Make Word Puzzles with Magnetic Letters

I've been sharing ways to use magnetic letters every Monday recently. You'll find my recommended magnetic letters in my Amazon store and all Magnetic Letter Monday posts here. If you want to organize a box of magnetic letters, look here.

Today I'll show you one activity to help a child spell. Magnetic letters become a puzzle. A child looks at a word, sees the letters that make the sounds in the word, mixes up the letters, and puts them back together while making the sounds that match the letters.

Here are two videos with my son demonstrating how it's done.

Make Word Puzzles with Magnetic Letters

Short Vowel Sound Books to Read After Learning VC and CVC Words

Have you printed the free high frequency word flashcards with phonics rules on the back I shared in a previous post? You may find them helpful. Make some blank flashcards to write more high frequency words you want your beginning reader to practice. Be sure to visit this link for more teaching ideas to use with the flashcards.

I've shown ways to introduce some VC words and CVC words. V stands for vowel and C stands consonant. If a child is comfortable reading words with short vowel sounds, it is time to try to add all the VC and CVC words to your pile of flashcards to practice. Add a few at a time and remind your reader to be ready for a short vowel sound.

VC - and, at, in, is, it, on, up
VCV - can, red, yes, did, big, this, will, with, not, but, fun, run

Here are some books I recommend for a child reading short vowel words. These are the most interesting phonics books I've found. If you have other suggestions for short vowel stories, please share in a comment.
Playful Pals
Animal Antics
Clever Critters
Starfall Learn to Read

I'm also recommending any Brand New Readers or any Scholastic Readers Level 1 to include stories with picture clues, some rhyming, and some repeated language ideal for beginning readers. I believe children should have a combination of phonics and easy reader books. Phonics books provide a child an opportunity to practice sounding out words but should not be the only books he or she is given to read.

If you want to learn about and practice some simple phonics, try out this site.

Short Vowel Sound Books to Read After Learning VC and CVC Words

Printing Practice - Teach Letter Formation with Finger Paint

My favorite type of printing is manuscript form with mostly continuous strokes. This form is similar to D'Nealian printing. The videos in this post I share from my YouTube channel will be  manuscript printing. If you prefer ball and stick printing, you will find some links further down the page showing the correct formation for this type of printing. You can still teach ball and stick printing with finger paint. I taught my oldest son how to form cursive letters in third grade. He liked it, and his writing improved quickly. He transferred what he learned to writing with a pencil.

Getting Ready to Finger Paint


Teaching a child to form letters with finger paint is fun and allows a child to focus on the formation without the added skill of holding a pencil the proper way. Holding a pencil will develop with time and practice. I recommend having a child practice with paper and pencil also. The finger paint method is just a fun addition. You will probably get more cooperation from a reluctant child or a child with developing fine motor skills.

Forming the Letters a, c, d, and g


You can teach phonics rules and spelling with finger paint.


Handwriting Links:
Cursive Writing
The Importance of Teaching Handwriting
Writing Letters with Finger Paint
Free Handwriting Worksheets

Printing Practice - Teach Letter Formation with Finger Paint

Use Magnetic Letters to Teach Decoding Words Before Reading a Book

You can select a few words from a book your child is about to read and practice sounding out these words before reading the book. This strategy can be used with children who tend to guess at words using meaning and picture clues. My daughter was this type of reader. She did great with beginning readers, but she fell behind her twin brother as books included more words and less picture clues.

Magnetic letters or writing words with a space between sounds can be used to help your child make and blend the sounds in a word.  Your child will be ready to read the words in a book instead of just guess at a word. Readers need to combine many skills and thought processes to be effective readers. A reader who is guessing at words shows he or she is thinking about the story and wants the story to make sense. This is a good thing, but these readers need to be taught to connect letters to sounds when reading. Some readers are great at sounding out words, but they don't think about what they are reading.

Here is a picture of a book with words to sound out from a phonics reading series from Starfall called Learn to Read Phonics Book Set: Zac the Rat and Other Tales.

Here's a video of some words I chose to sound out before reading Peg the Hen.

Here's a video of my son reading Peg the Hen. Find a free animated version of this story here.

















