Love Learning

How to Teach SnapWords (Sight Words with Pictures) to Your Child

A question we are asked a lot is, "So now that I have the SnapWords cards, what do I do next? How do I use them to teach my child his sight words?" Here are some tips for making your sight word time fun, low key, and without any pressure. The approach is to enjoy looking at the words together. You can be confident that your child WILL learn and will learn easily, so your own confidence in him will fuel his success. This is critical.

Some key points:

• When you introduce the words, always TELL her what the word says instead of making her guess. This is critical because if she is looking at a picture and says the wrong word, that wrong word will be stuck in her head.
• Don’t go through the whole stack at one sitting, but rather, choose a small group of words (see this suggested sequence of words to follow). 
• With each word you read, refer to the back of the card with her to read the sentence to her and do the body motion together. She will see the word embedded in the image, hear herself saying it, do a body motion that reflects the meaning of the word, and finally use it in a sentence so she will think about what the word means. This is complete and truly multisensory learning.
• When you have talked about the pictures on your group of words, go through the cards another time, this time asking her if she remembers each word.
• Those sight words that she remembers, applaud, and lay to one side – these are her friends. Those sight words that she doesn’t know instantly, keep in your hand. Make a game out of “making friends” out of the words.
• Once she can whip unhesitatingly through the 10-12 cards you are working with, tell her there is a new game. This time, you are going to look at the backs of the cards to see if she can read the words without the pictures. Again, you are looking for cards/words that are her new friends – ones she can read instantly.
• Don’t rush, no pressure. Her progress will speed up the more you work on this together.
• Play the games in the booklet of activities that comes with any order of 607, 306 or 301 SnapWords cards or that's available for free on our website.  
• Try to pay close attention to her attention span. If she is starting to seem bored or like she’s had enough, stop immediately and leave it for another time. SHORT lesson time is better.

These are just a few basic tips for using the SnapWords™ sight word cards. What games or activities have you done with them?

Teaching Prepositions Unforgettably

In a previous post we designed some lessons for teaching prepositions of location in ways that allowed children to act out their learning, manipulate objects as they learned, and then draw and/or make cut outs to show their understanding of prepositions of location. (Ex: “The cat is ON the table,” or “The boy crawled UNDER the porch.”)

Today we are going to do a similar planning session with prepositions of time. These are not as concrete, so we are doing them now that the students are familiar with the prepositions of location.

About prepositions of time

These prepositions are words that have to do with time such as BEFORE, AFTER, and DURING. Example sentences include:

        We will play after lunch.

        He cleaned his room before dinner.

        They daydreamed during the speech.

        I’ve missed her since she left.

        She will wait until class begins.

Teaching prepositions of time

Sentences using prepositions of time can be acted out, but they are not as concrete as prepositions of location which can be shown by positioning two items relative each other like you would do if you were showing “The ball is ON the rug.”

1 - Use a timeline when teaching prepositions of time

You can make one timeline that is large enough for the class to see, and then have cut outs that divide the timeline into sections. Here we see breakfast, lunch and dinner. So if you are using this time line, your sentences can relate to time in relationship to the means.

        I packed my book bag before breakfast.

        I put my dishes into the sink after breakfast.

        I told jokes at lunch.

        We talked about going camping during lunch.

        Mom said I had to take a nap after lunch.

        I set the table for dinner.

Model for the class how to place a little figurine or doll on the timeline to correspond to each sentence.

2 - Follow-up

The children can make their own timelines using long strips of border paper and crayons.  Markers on a timeline could include days of the week, birthdays, seasons, day or night, hours of the day etc.

 

Another post about prepositions is a recent one where we provide practice in recognizing prepositional phrases and using them to help with reading fluency and comprehension.

How to teach prepositions so children will “get it”

Recently, we received a comment from a teacher that her students were having a hard time grasping the concept of prepositions: what they are and how they are used. Sounds like a topic for which images and hands-on activities will help turn on those mental lights!

Some background on prepositions

What does the word mean?

If we break the word into parts, we have PRE and POSITION. A preposition when used in a sentence is a word that is positioned before (pre) another word or phrase and relates directly to that second word.

Some examples.

The red word is the preposition; the italicized word is the word it refers to:

        He ran down the hill.

        She put it on the table.

        He hid behind Charles.

        We can play after lunch.

        The bird flew over the trees.

        We are in the house.

The picture I get in my head when thinking of how prepositions relate to other words is of one word orbiting the other like the moon does the earth.

