Making Words in Distance Learning
Many times since Distance Learning started teachers have asked how to do word work remotely (or in- person but digitally). As a tech based educator I almost always prefer to work digitally. Especially when it involves small tiles that can easily get lost! Last year I created these Digital Letter Tiles so students could do Making Words out of these letters and the students and I love it!
When we abruptly switched to Distance Learning I could keep up with my spelling and Making Words groups without missing a beat, thanks to these Digital Letter Tiles slides. I appreciated the structure it gave, and the students appreciated the familiarity in such an uncertain time.
These days I am still doing Distance Learning (my district has not returned to in-person instruction at all) and the digital letter tiles have made it easy to do spelling, phonics, and Making Words with these letter tiles during my small group time.
The set is in Google Slides, easily converted to PowerPoint for those in Microsoft districts. One option is for students to all use the same background. In this case, I duplicate the blank slide and add the tiles I need by copy/pasting them. If you want students to choose their backgrounds, follow the steps in the Holiday letter tiles section below. I use the Making Words and Making Big Words books, but there are many sources for word work activities. Then, I make a copy of just that slide so that it is its own presentation and assign that to the students. Using Google Classroom, makes it so easy! I assign it as “Make a copy for each student” and then on my end I open each student’s slide in a separate tab or window. As we work I can monitor and give feedback to the students.
Grab the non-holiday version from TPT now!
Winter Holiday Version
As holidays approach, we know students have a harder time staying focused, especially on daily tasks like Making Words or spelling word work.
Grab my Winter Holiday Themed Digital Letter Tiles Set to make phonics fun!
With my holiday sets, the students like to pick their own backgrounds. I create a new presentation with just the backgrounds and a blank slide at the top, and on that slide I copy and paste the letters I want the students to use. They can then grab all of the letters for making words and cut/paste them onto the background they choose. I have a video of that process for you!
I hope you and your students find the Digital Letter Tiles as fun and easy as I do! I’d love to hear about your experiences with them. Tag or DM me on Instagram or Facebook when you use these!
