Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Preschool: A Closer Look - Spelling With Scrabble Tiles

I was going to wait a while until I started any kind of spelling with Trevor, but he knows what sound each of the letters make, so I thought we'd give it a shot!  Tim had the idea of putting the letters of a word scrambled up in front of him and see if he could put them in the right order by sounding it out.  I liked the idea, so we got out the Scrabble tiles and this is what we did...

I went to the spelling list in Writing Road to Reading and picked out three words that are similar and very simple.  I chose "Go," "No," and "So."  I got out the appropriate tiles and laid them out in front of Trevor.


I asked him to try to spell the word "Go" by putting each sound together.  He did a good job. It was by no means simple for him and he needed some coaching along the way, but I thought it was a great first try at spelling!  I had to teach him the "rule" that when a vowel is at the end of a word you use the its long sound.  I am not so great at spelling or the rules that go with it, so forgive me if I don't have this rule quite right, I'll have to read up on them before I get to teaching him too much!



He went through and spelled out each word.  Then I would say one of the words and have him point to it and other times I would point to a word and have him say what it was.  This was definitely difficult for him, but I think he was up for the challenge!


When we were finished we read the book Go, Dog. Go! and I had him read the word "Go" each time we came to it.  I think he really enjoyed being able to participate in the reading process.


Do you have any fun ways to teach early reading?

2 comments:

  1. Hey, I found your blog on the babywise blog! :) Just wanted to share some quick simple 'rules' we used when I was a kindergarten teacher!
    1. If there is one vowel in a word, it usually says its short sound, and we mark it w/a smile. (cup, top, sit, etc.)
    2. If there are 2 vowels in a word, the first one says its long sound and the second one is silent. (tree, home, like, etc.)
    We also sounded out words from left to right using blends. (c-u, cup; I know a lot of programs learn word endings: c-up) I HIGHLY recommend the 6 steps to reading from Abeka book, no matter what 'curriculum' you actually use to teach reading/spelling. :) I enjoy looking at your blog...I have an almost 20 month old, so I'm getting ideas on things to start w/him in a few months. :)

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  2. Jessie, thanks for stopping by! Those are great, simple rules, I'll have to write those down.

    Honestly I'm a pretty terrible speller, so I'm looking forward to learning a thing or two as I prepare to teach my children!

    That makes sense about sounding out from left to right, otherwise you'd probably be tempted to put another vowel sound with the first consonant (cuh-up), right?

    I'm glad you are enjoying my blog =) I know I love getting ideas from other people, too!

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