PARENT LETTERS - Heinemann



Letter 31      Developing Phonic Knowledge

Dear Parents and Care-Givers:

There are essentially two different ways to help your child become aware of phonics. One is through direct instruction and formal activities and the other is to learn phonics within print materials that have meaning for your child. While there is no real harm in the direct approach, children seem to respond to phonics instruction more positively when phonics activities are connected to their reading material. Both kinds of activities are included here:

Phonics Through Direct Instruction

Here, phonics awareness involves phonics activities that are not connected to children’s reading material.

1. I Spy: Play “I Spy” with your child by saying, “I spy something that begins like, ‘Sunday.’” Then ask your child to name things (sun, snowman, sick). If your child chooses something with the correct sound (celery, city) but the wrong initial letter, say, “Celery and city do start with the same sound as ‘Sunday.’” It is not necessary to correct them, since the goal here is to identify beginning sounds.

2. Clap for Sounds: Ask your child to clap their hands when they hear particular sounds for the beginning sounds of words. Say “Listen for the beginning sound in words that begin like ball.” Then read a number of different words aloud and have your child clap only for the words that begin with b. The list of words you read may include, come, ball, mom, bat, man, people. Your youngster will be expected to clap for the words, ‘ball’ and ‘bat.’ Repeat this game with other beginning sounds such as m, p, s, and t.

3. Drawing Pictures: Have your child draw pictures of things that begin with a particular sound m (marbles, mat, milk, mom).

4. Naming Words: Invite your child to name things that begin like pot (pail, potato, party).

5. Alphabet Cans: Set out alphabet cans by labeling empty juice cans with letter/sound symbols. Ask your child to collect objects that begin with that sound and put them into the appropriate can. For example, your child puts a toy car in the can with the letter C on it and a pen into the can with the label P. Introduce a new letter every few days.

6. Going on a Trip: Play a game with your child by saying, “I’m going on a trip and I’m going to pack my suitcase with things that begin like apple.” Your child responds with the word animal; then your child names something that begins like ball and you guess, bun; you name something that begins like car and your child responds with the word cat: the game continues until all the letters of the alphabet are used.

7. Word Families: Make lists of words that have similar sound/symbol relationships: ‘at’ family (cat, mat, rat, fat, sat); ‘un’ family (run, bun, sun, fun). Have your child think of the words that go with each rhyming family.

8. Final Consonant Sounds: Use these same strategies above for making your child aware of the ending sounds in words.

Developing Phonics Knowledge Through Reading Material

Another way to introduce phonics concepts to your child is to connect phonics activities to literature your child hears and reads. When phonics activities relate to reading material with which your child is familiar (predictable literature, dictated stories, and sentence strips), phonics principles simply make more sense to them. Following are specific activities that will draw your child’s attention to phonics within the context of meaningful literary experiences. Start by focusing on activities dealing with their names but then introduce easily-recognizable letter/sound symbols (M, P, T, S), then move to other initial sound symbols (B, D, F), and then to somewhat more difficult sound/symbols (H, L, N, R), and finally to less frequently used sound symbols (V, W, X, Y, Z). Reserve special minilessons to deal with letters that have more than one sound (C, G, J, K). Introduce initial sound first, then make your child aware of final consonants before addressing middle consonants. Introduce vowels (A, E, I, O, U) once your child is familiar with consonants. Consider the following strategies for introducing children to consonants and vowels:

1. Names: Once your child recognizes letters in their names, draw attention to these sounds in other words in titles of books, in predictable pattern literature, in dictated sentences and stories, on signs around the home and neighborhood. Then have your child become aware of the initial sounds in names of their family, pets, and friends. Invite them to choose the name of a family member and find words with the same beginning sounds in stories and on signs around the house and neighborhood.

2. Alphabet Books: At first, read alphabet books for enjoyment. But then have your child pay particular attention to certain letters that have easily distinguishable sounds such as M, P, T, and S. Invite your child to name all the items that begin with these letter/sounds in the alphabet book. When reading other alphabet books, introduce a new initial letter/sound each day. With your child read names of items in the books beginning with those particular letter/sounds together emphasizing particular initial sounds.

3. Pattern Literature: After reading familiar predictable pattern selections a number of times to your child, play “I Spy” by having your child find words that begin with the same sound as the letter you name (B, D, F).

4. Word Cards: Have your child sort their word cards on their word chains according to initial sound/symbols they know: find all the words that begin with the letter R as in roll (rake, rabbit, run); find all the words that begin with N as in not (new, numbers, no, nine). Find words that begin with the letter M as in mat, D as in donut, G as in Grandma and Grandpa, etc.

5. Dictating Stories and Sentences: Have your child point to letter/sounds they know in words in old familiar sentence strips and have them name the letter and the sound it makes.

• Spelling: When recording new dictated sentences and stories, ask your child to name letters they know to help with the spelling of words.

6. Alphabet Posters: Invite your child to make alphabet posters using letters and sound symbols they know (H, N, L, R). They can draw or cut-out pictures of things that begin with certain letter/sounds they recognize. For example, at the top of a page make the initial letter H. Then ask your child to draw or find pictures of things beginning with that letter. Once they have glued their pictures on, help them label each item.

7. I Spy: Play “I Spy” around the house for words and items they see. You start by saying, “I spy something that begins like the word, telephone.” Then list all these things your child can see onto a chart (table, tack, tape, toys).

8. Poetry: Read poetry selections with rhyme to your child and have them guess the rhyming words at the end of each line. Children love doing this with poems in the book Alligator Pie (Dennis Lee, 1987); Good Night (Jan Pienkowski, 1999), Bugs for Lunch, (Margery Facklam, 1999); Who’s Sick Today? (Lynne Cherry, 1988); and The Day the Goose Got Loose (Reeve Lindbergh, 1990).

9. Word Families: Choose words found in familiar poetry and songs and create word families. For example, in the poem “Alligator Pie,” make word families for the word pie (die, lie, tie); in “The Day the Goose Got Loose,” make word families from the word, child (mild, wild).

We hope you and your child have fun with these activities. Please contact me if you have questions.

Sincerely,

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