Types of prepositions.

Location: under, over, in, by, between, upon, near, beneath, beside, inside, outside, below, etc. The word that follows the preposition is the central object such as in the sentence, “The runners sprinted across the river.”

Time: before, after, since, during, until, as, etc. These relate to a specific time such as in the sentence, “We will play before lunch.” Lunch is the central event… and playing will happen in relation to that event in time.

Teaching prepositions

Teaching prepositions will be greatly enhanced if you design lessons that require the children to move, to manipulate objects, or to draw pictures showing what the sentence is saying – preferably all three.

Start with Location Prepositions as the easiest for children to act out, see the action of, and to understand.

What you will need:

• Kids

• Huge empty box

• Cardboard strips with a few prepositions written on them: in, by, behind, beside, under

• Small plastic objects such as animals or fruit, counting frogs… anything like that

• Tiny containers that each toy will fit into

• Paper and coloring materials

 

1. Procedure – act it out:

If you have multiple children, write their names on popsicle sticks and put the sticks into a can. Without looking, choose one name. This will be your first guinea pig.

Choose one card and read the word. For example, BY.

Say, “Fred is BY the box.” Fred will act out what you are saying. He will go stand or sit by the box.

Choose another name and another card (for example, IN).

Say, Edith is IN the box.” Edith will respond by climbing in the box.

Continue this way until every child has had time to have a go at this exercise.

2. Follow-up – using representations:

Give each child a small toy and a small container.

This time as you choose a word, say the sentence and the children will act out the meaning using their manipulatives.

Example, you say, “The toy is IN the box” or “The toy is BEHIND the box.”

3. Next – drawing:

Write the prepositions on your whiteboard or put the word cards into a pocket chart so the children can see them.

Tell them they will get to choose one of the words and draw a picture that uses an object and that word they chose. Show them an example. Say you choose UNDER as your word. Draw a simple picture on the board of your object UNDER the box.

Now that you have modeled what you want, let the children have time to create their own images.

Share – let each child show his drawing and tell the group about what he did.

4. Glue objects:

For a take-home art project, you can supply the children with construction paper, scissors and glue and have them make their own project similar to the one in this illustration. Choose for yourself if you want the children to label their sections for themselves or if they are too young to do it for themselves. You could have just the preposition words in a word bank for them to copy as desired.

The round, red ball with the P on it is the little “moon” that is orbiting the orange box. Sometimes it is under the box, on, the box, by it, behind it, and finally in the box.

 

 

In our next posting we will talk about teaching prepositions that are related to time. Please post your comments about how your children do (brilliantly, I am positive!) and even send us photos of their projects. We will post them for you!

How to Teach Sight Words and Sound Spellings Using a Big Book Story

Something I discovered during my years as a classroom teacher is that it works so well to pre-teach specific sight words and sound spellings (phonics concepts) using a big book as the children are sitting around you on a rug. Rather than jumping right in and reading the story to them or with them, pre-teach and give them the lay of the land ahead of time. Doing this will help the focus concepts jump off the page and reading the story will be more successful.

Following is one way to teach sight words and sound spellings using a big book. We are going to use the story A Moose Is Loose, and the mini-lessons will last for a week because there are so many concepts to teach in this story!

 

A snapshot of the concepts taught from this story  

Long U and OO spellings:

OO – moose, loose, scoop, troop, rooting, hoot, snoozing, roosting, soon.

EW – newspaper, flew, crew, knew, stew, new.

OE – shoes, canoe.

O – to, do.

-UE – cue, blue, glue.

UI – suit, fruit, cruise.

Compound Word – Newspaper

Adding –ING – rooting, roosting, snoozing

Sight Words – By the time the children get to this story, they will have already learned and practiced all the sight words in List B, so it is a matter of reviewing and searching for the words that appear in this story.

Words included in List B:

am, ask, be, cut, got, him, into, its, let, run, us, yes, away, from, funny, may, must, of, put, say, that, them, they, went, any, fly, just, last, many, she, show, than, try, what, when, why, ate, fast, good, our, pull, saw, sing, then, too, took, who, with, about, all, eat, gave, new, read, still, take, tell, work, your

 

Basic Procedures

Day 1, introduce the book title page and ask the children what they think the story is going to be about based on the title.

Next, display this chart.

Tell the children you are going to be looking for words that have the OO sound as in the word MOO! But there are different ways to spell that sound, so each day when you read the book together you will be hunting for a particular sound. When you have found the words that match that sound spelling, you will write them on the chart.

