baybedaul Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 I'm looking for something to do with my PreK daughter when I'm working on phonics with my 1st grader next year. She has mastered her letter sounds and I think we're nearing burnout on the flashcards, but she doesn't seem ready to start sounding out words. I'm not looking to push her, I just wondered if anyone had any ideas for games or activities using her letters/sounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessReplanted Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 With the process we use, the next step would be to blend consonants & vowels (using the short vowel sound). I would usually sing through letter blend charts with my kids (ba, be, bi, bo, bu). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeidiKC Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 With the process we use, the next step would be to blend consonants & vowels (using the short vowel sound). I would usually sing through letter blend charts with my kids (ba, be, bi, bo, bu). So how do you do this? Pick one consonant and do this until they have it down, then move on to the next. Dumb question..........is there a familiar tune you sing?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 I'm looking for something to do with my PreK daughter when I'm working on phonics with my 1st grader next year. She has mastered her letter sounds and I think we're nearing burnout on the flashcards, but she doesn't seem ready to start sounding out words. I'm not looking to push her, I just wondered if anyone had any ideas for games or activities using her letters/sounds. If you don't believe she is ready to read, I would work on rhyming, identifying initial and final consonant sounds, and sequencing (long strings of beads, shapes, or colors, etc) Those are all pre-reading skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 If you don't believe she is ready to read, I would work on rhyming, identifying initial and final consonant sounds, and sequencing (long strings of beads, shapes, or colors, etc) Those are all pre-reading skills. :iagree: This is exactly where my son is. He has all of his letter sounds down pat but even just rhyming is not there yet. There's no way he's ready to start blending CVC words yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 We do blending games. I will take letters (magnetic, wood, foam, whatever- even flashcards could work) and slowly push them together. Ok I am going to try to illustrate this- work with me :lol: B...................................................................................................A start far apart. The slowly move the B towards the A while saying /B/ sound ..........B........................................................................................A Then slowly move the A towards the A saying the /a/ sound ..........B.........................................................................A............... Then start the B again saying the /b/ sound ...............................B...................................................A................ Then move the A again saying the /a/ sound ..............................B........................................A............................. Keep doing that until they are right next to each other. If my dc struggles with the sound I will say it for them /ba/ then have them say it a few times then we will do it again. Then I go to the next vowel and so on. We call it our sound train ;) You can make a chugga chugga choo choo sounds with the letters if that helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baybedaul Posted July 8, 2011 Author Share Posted July 8, 2011 Ahhh... those are good ideas! She's not getting the rhyming quite yet, but I think beginning and ending sounds would be great to work on and I can definitely add more sequencing to her activities. I love the blending game idea - I think she would get a kick out of that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missiemick Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 "Word chunks?" -- ing, ong, ang . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 I work on learning to spell simple words like on, up, mom, dad. They both also learned to spell their names, but their names are short, a longer name might not be possible at that age. Both my children were able to spell before they could master the skill of blending. I would keep working on blending every few months, eventually it will click and then you can work on phonics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 I work on learning to spell simple words like on, up, mom, dad. They both also learned to spell their names, but their names are short, a longer name might not be possible at that age. Both my children were able to spell before they could master the skill of blending. I would keep working on blending every few months, eventually it will click and then you can work on phonics. Thank you for this! I was just getting frustrated with ds 2 this morning because he can spell, but he just. cannot. blend. and we have been working on it forever. I was starting to feel like I must stink at teaching reading because neither of my kids have been the intuitive, teach-themselves-to-read early types despite being immersed in a language-rich environment. I feel like I need a support group for those with kids who did not read early!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoxcell Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 I would work on blending, rhyming, sequencing, and making cvc words with letter tiles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 We are using AAR Pre-1 to teach those pre-blending skills. I was surprised to find that my 2nd DD had such a hard time with the rhyming in the beginning, but things are coming along nicely. She too, knows all of her short letter sounds (thanks Leap Frog), but hasn't been ready to blend! She can sound out all the sounds, but then blurts out a totally unrelated word ;). I'm really liking the advances she's making in the phonological awareness realm, and it's open and go, so it actually gets done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessReplanted Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 So how do you do this? Pick one consonant and do this until they have it down, then move on to the next. Dumb question..........is there a familiar tune you sing?! I usually started with B and then added in other consonants as we went along. Some are easier than others. And we just sang up and down the scale (do re mi), making it fun and silly. And then after the child was starting to catch on, I would point out different blends on the scale and ask for the sound. I found that the silly singing really took the pressure off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 She has mastered her letter sounds and I think we're nearing burnout on the flashcards, but she doesn't seem ready to start sounding out words. For us, it was spelling, first with magnet letters and then writing. I used SWR techniques. Kiddo was so much better at spelling (and writing) than the mechanics of reading, it was a huge boost for both of us. When he was very little, I'd put, e.g., an a and t up, and put out choices. He'd put the B up and I'd say "bat". Once we'd been through that, I'd tell him "cat" and he'd put up the C. Then we moved onto sit, set, sat, sot, sut. You get the picture. But 5.5 we were doing the first word lists of SWR (without filling out the notebook). