I am a huge fan of using Anchor Activities during my routine procedures for Words Their Way.

When I am facilitating my morning tune ups (differentiated mini lessons) with my small Word Study groups, the students who are not working with the teacher are completing independent activities in their Anchor Activities folder or playing games that reinforce their Word Study for the week. I usually have 4 groups running at a time.

Keep in mind, my students must work independently for a total of 15 minutes when they are not “rehearsing” (mini lessons) with the teacher, they will need to remain “anchored” in their learning.

What is in the Anchor Activities Folder?

The anchor activities folder contains a multitude of activities that reinforce and review the skills they have learned in previous mini lessons. Those worksheets include activities that will strengthen their decoding skills for the word sort they are currently focusing on or have previously learned. The activities may include a reading comprehension worksheet, a puzzle, word search, and other various resources I have accumulated for each spelling stage.

It is important to note, that the students should be able to complete the activity independently without teacher support. I also throw in a few Math review worksheets as well.

To learn more about how I manage differentiated Word Study groups click HERE.