Let's Share: Add a Link to Your Best Blog Post Here

Many of my readers have their own blogs.  If you have a great post you'd like to share with the readers of my blog, add a link.

I just discovered this linky tool. I look forward to reading some of my readers' best blog posts. 

Let's Share: Add a Link to Your Best Blog Post Here

Teach Consonant Blends

Yesterday I helped a student I tutor practice reading words with beginning consonant blends from books before reading. Blends can be tricky for some early readers. Many children like to stop after the first sound in a word. This stopping after the first sound can be a result of too much word family learning. Blending more than one sound without pausing helps a reader hear a word better. Have you heard of body-coda blending?

A reader can learn to see and blend consonant blends together without pausing.

Reading consonant blends quickly together before attempting the rest of a word can be taught by covering up other parts of a word in a book to only show the blend, separating the blend when writing a word, or using magnetic letters to separate the blend.

The books I used to teach and practice consonant blends in these pictures came from a ten book series written by Nora Gaydos. I love all her books! I used the stories: Drips and Spills and Hop, Frog, Hop from the Playful Pals Level 1 Phonics Reader Set.

You can find more information I share about teaching reading at Squidoo or on my Parent and Child Reading Assistance Website. If you are passionate about teaching Beginning Readers join me in my BlogFrog Community. Beginning Reading Help Community

Teach Consonant Blends

Practice Stretching Sounds to Read Words

Currently I'm tutoring a student with reading once a week. Here is an activity we did together today. The videos show me using magnetic letters. My student's mom chose to use the book page without magnetic letters to practice stretching and blending sounds to read words from p.59 in Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling at home. We'll continue to use magnetic letters during tutoring sessions. This book is a great resource for easy quick reading practice. I used Phonics Pathways to teach my daughter to stretch sounds and read words.

Practice Stretching Sounds to Read Words

Success of a Student I Tutored This Year

I started tutoring "Joe" in September 2009. He started at DRA Level 10. According to his school's testing he is at or above DRA Level 30. "Joe" is finishing 3rd grade. May 27 will be our last tutoring session this school year. I gave him about ten books I purchased at a local thrift store to keep him busy this summer and hope to meet at the library a few times this summer with his grandma or stepmom to help choose more books for summer reading.

I've been thinking about documenting the progress of students I tutor. I'd highlight successes and describe how I teach to the needs of each student. This documentation could help others and inform the parents of students I tutor. Sharing ideas for extra practice at home should be helpful to parents of students I tutor as well as readers of this blog teaching a student to read.

I'm starting a new student today, May 26th. He's nearing the end of first grade. His parents think he's at DRA Level 12. The average reading level expectation at the end of first grade is DRA Level 16. I'm excited to help. He'll be with me for two months. His parents plan on helping at home, so there will be a few at home activities to share with my readers.

Stay tuned. Subscribe with a reader or email today!

Success of a Student I Tutored This Year

Develop Phonological Awareness with Online Stories: Metaphorphosis

Find this site - Metamorphosis

Phonological Awareness may sound confusing, but it's not. It's the way people hear and think about words and sounds. Some of the latest research has determined that readers with a strong sense of phonological awareness become successful readers.

One part of phonological awareness is hearing separate syllables in words. I've chosen this online book to try some simple activities to improve a child's ability to hear syllables in words.

You may want to explore these three links for more information about syllables. #1 #2 #3

Activities to Try:
* Easy Activity: There are three words in this story that are stretched out and made to have more syllables than a person would say while speaking. Listen to the story once and try to pick out the three words. (high, certainly, and eyes) Speak normally and have a child listen to the natural beat of the words. You clap the syllables and invite a child to join you. Show that high has one, cer tain ly has three, and eyes has one.

* Easy Activity: Listen to the story. Try tapping to the beat of words. Invite a child to join in.

* Medium Activity: After listening to a page have a child clap the syllables for a few words. Replay and clap the syllables with the audio. Spell some words with magnetic letters and separate the syllables.

* Advanced Activity: Review the rules for syllables. Spell some words with magnetic letters and separate the words into syllables. Separate the words different ways and try to read the words following syllable rules.

Here's metamorphosis separated correctly.

Following rules for syllables:

met - (short e sound) When a vowel is alone between two consonants it will usually make a short sound.

a - (a makes the "uh") All vowels can make this sound. It is called the schwa sound.

mor - (or has a special sound) Special letter combinations have their own sound.

pho - (ph makes the "f" sound, long o sound) When a vowel is at the end of a word or syllable it will usually make a long sound.

sis - (short i sound) When a vowel is alone between two consonants it will usually make a short sound.

Here's metamorphosis separated differently.

Following rules for syllables to read metamorphosis a different way:

me - (long e sound) When a vowel is at the end of a word or syllable it will usually have a long vowel sound.

ta - The a could make a long sound or the schwa sound "uh".

mor - (or makes a special sound) Special letter combinations have their own sound.

phos - (short o sound) When a vowel is alone between two consonants it usually makes a short sound.

is - (short o sound) When a vowel is at the beginning of a word or syllable it usually make a short sound.

Do as little or as much as you think your beginning reader can understand. You may want to come back and revisit this story for more advanced activities with syllables at a later date.

Metamorphosis is one of the free online stories I've collected on a page at the top of my blog. I've created other posts with ways to use some of these free online stories.

Subscribe with email if you are finding helpful information on this blog. I usually make one or two posts per week. Thanks for reading.