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pamela H in Texas Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Many times, the growth spurt stalls between letter sounds and CVC words. You may find that if you wait a few weeks and pick it back up, kiddo will get it just fine. This is what our experience was with Princess. If you want to keep working in the inbetween (we did), you might do either beginning blends or ending ones. So you'll either have "ba, be, bi, bo, bu" or the "at" word family. They can learn the difference between alliteration and rhyming too (something I think Princess has finally gotten!). Segmenting is another skill it's good to practice. We would stutter one sound. We would say each sound in various words such as /f/ /r/ /o/ /g/. We'd talk about what letter words had at the beginning or end. Another thing *we* did was make up flashcards and books with key words. So my oldest, for example, had a card for dinosaur and another for Jacob (her best friend at the time). Princess would have ones with her brother's names on them, princess, etc. Additionally, we write memory verses a certain way so she gets the feel of how to read and recognizes the words that go with the words in the verse (certain way: I write it big. Under each word, I have a dot with an arrow the length of the word.). From here, my daughter was reading chapter books within a couple months. It took my son years. I would guess Princess will have a fairly typical progression (real chapter books by the end of 2nd grade). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Remember reading is about part-whole relationships, too, so puzzles are excellent to help with this concept! If you want to work on initial sounds, the Montessori object boxes are fun! You'd be surprised how you can pull them together yourself. See what you have around the house. We used them like this--first introduce the object box, filled with a large (or small, whatever) letter and objects that start with that letter (M is good to start with, because it's easy to blend later, because it's a sound you can maintain right into the next sound). Child takes a small mat or rug out, puts the letter at the top of the rug facing him, then takes each object out and says the name, placing it under the letter in a row. Easy-Peasy. Put away. Then make a mixed box--objects that start with more than just the one letter. Child takes out an object, names it, and classifies it under the proper letter. Here are some ideas for objects you can probably find around the house (or at the dollar store). Small is best--tiny manipulatives are so much fun! Check your doll house or other play stuff first. Homemade Monti object boxes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Thank you for this! I was just getting frustrated with ds 2 this morning because he can spell, but he just. cannot. blend. and we have been working on it forever. I was starting to feel like I must stink at teaching reading because neither of my kids have been the intuitive, teach-themselves-to-read early types despite being immersed in a language-rich environment. I feel like I need a support group for those with kids who did not read early!! I really want to encourage you! Learning letter sounds and names is a recall brain process and requires less brain maturity than blending and reading. Until children's brains mature, reading is a very difficult process. (Sight reading taught via letter pattern recognition vs. sounding out also requires less brain maturity.) Being able to identify initial sounds comes before recognizing final sounds, which typically comes before rhyming (rhyming sometimes shows up between initial and final sound recognition), etc. "Pre-reading skills" are actually markers of brain maturity. If you take 2 children........1 working daily on attempts to blend and 1 doing absolutely nothing.......once their brains mature, they will be pretty much at the exact same spot (as hard as that might be to accept ;) ). It is why many people say that one day it seems as if reading just "clicked." Working on "pre-reading" skills helps you identify when they might be ready to proceed. So......please don't beat yourself up. It really isn't you!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Lots of good info! Love your site ChrisVA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Rhyming words are really important! When she is ready for blending, I would use puppets. The puppet on right hand (her left) would say /b/ which is different from "B" or be more like "buh". Then the other puppet would /e/ (ee). Then I would put them together and say "be". Then repeat with /m/ and /e/ for me. This is a little game. Look up phonemic awareness. It is very important to develop these skills before reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 I really want to encourage you! Learning letter sounds and names is a recall brain process and requires less brain maturity than blending and reading. Until children's brains mature, reading is a very difficult process. (Sight reading taught via letter pattern recognition vs. sounding out also requires less brain maturity.) Being able to identify initial sounds comes before recognizing final sounds, which typically comes before rhyming (rhyming sometimes shows up between initial and final sound recognition), etc. "Pre-reading skills" are actually markers of brain maturity. If you take 2 children........1 working daily on attempts to blend and 1 doing absolutely nothing.......once their brains mature, they will be pretty much at the exact same spot (as hard as that might be to accept ;) ). It is why many people say that one day it seems as if reading just "clicked." Working on "pre-reading" skills helps you identify when they might be ready to proceed. So......please don't beat yourself up. It really isn't you!! Thank you so much! I really value your opinion, so I appreciate this so much more coming from you!! The bolded part is interesting to me because I posted a few months ago that ds 2 could not rhyme and ds 1 was doing that easily by 4. Within the last month, he now can rhyme, but perhaps that is the stage of brain development is now in and that he just hasn't reached the final sound stage yet. I did play some rhyming games with him yesterday and he had a great time. I think I'm just going to back up and play some games working on pre-reading skills instead. We both have more fun that way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baybedaul Posted July 9, 2011 Author Share Posted July 9, 2011 Here are some ideas for objects you can probably find around the house (or at the dollar store). Small is best--tiny manipulatives are so much fun! Check your doll house or other play stuff first. Homemade Monti object boxes Ooooo, I love this idea - thanks! We do workboxes so I was really hoping to come up with something I could put in her boxes during phonics time. I think she'll really enjoy these! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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