For years, I taught third graders, and we focused on word study instruction quite a bit. After learning our features and how they work, the best part of the week was the word hunt. Students would use what they knew and really focused their learning on the features and not just the words.
Why Word Hunts?
Students apply what they have learned in a word hunt. So many times students still want to memorize that list of words to get a 100 on their assessments. But learning to spell is much more than memorizing a list of words each week. Students need to know that these types of words are used in many more places than a spelling list. The words they need to know how to read and spell are part of the real world and in many books they will read. Word Hunts are the most important part of a weekly word study rotation.
Conducting Word Hunts
Students need books they can read to successfully do a word hunt. These should be books the students are currently reading, whether it be something they are reading in a group time or their own independent reading.
Students look in their books to find words that fit their features (or should but don't) in their books. The idea is that they are not words on their list but can include some of them. Once they find a word that fits one of the features, they write in the correct column, like below.
Doing this will help students see that the words they have sorted all week have meaning, and meaning makes the learning real!
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