Teach Your Child Phonics #04

Hello! Welcome back to Teach Your Child Phonics! Hopefully you have caught the series so far and are finding it useful. I have had a few questions so far so if you have anything to ask then just add a comment below and I will do my best to help!

So far we have covered Set 1 phonemes, rhyming, alliteration, introducing graphemes and finger strengthening exercises. This week I am going to show you easy ways of helping your child put those Set 1 sounds into use by reading simple words.

CVC WORDS

CVC stands for consonant- vowel- consonant words such as cat, dog, bed etc.. They are easiest to read as there are no complicated blends like fr or sl. At this point I shall say that reading comes before spelling, so even though your child may be able to read cat they will not be able to spell it. I will cover spelling soon and explain how this works as it is a real sticking point for parents.

So what games can encourage reading?

The following games will not involve actual reading, the skill we are wanting to teach is blending- this is what we do when we see a word. As adults we do it in split seconds but a child takes much longer of course. We see a word, let’s say cat and our brain splits it into c-a-t and puts the sounds together to blend to tell us it says cat!

I SPY

I have said about this game before but this is I spy with blending! This time there is no taking turns in the beginning, you do all the spying. Go on a hunt for some objects e.g. a hat, cat, dog, cup, zip, box (anything with 3 sounds) and ask the child to name all of the objects. Once you know they are going to name them correctly (cup not a beaker) then you can begin.

I spy with my little eye, a z-i-p

Can they hear that z-i-p is zip? If needs be repeat it and slow each sound down to almost blend it into the word.

As they improve they can have a go but actually the skill of being the one splitting the sound is not blending but in fact segmenting which is for spelling so don’t worry if they don’t get to this stage just yet. 

SOUND TALK

Every now and then I will say a word in sound talk, I may say to Little G Go and get your c-oa-t on or would you like a j-ui-ce. Obviously those words aren’t cvc but they are helping her to hear words that she recognises and all work towards the goal of blending phonemes for reading.

MAGNETIC LETTERS

Lots of words on a page can be very intimidating. By using magnetic letters it makes it much more inviting for children and they are more likely to see the word. Magnetic letters are also great as they are obviously moveable compared to words on a page.

Take 3 letters to make a cvc word of your choice and lay them in front of your child. Have quite a big gap between them and see if your child can say each phoneme independently.

d——— o———-g

If they can say each sound then move them closer together and tell them to say them quicker. Each time moving them closer together, ensuring they are not putting that awful uh sound on the end of each phoneme of course. Now, if they struggle then you say the phonemes for them, close together so it almost sounds like you are saying the actual word. The aim of the game is for them to make the connection between the 3 phonemes and the actual cvc word, not to actually say the phonemes themselves if that makes sense?

READING

Once again on my list, hopefully you can sense a theme here. This week you can actually point to words if they are cvc and say the phonemes for your child- can they blend to say the word? One I started off with when reading with Little G was and, it is a really easy word for them to hear when said a-n-d. Give it a go!

If you feel your child is ready then you can buy some early reader books for them. I have a few for Little G and she loves that she can read a real book herself!!

If you haven’t seen my Set 1 phoneme tutorial then here it is again. Always better to see someone saying them than reading about it.

Next time I will be introducing Set 2 and talking about segmenting and how to get your child writing! 

See you there!