Hello,

Earlier this week we played these games.

We raced cars. When you read the letter you can start racing

Also we played with the guessing bucket. The item was supposed to begin with the letter Ee. Mrs. Clausen and I tried to guess. He brought an Easter egg. We didn't get it.

Hello,

Behind the scenes: Today, I cropped some letter cards and sorted through the children's work. I, also, helped one of the children with her reading.

To start with, today, the children read a story called "Dave's wish". Then, they sang "Hairy Humphrey's carousel." After that, the three of them played a game of twister where instead of just colours, there were words and when they landed on one they had to read it.

Also during last class, we sang a song played a board game.

You roll the dice and when you land on a space you read out the word.

Hello, 

Yesterday, we did a puzzle game. You match the letters to the pictures that start with the same letter. We also played the bucket game. He brought something that started with the letter "Ee". Mrs. Clausen and I couldn't geuss it. It was an earring. At the end of the day we brought out the play-doh and he made the letter "Ee". 

Also, the children read a story called "Where's Jill" and sang a song called "Hairy Humphrey's Carousel". It was a very entertaining day. The boys and girls had a lot of fun.

Hello,

Today, the children are playing a word matching game, with letters that end in "at" or "og"(Such as cat and dog). After they match the words they sound it out. If they get it right they receive a prize. They did very well. After this we played a quick game of go fish, but, instead of asking for numbers and suits they asked for word endings (like "od" and "un")

Hello, 

My name is Cassidy and I am volunteering at Fun Family Phonics.

Yesterday, I observed 3 classes. The children had tons of fun playing phonics games and singing songs. 

During K's class we played a bucket game. He brought an item that started with the letter "D". Mrs. Clausen and I tried to guess what it was. It was dirt, tada. 

Then, K was showing some difficulty determining the difference between the letter "b" and the letter "d" so he made a bed using the two lowercase letters (and drew his dad sleeping in it). 

Soon after, Mrs Clausen made two categories, "c" or "d" and K put each of the fun items(ex. car, dinosaur) into either category. He did very well and showed that he understood the sounds of the different letters. 

Next, we played a memory game. Mrs. Clausen and K each took turns covering items that started with the letter "c" and the other then had to guess what they had taken.

Lastly, K played with cars and when he hit a letter he had to match it with the uppercase letters. He was very good at this and matched them all correctly.

All in all, it was a great few classes and the students enjoyed the stimulating and interactive games.

Guest blogger

Hi, sorry for the long hiatus.  I have a student doing volunteer hours with me for awhile.  I have asked her to blog about her time here.  Hope you enjoy her input as much as I am enjoying having her here.

Word Wall

This shows my Word Wall.  Purchased from the teacher store, it works great for so many activities.

more about the letter w

We used our finger painting bags today to practice the letter "w".  (just pour finger paint into a sandwich bag and tape shut).
The children also coloured the sheet that I photocopied from the Upper case Book about the letter w.  I also gave them a purchased sticker of the letter w. to stick on their paper.
We read the story of "The Three Little Wolves"  a great story that has a twist to "The Three Little Pigs".
I made 2 copies of the "W" words in THE RHYMING BOOK  ffp. I hid one word around the room then the children matched them to the other word I had on my word wall.

w

Do the preliminary songs, and reading from the FunFamilyPhonics textbooks.
1.  Use a dump truck and drive magnetic letters from one side of the room to the other.  Have the door ready with the symbols from FFP. (  I have photocopied them all, put magnets on them and put them ready on the door.  Have your child match the plastic alphabet letter to the phonetic symbol from FFP.

 2,   Print out the words for W. and for V.  well, sell, etc and vet, bet etc.  Have your Rhyming book open to the letter v and w.  Have your child put the word onto the correct page, after they read it.
We are trying to get the children to look at the whole word, not just the first letter.
Sometimes it helps to cover up the first and last letter.  Say the sound of the clown.  then add the last letter.
e.g. " say "e" in the word well  Now show "ell" try to get that sound out, then uncover the first letter. well.
Read any book that features the letter "w".

Letter v

.
Read a book such as, Bernstein Bears " No more T.V."
Print out the Rhyming words for the letter V on cardstock.  Vet, bet, get, jet, let, met, net,pet, set, wet,and yet.  Set up a track for techdecks, put the words on the floor in front of the track.  Sent down a skateboard and the child reads the word that the skateboard lands on.

Letter v

Be sure to do the preliminaries......FFPh. alphabet song- upper and lower case.
                                                    Rhyming word song letter v.
2.  Differentiate between u. and v. It is sometimes hard for a child to see the difference.
     Sticker fun game.  Put a large poster size sheet on the wall with lots of letters printed on it  Use a lot of v's and u's.  Give your child a sticker and ask them to find u. v. etc.
3.  Make a picture using plastic or paper flowers taped into a picture of a vase.  Practice printing v's on the back side.
4.   Put a lot of letters from an alphabet puzzle in one corner of a room.  Have your child use a truck to drive the letters around the room and over to the puzzle.
5.  Make two mailbox houses.  Put the letter u. on one house and v. on the other.  Give your child various pictures that start with a u. or a v.  They "mail" them to the correct house.

