First Grade Word Walls Kids Will Use

In my experience, first grade word walls are a must-have. Because of this though, I used to sweat the fire marshal’s visit each year. To avoid costly fines, our head custodian would walk through every classroom a week ahead looking for violations and my little visit always came with the same speech. “Andrea, there’s too much paper on your walls. You’ve exceeded the limit. It won’t go well. Take some stuff down.” If only the fire marshal would come in August. But spring? Come on. That’s hardly fair.

I don’t know what your fire codes are, but in my district only a certain percentage of the walls can be covered in paper. Honestly, I wish they would just paint the walls I am allowed to use. Otherwise, I’m really just guessing. That being said, if I could only save one thing my classroom, it would be my word wall. I would stand in front of it channeling my inner Erin Brokovich and guard it from anyone who told me to take it down.

Why I (We) Love Our Word Wall

A word wall is one of the most important literacy tools in a primary classroom. Each year, my students actively use our word wall to become stronger, more independent readers and writers. Because they participate in building it with me, they understand how and when to use it. It’s very colorful, which may seem random, but it’s not. The colors we use are intentional and serve as cues for beginning readers. (More on the colors in a minute.)

If I was making a commercial about it, I’d tell you that I’ve built essentially the same word wall for almost 20 years now. I’ve changed very little each time because it has been so effective with my first graders. Modeled after the work done by Pat Cunningham, it functions primarily from common sight words and words with highly predictable spelling patterns, or word families … key components of first grade word walls.

The Beginning of the Year

During the first week of school, the word wall is bare. Only the letters of the alphabet line the top of the wall. Some teachers like to start by posting words the children learned in kindergarten. I do like this idea (and I will do this), but I like to start with student names instead. This is where my color coding begins as I print the girls’ names on yellow card stock and the boys’ names on orange. On the first day of school, I put each child’s name card on their desk and challenge them to figure out why the cards are two different colors. It doesn’t take them long to realize the groups are Girl Names and Boy Names. We put all the names in a pocket chart, including mine, and spend the first week studying the features in our names. For example, you might:

• Put them in alphabetical order.
• Compare the different name lengths.
• Count how many girls there are. Boys, too.
• Sort the names by the number of beats, or syllables, they have.
• Notice how many names begin with the letter J. Or K. Or S.
• Figure out who has the shortest name. And longest.
• Practice matching the name cards to new friends.

After the kids leave that first Friday, I post their names to the wall. When they come back the next Monday, they’re always excited to see all of them up there! This is a fun and personal way to introduce the word wall. Using their own names grabs their attention right away and gives them a collective ownership in the tool itself. Throughout the year, they’ll refer to the word wall again and again to find and spell their friends’ names, especially during writing workshop.

Building First Grade Word Walls

Now the fun begins! Over the next several months, I’ll introduce five new word wall words each Monday, typically two sight words and three words with spelling patterns. By the end of the year, there will be more than 100 words the kids will know well.

Printing specific types of words on their own color helps children find words as they’re learning them. For example, during a writing conference with a child who’s struggling to spell good, I can say, “Take a look at our word wall. It’s on a green card. Think about how that word starts and ends and see if you can find it.”

These are the colors I use on our word wall:

• YELLOW: Names of Girls
• ORANGE: Names of Boys
• GREEN: Words with Spelling Patterns / Word Families
• WHITE: Sight Words
• PINK: Multi-syllabic Words
• BLUE: Contractions
• PURPLE: Chunking Challenges

The specific colors you choose doesn’t necessarily matter as long as you’re consistent. However, I would recommend printing your patterned words on green cards and your sight words on white.

Green Means Go

In my opinion, the green words are the most important ones on our word wall. These are words with power because they have transferrable spelling patterns that can be used to read and spell many other words that rhyme with a given word. I seldom repeat a pattern (or word family) on our word wall. If I put get on our word wall, I won’t add let, pet, or set to the wall. The reason for this is because I spend so much time teaching the children how to use the patterns to read and write rhyming words. If a child is reading a book and stops at the word stun, I might say, “That word has the same pattern as the word fun on our word wall. If f-u-n- is fun, what could this word be?”

This also helps when writing. If a child is stuck on spelling the word shook in a story, I can prompt with, “Is there a word on our word wall that rhymes with shook? How could you use look to help you spell shook?”

