Digital Butterfly Word Building Mats for Preschool and Kindergarten
Work on a variety of words this spring while having fun with these easy to differentiate digital butterfly word building mats for Google Slides and Seesaw.
Digital Butterfly Word Building Activity
In the elementary grades, especially the early primary grades, word work is an essential part of literacy instruction. Word work allows students to apply their phonemic awareness and phonics skills to learn new words, sound, and spelling patterns.
There are so many options for doing word work in the classroom with different hands-on activities and manipulatives. However, you don’t always have access to these hands-on materials and sometimes you just need a word work activity that can be used anywhere, anytime.
This digital butterfly word building activity gives your students the freedom to practice wherever they are, at school or at home, without needing supplies.
This digital word word activity is editable, which makes it very easy for teachers to get ready ahead of time. You can prep this activity with any set of words or word lists you’d like. Whatever your students need to practice, you can include on these digital mats. This makes it versatile and easy to use with students from preschool and kindergarten up to 2nd and even 3rd grade.
You can practice sight words, color words, number words, spelling words, CVC words, CVCe words, vocabulary words, seasonal words, and more.
Setting Up the Butterfly Word Building Activity in Google Slides
Students may use Google Slides™ to do this activity.
The download file includes a detailed guide with instructions and pictures on how to use this activity with your students, but it is quite simple to do.
If you are an instructor or teacher, you will want to copy the Google Slides assignment to your Google Drive and save it as a master copy.
Make sure that you click the dropdown next to the attachment. Pick the “Make a copy for each student” option.
Setting Up The Digital Butterfly Activity in Seesaw
Students can also use this activity in Seesaw, if you would like.
You will click the Seesaw specific link in the download file. When you arrive at the activity, you will need to click the “Save Activity” button. Then you will assign the activity to your students.
Working on Words
This digital butterfly word building activity gives students the opportunity to work with words in different word families, with different sound patterns, and learn spelling skills as well. As these skills build, they’ll develop stronger reading and writing skills and become more fluent.
On each of the 18 slides in the digital word building activity, students get to work with the words in 3 ways. First, they’ll read the word in the “Read It” box. Then they’ll build the word on the flowers by dragging and dropping the correct butterfly letter tiles. Lastly, they’ll type the word in the “Type It” box. The digital butterfly letter tiles are in alphabetical order, so students can use their alphabet knowledge to find the letters they need to build each word correctly.
By reading, building, and typing the words, students will use many learning styles all in one fun and engaging activity.
Differentiating the Butterfly Activity
Since this butterfly activity is editable, it is easy to offer extra support or extend the learning depending on your students’ needs. Each student can have the same activity with a different set of words to practice at their instructional level. As your students’ skills grow, you can move them on to more challenging word lists. The instructions remain the same for all word lists, so you only have to explain them once to all students.
This would be a great activity to use in small groups as you can have different word lists for your different small groups. They can work with you at the teacher table on these words or practice independently while you support another group of students during word work center rotations. This is a perfect technology center option for your students.
This activity is a great whole group practice option as you introduce a new skill or new set of sight words or spelling words. Students can practice with you before moving on to working with the words more independently in small groups, individual work time, as an early finisher activity, or even as a morning warm-up activity.
If you have students learning virtually, this activity is the perfect opportunity for them to practice at home and is easy to assign through any digital learning platform.
Extending the Butterfly Activity
Some students grasp these word work concepts very quickly and need a challenge to keep them engaged in their learning. There are several ways in which you can extend the learning with these digital butterfly word building mats, such as:
- Complete each slide and write the word on a whiteboard.
- Complete each slide and write a sentence using the word on a whiteboard.
- Finish all slides and write the words in alphabetical order on a whiteboard.
- Write a paragraph or story using all of the words.
- Use letter manipulatives or flower mini erasers to build each word.
- Create their own list of 18 words to add to the slides and practice.
I can’t wait for your students to get in on this butterfly-themed word work fun this spring! They’ll be mastering sight words and any other words that come their way with this digital butterfly word building activity.
Click the button below to get the editable Digital Butterfly Word Building activity for Google Slides and Seesaw.
Here are some more insect activities to check out!
Digital Butterfly Letter Sound Isolation Match Up
Digital Flower Letter Sounds Matching
Digital and Editable Flower Word Building Mats
Flower Missing Addends Digital Activity
Butterfly Cover Up Letter Sounds Activity
Ladybug Editable Cover Up Game