Christmas Word Sort Tutorial

Happy Thanksgiving!  Now that the Christmas season is officially starting, I wanted to share a quick word sort I made a few days ago.  It's a long and short e word sort with a holiday theme.  Any kind of play with words is great, but word sorts are especially beneficial because kids start to recognize patterns in words.   This would probably be the best fit for kids in the upper primary or lower elementary grades, although of course it would be appropriate for older struggling readers or advanced younger readers.

To begin, make three Christmas tree shapes with places for four ornaments each.  Label the stars with "ee", "ea", and "short e" (I don't know how to do that symbol on my computer!)

Make your ornaments.  You'll need 12 total and they should say:
("ea"):

• peace
• feast
• meal
• season

("ee"):

• green
• reindeer
• tree
• freeze

("short e"):

• elf
• red
• sled
• present

Have your child sort the words onto the correct tree.  Here's my two year old at work:

This is what it looked like when she was done.  Well, almost.  Or not quite.  Or not at all.

When your child is finished, have him or her read the words aloud and then copy them onto the tree. 

If you want to make it more challenging you could leave the stars off the trees and have them figure out how to sort the words onto the three trees themselves.

If your little readers aren't ready for word sorts yet, you could use the same idea to have them sort for colors, letters, or beginning sounds.  I did one for Drew matching the letters in his name.