Teach Phonograms with Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire

Every Friday I will be sharing ways to teach phonograms with free phonogram flashcards.

The last phonogram post I made was titled Teach Phonograms with Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?


Put Me in the Zoo and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? are two great books to use to teach phonograms. These are books young children will listen to over and over. You can teach new phonograms each time you read these stories.












I suggested teaching a few phonograms at a time. The first phonogram that stands out in both of these books is oo. The phonogram oo can make more than one sound. The least common sound of oo is the sound found in the words: book, look, took, good, and foot. You can tell your child this information, but I think it's best to teach the most common sound first.

If you have a child just getting started with learning phonograms start with oo and show this phonogram in both books as you read these to your child.

Here are the words with the oo phonogram in Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire.
zoo, too
You could show the word good. It has the oo phonogram, but it makes the least common sound.
You could show the words do, you, and two. They rhyme with the words zoo and too. It's great to show children early that some sounds are spelled differently. This teaches an early reader to be flexible with rules.

Look for more common two letter phonograms from the free phonogram flashcards I shared in an earlier post in this book.

You can combine these flashcards with the high frequency word flashcards I shared on this blog. Once a word or phonogram is taught add it to a pile of flashcard to practice and review.

Teach Phonograms with Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire

How Can a Parent Help a Child Improve Reading Comprehension?

The best thing a parent can do is read to a child starting at a young age. Many parents stop reading to their children as they get older. I'm guilty of reading less to my school aged children.

Parents?
Does your child avoid reading? Does your child say he/she can't find a good book to read? Your child might be struggling with reading comprehension. You can help.

7 Keys to Comprehension has been my latest go to resource for ideas to help my youngest son with reading comprehension. I use ideas from this book for all three of my children. I'm able to purposely share my thinking, ask questions, and have interactions during reading a book to help my children use the 7 keys to improve reading comprehension.

I suggest finding good books to read out loud to your child and teach your child to use the 7 keys:

1. Create mental images.
2. Use background knowledge.
3. Ask questions.
4. Make Inferences.
5. Determine the most important ideas or themes.
6. Synthesize information.
7. Use "fix-up" strategies.

You can teach a child to use these 7 Keys while reading to your child, while listening to your child read, or while sharing the reading of a book. It's never too late to start. Buy the book. Start with one section at a time. I saw huge improvements in my youngest son's desire to read chapter books after I taught him to create mental images.

This book is written in a parent friendly format and is also useful for teachers. There are recommended books, descriptions of the keys, ideas to teach keys separated by age groups, classroom connections, and more.















Socks by Beverly Cleary, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume are three classic stories that will hold the attention of most children. You'll love the rich language, humor, and interesting plots. These books have all the elements needed to teach a child the 7 keys.

How Can a Parent Help a Child Improve Reading Comprehension?

Find Good Children's Books

The best way to help a child learn to read is to have plenty of good books around. Reading to a child and listening to a beginning reader read everyday is a must. Pack books in the car. Have books in every room of your house. I purchased many of my children's books at used stores.

Here are a few sites you may find useful when looking for good books.

The Book Seer

Babies Love Books

Scholastic Book Wizard

I won't be posting until after Easter. Happy Easter and Happy Reading.
Is the Easter Bunny leaving a book in your child's basket this year?

Find Good Children's Books

Surf's Up Saturday! April 16, 2011

Most Saturdays I share some links on this blog to things I've found while surfing the web during the week. I share online reading games for children, online stories for children, and resources for parents teaching children to read.

You will find some online reading games and more at WordWorld.

DLTK' s Mini-books can be printed, folded, and read with a beginning reader. I have personally printed and used some of these books. I love the patterened language and high frequency words. You can set your printer settings to use less ink, so printing these books will be less expensive.

Looking for ways to teach phonics? Check out Starfall or Progressive Phonics.

I've written a lens called Teach a Child to Read with Phonics.

Surf's Up Saturday! April 16, 2011

Teach r controlled phonograms with Free Online Stories from Starfall

Starfall is one of my favorite free sites to teach children to read. This site has free resources to teach a child about reading.

Recently I shared free two letter phonogram flashcards for you to print and cut yourself. I think when an early reader learns phonograms, it makes sounding out words easier.

Starfall has free online games and stories to teach a child r contolled vowel phonograms.

Car Race is available online with animations when you click on the pictures. You can purchase the entire set of Starfall Learn to Read books too. Many times having a hard copy to reread anytime is best for beginning readers.

Starfall has a free game your child should try to teach the r contolled phonogram "ar"!



Surfer Girl is available online with animations when you click on pictures. You can purchase the entire set of Starfall Learn to Read books too.

There's a game on Starfall to teach the r controlled phonograms "ir, er, and ur".

My Horse Glory is available online with animations when you click on pictures. You can purchase the entire set of Starfall Learn to Read books too.