Develop Phonological Awareness with Online Stories: Metaphorphosis

Make Reading A Story Better By Changing Your Voice for Different Characters

I'm including links to two authors reading their own stories to show you how it's done. I'm not including a video of myself, because I'm not very good at it. Although that doesn't stop me. Many times I'll use the wrong voice for a character, or forget to use a different voice at all. It can be challenging, but it adds to the fun of reading a story. I don't have the energy or confidence to use voices all the time, but I like to surprise my kids every now and then.

Mouse Was Mad

Lulu the Big Little Chick

Do you feel inspired? Remember you don't have to be perfect. It's all about the fun! I suggest practicing voices with You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman. I found a copy at my local library.

Make Reading A Story Better By Changing Your Voice for Different Characters

Teach Short Vowel Sounds with Free Online Books From Starfall

Learning short vowel sounds is an important step for beginning readers. There are patterns in words that help a reader know when to try a short vowel sound. There are some irregular words. Be sure to explain this early.

The most common patterns with short vowel sounds are CVC and VC.

The V stands for vowel and the C stands for consonant.

Starfall has free access to some books with animation and sound. If you move the mouse over the pictures you'll find spots to click. There will be an action that will help keep a child interested in reading the stories over and over. There are five books that focus on short vowel sounds. You can also order sets of books from Starfall's online store. The free online versions allows a reader to click on a word for help if needed.

Here's one of the books I ordered from Starfall. It is also available online with sound and animation.

CVC: Zac, rat

VC: is

CVC: Zac, sat, can

VC: on

CVC: ran, jam

VC: ants

You'll be happy you taught these patterns early. These patterns work with many more than one syllable words too.


My favorite resource books to teach phonic skills to children are Phonic Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling and Phonic Pathways: Simple Exercises to Improve Reading Fluency. I've used them with my own children and students I tutor from my home.

Here are some pages from Phonic Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling that teach short vowel sounds.

I copied this page onto heavy paper to make a bookmark. This is a great tool to help readers remember short vowel sounds. (a - ant, e - exercise, i - itch, o - octopus, u - umbrella)

I like how a reader is taught to blend from beginning to end. These are all CVC patterns.

If you'd like to view my most recent post click here.

I write helpful pages about teaching reading at Squidoo.

Here are my favorite pages.

Good Books for Beginning Readers

Reading Levels

Check Phonological Awareness Before Teaching Phonics

Teach a Child to Read with Phonics

You'll find more books I like HERE. I make a small percentage from anything you purchase at Amazon if you access Amazon from my blog. Look for Free Super Saver Shipping and click the box at checkout.

Join my Beginning Reading Help community if you'd like to connect with other teachers and parents teaching an early reader.

Teach Short Vowel Sounds with Free Online Books From Starfall

How to Help a Reader Use Letter Sound Relationships

Some early readers can learn many words by sight and guess at the rest of the words by using picture clues or thinking of a word that makes sense based on beginning sounds and the structure of language. Many of these readers ignore phonics and letter sound relationships. These early readers can be successful until about the middle of first grade. My daughter was one of these readers. Click here to read her story.

The first step to help a child sound out words is to make sure the child has phonemic awareness. Click here and here for some simple ways to develop this awareness.

Magnetic letters can be used to help a child sound out words and teach phonics. Click here to see some video demonstrations. Click here for more ideas with magnetic letters.

Selecting the right books will be important to get a child to combine sounding out with the other reading skills the child has learned. My daughter could not break the habit of expecting to know a word or guess at a word when reading. I taught phonics and sounding out separate from books. After a little practice she was able to transfer her new skills to reading books. I used Phonic Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling and Phonic Pathways: Simple Exercises to Improve Reading Fluency along with some magnetic letter work.

This post is dedicated to my friend who asked for help with her daughter's reading today. Let me know if I can help you in any other way.

How to Help a Reader Use Letter Sound Relationships

Plastic or Foam Magnetic Letters Can Be Used As A Teaching Tool

I searched google for activities with magnetic letters today.

Check out my finds on the internet.

25 Ways to Use Magnetic Letters

Making Words with Magnetic Letters

Really Good Stuff Activity Guide for Magnetic Letters

Preview of Catch A Falling Reader pages 52 - 54

Instruction That Matters: Letter and Word Study

I post about ways to use magnetic letters often. Follow or subscribe if you want more.

Plastic or Foam Magnetic Letters Can Be Used As A Teaching Tool

Magnetic Letters Can Be Organized And Used To Teach Reading

I've made posts describing ways to use magnetic letters when teaching a child to read. I encourage everyone teaching a child to read to buy some magnetic letters. 

Find a 24 compartment box in the hardware, automotive, craft, or fishing tackle section of a store. I found this one in the fishing tackle section of a sporting goods store. I've also found some for under five dollars in the automotive section of Walmart.

File folder labels work great to label compartments. I use red and blue markers, because I use color coded magnetic letters. Any color of magnetic letters will work though. You should have two to four lowercase of each letter since this is the type of letters found while reading. I suggest having one uppercase for each letter if a child is still learning letter identification.

This picture shows a set of foam magnetic letters with a layer of  magnet attached to the back organized in a box for easy access. The tub you see in this picture came with four of each lowercase letter with free shipping for only $22.99. Click Here

Since this only has 24 compartments w and x, and y and z share.

The next pictures show a few ways to play with words. Letters can be used on the floor, table, or an upright magnetic surface. Click Here for my suggested magnetic board from Amazon.

Magnetic Letters Can Be Organized And Used To Teach Reading