Day 1, hunt for OO and O words. You can use colored film to put over those words in the big book so they will stand out nicely when you read.

Day 2, search for EW words and even during other times of the day when you find another EW word, add it to the chart.

Day 3, add the OE words.

Day 4, add UI words.

Day 5, add UE words.

 

Follow-up Activities

Days 1- 2, practice adding -ING to words such as RUN, SNAP, FAN, PLAN, SLAM, CHAT, TAP, and CLAP. Say that if you just stuck the -ING on the end of the word, the I would reach around and pinch the vowel, making it yell its name (FAN would become FANING, PLAN would become PLANING, etc.), so you have to double the final letter.

Days 3- 4, add -ING to these words: name, tame, flame, rake, wake, wait, yank, tramp, call, salt, etc. These words either already have a Pinchy E making the first vowel long, OR they have two consonants at the end of the word that prevent the I in -ING from pinching them. So NAME becomes NAMING (remove the final e), TAME becomes TAMING, BLAME becomes BLAMING, CAMP becomes CAMPING, FALL becomes FALLING, etc.

Day 5, practice compound words. Break up the following compound words into single words and write each word on an index card. Write words that begin a compound word in one color and words that end the word in another color (example: AIRPORT becomes AIR PORT). Here are the words: anyone, baseball, bedroom, cookbook, daylight, dugout, football, forever, itself, into, inside, indoor, himself, homework, hilltop, herself, haircut, jellyfish, maybe, myself, nobody, outside, rainfall, rosebud, sailboat, seashell, seesaw. Have the child use the cards to put small words together to make compound words. Of course each compound word they make will have one red word and one blue one.

 

Example page from Day 1 when you are highlighting OO spellings

On the following days, you would add colored film to the words that contain the sound spellings you are focusing on.

After reading, talk about the plot. What would the children have done had they been the newspaper reporter who was called on to help with the animals that got loose? What solution would they have created? It would be fun for the children to WRITE an alternate solution. They can use the words in this story as references for spelling.

Most of all, have fun with the story and for sure, love learning!

Q: My child struggles with the concepts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. How can I explain these to him?

A: When teaching these concepts to young children, it helps to be as visual and tangible as possible. Until a child has learned firsthand what the passing of time entails, saying, “Tomorrow we will go outside and throw snowballs” means very little.

Download Yesterdaytodaytomorrow to give your child a visual explanation of what these words mean.

1. Use the visual.

Tell your child that the boy and girl in the image are on a picnic today, right now. Point out the clothes the boy is wearing. Talk through what you do at the end of the day. You brush your teeth after dinner, etc., and then you get tucked into bed to sleep. When you wake up in the morning, you put on different clothes (point out the clothes the boy is wearing and remark that they are clean clothes, not the ones he wore before he slept last night.) Everything that tomorrow will contain has not happened yet. It comes right after you wake up from tonight’s sleep!

Go back to the picnic scene. Point out the night time circle that says “I slept last night.” Then draw attention to the circle for yesterday in which the boy is playing with blocks and say, “Yesterday, I played with blocks. I already did that. I wore brown pants and a green shirt. They got kinda dirty, so when I was getting ready for bed, I put those clothes in the dirty clothes basket."

Review: point to the yesterday scene and say “On that day, I played with blocks. I already played with blocks. Then I went to bed and slept. I got up this morning and put on a green shirt and purple shorts and today, I had a picnic!

Tonight I am going to get into my pjs and brush my teeth and go to sleep. Tomorrow when I get out of bed, I want to wear an orange shirt and green pants and play in the snow. I haven’t done it yet, but I will do it tomorrow after I wake up!”

2. Act it out.

Practice over time reviewing the three terms. Instead of throwing the play clothes into the hamper, lay them on a chair until your child gets up in the morning. When he dresses the next morning, say “Today you can wear these clean clothes. Yesterday you wore those. They are dirty, so we need to wash them.” Talk about what your child did yesterday and even let him draw a picture of what he did. Later in the day, have your child pick some clothes to wear tomorrow. He will be wearing what he wore TODAY. Point to the dirty clothes he already wore YESTERDAY, and then identify the clean clothes he is going to wear TOMORROW.

Use terms consistently for each time frame. “I already did” goes well with “yesterday”. “I’m going to” goes well with “tomorrow.”“I am...” goes well with today. 

