Category: Lesson Ideas (Page 3 of 5)

The Beginning of the End–Lesson Idea #36

June 4, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This is another fun game you can play in a group or as a family in the car. Even mom and dad will be challenged with this phonemic awareness excercise.

The rules of the game are pretty simple–each person, in turn, says a word that begins with the same sound the previous person’s word ended with. Note that it is not the last letter of the previous word that matters, but the sound that is important. For instance, if mom starts off with the word “steak”, the next player must say a word that begins the /k/ sound–‘cake’, ‘climb’, and ‘kindergarten’ are all acceptable.

A variation of this game is to use words from a common category, for example “names for boys” or “things you eat”. This is also a great activity for older kids where the focus would be on building vocabulary rather then phonemic awareness.

I Say, You Say… Lesson Idea # 35

June 3, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

Here’s an entertaining way to get your kids thinking about and using synonyms. Synonyms are a great way to build your child’s vocabulary because it’s easy for them to learn new words that match a concept they’re already familiar with. Here’s how to play this easy game:

Start off by telling your child that you’re going to say a word and they have to think of another word that means the same thing. You can start off with easy words till they get the hang of it, and then go on to use some harder words.
Sample conversations:

Parent: “I say mad, you say…”

Child: “angry”

Parent: “I say huge, you say…”

Child: “enormous”

You can swap roles and have your child start off by choosing the first word for you to respond to with a match. This will give you the chance to model the use of bigger words that are more challenging. For example: If your child says sad, you say melancholy. If your child says hungry, you say famished.
As shown by the examples shared here, you can easily make this game as challenging or as easy as you like depending on your child’s level. Have fun helping your child expand his/her vocabulary!

Idea Prompts

June 2, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This can be a fresh change to the usual vocabulary activity of “Write a sentence using the word…”. It’s important for your child to practice using newly learned words in addition to talking about them. So this activity can help your child use the word in a meaningful way which will help them internalize its meaning. It’s also a great way to work on your child’s writing skills!

Choose 3-5 words (or more if you like) that you have chosen as vocabulary words for your child.
Use these words to write sentence stems for your child to complete. The goal is to really make your child think about a word’s meaning so that they can complete the rest of the sentence in a way that makes sense and shows they understand its meaning.

Examples:

triumphant : The gymnast felt triumphant when she…

coax: I tried to coax my sister to ride the roller coaster with me because…

shabby: The house looked shabby because…

You can make this as challenging or as easy as you like depending on your child’s level.

Oral Story Blending – Lesson Idea # 33

May 29, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This activity helps your child work on his/her phonemic awareness (oral blending skill) and their listening comprehension all at once! You can use a sample of any story you like to play this game. The example shared below uses an excerpt from Frog and Toad.

Have your story and questions ready.
Put on your “dunce cap”.
Tell your child that you are going to tell him/her a story and that you might need their help blending some words because you can’t figure them out.
Read a line from the story and sound out the last word very slowly. Then ask the question to your child and wait for them to help you by figuring out the word before you continue reading.

Example:

The old brown Frog sat in the /s/ /u/ /n/. Where did the Frog sit? (in the sun)

His pal Toad hid under a /r/ /o/ /k/. Where did Toad hide? (under a rock)

Toad told Frog that the sun would turn him into /m/ /u/ /sh/. What would Frog turn into? (into mush)

Frog told Toad that he looked like the gopher;s next /m/ /ea/ /l/. What did Toad look like? (a gopher’s next meal)

Suddenly it began to /r/ /ai/ /n/. What did it begin to do? (rain)

Frog and Toad played together in the /m/ /u/ /d/. Where did they play? (in the mud)

Kids have a lot of fun figuring the words out to complete the story. You can do this with songs, poems, and other stories anytime you want!

What’s That Sound? – Lesson Idea #32

May 28, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This is a phonemic awareness activity that focuses on having your child identify and isolate the initial sounds of words. Playing this word game with a puppet can make it a whole lot of fun!