Find a game to teach the "or" r controlled phonogram and a game to review and sort a mix of r controlled phonograms.

Plus a picture hunt game for "or" words.

I hope you found this post helpful. Every Friday I'll be posting ways to teach phonograms.

Check out my lenses at Squidoo. Scroll down my profile page to find "lenses" or pages I've written with information I share with parents wanting to get their children a good start with reading.

Teach r controlled phonograms with Free Online Stories from Starfall

Crayola Dry-Erase Crayons and Sheet Protectors

Crayola Dry-Erase Crayons easily wipe off sheet protectors. I don't recommend using crayola dry erase crayons on dry erase boards. It takes a lot of work to rub the crayon off and smudges are left behind.

Dry-erase markers work best for dry-erase boards. I love using dry-erase markers for teaching children, but I get nervous about leaving them alone with the markers. Dry erase markers leave permanent marks on whatever they touch.

I can leave my children alone while using dry-erase crayons without worrying about marks being made on clothes, chair cushions, tables, or carpet. I have fallen in love with dry-erase crayons and sheet protectors. I think you will love them too.

Dry erase crayons and sheet protectors make learning fun and economical.

Slide in a blank sheet of paper for writing practice. Wipe off writing with the material mitt that comes in your crayon box or cut-up an old sweatshirt to use as an eraser.



Slide a copy of a story or poem inside a sheet protector and let a child underline or circle words and letters.

Put a sheet protector over a page in a book to underline or circle words, letters, spelling patterns, or phonograms.

Use your workbooks more than once by sliding it inside or covering a page with a sheet protector.

You should be able to find dry-erase crayons and sheet protectors in many of your local stores. Here are some links from Amazon to browse through. I am an Amazon Affiliate. I make a small percentage from anything you purchase from Amazon when you access Amazon from my site.

Crayola Dry-Erase Crayons and Sheet Protectors

Have You Heard About BookPig?

Book Pig is a book rental business. You have to check out their website. What a great idea for a business!

BookPig

I bought most of my books at used stores and checked out books at the library when my kids were young. I had time when they weren't in school all day and busy with activities to go and pick out books. I still have a lot of books at home they can read, but they are becoming quite picky about which books to read.

I think the way Book Pig's site is set up is very helpful in choosing good books for my children. Try it yourself. You could even use this page to find books to buy or check out at the library. Go ahead browse for books. Click on the highlighted link to access the book browsing page. I think you'll find it useful to find some of the best children's books to buy, check out, or rent from BookPig for your child.

You can use this promo code READHLPZ to get a 50% discount on your first month's fee. This promotion code is valid until February 2012.

Visit this page to find out how BookPig works.

Do you have questions about this system? Does it sound interesting? Do you think you might want to try it out? Visit this page to get answers to frequently asked questions.

There are many great options. You can choose to buy a book, put your account on hold, and easily change your monthly plan. I've been thinking about signing up for awhile. I finally signed up today. I'll let you know how our experience goes. I have three children and signed up or the $12.99 per month plan. My nine year old gets 2 books. My twin seven year olds are going to get one book each. My kids helped adding books to their own queue.

You can add your own choices or have a BookPig librarian choose books for your child. I decided to choose our own books. I can see how having a librarian's help would be fun. I guess they send stickers for parents and kids to give feedback about the books Book Pig chose.

Have You Heard About BookPig?

Teach Phonograms with Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?

Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? is filled with common two letter phonograms. Have you printed the free phonogram flashcards I shared in a previous post?


Here are the two letter phonograms you can point out while reading Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? to your child. (oo, ow, ou, or, ee, ea, ai, ur, ar, er, ew, oi)

This is a good book to start introducing how two letters can work together to make one sound. You can start by introducing the oo sound.
The letters oo are in a bunch of words in this story.
(moo, rooster, hoo, choo, too, doodle-doo, boom)

















ow - Brown, cow, how, owl
ou - about
or - cork, horse, horn, door
ee - bee, feet, eek
ea - squeaky
ai - rain, train
ur - blurp, slurp
ar - smart, hard
er - rooster, wonderful, whisper, butterfly, wonder, thunder
ew - chewing
oi - noise

Most children love this story read to them over and over. You can point out one or two phonograms each time you read the story. This story was one of my children's favorite books. Have fun and let your child help you read this story from memory or from looking at the words.

I've posted a few other ways to teach phonograms on this blog. Visit this link to find more ways to teach phonograms.

Teach Phonograms with Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?

Separating Words by Syllables Can Help a Child Sound Out Words

When a more than one syllable word comes up in a story a child is reading you can teach a child to use phonics rules for each syllable in the word. An adult helping a child read can show the first syllable of the word. Then the child can attempt to read the first syllable using phonics rules.