How to Make Flashcards That Truly Help Right-Brained Learners

Flash cards are NOT created equal. Where they get a bad rap is when they are used for trying to drill and cram for a test, using stark, boring memorization. The outcome of this sort of study varies wildly from child to child. When I was in school, I was somehow able to “memorize” content this way for tests – but honestly? Usually, the minute my brain spilled its crammed contents out onto the test page, my memory was wiped clean. Or take the times I got to a test thinking I was well prepared, only to glaze over, leaving me staring at a blank test paper.

Some common uses for flashcards include:

• Learning new vocabulary words and their meanings

• Learning facts for a history test

• Learning Biology terms

• Learning philosophers and their signature area of belief

• Learning prominent English monarchs

• Learning the Roman emperors and what they were known for

A commonplace flashcard will have one item on the front and the matching factoid(s) on the reverse side. This is so you can try and recall the factoid first, and can flip the card over to see if you got the answer right.

Here is an illustration of a boring flashcard. 

This one is about Trajan, a Roman Emperor, and some facts about him. The question becomes, how do I group those particulars around the name Trajan, when I am also learning about Tiberius or Augustus or Caligula, and their cronies? This is the failing of normal flashcards. You still have to somehow relate all the facts together and recall them when needed.

Here is an illustration of a fun flashcard. 

This card uses the same facts, but since we used images and a body motion (hand on ones heart to signal Trajan’s kindheartedness) it becomes super easy to remember the name and what goes with it. Dacia was a rich country that was found north of the Danube River. On this card, you can plainly see the roads and bridge that Trajan built, the bank holding the funds for the poor, and his prominent heart reminding us of his kind heart. Note that the a’s in Trajan became his eyes while the j became his nose.

If your child is an active learner, engaging his hands in making his own flashcards will do wonders. Anyone can draw stick figures and also little symbols that are visual reminders of the content. A visual learner will remember the image on the card intact as though his brain snapped a picture of the content. Best of all, he will later be able to recall it intact also!

How Can I Help My Child Recognize Sight Words in Books?

The debate between teaching sight words or not teaching them

A vast number of children have a lot of trouble just recognizing high frequency words. The reason this constitutes a serious problem is because Dolch Words or high frequency words constitute a high percentage of the words children encounter in reading (for example, up to 88% of the text in Dr. Seuss books are Dolch words).

The debate about whether or not to emphasize sight word recognition rages on. Those who are against teaching sight words say that once children are expected to read more advanced text, they will be out of luck. They will hit a wall and no longer be able to read. Those who favor teaching sight words to children believe that teaching high frequency words will jump start the reading process, especially for those who struggle to read.

I fall into the latter camp. But I don’t just believe in helping children memorize words and be able to call them on sight. Word calling is not really reading. Child1st has close to 400 high frequency words stylized for easy learning and recall. The images embedded in each sight word on the SnapWords™ cards appeal to the right brainers among us, while the plain word under the image is geared for the left hemisphere of the brain. Thus, the SnapWords™ serve to “marry” the hemispheres in the brain, which makes learning easier for right-brained learners who benefit from multisensory approaches to learning.

The design of our SnapWords™ emphasizes comprehension, correct usage, and word recognition. The image conveys both the name of the word and what it means. The sentence on the reverse of the card models how to use the word correctly within a sentence. In addition, the suggested body motion helps kinesthetic learners store away the words in a way that appeals to their learning style.

What if my child reads the stylized words, but cannot read the plain words?

This is a concern of some who see our stylized words and fear that the image will actually become a crutch to their children. I can understand this concern, and it is for this reason that I want to share some ideas for how to transition your child from reading stylized sight words to reading those same words without the pictures.

    1.    Provide many opportunities for your child to see both the stylized word and the plain word together. Each time the child selects a card, he should also say the word.

            a.    Play Match Up. Have your child select about 10-12 cards from the sight word list you are working on. Let her arrange them face up on the table or floor. Write those same words on plain index cards. Have your child lay those words out all mixed in with the SnapWords™ cards. When you say, “On your mark, get set, GO” your child will pick up a stylized sight word and then quickly locate the plain card of the same word.

            b.    Play Memory. Using the same cards you used in the first game, shuffle the sets together and then lay the index cards face down on the table and the SnapWords™ cards face up. Your child will select a SnapWords™ sight word card and will try and guess which index card matches it. If the cards match, he will keep the pair. If the card does not match the SnapWords™ card, have him put the index card back, face down. Have him then select another set. Play continues until he has found all the pairs.

            c.    Play Making Pairs. Use a pocket chart if you have one. Take the stylized sight word cards and arrange them in the pocket chart, or let your child do it. Then give her the stack of index cards. She will take the first plain word card and match it to the corresponding sight word card in the pocket chart. Just have her put the plain word in front of the matching stylized card. When she has finished, she can remove the index cards and shuffle them. She can then rearrange the SnapWords™ cards in the pocket chart and repeat the game until she can get faster and faster at matching up the words.

