
All you need to get started is to grab our FREE 'Say It, Make It, Write It' mats!
You can download your copy from here.