Have a list of random words that begin with different sounds ready for this game.
Tell your child that you’ll be saying some words and that the puppet wants them to repeat only the first sound of each word. Show your child some examples with the puppet’s help before you have them give you the sounds.
Examples:

Parent says: snail … Puppet says: /s/

Parent says: mushroom … Puppet says: /m/

Parent says: shade … Puppet says: /sh/

Phoneme isolation is one of the more difficult skills of phonemic awareness, so your child may need some practice with this one. Remember that the words you chose don’t have to be small words because your child is not expected to read them – they just have to be able to say them and repeat the first sound. This is a good chance to expose your child to some new words!

Change That Sound – Lesson Idea #31

May 27, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This is a phonemic awareness activity that focuses on kids’ ability to segment (separate) and substitute initial sounds. Play it as a riddle game and they’ll have plenty of fun with it!

Ask your child these riddle type questions to see if they can replace the first sound in the given word with a new sound. Here are some examples to get you started:

What word starts with the sound /b/ and rhymes with cat? You can keep going by asking for the new words that rhyme with cat but start with the sounds /h/, /r/,/s/,/f/.
What word starts with the sound /t/ and rhymes with the word new? More sounds: /y/,/z/,/g/,/sh/.
What word starts with the sound /s/ and rhymes with the word night? More sounds: /r/,/l/,/m/,/b/.

Phoneme substitution is one of the hardest of the phonemic awareness skills, so don’t be surprised if this is tough for your child to do. Help them out by giving them the new word when they can’t think of it. If they get frustrated, then move on to something else and try this game another time. Remember that you want to keep these games fun and engaging, so just keep it light!

Stamp A Word – Lesson Idea #30

May 23, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This is a fun and engaging way to have your kids practice building and blending words! You’ll need plenty of paper, and letter stamps – you can use letter stamps with ink pads, foam letters and finger paint ( you can find foam letters at the dollar store!), or you can even use letter stickers.

Have a list of words ready – high frequency words and/or words pulled from a book or selection you are reading with your child that have letters and sounds you have already introduced.
Tell your child that you will write a word or show them a word card for them to make their own by stamping/painting/sticking it onto the paper. To make it more challenging, simply tell your child that you will be calling out the word for them to make – then if they need help, you can write it or show them the word card.
Once your child makes the word, have them blend each sound together from left to right slowly before going back to quickly read the whole word.
Have your child go back and quickly read all of the words they made when finished for some extra fluency practice.

Here’s another way you can change this up once they got the hang of it: Call out the letters that make a word for your child to stamp/paint/stick, then have them try to blend the word together and see if they can read and tell you what word you spelled out for them. They love this part!
Note: You can use irregular words (words that are exception to the rules: ex: the, was, one) with this activity, but tell your child to read them without trying to blend the sounds together.

Play Dough Letters – Lesson Idea #29

May 22, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This is a great activity to reinforce letter recognition and/or letter sound correspondence while strengthening fine motor skills. You’ll need some play dough, an alphabet chart or cards, and plenty of imagination.

Tell your child that you’ll be calling out a letter and that you want them to try to mold and form the letter using the play dough. You can work on one target letter or have them review several letters at once.
If your child can’t remember what the letter looks like, then show him/her the way it looks on the chart or alphabet card. Encourage them to try again. If they still need help, get your hands dirty and show them how it’s done. Remember this is not a test, so keep it light and fun!

You can make this a letter-sound corresponding game by asking your child to then make an animal or object out of the play dough that starts with that letter’s sound. Or you can reverse it by using picture cards or pictures out of a magazine and asking your child to make the letter that matches the picture you’ve shown them.
For extra fine motor skill development let your child use scissors on the play dough to help them make letters and objects. This is great for kids who need a little extra practice using scissors.

Who Let The Letters Out (song)

May 21, 2008 / Ana / 4 Comments

Ok, so clear your pipes and get ready to sing. Don’t worry if your voice isn’t that of a songbird, I promise you your kids won’t care. This is a fun song to sing that will reinforce the letter sounds and possibly get your kids (and you) dancing and moving around. It’s sung to the tune of ” Who Let The Dogs Out”. Now before you roll your eyes and say “no way”, give it a try. Kids love this!

If you’re looking for a CD that has this song on it, the only one I’ve been able to find is on Kiss Your Brain, available at Amazon.