    2.    Provide many opportunities for your child to see first the stylized word and then the plain word. Each time the child selects a card, he should also say the word.

            a.    Play Weakest Link. Display a group of SnapWords™ cards your child selects from the list of sight words you are working on.

Talk about each word and then explain to your child that you are going to have as a goal that she be able to read all the words without even needing the pictures anymore. Explain to her that her brain will remember the images even after she’s not looking at the picture words any longer. As you say each word together, ask her to close her eyes and “see” the word in her mind. Next, let her point to each word and say it by herself. Finally, ask her to study the group of words. Which card would she say is the one she knows best of all? Let her turn over the word she has chosen and read the plain side.

Now, quickly point to words in random order, including the plain word and let her tell you what they say. Continue until you have turned every card to the plain side and she can still read them. If she stumbles over a word, just turn it back to the stylized side to give her a bit more time to transition.

            b.    Make short sentences using the stylized sight words. Make about 5-8 sentences and display them in a pocket chart. Some sentence ideas: “come down here,” or “play by me,” or “I can help,” or “he can make it” and so forth. (All these words are taken from our SnapWords™ List A). Give your child a pointer if you would like and ask him to read the sentences to you. When he seems very comfortable with reading each sentence, have him close his eyes. Turn over a card or two. Have him open his eyes and read to you again. This time, a couple of the words will be plain, but he should be just fine. If he has trouble, give him a brief look at the picture card side and then replace it in the pocket chart with the plain word showing. The goal of this game is to get all the words turned over and for him to still be able to read the phrases.

            c.    Match stylized phrases with plain ones. Using strips of index cards or stiff paper, write a short phrase on each strip, making sure you have the SnapWords™ cards that match the phrases. Arrange the SnapWords™ cards you need face up on the table by the pocket chart. Give your child the first phrase strip. Have her find the picture cards she will need to form that phrase in the pocket chart. Have her place the words in the same order that they appear on the sentence strip. She will then get to read you the phrase she made. Let her place the sentence strip in front of the phrase made from picture word cards.

Give her the next phrase strip and have her repeat the process. See if she can read you the plain phrases by the time she has placed all the phrases in the pocket chart. If she stumbles over a word, simply lift the plain phrase strip to let her peek at the stylized version underneath. Then replace the plain phrase strip.

            d.    Card Flip. A straightforward way to transition your child from stylized SnapWords™ to plain words is simply to sit by your child and read the picture cards first. Next, turn the SnapWords™ pack over so that the plain words are showing and see how many words your child recognizes on sight. These become HIS words and go in a stack of their own. The ones he does not recognize on sight will remain in another pile. Each day, before you read through the LEARN pack, review HIS words by having him read the plain sides. A nice prize is in order for learning all the words in a sight words list!

    3.    Provide many opportunities for your child to practice reading the sight words in real text. Be sure to keep the stylized SnapWords™ cards handy for a reference, though.

            a.    Our Easy-for-Me™ readers are especially designed to be used with the SnapWords™ sight words cards. The green set coordinates with SnapWords™ List A words. Before you read each story with your child, check the mini lesson included at the beginning so you will know how to prepare your child to read the book. Set aside the sight words cards that will be used in the story. These should be available to your child and visible as she reads. If she comes to a word she seems to be hung up on, rather than letting her guess wrong, simply point to the SnapWords™ card that shows the word she needs.

            b.    Use other books as well that contain the words he is working on. Select books from the library that have text that are sight word rich.

            c.    Use our Sight Words in Sentences book. This book is designed especially to give your child practice reading high frequency words as she learns them. See a sample here: Again, as she reads, be sure and have the SnapWords™ cards displayed for each of the words. If she runs into trouble, simply point to the word in the pocket chart that she needs in order to read her sentence.

