Open Word Sorting in Kindergarten

I mentioned about the fun Open Word Sorting that I did last week with my students.  I thought I would write a little bit more about how I got it to work so well.

First I printed off pictures off of the FCRR website under letter sound correspondence.  Next I divided children into groups and gave them cards with sounds that some are having difficulty with W, V, U, and Y.  The tricky part was I gave them both long and short U pictures.  This was to challenge my higher level students.

I instructed the students to put pictures into rows that had the same sounds.  I did not tell them what the sounds were so it would be an open sort.  In a closed sort you give them the sounds.  I also gave each group 5 index cards to write the beginning sounds on once they had sorted them.

The interesting thing is the group that had no high level students happened to be the group that finished first and had separated the long and short u cards!  It was also very interesting to see who stepped up to be leaders.

I plan to do more of these in the future.  Has any other Kindergarten teachers tried this?  If so what were the results?

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!