Monkey See, Monkey Do is a Hello Reader from Scholastic. I highly recommend Hello Readers from Scholastic for beginning readers. The following video from YouTube shows a few words I would choose to have a child practice sounding out before reading Monkey See, Monkey Do. There are many words that will need to be sounded out in this story. Picture clues will help. If a child looks at you to check if he or she read a word correctly, direct the child to the word to see if it was read correctly. This will teach a child to look at letters and letter combinations when reading. If a word didn't make sense, have a child combine looking at the letters and thinking about the story or picture.

Here's a video of sounding out a few words from Monkey See, Monkey Do.

Give this a try with a few words from a book your child is about to read. A little practice will go a long way. Make sure to talk about the story and pictures. What is happening? What might happen next? Find ways to connect your child to stories.
How would your child feel? What would your child do?  Did the story remind your child of something he or she has seen or done? Ask questions and encourage talking before, during, and after a book.

This is a one of my Magnetic Letter Monday posts. I hope you are finding some helpful ways to use magnetic letters.

Use Magnetic Letters to Teach Decoding Words Before Reading a Book

Scholastic Storybook Treasures

Have you seen any Scholastic Storybook Treasure videos? My children loved them when they were young.

There are three sets available. 

I found many of these videos at the library for my children. If you buy these videos, consider donating them to your local library when your children get older. If you have a child five or under, I'm sure these videos will be a hit around your house.

I'm an Amazon associate. This means I make a small percentage off anything you buy from Amazon if you get to Amazon from my site. Yesterday some nice person bought the Treasury of 100 Storybook Classics 2 from my site.

I thought it was such a good deal. I decided to post about it. My loyal readers know I don't usually make posts for advertising purposes only. I just loved these videos and couldn't believe how cheap they are right now. I promise this will not be the norm. Generally I share resources and teaching tips.

Consider subscribing with email to get all new posts in your inbox. You'll find the sign up to the right.

Scholastic Storybook Treasures

Practice Short and Long Vowel Sound Words with Free Online Games

Beginning readers need practice making short and long vowel sounds when reading words. I found some great games at candohelper. Try out these games with your beginning reader.

Short Vowel Game 1
Short Vowel Game 2
Short Vowel Game 3
Short Vowel Game 4
Short Vowel Game 5

Long Vowel Game 1
Long Vowel Game 2
Long Vowel Game 3

Practice Short and Long Vowel Sound Words with Free Online Games

Phonograms and Flashcards

Phonograms are letters that make up sounds. Phonograms can be one letter, or they can be a combination of letters. This post contains words with phonograms you may want to start teaching your beginning reader from the free printable high frequency flashcards I shared in a previous post.

Here are some words from the flashcards grouped by phonogram:
ay - play, way, away
ar - are
or - for
ow - how now, down
ow - yellow
ou - out, house
oo - too
ng - thing

You may want to add other high frequency words you find with the same phonograms. Just add a few at a time to learn. Cut cards the same size as the ones you printed and write the new words with a black marker. I suggest keeping words with the same phonics rules or phonograms right next to each other in the flashcard pile while practicing. This will help your beginning reader make patterns and connections.

Here are some resources I found online you may find helpful when teaching phonograms.
PhonogramPage
Phonograms and Spelling Rules

You may want to make flashcards with phonograms only for your beginning reader.

Are you using these flashcards? Let me know how it's going in a comment.

Phonograms and Flashcards

Supporting a Beginning Reader

I have a good friend who asked me for some advice to help her child improve in reading. The most important advice we decided was to allow her daughter to listen for her own mistakes. My friend usually jumped in immediately after a mistake. She is now waiting until her daughter can hear that something did not sound right. If her daughter finishes a sentence and something didn't sound right, she lets her know that what she read didn't sound quite right to her if her daughter didn't seem to notice. Her daughter is then asked to read the sentence again. If she gets stuck on a word then my friend helps her sound it out or tells her the word.

Joanne Meier wrote a great article at Reading Rockets that supplies some helpful information for parents supporting a beginning reader. Click on this title to get to the article. How to Read with a Beginning Reader

Check out this post for ways I suggest helping a reader fix a mistake when something didn't sound right.

