Fabulous Phonics

Phonics is a systematic set of rules that is the basis for our English language. To learn these phonetic rules will make reading easier for students of any age and ability. You must first be aware that these are rules that can and will be broken in our language, so these rules do not always reign. But without an understanding of these basic guidelines, it is very hard to learn to read. The most basic of phonics skills is to teach letter sounds. An example is that the letter, a, makes the sound /a/, as in apple. There are several ways to work on this phonics skill with children to make it fun.

One idea is to have a sound search, looking for as many objects as you can that begin with the letter, ___. Pick a letter of the day to work on. If the sound is /b/, come up with as many words as you can that start with 'b', such as 'books', 'board', 'blanket', etc. Children love playing games as simple as this. Be creative, but you don't have to be a genious to find your own ways to make this fun.
Another idea to teach phonics is to find songs and rhymes that include the letter sounds in them. A song I've heard before is to the tune of "Who Let the Dogs Out?" It begins, "Who let the A out? /a/ /a/ /a/ /a/ /a/." Continue with each letter of the alphabet in the same tune. It is also important to have the child point or pick up a letter (magnetic or foam) while singing or talking about specific letters.
Something that you want to be careful of is to make sure that you are allowing the child plenty of time to move around and manipulate letters. You can find foam or magnetic alphabet letters at any toy store. I have even found the foam letters in the baby section of Walmart. They were designed to use in the bathtub.

Any and all exposure to letters is wonderful. You don't need to worry about starting too early with playing with letters. Many children come to kindergarten knowing all their letter sounds just by playing with letters at home.

A few little tips:

* Always teach short vowel sounds first - a says /a/ as in apple, e says /e/ as in egg, i says /i/ as in igloo, o says /o/ as in octopus, u says /u/ as in umbrella.

* Teach the hard 'g' sound - 'g' says /g/ as in goat.

* Teach the hard 'c' sound - 'c' says /k/ as in cat.

Don't try to teach all the sounds a letter makes at the beginning - remember, keep it simple.

Blending Sounds Together

You may wish to wait until all letter sounds have been taught before moving to this step, or you may go ahead and begin working on blending after only some of the letters are known. Just make sure that you teach some common consonants and at least one vowel before working on blending. You want to start simple.
The following is one phonics activity I begin with to teach blending. Take something, such as poker chips, to stand for the sounds /a/ and /t/. Say /a/ as you move one poker chip a couple of inches down from its original location. Say /t/ as you move the other chip beside the /a/ chip. Place your finger under the first chip and say each sound again as you slide your finger under both chips. Blend the sounds together as you do this.
Make sure you do this yourself first, modeling to the child what you want them to do. Do several with the child before asking him to do one by himself. This may seem like a simple task, but it is something you do not want to skip, especially for a child that may struggle. Slow steps are always best. After blending 'at' with chips, try 'ak', 'ap', 'af'. Do not always use real words. Let your child see that letters and sounds can be moved to make all kinds of words - real and nonsense.
After your child has understanding of blending sounds together using the chips, start using real letters. Again, I like to use letters that can be moved around, such as magnetic letters.

For more ideas for blending, clink here.

Consonant-Vowel-Consonant Words

Vowel-Consonant (VC) and Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words are the first to teach. These words are short and can typically be sounded out and blended with no tricks.

Practice blending a lot of these words. You do not want to go on to more difficult concepts until VC and CVC words are read quickly and with ease for students. Practice reading the words with games, word sorts, or any other ideas you can invent that are fun.

Click here for more ideas and word lists on VC and CVC phonics.

Consonant blends

After CVC words are not a problem decoding, begin adding in words that have a blend in them.

Before you have children reading these words, begin just by having them identify words that have these sounds in them. An example is: "Stand up when you here a word that has a consonant-l in it - glue, fun, clot, good, plan." This allows the student to hear the sound before they have to read it.

When you first begin teaching blends, start with the ones with a consonant-l pattern (club, clot, plan, flat, glam).

Next, add in some that contain consonant-r, such as brat or gram.

You can also add in some words that have consonant blends at the end - fast, end, bend.

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