Visual cues often help our young readers learn phonics rules. These free r-controlled vowels can be posted in your classroom or within your small group intervention area. Enjoy! The R-Controlled Vowel Posters can be downloaded for FREE in my online Teachers Pay Teachers store.
I just absolutely LOVE the Dab It! game. It’s always amazing that something so simple can be so engaging. All you need to do is print the template you’d like to use and grab a few bingo dabbers (I can usually find them at the Dollar Tree). The activity is played much like 4-In-A-Row. Players take turns reading a word and “dabbing” the spot. The first player to get five of their colored spots in a row (up, down or diagonally) wins the game. So simple and guaranteed to be a hit with your students. The Dab It! Phonics download contains 33 game boards for practicing phonics skills from CVC words to r-controlled vowels and long vowel teams. The Dab
If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of picture and word sort activities. These activities are super helpful in the beginning stages of teaching a phonics concept. When using word sorts, students begin to see patterns of where certain letter combinations for sounds most often occur. For example, when using a word sort for the or/ore/oar spelling pattern for the /or/ sound, students will realize that the “ore” most often occurs at the end of the word. This is also true for the au/aw spelling of the /aw/ sound as the “aw” spelling occurs most often at the end of the word. Not only is recognizing patterns such as this important while reading, it
The popcorn activity for sorting words containing the final /k/ spelling pattern was such a hit I decided to create an ice cream cone version to add a little variety. Sorting activities are a perfect way to introduce many of our spelling rules as students can see right away how the rule applies. Just as a reminder, the spelling rule for the final /k/ sounds is as follows: When the /k/ sound is at the end of a word it can be spelled with either the letter “k” or the letters “ck”. When the final /k/ sound is preceded by a vowel team or a diphthong (e.g. ou) it is spelled with a “k”. For example, the words “break”, “beak”, “seek”
A few years ago my daughter and Lizzie and I were checking out the donated movies at our local Habitat for Humanity store and it just hit me! Those old VHS cases would be perfect storage for teaching activities! They would store so nicely on shelves and you’d just be able to pick the skill you’d like to address, grab the case and all the materials you need will be right there! Shortly after our little trip I started creating the activities for the VHS cases. I started with rhyme and ended with vowel teams. There are a total of 17 different Activities on the Go! phonemic and phonics-based activities. The Activities on the Go! for r-controlled vowels and for
It’s important for our young readers to understand that phonemes (sounds) can be represented by multiple spelling patterns. Teaching students the spelling patterns for different sounds is critical for accurate decoding and encoding. When the /k/ sound is at the end of a word it can be spelled with either the letter “k” or the letters “ck”. When the final /k/ sound is preceded by a vowel team or a diphthong (e.g. ou) it is spelled with a “k”. For example, the words “break”, “beak”, “seek” and “soak” all have a long vowel sound before the final /k/ sound and therefore is /k/ is spelled “k”. When the final /k/ sound is preceded by a short vowel, the sound is
Those vowels can be so tricky for our young readers. After learning the letters and sounds of the alphabet, we introduce the concept that vowels can have two sounds- a short sound and a long sound where the vowel says its name. One of the first phonics rules that we teach is the “magic e” rule. This rule states that when an “e” is close behind another vowel (with no more than one letter in between) the first vowel says its name and the “e” is usually silent. The best way to introduce this concept is by using word sorts – especially using words which emphasize the rule. For example, the words “cap” and “cape”, “can” and “cane” serve as perfect
It’s always so much fun listening and watching our young readers figure out those “longer” words. Many of our little ones are pretty solid decoding one-syllabe words and are now ready to learn strategies for decoding multisyllabic words. So, really, what is a syllable? Simply put, a syllable is a unit of pronunciation containing a single vowel sound. “Syllabication” is the process of analyzing the pattern of vowels and consonants in a word to determine where a word is broken into its syllables. The ability to break a word into syllables helps students decode those longer words as well as helps the student remember spelling patterns. Understanding the 7 syllable types helps students to become better readers and writers. There
The winter themed Climb & Slide activity is fun twist to an old favorite game of Chutes & Ladders. The activities are perfect for independent practice of targeted skills in your literacy centers. Once laminated, you’ll have ready-made activities all ready to go! All you’ll need will be game markers and dice. When you download the file for the Dolch sight words you’ll receive three templates for creating the activity for the Dolch 220 sight words. Each file folder is differentiated as folder one contains words for lists 1-3, the second for lists 4-6 and the final activity for lists 7-9. Just glue the templates on a file folder, laminate, and the activity is ready for use. The Winter Themed
When teaching a phonics skill it’s often helpful to use a key word and picture to help the students remember the sound to the letter combinations. For the or/ore/oar phonics bundle, my fabulous artist created “corn” themed borders and game boards and they turned out absolutely adorable! This phonics bundle contains 11 hands-on activities for teaching and practicing the or/ore/oar spellings for the /or/ sound. The activities are great for either small group instruction or for activities within your independent literacy centers. Here’s a quick peek at several of the activities in this bundle. Of course, when teaching a skill, it’s always helpful to have a word list on hand. Providing your students with a white board and then giving them