The goal should be for a reader to stop when something doesn't sound right. Let a beginning reader know how proud you are when he or she stops and rereads to fix a mistake without being told. Encourage a reader to reread from the beginning of a sentence if he or she had to work hard on a few words and the flow of the sentence or meaning of the story became interrupted by decoding words.

Supporting a Beginning Reader

Teach Blends with Magnetic Letters

Blends are tricky for some beginning readers. You can teach blending the letter sounds quickly together with magnetic letters.

When practicing blends I suggest teaching a few at a time with similar sounds.

L Family - cl, sl, fl, pl, bl, gl
R Family - br, cr, dr, fr, pr, tr, gr
Starting with S - sl, st, sp, sn, sc, sw, sk, sm
Starting with T - tr, tw
Starting with C - cl, cr
Starting with F - fl, fr
Starting with B - bl, br
Starting with P - pl, pr
Starting with G - gl, gr
Three Letter Blends - scr, spr, str, spl

Here's a video showing how I teach blends with a beginning reader.


Look for books with blends. Nora Gaydos has a Series of phonics books with quite a few blends. The stories are interesting and fun. My children and the students I've tutored loved to read them again and again. You'll find links to these stories in my Amazon store.

Practicing blends can be fun. It will help your beginning reader a ton. Try a few a day. Let your child think of some words with different blends. Practice making words with short vowels, long vowels, and vowel sound phonograms (ee, ay, ai, ow, ou, oy, oi, aw, au, ew, ui, oo, ea, ar, er, ir, ur, or, oa, ey, ei, ie, igh, eigh, oe, ough, and eu)

Teach Blends with Magnetic Letters

Now I'm Reading - Reader's Theater Plays for Children

Nora Gaydos wrote and published my favorite phonics series for children. You'll find links to her phonics series here. 

I'm excited to share a new series Nora Gaydos has created. She has created plays for children with 5 scripts for putting on a play, 4 masks, and a separate 24 page storybook for reading without putting on a play.

Level 1 Plays:


















Level 2 Plays:

















Putting on these types of plays can increase a child's fluency and reading with expression through practice and repetition. Children will love reading these stories over and over. Some parts are easier than others, so you can accomodate different reading levels.

If you purchase these books for your family or classroom, come back and let us know how much fun you had.

I make a small percentage from any Amazon purchase you make from my site. (Your purchases don't even have to be links I've created. You just have to access Amazon from my site.)

Now I'm Reading - Reader's Theater Plays for Children

Teach the Schwa Sound with Words: the and was from My Printable Flashcards

The words covered on this blog from my printable high frequency word flashcards are: go, no, me, we, but, fun, run, in, is, on. Find a link to all posts related to these flashcards here.

Let's add the words the and was to the words your child is practicing. Some people teach these words by sight or spell the letters, because they don't think the words can be sounded out. There is only one sound that doesn't make sense until you teach the schwa sound.

What is the schwa sound? I teach it as the sound that says, "uh". I tell children that all vowels can make the schwa sound. When a short or long vowel sound doesn't work, try the schwa sound. It's a fun sound. It's like the short u sound, or the sound a person makes when he or she is thinking. Of course vowels and vowel combinations make many more sounds, but the schwa sound is common and worth a try.

Here are links to two more explanations of the schwa sound:
schwa sound explanation from Reading Horizons

schwa sound explanation from A to Z Phonics

Add the flashcards the and was to your child's practice pile after teaching your child to read these words from beginning to end. Writing these words or using magnetic letters is a good way to start. Magnetic letters have the added bonus of mixing up the letters and asking a child to put them back together.

If you have the book Where's Spot, you can have a child practice reading the words is, he, in, and the by share reading this predictable book.

Teach the Schwa Sound with Words: the and was from My Printable Flashcards

Teach with Magnetic Letters and Phonics Pathways - Magnetic Letter Monday

I plan to make a post every Monday showing ways to teach with magnetic letters. I'll label each post with Magnetic Letter Monday. You will be able to access all Magnetic Letter Monday posts here. Find a link to purchase magnetic letters here.

Phonics Pathways - Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling and Reading Pathways - Simple Exercises to Improve Reading Fluency are two great teaching tools I use when tutoring. I used these books to help my daughter overcome some reading challenges.

If you choose to use these books, you may want to combine some teaching with magnetic letters. Here are some videos I've made showing how to use magnetic letters with some lessons from these books.