Whether you call these spelling patterns, word families, or onsets and rimes, the concept is the same. These are the most powerful words on first grade word walls because we can do so much with them. If you’ve ever wondered why rhyming is such an important piece of phonemic awareness development, this is one of them. If children can recognize and produce rhyming sounds, they will benefit from understanding how these green words work.

PRO TIP👇

I teach my students that the pattern (or rime) begins at the first vowel and goes to the end of the word … that’s the part with the power … that’s the part we use. By changing the first letter, we can make new words that rhyme with the original word. If a green word begins with a vowel, like out, then the whole word IS the pattern and we simply add a beginning sound such as /p/ making the new word word pout. We practice brainstorming and writing rhyming words for our new green words each week. It’s an important part of our word work schedule.

White Words Are Sight Words

The main reason I print sight words on white card stock is because the rhyme is catchy and that’s how my kids remember: White words are sight words. I teach the children that these are tricky words, but they occur frequently in our books and we use them often in our own stories. These words don’t have power like the green words, so we don’t use them to help us read or write other words. For example, the word said is on a white card because we wouldn’t use it to help us spell bed. These words don’t follow typical letter-sound rules, so they’re more difficult. This is why I only introduce 1-2 of them per week.

Although super useful, I also think first grade word walls can be playful. Recently, I added JAIL WORDS to our word wall. Jail words are sight words that are commonly misspelled in predictable ways, like have, said, and went. On Monday, when I introduce a new sight word, I also have fun introducing its jail word too. The kids and I arrest the word and talk about why it was arrested. They notice that it’s breaking the rules and that a letter has been taken or switched. I post the jail word underneath the correct spelling so the kids have a visual reminder of how not to spell the word.

First Grade Word Walls Grow with Us

Each spring, I start introducing words I call CHUNKING CHALLENGES. Not every child is ready for this, but most are and I think it’s the next natural step in the phonics progression to second grade. The idea is simple … it just requires practice. By this time of the year, the children have learned many different spelling patterns (rimes). Now, if we take separate rimes, add in a few new onsets, and put them together, we can build pretty big words!

Here’s how it works: If I can spell all and I can spell day, then I can spell hall and I can spell way. If I put them together, I can build the word hallway. Or: I can use the patterns in when and her to make the word enter. 

Some kids get this right away and it blows their mind!😂 They can’t believe it. Somehow, they feel like they’ve tapped into something magical and it feels very empowering, especially as they’re getting ready to become second graders. The most excited they get about this is when I challenge them to read this word: entertainment. After studying it together, they recognize patterns from word wall words: -en, -er, -ain, and -ent. So (*drum roll*), if they can read when, her, rain, and went, they can read entertainment!

I wouldn’t start this until mid to late spring. It’s really just icing on the phonics cake, but some kids will be ready for it.

Use It or Lose It

First grade word walls are only a tool if they are actually used. If not, they’re just wall decor. Even though I only introduce five new words a week, we play with both new and old word wall words throughout the week. I am constantly referring to it, prompting kids to use it when problem-solving. Word wall games and activities are important for building awareness and independence among my students.

People often ask me about spelling tests. I do give an assessment each Friday, but it’s not a traditional test. It’s a half sheet with twenty lines on it. The first five lines are for the new words from that week, but the other 15 lines are opportunities for me to assess how effectively students are using the word wall. So, for example, I might say:

• “Number 6, find and write the word at.”
• “Number 7, write the word wall word that rhymes with bike.”
• “Number 8, use the word wall word but to help you spell shut … /sh/ /u/ /t/.”
• “Number 9, find and write the sight word friend.”
• “Number 10, look at all the C words on the word wall. Write the only one that has three sounds.”

Their answers inform my next instructional moves and I find this to be very helpful. If I need to differentiate a little more, I can give assessments in small groups. A group of emerging readers may need a shorter assessment (maybe only ten words) and prompts that are simply “Find and write the word (blank).”

Teacher Resources

These materials, plus additional activities, are included in the resource below. If you’re building a word wall for the first time or simply want to give yours a facelift, this pack has alphabet headers, multiple word cards, activities, and sample assessments. You can check it out here to see if it will meet your needs.👇

Happy teaching!

 

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