Beach Ball Word Families

Activity Type: Build Fluency

Activity Form: Game

Grade: 2

Group Size: Small Group

Length: 15 minutes

Materials: Beach ball, something to write with, small slips of paper, tape

Goal: Given a rime, students will be able to generate words for that rime with fluency.

Items: Word families; six different rimes appear on the ball

What to do

Write the rimes you would like your students to learn on the slips of paper. Attach the slips of the paper to the beach ball with tape. (Make sure the slips are secure!)
Have your students form a group of four. Give one student a beach ball.
The student with the beach ball goes first, tossing it to another student.
Have the student who catches the ball take note of where his or her thumb lands. Whichever rime the thumb lands on will be the rime he or she needs to use to make a word. (If the rime is -ock, for example, the word could be rock or sock.)
Whichever rime the thumb lands on will be the rime they need to make a word with. EX. If their thumb lands on -ock, a word could be stock.
Have your students continue to toss the ball and form words in this manner for as long as you want (you should at least make sure that all six rimes have been used).