Basically, I want to encourage you to let your child rely totally on the images as he is learning the words but remember, the goal is to get the child to the back of the cards to read the plain word as soon as possible. If you encourage him to practice visualization, this will also help. By this I mean, have him take a good look at the SnapWords™ image, and then close his eyes and see it in his mind to where he can describe what he is seeing to you. Then have him look at the back of the card to read the plain word. Subsequently, if he comes to a word he's visualized, don't make him wait too long to give him a hint of what the word is, but do try asking him if he can remember the picture that went with that word.

How to Teach a Right-Brained Learner to Recognize Sound Spelling Patterns

We’ve posted a lot of information on this blog about teaching right-brained, visual/spatial children to read, but some concepts bear retelling because they are so important. A right-brained learner needs so much to see all the material they are taught with a global view so they can find patterns in it. What follows are some ideas for teaching sound spelling patterns to right-brained learners. By the way, I taught all my students this way, as even the predominantly left-brained learners gained more from this approach than from concepts taught in isolation.

But first, I wanted to share a few links that might help as you teach your students to read. The first link is to a blog post that gives some ideas for helping children transition from stylized SnapWords™ sight word cards to unadorned high-frequency words in text. Next is a post that contains tips for teaching right-brained students to read and then a post on teaching the long vowel sounds in a story before having them attempt to read it. The last link I wanted to share is to a free booklet of activities to use in learning and reviewing SnapWords™. This booklet provides teachers and parents with plenty of ideas for not only recognizing high-frequency words, but also for comprehension and using them correctly in sentences and in writing.

We recently came out with a book called The Illustrated Book of Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns that details all the sound spellings in English. The lessons are done for you in the book, but the following might clarify how to teach using this approach.

Teaching sound spellings:

Let’s say you are going to tackle long A vowel sounds.

1.    On your whiteboard or chart paper, list the various spellings like this:

        a-e        ay        ai        a       

(Also, use pages 16-17 in Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns)

Tell the students that when they see these letters, they will know to say A (long sound of a).

2.    Under a-e write a few of the following words in a column so your students can see the pattern that is made of a-e in all the words:

    Face, lace, mace, pace, race,

    bade, fade, jade, made, wade,

    age, cage, page, rage, sage, wage,

    bake, cake, fake, lake, make, rake, take, wake,

    bale, dale, gale, hale, male, pale, sale, tale,

    came, tame, dame, fame, game, lame, name, same, tame,

    bane, cane, lane, mane, pane, sane, vane, wane,

    cape, gape, nape, tape,

    base, case, vase,

    ate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, mate, rate,

    cave, gave, pave, rave, save, wave,

    daze, faze, gaze, haze, maze, raze

3.    Have the children use their whiteboards. Tell them you are going to call out words that use the a-e pattern. Don’t mix them up. Start with the “ace” words and call them out one at a time--face, lace, etc.--using the collection of words above.

4.    Next have them start a new spelling. Tell them this one will be “ade.” Call out the ade words from the list above.

5.    Continue until you have done all the words listed above even if you break this into two sessions. The reason for including all those words is that they will learn most easily that this is a spelling pattern that occurs throughout our language and it will be easier for them to notice words that include a-e after having practiced.

6.    Do page 16 in the Sounds book by having them highlight in yellow only the letters a-e, nothing else. Read the sentences together and notice how the pictures illustrate the sentences. When you feel they are ready, have them use their whiteboards and you read one sentence at a time very slowly so they can write the target words (the ones in bold print). When they can do this pretty easily, tell them excitedly that you are going to bump up the difficulty level and you are going to mix up the words. Please do not use letter names or tell them the spellings of the words. Sound out the words and encourage them to sound out loud as they write them. I always made my students sound out loud no matter how old they were. It makes a huge difference for them.

WORDS for AY:

    Bay, day, gay, hay, jay, lay, may, nay, pay, ray, say, way, bray, clay, cray, gray, play,     pray, slay, spray, stay, stray, sway, tray.

(Point out that when the students hear long a at the END of words, it will be spelled AY.)

WORDS for AI: Also use page 17 in Sounds & Their Spelling Patterns.

    Aid, laid, maid, paid, raid

    Ail, bail, fail, hail, jail, mail, nail, pail, rail, sail, tail, wail

    Lain, main, pain, rain, vain, wain

    Bait, gait, wait

(Point out that when the students hear long a in the MIDDLE of words, it will be spelled AI.)

The exception to this is MAY-BE, however, the AY comes at the end of a syllable in that word.

This same rule applies to words with OI and OY. OI in the middle of words, OY at the end of words except LOY-AL and ROY-AL.

