One of the best parts about teaching is watching the growth the students make! When kids have learned most of their letter sounds, it is a great time to begin teaching them how to read CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words. One way to help them learn these words is by sorting words based on their onset and rime.
I absolutely love sorting with my students! I always look forward to this part of the week because we always have so much fun. Here is an example of how I teach a new sort:
Gather students on the rug.
Have the word cards cut out and the headings set to the side, not visible to the students.
Tell students you are going to show them words and they will try to read the words.
Tell them that they should let you know when they start to notice a way to sort the words.
Show students one word. Ask them to read the word. Ask what the word means.
Repeat with another word.
Keep repeating until someone has noticed a way to sort the words or until all of the cards have been read.
Once the students have figured out that the words can be sorted by their rime, start to sort words by their rime. Add the headings to each group as they figure out each rime.
Continue showing new words. Each time students should read, define, and then put the word in the correct group.
Once you have sorted all of the words as a group, each student should get their own copy of the words to cut out and sort at their seats.
There is SO much more that can be done with sorting, but this is a way to get started. If you want this short a resource, you can get it for free in my Teacher Pay Teachers store at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Wolf-Classroom-7733
This resource also has picture cards in case students aren't able to read the words on their own yet. With this resource you can give students just the word cards, just the picture cards, or a sheet that has the word cards on one side and the picture cards on the other side (that's what I usually do!). Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about sorting words based on their onset and rime (or any other way of sorting)!
TIP: Have students write their initials on the back of each card in case they fall on the floor.
TIP: You should have different groups working on different sorts based on their reading and/or writing skill levels. My word work groups were always different than my reading groups because they had different needs. Give students a word work preassessment to figure out which types of words they should be working on sorting.
Enjoy!