I've been volunteering at my children's school as a parent reading tutor. I work with two children twice a week. We have a program to follow and books to choose at our students' reading levels. I bring and use a few of my own phonics books and include some ways to teach reading I've found through research and experience. Working with a child one on one gives me an opportunity to see what works to teach reading, and try out new things.

I've taught the students I tutor some simple phonics rules. When a more than one syllable word comes up in a story a student is reading I've been tapping the number of syllables on the table. I don't do this for every word. It's one strategy I've been trying on a few words and it's been working like magic. My goal is to have these children take words apart by syllable and use phonics rules to give sounding out longer words a try.

Here's an example showing how a word can be read differently depending on where syllables are spaced.

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.



I use my fingers or a child's fingers to finger frame one syllable at a time. Here are pictures showing finger framing a word by syllables.

The vowel sound for this syllable should be short if it follows the CVC (consonant vowel consonant) rule.

It follows the rule. It would be read differently if it was separated like this. pro / mise

The vowel sound for this syllable would be long if it followed the silent e rule.

It doesn't follow the rule.

It would be okay to follow the phonics rule when sounding out this word and change the vowel sound to short when it didn't make a real word. If a child tried to break this word apart on his or her own and tried pro / mise. The vowel would make a long o sound to go along with the CV pattern phonics rule. Sometimes if a reader works hard on a word it's best to start at the beginning of the sentence to get back into the flow of the story. It's hard to make sense of reading when there is a lot of stopping and starting and sounding out. If a child is having to stop and sound out more than one in ten words, the book is at frustration level. Easier books should be chosen.

Separating words by syllables and making the sounds that follow the rules gives a new reader a starting point to sound out a word. I've taught the students I'm tutoring phonics rules. I've taught them to be flexible when reading:
vowel sounds can change,
sometimes letters work together to make new sounds,
some letters are silent,
but letters can't be added that aren't there.

Teach and practice some phonics rules, check if a child can hear how many syllables in a word, and give reading longer words by syllables a try.

Resources to teach phonics rules:

Teach a Child to Read with Phonics

Teach a Child When to Use a Short or Long Vowel Sound

A Vowel at the End of a Word or Syllable Usually Makes a Long Vowel Sound

Teach Two Common Short Vowel Sound Phonics Rules

Help a Child Learn High Frequency Words Using Phonics Rules

Teach a Child to Read: Phonics vs. Whole Language

Starfall Learn to Read

Resources to practice hearing syllables:

Practice Syllables

Teach Syllables with a Free Online Story

Separating Words by Syllables Can Help a Child Sound Out Words

Surf's Up Saturday! April 2, 2011

Welcome to Surf's Up Saturday! Every Saturday I share free online reading games for children, free online stories for children, and resources to teach children to read I've found surfing the web.

Free Online Stories for Children - Children's Storybooks Online

Free Online Reading Games for Children - Online Games for Children to Hear Individual Sounds in Words

Free Resources to Teach Reading - The International Reading Association has put out free brochures for parents. These can be downloaded for free or copies can be ordered from the site. Here's the link for all the parent brochures and guides. When you get to the site, the page will look blank. You will need to scroll down to find the links.
Here are some of my favorite helpful guides from IRA for parents teaching children to read:
Getting Your Child Ready to Read
Supporting Your Beginning Reader
What Kids Really Want to Read

I'll be surfing the web this week and share my finds next Saturday. Follow this blog or sign up with email, so you don't miss next week's finds.

Surf's Up Saturday! April 2, 2011

Teaching Phonograms Helps a Child Sound Out Words: ou, ay

Phonograms are letters or groups of letters that represent a sound. Readers and writers must be able to hear and make individual sounds in words and know which letters are used for the sounds of language to read and spell. Phonological awareness may need to be taught before expecting a child to sound out and identify phonograms.

I've shared free common two letter phonogram flashcards to print and cut in another post. Every Friday I will share ways to teach phonograms for awhile.

The phonograms, ou and ay, are the first phonograms you may want to teach a beginning reader. Start slow and help a child learn a few at a time.

1. Tell your beginning reader about phonograms.
2. Go on a search while reading some of your favorite read alouds for ou and ay.
3. Spell some words with ou and ay. You could use paper, magna-doodle, white board, finger paint, or magnetic letters.

ou - out, our, shout, house, mouse
ay - day, play, stay, way, say, stay

4. You can finger frame or use wikki stix to show the ou and ay phonograms.

These pictures show finger framing syllables.

You can finger frame ou and ay in books you read together.

These pictures show using wikki stix to underline ou.



5. Keep all the flashcards together to review and practice after teaching. Go through the flashcard pile and have your child say the sound and try to think of a word that has that sound and spelling.

You could test your beginning reader. If a sound is known, add it to the review pile and practice in some of the ways I've shown to practice phonograms. It won't be long and your beginning reader will know these phonograms as well and the letters of the alphabet.

Teaching Phonograms Helps a Child Sound Out Words: ou, ay