Be sure to do all this to give your right-brained learners a solid base before having them read the Easy-for-Me™ Books. When you are ready to introduce a story, scan the storyline with them to find their sight words (which you can post on the wall near where they are reading) and to locate words that use the long A spellings. If during reading they come to a sight word and hesitate, rather than letting them guess wrong, simply point to the stylized word as a prompt. In subsequent readings of the stories you could turn the SnapWords™ over so the backs of the cards are visible.

Fun and Easy Ways to Teach Very Young Children

I believe that the most successful learning takes place when an environment is prepared with such careful thought that when a child enters that environment, he automatically begins to absorb concepts without anyone instructing him and without even realizing that he’s learning. This kind of learning environment is perfect for any child but most of all for the very young.

Some specific elements work well to create a natural learning experience for little tots, a learning experience that is not only effective but is fun and easy for you as the teacher!

Song. If you want your little tot to learn a specific procedure (very important), put it to music. When I was little we used to sing “This is the way we wash our hands, wash our hands, wash our hands. This is the way we wash our hands so early in the morning.” You can replace “wash our hands” with whatever you are teaching at the moment. If you encourage the child to mimic what you are doing while you sing, you will be modeling for her how you do the particular job, and she will be practicing the skill as you sing.

Here are some tasks toddlers can do with you: “This is the way we stack our books.” “This is the way we make our bed.” “This is the way we pick up our shoes.” “This is the way we comb our hair.” “This is the way we dust the shelf.” “This is the way we pick up our blocks.” “This is the way we put on socks.” “This is the way we zip our coat.” “This is the way we feed the cat.” The list could go on forever.

Visuals. We’ve all heard that a picture is worth 1,000 words and wow is that true! A visual can convey so much in the time it takes a child to take a look. Pictures and images make use of visual memory where the picture and all its details are stored intact. Memorable images often can be recalled many years later in minute detail, carrying with them any learning concepts that were embedded in them. Combine a visual with song or story and you have a doubly effective teaching method.

As an example, the image here from I Can Sing from 1 to 10 shows the number 6, and there are groups of 6 objects to count in the same picture. The song that goes with this image relates the name “Six” to the picture as you sing “6 is a unicycle; watch me ride.” The visual also unforgettably conveys that 6 is made of two groups of 3. As you sing your way through the book, your child will learn the song that links number symbol to number name and will see the illustrations that go with the song, capturing not only the look of each number but the “how many” that each number represents.

Story. Stories can be considered childhood’s language. Children are natural storytellers, they think of their lives in terms of story. The story line or plot is the glue that holds all the elements of the story together. If you want your little one to remember a sequence of events or steps in a procedure, make up a story that links all the pieces together. Combine a story sequence with images to make an even more effective learning experience.  

Alphabet Tales is a great example of how to use story and visuals to convey “schoolish concepts” in a way that is friendly and age appropriate for the very young child. Try cuddling in a rocking chair with a toddler and talking your way through the stories in the book without making any attempt to teach him. Over time, he will have absorbed a lot of ideas about letters, their shapes and their sounds, but it will have been done in a way that is in sync with his developmental stage. For more details, see an example of a story taken from Alphabet Tales.

Touch. Very young children learn about the world through their senses—sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste. They pick up cues about natural characteristics of objects in their world; they learn about things that are soft or hard, heavy or light, smooth or rough, hot or cold, sweet or sour, and so forth. They learn about shape, what happens when you drop something, what “round” means and how round objects behave. They learn so much that becomes background for formal learning later in life. The richer the sensory background, the broader the store of prior knowledge and understanding the child will bring to school.

Because babies and toddlers tend to touch everything and put much of what they touch into their mouths, it's easy to find ourselves just rushing around snatching things from their hands or from their mouths. But this snatching reflex of ours must be tempered with a knowledge that the very young are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing at that age. They are using their senses to learn much about the world around them.

And because the very young rely so strongly on their senses, the richer their environment, the more they will learn. A rich environment is one that is full of accessible real things, not shiny plastic toys that play sounds, or ding, or rattle, or jump around. The child is a passive observer with these kinds of self-action toys. Better to give your child access to real objects even if it means picking things up interminably. Ideas include an empty laundry basket, some balls, blocks, a metal pan, a plastic bowl, spoons; you know, just “stuff” that is in the house. The laundry basket can become a car that carries some of the objects. If she puts balls into the basket and then pushes the “car” around, she will notice that balls roll around, that she will need to maneuver the basket around chairs or coffee table, and that if she runs into a table leg or wall she will need to back up and try a different angle of approach. If you give her access to your Tupperware drawer, she will undoubtedly make a mess but will also learn much about what fits into what, what various shapes feel like, etc.

