Quick Way to Sneak in Letter Recognition and Word Building

Well, today I am nursing a sick 4 year old. Man, two days in pre-k and she's already caught a nasty virus. She's normally so healthy, so all I can think is that she caught something as soon as she walked in the door on the first day. Hopefully it's just a 24 hour thing and she'll be back on her feet tomorrow...today, though, our regular routine is on hold. They are watching inordinate amounts of television.

So I thought I'd take this brief interlude post a super quick activity that Daniel and I worked on the other day. He's so anxious to start his school since Natalie started school earlier this week (he's pumped for that dino dig!). But since I hadn't planned to start until next week, I decided to just go through our supplies to come up with simple learning activities that can be thrown together at the spur of the moment.

Daniel can only recognize a handful of letters right now. I've decided that as we go through the alphabet this year, I wanted to start with those closest to home: the letters in his name. After that, we'll tackle the vowels and then move on to the consonants.

The goal of this activity is to both practice letter recognition and the spelling of a word. It's perfect for those kids that are ready to start learning the name and the order of the letters in their own name.

You'll need:

dry erase board and marker (or paper and pen)

pipe cleaner

letter beads (I purchased our set at Wal Mart)

Process:

Use the dry erase board to write down the word or group of letters that your child is working on. After I wrote down DANIEL (with capital letters) I had Daniel point to the letters one at a time as we went over their names.

You can take this as far as you like. I've done this activity with an eraser and had the kids erase letters as I called them out, or scrambled the letters and had them point to each one without the word order to help them. 

After that, start with the first letter in the word. Have your child say the name (and/or the sound if you're building words). Ask them to find the bead with the same letter and string it onto the pipe cleaner. 

Continue with all the letters in the word. You'll see that Daniel put some of them on upside down. I'm okay with that. Right now my concern is with letter recognition. Daniel completed the activity perfectly. Later, when he's fairly solid with recognition, we'll focus on writing them / facing them correctly.

After Daniel finished his name, we went over each letter one more time for good measure and then this happened:

As far as Daniel's concerned, time with the dry erase board is top notch. 

And Silas was loving those beads on the pipe cleaner. Come to think of it, as long as it's supervised, this might be a good busy bag for a toddler. He loved moving them along the line. But I definitely wouldn't give it to him unsupervised - those beads are just the right size to be scary.

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Color Word Recognition and Beginning Sounds

Squares.

Lots of them.  Enough for several more activities just like the one I'm going to show you today.  I think, after today, it's time to retire the squares for a little while.  The kids are tired of them.  I'm tired of them.  And I bet you guys are tired of them.

However, we did use them for a cool little project yesterday afternoon.  Kind of a whim, really.  I was thinking about our first project last week and the idea of making a mosaic.  And suddenly I was like, how have we not made an actual picture yet?  We've done patterns and numbers, but not a still life or anything along those lines.

Of course!  

So I whipped up this little printable and sat the kiddos down.  I quickly realized (as in, within the first 2 minutes) that this was a project for Natalie.  The time commitment and concentration were way beyond what my little 3 year old is capable of and I dismissed him to go play almost immediately.  This is perfect for 4 year olds and up, especially beginning readers.

Materials:

1. Color Word Beginning Sounds Graph Page and Code Page (free download)
2. construction paper squares
3. glue

Process:

This activity couldn't be any simpler.  The first step is to go over each color word with your child.  Say the name of the word, emphasizing and pointing to the beginning sound.  Have your child repeat the words and point to the beginning sounds.  Ask him/her to name the letter each word begins with and to say the sound that that letter makes.

After you're sure your child knows the beginning sounds, turn your attention to the graph page.  Each square on the graph page has a letter inside - the first letter of one of the color words.  Have your child say the letter and the sound that the letter makes and find that letter on the code page.  This will tell him/her which color should be glued into that square.

After I got Natalie started with this part of the activity, she was able to complete the rest of it independently. With a little encouragement to keep going, that is.  After a short while, I went to the kitchen to load the dishwasher and I found (surprisingly) that she was more focused when I wasn't hovering over her.  Interesting.

It didn't take long to finish.  Here we are:

In case you can't tell, we have a flower here.  The squares are so large and it's so pixelated that it's kind of difficult to tell what it is.  To my amusement (and mild disappointment), Natalie finished the picture and was like, "Now, let's see...what do we have here...what is it, mom?"  But when I told her it was a rainbow flower, she instantly fell in love, so we're good. Whew.  Coulda gone either way.

All right, we're done.  Finished.  At the end.  No. More. Squares.  Done.

Till I come up with another way to use them, that is ;)



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Using Role Play to Boost Comprehension

Role play is kind of a win-win situation.  Kids - especially those that haven't yet developed a fear of being the center of attention - generally love it.  And without realizing it, they're retelling the story they just heard, which, as we all know, is a great way to remember what we just heard.  

Materials:

None (yay!), except the book or story you're reading and perhaps any props the kids might want to use.

There really isn't any wrong way to have the kids act out the story, so I don't have a hard and fast tutorial.  Instead, I'll show you what we did last night and encourage you to try it with your own family!

