The Word Work Assembly Line

THE WORD WORK ASSEMBLY LINE - 10 minutes 
(THE ALPHABET ASSEMBLY LINE) 
When students have a routine to follow and know what is expected of them from the moment they enter the room, it gets the day off to a good start. The Word Work or Alphabet Assembly Line employs all the senses and provides lots of practice to help students learn how to print words or letter names.
Show your students how to use one material at a time. Don’t introduce a new material until they can use previously introduced materials independently. 
Choose from: Playdoh, dry erase boards and markers, a salt box, a MagnaDoodle, foam or magnetic letters for word building and letter sorting, smelly markers, etc.
To begin the assembly line: 
1. Greet the students as they enter the classroom and have them trace and say the name of the letter you have placed on the door.
Put a green dot at the top left starting position to remind students they always begin at the top and go to the right when printing a letter.
2. Begin with one station and when your students are ready, increase it to three stations. Tell your students to practice saying the name of the word (letter) aloud as they build or write it and to ask a friend for help if they forget how to say their word (letter).
3. You can vary the material in the assembly line, but the fourth and last station should always remain. Ask your students to write their word (letter) on a small cardboard ‘ticket’ and bring it up to the carpet. Use a pencil so as not to damage clothing if the paper gets wet.
4. Move from the door to the carpet and ask the students to tell your their word (letter) before they put it in their pocket. 
5. Ask your students to take their word (letter) out and to use the letter name throughout the day, i.e. lining up for recess, coming in from recess, or at home time. To make it even more memorable, have “Word Alerts” or “Letter Alerts” where you ring a bell and have everyone stop what they are doing to take out their letter. The teacher can focus on selecting children who need more practice at these times to say the letter out loud.
6. Tell parents to ask their children about the word (letter) in their pocket.
7. Show the students how they can give hints to help their parents guess which word (letter) they have in their pocket.
8. Later, this can become a Word Work center activity.

Back to the full sample daily routine.