More about letter u

We are focusing on listening to the middle sound of the word for this lesson.
Write some 3 letter words on a white board.  Say the word very slowly without showing it to your child.  See if they can hear the middle sounds.
Give them a strip of paper with all the clowns printed on it.  spaced out 1 inch between each.
Give them a clothespin.  They put the clothes pin on the clown that they hear.
When they have decided which clown they hear, show them the written word.

Letter U.

Do the  preliminaries: song, u. story, pick out u pictures, upper case about u. Rhyming song about u.
We are going to concentrate on the sound of "u" in a word.  Be sure to do the action of putting both arms up in the air to resemble the letter u and say "uh".
1)  Write words on a whiteboard one at a time.
      sun.  emphasize the uh in the middle
      gum, mug,bun, each time put your hands in the air for the letter u.

2)  Read a story with a "u".  THE UGLY DUCKLING, FARMER UPSY DAISY

3)  Use playdough and a plasstic knife to make a long snake and make it into a "u".  Have your child trace       over it with a finger.

4)  Mailbox game.
     Use a large envelope or in some way make 2 houses with a slit in the front of it to drop cards into.  Put a letter "u" on the front of one house and a letter "a" on the other.  Have pictures  of things that start with u or a and have them "mail" them to the correct house.

5)  Bean bags.   Use the back of a floor mat or in some way make a game board that your child can throw a bean bag at.  Depending on the level of the child use either 3 letter words or just the alphabet.

Letter T

Be sure to do all the preliminaries
1. Alphabet Song
2. Discuss all the items that start with r in the picture.
3.  Upper case Book
4.  Child uses their finger to trace the upper and lower case letters on the page.
5.  Rhyme about T
.Dave got up to turn off the tap
Turn off the tap
Turn off the tap
Dave got up to turn off the tap
t a p spells tap.
6. Put down a letter p on the floor.
    "what does it sound like"?
    letter "a" on the floor
   What does it sound like?
   Put them together - spells ap.
   Put a t in front of it  - it spells tap.
   Change the first letter to spell cap, map, zap, gap, nap lap and sap.
7.Put these words on the floor. (written on small cardstock).  Have your child drive down the road and read the words as they come to them.
8. Print out all those words, cap, nap etc as well as all the rhyming words for Pop.
    Have two headings at the top of your workspace.   Op and ap.
    We are trying to get the child to see the whole word, they need to put the word under the correct heading.
9. Play "slap"  Put all the alphabet on the table.  Working in small groups, a caller says a letter - the first child to slap their hand on the letter gets to keep it.
 

Letter S

Start with the usual preliminaries.  Alphabet song, read about letter s, look for items in the picture that start with s.  Read about upper case S, trace the s with your finger on the book, upper and lower case.  Sing the Rhyming song about S.  (Mary had a little lamb)
The snake slipped away and Dave felt sad,
Dave felt sad,
Dave felt sad,
The snake slipped away and Dave felt sad.  s a d spells sad.

Play some games that use the rhyming words for sad: bad, had, pad, Dad, lad, fad and mad.
Make 2 of each word and play the memory game, hide one word around the room and have your child find it.
Read a book that has an s in the title.
Use finger paint to make an S.
Play bingo with 3 letter words.
Play the Upper case song and have your child draw each letter on a white board. (correctly)
Use plastic Easter eggs:  Hide a plastic letter s inside one.  Have your child guess which egg the s is hiding in.
Practice printing the letter s on paper.
Game: What is my favourite clown.
      Say a word    Bat.  Have the child guess which clown is in this word.
Read another story book that contains an S

More for letter R

Put out the colours mentioned in this poem (paint, felt markers or crayons).  Use a lower case r that you have cut out of cardstock.  Have your child colour the r by starting at the top go to the bottom back up and around the curve at the top.

Rainbow purple, rainbow blue,
Rainbow green and yellow too,
Rainbow orange, rainbow red,
Rainbow smiling overhead.
Come and count the colours with me
How many colours can you see?

Letter R

1.  Do the usual routine:
a.  Alphabet Song
b.  Alphabet Book. Letter R -  Read the story, pick out R. items in the picture.
c.  Upper Case Book
d. Rhyme Book. Use the cd and sing the song for letter R.

2  .Read a Story that has R in the title.
3.  Table Time.  Print the letter R.  
      Photocopy the R picture from the Alphabet Book and colour it.
4.  Make 2 of each of the Rhyming words and hide one around the room.  Have the other one in front of you.  The child finds the hidden word, brings it to you, matches and reads it.  (They usually get a pretzel for reading it)
5.  Put upper case and lower case letters all over the floor.  Sing.  Hickety Tickety Bumble Bee - can you find an R for me.  R  R that's a very good sound.
6.  Cut out a lower case R from Cardstock.  Have the child paint the r.  Point out that they start at the top of the r.  When it is dry put glitter on it and glue it to a piece of Construction Paper.
7.  What's missing game.   Put R. objects on the floor.  Have your child look at them for a minute and talk about the starting sound of R.   Cover them all and take one away.  See if your child can remember what was taken away.
8.  Read another story that starts with R.
9.  Get a large piece of  poster paper and tape it to the wall.  Have letters printing all over it, with a majority being the letter R.  Give your child a  sticker and get them to put it on the letter R.
10.  Use duplicate picture cards or words with the letter R.  Play snap.
11.  Use playdough to make the letter R.
 

