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Of course you can play Wordle with first grade! My class this year loves to play whole class Wordle to review for a spelling test or when we have a few extra minutes. That’s not to say I use the official website with them; we play on the white board. Because although it is a great way to practice phonics and logic, first graders need a few supports to get the most out of this popular word game.
1. Limit the vocabulary. Helix, trawl, and sower are not going to cut it with the 7 year old crowd. A guessing game is not the time to introduce new vocabulary.
2. Use familiar spelling principles. We use Fundations for phonics instruction, so students learn spelling patterns in this order:
a. Words with 3 letters and short vowels, also known as CVC (not including -am and -an, which don’t have a short “a” sound). Although I have ideas about how to play a version or Wordle with 3 letter words, I won’t cover it in this blog post since I haven’t actually tried it yet.
b. Words with digraphs including wh, ch, sh, th and ck. Since there aren’t many 5 letter words with a short vowel and digraph (chick and check come to mind) I don’t recommend starting Wordle this early in the year.
c. Words with “bonus letters,” including ff, ll, ss and zz. Again, the number of 5 letter words is too limited to hold students’ interest.
d. Words with the suffix -s. This is the key that unlocks Wordle for first grade! There are at least 30 words that fit all of the above criteria. This is the point in a first grader’s education that Wordle has the potential to be a lot of fun.
3. Accept reasonable guesses, even if they are not 5 letters. The first time I played Wordle, one of my students guessed “faster.” I paused for a moment, because of course this is too many letters. On “Real Wordle” that would not be accepted. However, phonologically speaking, the word as 5 sounds because “er” is considered 1 sound. Enforcing a strict 5 letter limit would likely cause some students to become too discouraged to participate. So I said okay, and simply wrote the word with the sixth letter after the final spot. I told the kids it’s okay to guess a word with the wrong number of letters and we moved on without further need for rationalization. On the other hand, feel free to dismiss unreasonable words (like RESPONSIBILITY) if student guesses become so long that they make the game less enjoyable. I would tap out long words r-e-s-p-o-n-s-i-b-le and point out that is much more than 5 sounds so it’s not reasonable.
4. Provide a visual alphabet, just like “Real Wordle.” Because Wordle is a logic puzzle that uses letters, it’s not just helping students practice spelling. It’s also helping them see that sometimes knowing the wrong answers is more valuable than knowing the potential right answers. Here’s my favorite real life example of this.
My favorite first guess when I play Wordle online is ARISE. One day the only correct letter on my first attempt was “s.” It was in the correct spot, second to last. Because I know a lot about spelling patterns, I knew the last letter was likely T, H, Y, M or another S. So even though E was incorrect, my second guess was THYME. I did not get a single letter correct, but instead of feeling disappointed, it told me that the last letter had to be another S. Plus, through process of elimination, I knew the vowel had to be O or U. O is more common, which gave me – OSS. I knew a word with double s would not have both ou, so the first 2 letters had to be a digraph or blend. With the H gone, it had to be a blend. Going by Wheel of Fortune’s most common consonants (RSTLN), the best option for my second letter was L (R and T had been eliminated and N is rarely in a beginning blend). So the word was probably -LOSS. That means the word could be FLOSS, or GLOSS. F was more common, so I chose FLOSS and got it correct in 3 guesses.
So as you play, flip over or cross out letters that have been eliminated, just like in the online version. It will help them develop logic skills.
5. Gently guide guesses to increase victories. One reason is it will help reinforce spelling principles students have been taught. If you have covered digraphs but not blends and the vowel is in the middle of the word, ask what the second letter could be. Ask what sound could be at the beginning (ch, sh, th, or wh). Although I encourage you to accept reasonable words that aren’t exactly 5 letters, help students think deeper about a 4 letter word, such as CHAT. If S has not been eliminated yet, ask if there is an ending they could add to the word to make it 5 letters. You could also remind students about previously eliminated letters. For example, if CHILD is on the board and there is no CHI or D in the word, and a student guesses CHILL, remind them those letters were eliminated and ask “Do you really want that to be your next guess?” If they can justify it (like in my THYME example) then great! Otherwise, remind them to look at the available letters for inspiration, not the letters in the previous word.
Now I can guess your next question. Whole class games can be fun, but do you find that half the class tunes out? The answer is once again, “Of course.” Unfortunately. So is there a way for first graders to play a partner version once the novelty wears out? They can, but it takes a bit more preparation and conflict prevention. There are a few problems that will inevitably happen when first graders are “on their own.”
1. It takes forever for them to draw those 6 sets of 5 lines.
2. They need an alphabet to cross out or flip over letters each time.
3. The person choosing the word might spell it wrong.
4. The person choosing the word might forget to code it correctly (as in: “You said that letter was in the 4th place, not the middle!” Or “You said there were no Ns in the word but there is!”).
Either of these scenarios makes the game frustrating for the student who tried and failed to guess the correct word. But luckily for you, I have a solution that greatly cuts down on the frustration.
1. Copy a page with preprinted lines and the alphabet. I like to put mine in a sheet protector for repeated use.
2. Create a word list for students to refer to. Choose words according to the phonetic principles your students have learned.