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Here is the basic line of the original song: “Who let the dogs out…woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!”.
Replace this with “Who let the A out… short /a/,/a/,/a/,/a/,/a/!”; “Who let the B out…/b/,/b/,/b/,/b/,/b/!”, and so on and so on with each letter of the alphabet.
You can add clapping and stomping to this to work on rhythm and movement at the same time.

Take this opportunity to really emphasize the correct pronunciation of each letter sound. Try not to add the schwa sound (uh) after certain letters like b, g, k, m, etc. I know it’s easier to say /buh, /guh/, and /kuh/ – but it’s important that you keep the sounds as true as possible so that your child can learn the sounds correctly.
You can easily turn this into a phonics activity that reinforces letter-sound correspondence by singing along with letter cards or by using an alphabet chart to point to the letters as you sing their sound.
Or if you want to take this activity outside and get your child really moving, you can draw the letters on the ground using sidewalk chalk and have your child jump from letter to letter as they sing each sound. It’s really funny when they make up little dances while they sing about the letter before jumping onto the next one!

Build-a-Word – Lesson Idea #28

May 20, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This hands-on activity helps to reinforce the use of affixes (suffixes and prefixes) to help build and add to your child’s vocabulary. You’ll need some index cards or sentence strips, markers, some baggies, and a list of root words and affixes.

Use a list of root words and affixes to help you make word cards – you can also pull words from the books or selections you have worked on or plan to work on with your child.
Choose a different color marker to write the prefixes, roots, and suffixes onto the cards. For example prefixes can be green, roots purple, and suffixes orange. Place all of the word parts in labeled baggies.
Have your child try to build as many words as they can with the word parts given. You can even have them practice their writing by making a list of all of the words they come up with. Kids love to compete with each other to see who can make the most words – so involve a sibling or friend that can also work with these words for even more fun!
Sample words using prefix: out-, root: stand, suffix: -ing

standing
outstanding
outing

Those are three words from just from one set of word parts. Imagine how many words your child can create with baggies full of word parts!

It’s important that your child comes up with real words that make sense! You can let them use a dictionary and/or thesaurus to check their words to make sure they’re real.
This is an excellent time to discuss the meanings of these word parts and how affixes can instantly change the meaning of a word. It’s a fun way to make your kids see the power of words!

Twist a Word – Lesson Idea #27

May 16, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This take on the classic game of Twister is a really fun way to get your kids moving while learning to read and spell words! You’ll need some sidewalk chalk and a large writable surface that’s outside (sidewalk, driveway, patio, etc.).

Make some word cards of 2-4 letter words that you want your child to practice reading and spelling. These can be high frequency words and/or words from a story you are working on.
Then draw a large grid of random letters (found in the words you chose) on the ground. A good size grid would be a square with 4 rows and 4 columns. You can make this bigger or smaller if you like depending on the size of your letters and how far your child’s limbs can reach! Your child will be using these letters to spell out the words with their hands and feet.
Show your child a card, have them read it aloud (have them blend if needed or read it to them if it’s an irregular word) and then find the letters to spell it with their hands and feet. It helps if you have them read the word, spell it, say the letters as they find them on the grid, and finally call out the word when finished.
Once they complete a word, they can then practice writing the word with chalk on the ground to make a list of all the words they were able to twist. They’ll be amazed at what they’ve accomplished!

You can also play different variations of the game depending on your child’s level of ability:

Synonym Memory – Lesson Idea # 26

May 15, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

Synonyms have been shown to be an excellent way to build our vocabularies because it’s really easy to learn and attach a new word to a concept/meaning that we already know. Kids can have fun learning and adding to their vocabulary by playing this version of the classic game of memory. You can use store bought word cards or make your own out of index cards or card stock to play. Although you can use any set of random words you like (click here for word ideas), it’s also a good idea to choose words from a book or selection that you are working on with your child.

