Happy COLD New Year!

Flashlight Friday was a hit!

The students pulled out their book boxes, found a comfortable place 

to sit in the room,

and enjoyed the fun of reading a good book!

As the year goes on, the students are working to add

more strategies to assist them when they are 

'stuck on a word.'

The old 'sound it out' strategy just doesn't work.

Try sounding out 'enough' or 'because'

The first strategy that the students learned was to 

use their 'Eagle Eye.'  The students are encouraged

to look at the pictures to help them figure out an unknown

word.  For example a little girl was reading to me

about a cat who was sleeping on a _____.'

She didn't know the word couch, but she could look

at the picture and be successful in knowing that the

word would match the picture.

Once the students know the sounds made by individual 

alphabet letters, they work on the 'Lips the Fish' strategy.

If the picture looks like a dog, but the word starts with

a /w/, the students are encouraged to say the sound...and 

perhaps find out that the word was 'wolf.'

Stretchy the snake helps the students stretch out the

sounds of the letters and then put them together to make a word.

It would look like this:

/s/......./a/......./t/

/s/.../a/.../t/

/sat/

Before Christmas break we were focusing on CVC words

three letter words that start with a consonant, have a vowel in the

middle and end with another consonant.

They would be words like /cup/. /mat/. /bed/. van/. /red/

In the new year the students are now practicing using the

strategy of 'chunking the word parts' with Chunky Monkey.

This would be the closest strategy to sounding it out.

The students are now working on the Phonics Dance for

Hunks and Chunks.  This program was developed by Ginny Dowd.

Here's the first two we learned /sh/ and /ch/

SH ...sh, sh, sh. with fingers to the lips

CH...ch, ch, ch with chicken wings!!

There are two sounds for /th/

Once is made with the tongue behind the teeth and one with the tongue between

the teeth.  We say 'That is a thorn and this is a thistle' so that both are made.

WH wh, wh, wh

It's a question word....who, what, when, where, why and which!

(By the way, /sh/ /ch/ th/ and /wh/ are all digraphs....you'll hear

that term as your kiddos get older!)

OW makes two sounds as well.

Here the students are using their fingers to make the /o/ and the /w/

and then they make a fist and hit the other hand to say 'ow!'

They do the same actions but then say the long sound of O (it's own name)

and make their fingers be snowflakes as they chant "Let it snow!"

It's difficult to get clear pictures in the gym, but the kiddos loved

being joined by some Grade Four students as they are learning how

to skip.  They are learning the 'bounce-bounce' pattern of skipping

There's a lot to remember....keep the hands out, keep the back straight,

keep the feet together, and bounce twice between each turn of the rope!

A few are starting to get it!!

Here was our proud boy showing off what he brought for

our 'We Belong' sharing activity today.  He is a member of the

Green Lanterns Soccer team!