The Therapeutic Teacher: E.P.I.C. Word Work

I am so excited to introduce E.P.I.C. Word Work! This idea came from the struggles I was having during Daily 5. My students love all of the games, puzzles, stamps, letters, literally all of the word work you can think of... but they almost seemed like they were overstimulated with all of the options. I would find students starting an activity then cleaning it up and getting another before the first was even finished. This also made a lot of extra movement in the classroom which distracted the students trying to sit and read.

Now that it's almost April, (wait, April?!) I've realized what my students need.

Something that is...

Engaging- exciting to complete the whole activity

Purposeful- targeted practice to align with standards

Independent- building more independence each day

Consistent- so everyone always knows what to do

Watch the video above to take a peek at what students will have completed after one week of word work. Each day, students start word work by completing one of these pages. When (and if) they finish before it is time to switch, they are allowed to create the focus words of the week with the puzzles, stamps, letters, and games that I have available. Win for me and win for them! :)

Edit* Towards the end of the year, I start to fade out work work in isolation and focus more on independent reading. These word work activities are available for students to use when they need a “break” from reading. After they finish, they go back to their books and continue reading. You can read more about how I set up independent reading in kindergarten here!

I differentiate the word work by assigning colors to groups and using this small Sterilite container that I found in my classroom. Just added some colors strips and it was ready to go!

Here’s what goes inside:

I prep everything for the week by copying and cutting around the border of each activity. This may seem like a hassle, but it makes such a difference in the students’ productivity during the lesson. They don’t need to waste any time cutting extra pieces off- they just grab from their colored drawer and start learning.