Pick out some synonym pairs (the number will vary depending on your child’s age and reading ability – anywhere from 5 pairs for younger kids to 15 pairs for older kids) and review the words with your child. Have your child practice reading the words and take the time to discuss their meanings.
Lay the word cards face down in rows on the floor or table.
Have your child choose a card, read the word aloud, and try to find the word card that matches its meaning. If they find the right card they get to keep the pair. If not, they put both cards back where they were and it’s the next person’s turn.
Continue until there are no cards left. The person with the most cards wins!

You can make this as simple or as difficult as you like. For younger kids you can use simple words with pictures to help them with the meaning (ex: small/little, hat/cap) – harder words for older kids (ex: alone/isolated, exhausted/weary).
This is an excellent time to introduce your kids to mature vocabulary words that can be tied to easy words that they already know – this really helps to expand their vocabulary in a rich way! Examples: sad/melancholy, friendly/amicable, mad/indignant.
You can also change this up by making the word pairs antonyms.

Vocab Riddles – Lesson Idea #25

May 14, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This fun game will help your child learn the meanings of words from a story or book that you are working on. It also gives your kids a great chance for fluency practice if they get to read the words several times before they actually start reading the text. Or you can simply play it after a reading to reinforce the meanings.

Choose several words from the selection you are about to read with your child (this can vary depending on your child’s age, reading ability, and/or difficulty of the text – but usually between 5-10 words).
List the words on a white board or chart and have your child try to read them – blending them if necessary or you can read them together. Discuss the meaning of each word with your child. You can look them up together, talk about what they mean, use them in sentences, etc..
Then tell your child that you will be playing a riddle game where they’ll have to guess which word matches your clue. They get to cross off each correct word they guess – maybe even win a treat (an m&m or extra minutes earned to spend on a favorite activity).
For example: For the words mast, remote, and link, you can use the following riddles:

I’m tall, very strong, and you can attach sails to me.

I mean the opposite of being close or near to things or people.

If I’m missing, then you can’t keep the chain together.

Remember that you can keep this as difficult or as easy as you want depending on your child’s age and ability. Have fun with it!

Letter Inspector – Lesson Idea #24

May 13, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This is a fun pretend play game that reinforces letter recognition while getting your child active around the house or at the store. You’ll need a couple of pipe cleaners and a print rich environment (make sure there are lots of things with words around)

To make an instant inspector – make a “magnifying glass” out of a pipe cleaner by twisting it into a loop shape that has a hole big enough to place over the hunted letters.
Tell your child that you need their help in searching for as many (target letter) that they can find around. For example: You can lead by saying “I’m searching for the letter ‘b’”, while looking through your “magnifying glass” as you walk around. When you find one, you can say “Here’s a ‘b’! Let’s see how many more you can find.”
Have fun investigating throughout the place for as many letters as you can both find!

Extension ideas:

You can also incorporate some math in by having them keep track of how many target letters they can find.
You can use this as a review activity for several letters at once and keep track of how many of each letter is found. Incorporate math by having your child compare which letter was found more often, find how many more ‘f’s did you find than ‘b’s, etc. They can even make a graph!

Jumping For Sounds – Lesson Idea #23

May 12, 2008 / Ana / 0 Comments

This activity can be used to burn off some of your child’s extra energy while practicing their sounds to develop their phonemic awareness. It’s even more fun when you have siblings or friends join in!

Choose a target letter and decide where in the word you want the focus to be (easy: beginning sound, medium: ending sound, hard: middle sound or mixed if working with vowels). It also helps to create a list of random words that have the target sound and some that don’t ahead of time, so you don’t get stuck trying to think of some on the spot.
Tell your child that you’ll be saying some words and that they have to listen to see if the word has the target sound in the right place. If the word does, they can jump up. If it doesn’t, they can just stay where they are.
Tell them to get in the ready position by squatting down with their hands on the floor (I call it froggy position). Begin saying some words slowly to give them a chance to react.

Some sample words for the beginning sound /s/:

silly           mine            net
goat          sack             scallop
happy       Septmeber     star
snake        tent              book
Sally          ballopn         playground
monkey     singer           squash

I promise that you’ll wear your child out playing this! You can use it as a game to pay when you introduce a new sound or as review. You can also change it up by changing their response activity (clapping, stomping, jumping jack, etc.)

Gettin’ After It!