Segmenting and Blending

There are lots of things we do at school everyday to help promote phonemic awareness.  Understanding sounds and how they combine into words or how words break down into sounds helps with both reading and writing.

Segmenting:
We do a LOT of work on this skill.  Segmenting is how many sounds a word has, not how many letters.  For example, the word oak segmented would be "o-k" and the word house would be "h-o-s" since those are the sounds you heard.  Click here for a set of Elkonian box words like we use in school.  It is okay if you do not have a printer, you can view the pictures on the screen and have your child touch each box as they segment the word.

Blending:
Blending sounds back together is trickier than it might seem!  You can play a "guess my word" game with your child.  You can say the sounds of simple words, like "c-a-t" and have them blend and say the word "cat"

Here is a good youtube video about how you can model and help your child tap out and segment simple words.  

Friday Flash: Colors

Share the News:
Each morning we “share the news” with a buddy. Here is a question for each day of the week! Monday: What is your favorite color?
Tuesday: What’s your favorite red fruit?
Wednesday: What’s your favorite green vegetable?
Thursday: Have you ever seen a rainbow?
Friday: What is something you’re grateful to have right now?
Check Twitter each day next week for my responses!

At times for sentence practice I have the kids write a joke. They make a line for each word and then write all of the sounds they can hear. I save the answer for when they’re done. Here are a few ideas: What’s a cat's favorite color? Purrr-ple
What color is a ghost? BOO
Where do crayons go on vacation? Color-ado

Learning through color...
Watch a BrainPopJr. about Color! 
Username: Thompson2020
Password: Thompson2020

Mix up some color for a bird art project 

Write your sight words in rainbow colors using this paper. 

Try a color science experiment: walking rainbow! 

Head into your yard and find something that is each color. 

Dr. Seuss My Many Colored Days

Handwriting

At school we practice handwriting using the "Zaner Blouser" style of writing. I was sending home the strands as we finished them. Click here for a document with the language for each letter. I have started to make digital lessons of me teaching handwriting lessons. When we practice at school the students watch and listen to me, then practice on their own (at times with music.) I have made these lessons to replicate what we do at school! I hope to be able to do all the letters in the coming week. If your child is writing their name at home, they should be writing with lower case letters (except the first!) and we had recently started practicing our last names as well.

 Here are two lessons for the "magic c" letters c o and a and the second for c, g and d.

coa

cgd
l t h l b k w x y z