Every night we read a story from this book:

I totally recommend it.  It's pretty thorough as far as covering the big stories in the Bible and the kids love it.  That's enough for a stamp of approval in my book.  

It can be a little wordy for my kids, though.  Sometimes I wonder if they've gotten lost because there are few pictures and it requires a fairly high level of concentration.  So one night after reading, I suggested that they act out the story they just heard.  They thought that was just brilliant.  So began our nightly tradition: read the story, act it out.  They feel like they've been shortchanged if, for some reason, we're late getting to bed and don't have time for the role play. 

Last night, we read a story out of Numbers 13:1-33: Spies in the Land and Numbers 14:1-45: The Long Desert Journey.  This was a perfect story to act out - lots of action!

Moses sent 12 men to spy out the land of Canaan. 

The spies saw the giants and 10 of them became very afraid.

All the Israelites also became afraid and complained.   

So God made them wander in the desert for 40 years until... 

The older generation all passed away. 

And God let their children enter the Promised Land.

A few words of encouragement: Don't expect very young children to be able to role play without help.  We still direct the action a little bit.  We also join in some if we find that the story requires an extra character.  If your kids aren't into it at first, I wouldn't push it.  You might try again in a few weeks.  Role play is generally more effective if the adults are into it.  Excitement breeds excitement!

And have fun!!

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How To: Make and Use a Phonics Flip Book

Education materials are kind of a niche market.  And since only a small number of stores are making and selling specialized materials and manipulatives, they charge (in my humble opinion) way too much for their stuff.  

Now, they do sell some great stuff, and it is fun to walk around the store or look at catalogs and think about the possibilities.  But I just can't afford to spend what they're asking.  So I've taken to making the same materials for far less.

Today we're going to make phonics flip books.  These books can be used to practice basic letter recognition all the way through sounding out large words with beginning blends and vowel digraphs.  In other words, they're amazingly versatile.  And very simple.

Materials:

index cards (at least 20)

scissors

pencil

sharpie marker

ruler or measuring mat

page protector (not pictured)

three ring binder or index card binder (not pictured)

hole punch (not pictured)

laminating machine and envelopes (optional)

pipe cleaners (optional)

Start by cutting the index cards into 3 equal parts.  My pieces are each one and a half inches wide.  

Label the cards with your sharpie:

The following is a list of the letters that I wrote on the first stack of cards:

b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, y, z

the second (or middle) stack of cards:

a, e, i, o, u, ea, ee, ai, ou, ow

the third (or last) stack of cards:

b, d, f, g, l, m, n, p, r, t, w, y

The above list is just a guide.  Feel free to add more or less of the alphabet (including consonant digraphs and blends in the first stack of cards) depending on your child's reading level.

As you can see, I chose to focus on the letters that would make common, easy to pronounce first words and sounds.  I have not included q or x on any card.  As Natalie's reading ability grows, I'll be adding these letters into her flip book.

At this point, you might choose to laminate your cards.  I've not done that yet, but I think I might.  After working with the book one time, I can see that they'll get bent or torn easily if I don't.    

Punch holes in the top of your cards and add them to your binder.  Add a blank card to the top of the first and last stack.  I also put a page protector behind the cards to hold the extras.

To Use Your Phonics Flip Book

I always start with reviewing the short vowel sound.  Make sure your child knows this sound before going any further.  Once she has that letter and sound recognition under her belt, flip up the blank card on the last stack (here, I've flipped up to letter t).

Model how to blend these two sounds together.  Don't break up the sounds.  In other words, you shouldn't say, "a. t."  Instead, say, "aaaaat."  It should sound like you're saying the word in slow motion.  While you're saying each sound, point to the letter of the sound you're making.  Slowly move your finger to the next letter as you say the next sound (sometimes kids get a kick out of using a pointer to point to the letters.  Almost any longish object can be used as a pointer, but I've suggested a pipe cleaner).

Have your child blend the sounds with you, then by herself.  Finally, have her say it fast - "at."  If she says it the wrong way or seems confused, try it again.  Don't go on until she gets it.  Once she does, flip up the blank card in the first stack.  

Model blending the word "bat" in the same way - in slow motion, not by breaking up the sounds.  You should say, "baaaat," not "b. a. t."  Have her say it with you, then by herself.  Just like before, practice until she understands.  Then try a new beginning sound.

It's okay if some words are pretend:

When Natalie tried this activity for the first time, we started with the word, "ab."  The "b" at the end of this word can be a little tricky.  Often, children want to say, "buh" when sounding out this letter.  Don't let them do it!  We don't say, "a-buh."  We say, "ab."  

Here, she's sounding out the word "dab."  Notice how she's pointing to the letters as she says the sound.  

And here she's sounding out "fab."

In her Periwinkle costume.  Gotta love doing school as a fairy ;)

These phonics flip books are so great for super beginning readers (like Natalie) and for those kids that might need a little review or practice.  They work at so many different levels and can grow along with your child.  I hope that you're feeling encouraged to go make one for your house - even if you aren't homeschooling.  With summer just beginning, these would be an awesome way to practice early reading skills over the break.

Have fun!

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