Getting To The Core With A Box

If someone asked me what was the most Googled Word or phrase that was "hit" for my site,  I would easily answer Elkonin Boxes.

If you are not familiar with them, they are a huge help in teaching the Common Core State Standard: RF.K2b as they are simply "boxes" that are a visual representation that helps students count, pronounce, blend and segment syllables in spoken words.

The 20-page packet includes 50 word templates + 3, 4, and 5 letter box blank templates, for teachers/parents to use in a variety of ways.

• Elkonin boxes can be used to teach phonemic awareness by having students listen for individual sounds and marking where they hear them in the boxes.
• Each Elkonin box in an Elkonin box card represents one phoneme, or sound.
• Elkonin boxes are a physical segmentation of words into phonemes.

• I make my boxes a bit longer when a digraph or blend is involved because it fixes the spelling in a child’s mind. (I think this helps them with decoding and spelling, as phonemes count as one sound not one letter.)
• There are many activities that teachers can do with Elkonin boxes, but the main activity teachers usually use them for is to 'stretch' out words, identify similar or different sounds and then guess at spelling.
• I’ve made an alphabetical list of some of the more popular words for kindergarten and first grade.

• You can use them as skill sheets or run them off and laminate them and use them as a center activity, or flashcards.
• Students can use counters, chips, or unifix cubes to mark the boxes or run the masters off on copy paper and have students use a bingo dot marker or write in the letters.
• There's also a writing master, where students are given a word to break down and then they use that word in a sentence. 

Here you can remind students to separate their words, capitalize the beginning word and use end punctuation, which are  Common Core State Standards: RF.1c, L.K2a, and L.K2b.

Any of these Elkonin Box worksheets make great "Word Work" for Daily 5 activities too.

Click on the link to view/download Elkonin Boxes

Do you have an activity that you use Elkonin boxes for, that you could share with us? I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or leave a comment here.

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"What comes from the heart, goes to the heart."-Samuel Taylor Cooleridge