SUCCESS STEP 12: NOW YOU CAN HIT PHONICS. GO FOR GAMES!
If you’ve been following Success Steps 1-11 in my blogs, you’ve already covered all the bases for putting your child on a solid beginning-to-read foundation. So now your child is hooked on Personal Books (score one for motivation!), you’re teaching Sandwich Style using the Fast Flash sight word method, letter sounds are mastered–or nearly so, and you’ve added in books targeting Dolch high-frequency words. Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.
Hit Phonics with Fun & Games
LeapFrog
Let’s start with CVC games. What does CVC mean? Consonant-Vowel-Consonant words. Cat, dog, jam, hot, dig, etc.
There is a plethora of teaching material “out there” which focuses on teaching CVC fluency. You have tons to choose from, and a quick internet search will get you started. Google it, and you’ll be überwhelmed.
But to get you started, here are 3 of my favorite tools:
1. Leap Frog CVC Flash Cards. I use these cards just as they are, with no interactive paraphernalia whatever, even though they are designed to be used with the LeapReader. Lots of possible combinations.
Lakeshore Learning
2. I Can Build Simple Words Box Set from Lakeshore Learning. A boxed set with 5 drawers of cards and foam letters. A hands-on set. The product picture shows only one side of the cards; but on the other side of the card, a letter in each word is missing, and the student has to try to find the right one.
3. Magnetic Long Vowels Word Building Board, also from Lakeshore Learning. This is the next step beyond CVC words. Once you get to the link, notice the right sidebar; you’ll see the rest of the collection, sets for Short Vowels, Digraphs, and Blends. I love these magnetic sets, as do the students I work with. They pick the pictures they want to learn to spell, and I have the letters arranged alphabetically in a “craft box” with 30 or so partitions. The Board Set is hands on, and if you arrange the letter supply alphabetically (e.g., craft box), it also encourages learning where to find a letter in the alphabet.
Lakeshore Learning
Where Do I Start?
“Begins With”
First help your child to identify the starting sound of a CVC word. “Begins with” letter sounds are the easiest and most readily recognizable. And since we all now know about the crucial importance of Errorless Testing Techniques, we want to start with high success, teaching the easiest to master.
“Ends With”
Second will be “Ends With,” helping your learner to recognize the ending letter. Bringing up the rear will be recognizing the middle vowel. CVC words are going to have short vowel sounds in the middle, which is tougher to recognize than long vowel sounds, but CVC words are the easiest to teach, and are a typical starting point for phonics training.
For the easier-to-hear long vowel sounds in the middle of a word, you’re going to progress to 4-letter words, such as rain, meat, coat. (Exceptions are words like see, pea, bee.) Refer to my Favorite Tool #3 above for material to work with. Good stuff.
Patience, Perseverance, Patience, Perseverance…
All you have to do now is “keep on keeping on” with this training. It takes time, but will eventually kick in and stay put in your child’s memory and understanding. Just keep at it and know that it WILL happen.
Always make it fun,
