Teach Blending Sounds to Read Words

A child must learn to blend sounds in words to be able to read a word. Some letter sounds can be stretched and are called continuous sounds. Words with these sounds in the beginning are easiest for most children to read. Some letter sounds can only be made for an instant and are called stop sounds. These sounds make blending the sounds together in a word more difficult. It is best to use these sounds at the end of a word when teaching a child to blend sounds together in words.

Examples:
mom - (mmmm-oooo-mm) A reader can stretch out the sounds of m and o until he or she is ready to make the next sound.

dad - (d - aaaaad) A reader may have a more difficult time reading a word with a stop sound at the beginning of a word. There may be a long pause until he or she makes the next sound making it more difficult for the brain to hear the word.

Try out this short list of words. Teach a beginning reader to hold the sound of each letter until the next letter sound is made. You can write these words or use magnetic letters.
sun, fun, run, ran, no, not, fog, frog, ant, man, rat, ran, fan, sit, sat, mat, wet, let, fat, fast
Here's a video of me demonstrating blending.


I taught my daughter to blend sounds with Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling and Phonics Pathways: Simple Exercises to Improve Reading Fluency.

Teach Blending Sounds to Read Words

Teach Forming Letters

At my children's gymnastics practice this week I watched a father of a four year old daughter attempt to teach his daughter to write letters in a workbook. She was frustrated. The father showed her where to start the lines and named the letters. She tried. Then her father said, "You're not following the rules. You need to stay in the lines." He had the best intentions and spoke nicely to his daughter. I wanted so badly to give him advice, but it was clearly not my place. I was able to stay in my seat with my mouth shut and think of a post for this blog.

There are different styles to choose when teaching a child to form letters. Draw Your World has examples of some of the most popular styles. My favorite is Manuscript which is similar to D'Nealian. The transition from printing to cursive is easy. Manuscript printing has the writer leave the pencil in contact with the paper most of the time. Writing letters has a flow similar to cursive writing. You'll find some demonstrations here.

I think a young child should be taught the correct formation of letters without the restriction of lined paper in the beginning. Many experts suggest teaching a child letter formation before focusing on proper size and spacing. Children should be given direct teaching and monitored in the beginning. Once a child has practiced forming a letter the wrong way muscle memory takes over. Unlearning the old way and relearning the correct way can be difficult and cause more frustration.

My oldest son started the lowercase r in his name from the bottom. He also started his n and m from the bottom. His kindergarten teacher noticed, and we worked on it at home. He knew the way he wanted to write these letters, but he went back to his old way most of the time. I felt bad that I didn't take the time to teach him in the beginning. Eventually the new way became automatic. I made sure to take a little time to help my twins before they got to kindergarten. Our favorite way to practice letters was with finger paint.


I like to teach a child a few letters at a time with similar formations. The highlighted link to cursive earlier in this post has cursive letters grouped according to similar formations. Someday soon I plan to make a video showing the sequential teaching of manuscript printing with finger paint.

Teach Forming Letters

Motivate a Beginning Reader with Dragon Books and Drawing Dragons

My kids have been into dragons this summer. Dav Pilkey and M.P. Robertson's books have been popular with my children. I'm providing links to our favorite books from Amazon for you to review. We checked ours out at the library. I'd say these books are at the end of first grade reading level. If a child tries to read these books and misses more than 1 in 10 words, I recommend reading the books to the child.

A Friend for Dragon and Dragon's Fat Cat by Dav Pilkey

The Egg, The Dragon Snatcher, and The Great Dragon Rescue by M. P. Robertson








































They are perfect for my almost seven year twins. My nine year old likes the stories too.

Check out my nine year old son's dragon drawings.

We checked out the book Ralph Masiello's Dragon Drawing Book at the library to help with drawing.

If you like combining artwork with books, check out this link from A Mommy's Adventures.

Motivate a Beginning Reader with Dragon Books and Drawing Dragons

Cris Tovani's Advice May Help My Son Understand His Reading

I've been focused on helping my nine year old son with his reading this summer. I came across Cris Tovani's name in a post on Julie Peterson's blog.

I think my son struggles with thinking while reading. Cris Tovani's book I Read It, but I Don't Get It may be just what we need. My plan so far has been reading ahead in whatever book my son is reading. We discuss what he has already read and make some predictions. I'm also choosing a few words from each chapter to do some word work with before he reads. Sometimes I listen while he reads and support him as necessary.

