Word sorts are a tool for teaching reading skills that have been shown to be effective way for students to learn patterns in words. [The set of word sort games designed to go along with the Phonics Pow Toolkit is not currently available as Mailerlite has made changes. I hope to restore these when I can. You can see the words included at Word Lists.
Online Word Sorts
Because of this difficulty, I have continued to add to my collection of online word sorts. Download the Online Word Sort Index with links to them.
An online word family sort (with short vowels) from Read, Write, Think based on Flash works with the workaround at the End of Flash.
How to play: Choose the word cards for the phonics pattern to practice in sequence. Add cards that skip (the turn is skipped if drawn) or swipe (player can take a word card from the other player) in with the word cards. Each player has a phonogram card, and takes turns drawing a word card and placing it on the correct phonogram. For a quick game, the winner is the player who fills their the phonogram card with one word card of each pattern first. A longer game can be played by using all the word cards, with the winner being the player with the most word cards. POW!
Many of the phonogram cards include color clues. ā is gray, ē is green, ī is white, ō is gold, ū is blue. Below is an index of all the sorts included.
How to set up and organize: Print on cardstock and punch pieces with 1″ circle punch or cut out. Place word sorts in small ziplock bags with labels, and keep in quart ziplock bags with expanding bottoms by sections, or in a Sterlite flip top box. Tabbed index cards are helpful for dividing sections. An empty Extra Refreshers gum container works great for mixing up and drawing the cards.
Check out the Phonics Pow Toolkit and visit Word Lists for a free download of the words included.
Phonics Pow 