Popcorn Words

 

Popcorn Words are words that "pop up" everywhere. They are high frequency words that are repeated often in books and print.   They pop up in our morning messages, shared reading, and end-of-the-day journal entries. Kindergarten students do not usually learn to read and write words by memorizing them.  They need to have meaningful encounters with the words in order to build connections to other words they already know.  Through elements in the classroom like Morning Message, Predictable Charts, Word Walls, Leveled Readers, Games, and Songs these connections are made. Learning these words will help us to become fluent readers and writers. As new words are introduced, they are added to our "Popcorn Word Wall” (our yellow pocket chart).  We add one or two words per week to our popcorn wall.  Students are assessed several times during the year to track their progress towards learning to read these words. It is our goal that by the end of Kindergarten, each student will be able to read at least 80% of our popcorn words.  Each time we add a word to the wall we take a close look at it.  We notice things such as how many letters it has in it, we cheer it and clap it or move to it.  Once the children are familiar with the words, we then begin making sentences with our popcorn words and our word families.  We also refer to the words when writing in our journals.

 

 

The following is a list of the popcorn words that we are learning or have learned.  Our list includes color words, number words, words from the Houghton Mifflin Reading Series for Kindergarten, and words from the Dolch sight word list. Look for these words in your child’s writing, the little books or emergent readers that are sent home, and the books that you read together.

 

I

see

my

a

to

is

go

like

at

we

and

will

it

can

here

love

for

have

the

said

play

she

are

he

if

big

blue

in

look

me

not

one

red

three

two

up

yellow

you

am

be

black

brown

did

do

four

no

on

our

please

so

that

this

white

with

yes

an

from

has

may

open

stop

green

or

eight

ten

seven

six

five

good

say

away

down

find

funny

of

was

they

out

but

all

come

saw

help

jump

little

make

run

where

ate

came

get

good

into

must

new

now

pretty

ran

ride

soon

there

too

under

want

well

went

what

who

thank

as

 

 

 

We keep a list of popcorn words in the reading center, writing center, and the computer center.  These lists are used by the students during center time to help them with their writing.  

 

We play many word games with our popcorn words.  Here are a few of our favorites:  

*    Find the Word.  On shapes to match our themes, I write the popcorn words.  We spread them out on the floor.  I give clues such as: “I’m looking for a word with 3 letters…there is an a in the middle of the word…it starts like cat.”  Students enjoy giving the clues also.

*    Erase the word - I write words on the dry erase board.  I say a word and the student erases it.

*    Fish for words – With a magnetic fishing pole, students catch fish with words on them.

*    Light up the Word - Students take turns finding the given word and lighting up the word with a flashlight.

*    Chant/Cheer/Clap the Word – Using a variety of ways we chant, cheer, or clap the words.  Some of our favorites are basketball chant and cheerleader cheer.

*    Popcorn Word BINGO – We use these cute little popcorn boards that I found in The Mailbox Magazine that I have printed on yellow cardstock and wrote various popcorn words on them.(Each one is different so that each child has a different version.) Then I had them laminated and we use popcorn kernels as the markers.  The kids like this game and we usually do it during 2nd semester.

 

 

Website Resources:

Printable Booklets - http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/printable_booklets.html

Printable Popcorn Words – (scroll down the page) http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG03/printable.html

 

 

Some Graphics Found Here:

http://www.popcorn.org/index.cfm

 

The rest are from Microsoft Word

 

 

 

Webpage Last Updated On August 26, 2010

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  Gracemor and the North Kansas City School District cannot control the content of non-district, linked websites.  Parents should familiarize themselves with these resources and sites and supervise their students whenever they are on the internet.