RTI & Guided Reading {Nonsense Words Activities} and a FREEBIE

As part of our district assessments our students are assessed using AimsWeb on Letter Naming {LNF}, letter sounds {LNF}, nonsense words {NWF}, and Phoneme Segmentation {PSF}. I plan to make RTI & Guided Reading packets for all 4 subtests. I have already blogged and posted on TpT my RTI & Guided Reading {Phoneme Segmentation Activities} packet. If you have not yet check those out click above on the links to view!

Anyway, this post is all about nonsense words or called by some “silly words.”

Nonsense Words- – A Definition:
Measuring a student’s ability to decode individual phonemes and then blend them together to read.

Nonsense Words- -Why teach them to our students?:
Practicing nonsense word fluency will show if a student has a solid understanding for letter-sound correspondence. Nonsense word fluency also encourages students to blend an unknown word together. Students who are fluent with nonsense words will have a better understanding on decoding unknown words within the text they read.

Nonsense Words- -How I teach them:
Morning Routine: We work on nonsense words as part of our morning ELA routine. Our morning meeting is filled with; high frequency word reviews, phoneme segmentation exercises, manipulating sounds in words, nonsense words, and any other skill we are working on at the time. For nonsense word routine I will write a nonsense word on the whiteboard and have the students state the nonsense word. Or, I will have the students review nonsense words before the morning routine by having a PowerPoint nonsense word displayed on the smart board. The PowerPoint presentation automatically switches slides after a few seconds. Click below to grab the freebie!

Hallway: I also access nonsense words in the hallway as I am having my students go into the restroom. I will show them a word and they will state the word back to me. Below are the cards I use! They can be found in the RTI & Guided Reading {Nonsense Words Activities} packet!

Guided Reading: I spend about 3-5 on nonsense words each guided reading lesson! Below are a few of the activities we do….

I love these practice cards! The students get to see each sound, then blend those sounds together.

Nonsense words fluency sheets. Students get 1 minute to state as many nonsense words as they can. I also place these in a literacy center for extra practice.

Nonsense words 3 in a row. This game is played like bingo. The teacher calls out a nonsense word and the students cover it up with their bingo dot.

All of the above mentioned activities come from my RTI & Guided Reading {Nonsense Words Activities} packet.

Inside the packet:
Pages 3-29 Nonsense Word Cards {4 to a page}
Pages 30-45 Guided Nonsense Word cards { 3 to a page}
Pages 46-64 Nonsense Word Fluency 3-in-a-row {3 versions}
Pages 65-68 Nonsense Word Fluency Sheets

See below for previews!