Here is a picture of items my 3 year old great nephew selected from a kitchen drawer to play with. Three tiny foam balls added to the magic as he experimented with rolling the balls through the canning funnel and into the various containers here.

If you are introducing numbers and how many they are, try providing your child with groups of threes—three spoons, three stacking cups, three crayons, three little pebbles—just so she can get used to how many three is. She will find that she can hold 2 of the items in one hand and 1 in the other. This kind of unconscious learning will stand her in good stead when it is time for formal math concepts such as 1+2=3. She will have a background that is rich in understanding before starting her formal education.

These are just a few simple elements to include as you teach your child basic concepts in a developmentally appropriate way and prepare him for formal learning in school. Having said all this, I want to emphasize that the most significant preparation we can give our little tots is a close relationship with them—one in which they feel secure, cared for, and competent, as their emotional development will be the foundation of all other learning.

Hands-on Tips for Teaching Quotation Marks Usage

When I was teaching school, many of my second graders struggled with placing quotation marks in their writing. This first surprised and then puzzled me. I thought it was relatively obvious to discern which the spoken words were when I read. I didn’t have time to stop and figure this out. In retrospect, it seems that the difficulty for my students might have lain in the fact that when a child is reading a passage, he is speaking ALL of it. So there can be a bit of a challenge to separate words spoken by a character in the passage from those the child is speaking.

A tactile activity or a skit could help clear up some of this confusion.

Let’s use the version of the Little Red Hen story, as it is chock full of spoken words:

 

        Little Red Hen had seed.

 

        “Who will help me work?” said Little Red Hen.

        “Not I,” said Pig.

        “Not I,” said Cat.

        “Not I,” said Duck.

        “We want to play,” said they.

 

        Then Little Red Hen had wheat.

 

        “What can I do with this?” said Little Red Hen.

        “I will get help. I will call Duck, Cat, and Pig,” she said.

        Little Red Hen ran to Duck, Pig, and Cat.

        “I have wheat. Who will help me?” asked Little Red Hen.

 

        “Will you, Pig?” asked Little Red Hen.

        “No, not I,” said he.

        “Will you, Cat?” asked Little Red Hen.

        “No, not I,” said he.

        “Will you, Duck?” asked Little Red Hen.

        “No, not I,” said Duck. “We are busy.”

 

        So Little Red Hen did the work. Little Red Hen made bread.

 

        “That smells good!” said Duck, Cat, and Pig.

        “Is that for us?”

 

        “NO! Stop!” said Little Red Hen.

        “I did the work. You did the play. So I will eat this bread.”

        And so she did.

 

What you will need for this activity:

Four children to act it out. If four children are not available to you, let the child be the Little Red Hen and you speak the parts of the Duck, Pig, and Cat.

The above story without any quotation marks in it written on chart paper. You will supply the quotation marks with the child.

 

How to play:

Read the story to the child first. Ask her to identify the characters in the story. She would say, “Little Red Hen, Duck, Pig, and Cat.” Then tell her she will act the part of the Little Red Hen, and you will be the other characters.

Review the story, this time with the child looking at the words with you. You will read the first line: Little Red Hen had seed. Next let her know it is her turn to speak. Underline with her the words she will speak: Who will help me work?

Talk your way through the story, reading together, and talking about the words actually spoken by each of you, and then underlining the spoken words with your marker. Use one color for the words spoken by Little Red Hen and another color for the other characters. Doing this will provide a color-coded text and will highlight the spoken words.

When you get through the story this way, tell the child you can just act out the play again, just reading the words that are underlined. Doing this activity will show her visually the spoken words and as she sees them, she will also hear herself and you speaking those words.

Next, add quotation marks. Explain to the child that we use quotation marks to surround the words someone has said. A quote is a faithful repetition of the words someone spoke. Quotation marks tell the reader instantly that you are reading exactly what that character said. Insert quotation marks around Who will help me work? Have the child identify the next words that are spoken and let her insert the quotation marks. Continue like this until you have punctuated the whole story.

This activity will not only help the child understand what quotation marks mean, but it will help her in reading other text. Best of all, her writing will reflect her understanding of how to use correct punctuation with conversation.