A bit more for letter P

Use cardstock to make 3 letter words. (about 10 words).  Make some of the words say Pop.   When you print the word Pop on the cardstock, be sure to start by drawing a line, then make the first letter upper case, the second and third lower case, with the lower case p going below the line.  

Show your child the word and explain to them why you have printed it this way.

Put the words upside side on the floor around the room.    Ask you child to look at the words and find the one that says Pop.

When the child finds the word Pop they bring it to you in exchange for a bag of popcorn or a prize.

Letter q.

1. Alphabet Book "q"
2. Upper case Book "q"
3. Rhyme Book "q"
4. Alphabet Song.
5. Since there are very few words that start with q we are going to work on rhyming today. Sing this song, tune is Twinkle Twinkle, Listen Listen to Dave's word, Then tell me the sound that you heard. DOG D is one sound o is two g is the last in Dog, its true D-o-g. were the sounds that I heard When I listened to Dave's word Listen listen to Dave's word Then tell me the sound that you heard QUIT qu is one sound i is two t is the last in QUIT it's true Qu-i-t were the sounds that I heard.
6. Make or use a purchased small booklet, about 2"by 4". It only needs a few pages. Print the rhyming words one at the bottom of each page. The child draws a picture to represent the word. Quit- I just got them to draw 2 hands out - like "I quit" Fit - They draw a face, colour it red. Pit - hole in the ground Hit - Hit a baseball - just draw a ball and bat Bit - Draw some teeth Lit - Draw a campfire Sit - Stick person sitting on a chair

Letter p.

We are now getting ready to teach the letter "P". 1. FFP. Alphabet Song. 2. Rhyme Book Song - letter p. 3. Upper Case Book - letter p. 4. Look at the picture for p. (lower case book) with a magnifying glass. Find all the "p" words. 5. Using the Rhyme Book as a ref. Put a letter p on the floor. Say the sound. Then put letter o in front of the p. Say each sound and blend them together to say op. Now put the p. in front of op and say pop. Change the first letter so it will say cop, mop, hop, top and lop. 6. Game- Put a lot of objects down that start with p. Cover with a cloth. Take one away and get the child to guess what you took away. 6. If you have a hot air popper. Put a clean sheet on the floor. Pop some popcorn without a pail under it. Let the popcorn fly all over the place and say p.p.p. Then have a snack of popcorn. 7.Practice making the letter P. Have your child draw something that starts with a p. 8.Make a memory game with the rhyming words and play it. It is fine if you help your child read the words. They are still getting used to seeing them. 9.Use magnetic letters and make the rhyming words on the fridge or magnetic door. 10.Read 2 or 3 stories with a p. in the title or main part of the story. 11. Put some pictures of things that start with a p on top of the table. (around the edge) Play some music. Each time you stop the music the child picks up a picture and says the word. You could use interchange some n word pictures so they could say if it starts with an n. or a p. 12.Work on alphabet puzzles.

Even though it is the middle of the year and the middle of the alphabet, I am going to start something new. My daughter is doing home schooling and would like a bit more help planning lessons so I have offered to write up a lesson plan for each letter of the alphabet. Next week we start letter "o". Alphabet Song Read the Story about letter O Use a magnifying glass(as a prop) and look for things in the picture that start with o. At this time we usually sing the Rhyme song but there is no Rhyme Song with the clowns. Read a Story Book that has a letter O in the Title. "Pippo" Craft. Cut out a large 0 from Construction Paper. At about 2 oclock on the picture put a red dot. The child puts the pencil down on the red dot and moves to the left completely around the circle. (If you start a letter 0 at the 2 oclock position, you are then set up to easily make it into an a. or g. ) Put other stickers in the centre of the large 0. Either things that start with an 0 or more 0 stickers. Bean Bag game. Make a large poster or turn a mat over and use the backside. Put number values on the side of the mat. Across from the numbers write the letters of the alphabet. You stand a few steps away and throw a bean bag at the mat (or poster). The child says the letter and the letter sound. On a white board keep score to see who wins. When working on the vowels I usually try to review all the vowels we have learned so far. Alphabet Find. Put Upper and lower case letters all over the floor. Ask your child to find "upper and lower case" 0. A. E. I. On a floor road mat, put out some plastic letters. On a piece of cardstock write words such as: sod, log, and nod. Get the child to find a plastic letter and put it on top of your printed cardstock. Read the word with the child. Put two hula hoops flat on the floor. In one put the letter A and in the other letter 0. Say words that start with A such as Airplane, apple, and words that start with 0 - such as orange etc. Get your child to jump into the correct hoop. Printing. Practice writing and 0. Table and dice game. Make a game board by drawing a star on the paper. About 18" wide. Make squares around the outside of the star. Use game pieces and a die to move your game piece around the board and say the sound and name of each letter that you land on . Read more Story Books that have an 0 in them.