High Frequency Words and Vocabulary

How many High Frequency Words are you students expected to know by the end of the year? This is a question that is often on my mind. My kindergarten friends are expected to know 127 words. Yes you read that correctly - 127 words! Is this normal?

So, how do I organize all of those words for the word wall? I use an index card box and three packages of index card dividers. I turned the dividers around and numbered them by week. Then at the beginning of the year, I take the time to sort the cards based on the week they will be introduced. This may not be much, but with the 897 other things that have to be done each week, it is really nice to just be able to pull the exact words I need with minimal effort.

I also sorted my vocabulary words a few weeks ago so they are easier to locate too. I love having visually appealing vocabulary cards for my friends, but in the past have been overwhelmed with trying to dig through to find them . . . maybe it's more like try to remember where I stored them, having no luck, and reprinting them again. So as part of my goal to make this coming year a bit easier, I organized all of my vocabulary cards! First I sorted all of them. I wish I had taken a picture for you to see them laid across the entire floor. After that, I took some scrapbook paper I had laying around and cut it a tad larger then most of my vocabulary cards to create dividers. Each divider is labeled with the content area and the type of vocabulary cards in the section. Originally I thought I was going to have two bins of vocabulary cards, but I was able to fit all of my Reading, Writing, Math, and Science vocabulary cards in the one bin. WooHoo!! 

My husband did not quite understand how excited I was to organize my vocabulary cards. He was more excited that it didn't cost him any money. Oh the little things.