Teach with Magnetic Letters and Phonics Pathways - Magnetic Letter Monday

Teach VC Phonics Rule with Flashcards and Hop on Pop

I've been sharing phonics rules, flashcards, and ways to teach high frequency words on this blog.

Here's a link to access all the flashcard posts I've written. So far the words we have covered are no, go, me, we, but, fun, and run.

The words is, in, and on follow the VC phonics rule. Here's a video showing how to teach a child these words.


These words can be added to flashcards previously taught. Have a child practice these words daily and feel free to add words to blank flashcards that follow the same phonics rules a child is learning.

The first pages in Hop on Pop have the words is, in, and on. This is one of my favorite books to let a child practice using newly learned phonics rules. The reading of this book can be shared where an adult reads parts and a child reads parts.

Last year I made posts related to phonological awareness every Friday. I plan to make posts related to teaching with my printable flashcards every Friday for awhile. I hope you find these posts useful. If you have trouble printing the flashcards, let me know in a comment or send me an email at pacrapacma@gmail.com .

Teach VC Phonics Rule with Flashcards and Hop on Pop

Are You Using the High Frequency Flashcards I Shared?

Here's a link to access all the flashcard posts I've written. So far the words we have covered are no, go, me, we, but, fun, and run.

Please let me know if you are using the flashcards or if you plan to use them in a comment. You can print them. Here are the directions. Make some blank cards to add your own words. The words you add can be ones you've taught or they can be related words. I suggested adding so and he in previous posts. In the early stages of learning it may be best to keep related words together when practicing. As a child becomes more confident it will be good to mix them up.

My next post will be teaching in, is, up, and on with Hop on Pop.

Are You Using the High Frequency Flashcards I Shared?

Literactive - Free Early Reading Program with Games and Animated Stories

I can't believe this site is free. Register today and look around. http://www.literactive.com/Home/index.asp

Don't miss the Flash activites. Look in the left column for pre-reading to level 7 activities. I checked out numerous games. There is one problem I found. The sound made for a short a by the computer sounds more like a short u. I suggest sitting with a child and making the correct short a sound during these games.

There are animated stories with games. The stories are grouped by nursery rhymes, traditional stories, poetry, and level 1 to level 5 stories. Look in the left column to find these options. You can turn the sound on or off to let a child listen to the words or read the words him or herself. There's a scope and sequence guide available for these online stories here.

This site makes it easy to start at any level. You don't have to go from beginning to end in this program. Play some of the beginning reading activities until a child is ready to read. A child will be ready to read the level 1 stories when he or she knows a few high frequency words, letter sounds, short and long vowels, diagraphs, blends, and some phonics rules.

Let's say you think a child is ready to read level 1 stories.
Practice high frequency words with the flashcards I shared on this blog to build some word knowledge. Then play the Hiding Snails game found in level 3 activities to practice reading high frequency words.

Hiding Snails

Go to site to find this game. Click on activities at the top and level 3 in the left column.

Play some CVC games found in level 3 activities like Sliding Penguins.

Sliding Penguins

Have a child read some predictable pattern books from level 1. Picture clues help a child know if a word is right, but a child should be encouraged to use letters when figuring out words. Many children learn to guess at words without using letters in books of this sort. Click on the last word in the story, Dad, to have the computer break the word into sounds. Have a child repeat, point, and read these words a few times with and without the computer.

The word wash is a good teaching word. Many words that start with wa sound like "wo". (walk, want, water, watch) Talk about what the dad is washing. Make sure a child looks at pictures when reading early reader stories.

The letters ch make one sound and the o in the middle of a CVC word will usually make a short sound in the word chop. Ask a child what the dad accidently chopped. Discuss the box the boy is holding is a first aid kit.

There's more to this story. Click on reading at the top and choose level 1 in the left column



I think you and your beginning reader will love using Literactive. Sit with a child, interact, and teach as you go.

Check out my Amazon Store for some of my recommended beginning reader books. You'll find categories in the right column. I suggest using a combination of phonics books and easy reader books with a beginning reader. Some phonics books can be boring, but they provide decoding practice that most beginning readers need.
  

Literactive - Free Early Reading Program with Games and Animated Stories