3 Free Holiday Word Mapping Worksheets
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Practice phoneme-grapheme mapping with these 3 free Holiday-themed word mapping worksheets! They are Science of Reading aligned and feature fun seasonal imagery. Make your holiday season work intentional and targeted with these great phonics worksheets!
Why We Love It
These Science of Reading aligned word mapping worksheets are so fun to use as the holiday season approaches. We use them all December long (and whenever we’re in the holiday spirit!).
They’re great for students practicing lots of different phonics skills like CVC words, blends, digraphs, Magic e, and more!
The printables are for practicing orthographic mapping words with 3, 4, and 5 phonemes. Each worksheet features fun, seasonal imagery:
- 3 Phonemes: Ornaments
- 4 Phonemes: Snowmen
- 5 Phonemes: Stockings
👉 For more word mapping practice, get our multisensory Sound Boxes Bundle!
Using the Worksheets
Step 1: Students tap the sounds they hear in the words to determine how many sound boxes they will use. 👌 They can do this using their fingers or using another multisensory tool like pushing chips, touching coins, or popping fidget toys.
Step 2: Next, students map the word by writing each grapheme inside the graphic.
Step 3: Then, students write the full word on the writing lines using proper letter formation.
Step 4: Last, children should check the word by reading each sound and blending the sounds together to read the full word.
👉 Need words to dictate? Check out our CVC Words List, Silent E Words List, Nonsense Words Lists, and Digraphs Words Lists!
Expert Tips & FAQ
- Make it multisensory! We like to have fun with it and use candy canes to point to each grapheme. Try using red and green playdough for pushing the sounds, or use Santa hat erasers for tapping!
- For extended use, place the worksheets in plastic sleeves and use fine-tipped dry erase markers.
- Learn more about orthographic mapping and check out this excellent discussion regarding what it is, the research behind it, and why it’s so important for every young reader and speller!
- Use this resource alongside our Phonics Snowman printables. You can challenge students to encode words containing any specific phonics skill.
Word mapping, also known as phoneme-grapheme mapping, is a Science of Reading-aligned practice that promotes orthographic mapping. Orthographic mapping happens in the brain when a person learns a word and stores letter-sound connections in their memory. It’s how new words become sight words!
Mapping the letter-sound connections help words become automatic sight words, and solidify the spellings and meanings of new words!
All students benefit from word mapping practice! There’s lots of research to support orthographic mapping activities.
More Holiday Freebies
Download & Print
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