Here's a video with Cris Tovani. I'm ording I Read It, but I Don't Get It today.

Cris Tovani's Advice May Help My Son Understand His Reading

Teaching Root Words, Prefixes, and Suffixes

I'm helping my nine year old son learn to use root words, prefixes, and suffixes to help him understand the meanings of some words he skips over while reading. I learned a new reading term in the process. The new term I learned is morphological awareness. Morphological awareness is the ability to understand and correctly use small words, letters, and letter combinations that change the meaning of a word. I know about and have written about an important pre-reading skill called phonological awareness. The research I've been doing lately is showing me the importance of teaching morphological awareness to my son. Check out this post from Frankly Freddy to learn more. http://www.textproject.org/franklyfreddy/morphological-awareness

I made a copy of an alphabetical list of root words, prefixes, and suffixes. We keep it handy and refer to it when determining the meanings of some unknown words my son finds while reading. http://www.betterendings.org/homeschool/Words/Root%20Words.htm

Here's a list of online games and quizes we are trying.
Jelly Fish Game
Root Word Quiz
First School Years: Prefixes and Suffixes
Prefixes Make New Words

There are some books and workbooks available from Amazon I'm checking out.

Painless Spelling















Dictionary Of Word Roots
Red Hot Root Words, Book 1 (Red Hot Root Words)
Words on the Vine: 36 Vocabulary Units on Root Words
The Least You Should Know about Vocabulary Building: Word Roots
Making Words by Patrica M. Cunningham

Please add any resources to teach morphological awareness in a comment. I'm always ready to learn more.

Have you thought about using magnetic letters to separate word parts and replace parts to make new words? You can teach a child many things about reading with magnetic letters.

Here's a picture and a post of a word broken up by syllables to teach reading a word with phonics rules. You could easily break up words to teach root words, prefixes, and suffixes with magnetic letters.

If you would like to view my most recent post click here. To find information I've written about teaching reading at Squidoo, click here.

Teaching Root Words, Prefixes, and Suffixes

Reading Blogs

Today I found out I've been added to a list of reading and literacy blogs. Here's the link if you'd like to check out the other blogs on the list. http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-15-blogs-on-reading-and-literacy/

You'll find some of my favorite blogs in my sidebar with information about their latest posts. Please share some of your favorite reading and literacy blogs in a comment.

Reading Blogs

My Nine Year Old Son Skips Over Difficult Words When Reading

My nine year old son loves to read. I make sure he has books at his level. He mostly reads independently. He wants to get to the action of the story and doesn't slow down to decode longer words or stop and think about the meaning of some of the words. I listen to him read outloud to me sometimes. I've been slacking lately. My mom listened to him read a few days ago, and she reminded me of his tendency to skip over words.

My son is reading Swindle by Gordon Korman. My plan is to help him figure out meanings of words and teach him to decode words with a few common phonics rules.

Here's a list of words and phrases I found while reading three chapters ahead in Swindle.
Chapter 17 - consulted, lethal, heist, hacking
Chapter 18 - glitch, consultation, financing, profit, foyer
Chapter 19 - trepidation, ample stomach, take the bait

Swindle is leveled 4.4 grade level at Scholastic Teacher Wizard. Scholastic Teacher Wizard is my favorite way to check the levels of books. My son is entering fourth grade next year and reads above this grade level according to DRA testing at his school. He mostly taught himself to read. He read at a second grade level by the end of kindergarten. My younger two children have been taught more phonics and are better at decoding longer words.

This morning I showed my son the list of words. I only chose a few words and phrases for each chapter. We had a casual conversation about the words. I asked him to read each word or phrase before we talked about it. I snuck in some phonics rules and discussed the meanings.

I'm hoping this relaxed pre-reading activity will help him read and understand the list of words correctly and pay more attention to other difficult words he encounters while reading. I'm researching and figuring out other ways to teach decoding longer words and vocabulary acquiring skills. I'll test out some teaching strategies on my son and share our results soon. Stay tuned.

Please share your own ideas to teach decoding and vocabulary acquistion in a comment.

My Nine Year Old Son Skips Over Difficult Words When Reading