Rhyme Time - Students are asked "What word rhymes with __________?" Then, students name words that rhyme with the provided word. For students with exceptionalities, you could differentiate the activity by providing a word family graphic organizer.

Snail Talk - The teacher will sound out a word slowly (ex. cccc/aaaa/tttt) and the students will guess the word. For students with exceptionalities, you could differentiate the activity by having a visual of the word as well and using a pointer to point to the letters as you sound out the word.

Color the Beginning Sound - Students will be provided with a worksheet where they must color in the picture by matching the beginning sound of the picture to the color code (ex. if the beginning sound /r/ should be colored in blue, the picture of the ring should be colored in blue.). You can differentiate the activity by reviewing the words with the students prior to the activity and model an example or two.

Write the Room - Pictures are set up around the classroom and students go around and write the word that represents the picture (ex. if the picture is a cat, the student will sound out cat to help them write the word.) This can be differentiated by reviewing the terms that will be used and students can help sound spell prior to the activity. This activity can be completed as task cards too, if movement around the classroom isn't a possibility.

Pop! - For this activity, you will have to create flashcards of vocabulary terms related to the current unit. Be sure to include several pop cards. Students will take turns drawing cards and defining the word on said card. If a student draws a pop card, they must put it back and skip a turn. You can also play it where students can press their luck and continue to draw cards. If played this way, if a student draws a pop card, they must put back all the cards they gained that turn. To differentiate, be sure to review all vocabulary and definitions prior and model how to play. You could also have the definition on the card and students have to guess the vocabulary term.

Pictionary - For this game, students will work in teams and try to guess the vocabulary term by what their teammates are drawing. You can also do this in a worksheet form where students list the vocabulary term, define it, and draw a picture of it. This can be differentiated by providing a partially filled our graphic organizer.

Sentence Trees - These are sentences separated into words in a tree shape. For example, if the sentence was "The cat is black," the first line would be "The." The second line would be "The cat." The third line would be "The cat is." And the last line would be the whole sentence. Students will practice reading the sentence in the tree formation to practice their fluency. This can be differentiated by adjusting the amount of words in the sentence or types of words in the sentence.

Readers Theater - This can be done with an already created reader's theater or will any book the students know that is dialogue heavy. Students will play the characters in the story and act out the scenes. This can be differentiated by using various leveled readers.

Five-Finger Retelling - After reading a story, students will hold up five fingers, each of which represents the characters, the setting, the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story. As they retell the story, they can put a finger down. This can be differentiated by modelling and providing a visual anchor chart reminding students what needs to be provided.

Illustrated Retelling - After reading a story, students will retell the story by drawing what happened. The papers can be differentiated by offering a graphic organizer labelled first, middle, and end that the students can complete the illustrated retelling on. You can also provide students will a blank sheet of paper and students can create their own comic retelling the story.