Phonics: Beginning Blends

Here is a listing of beginning blends. If you make your own phonics program(s), these will come in handy in generating words, insha Allah for your lessons.

l blends           r blends         s blends             3-letter blends

bl-                     br-                      sc-                      scr-
cl-                     cr-                      sk-                      spl-
fl-                      dr-                      sm-                     spr-
gl-                     fr-                       sn-                      squ-
pl-                     gr-                      sp-                      str-
sl-                     pr-                      st-
                          tr-                       sw-

Source: http://coe.sdsu.edu/people/jmora/PhonicsSequence.htm

Fast Phonics Lesson Making Tip:

I’m sure this is pretty obvious, but when I am making up content for our lessons, one of the main things that is needed are word lists. To quickly make words for student to read based upon the target sound (sure you can find lists in abundance on the computer but there may be those times when your internet is not cooperating, etc and making your own lists is a necessity):

 

1. Go through the alphabet in order, letter by letter, and attach each consonant to your phoneme (e.g. ay, ea) to see if it makes a word.

2. Attach each word blend above in order, to your phoneme to see if it makes a word.

By doing this in an orderly fashion as above, you can quickly generate a sizeable amount of words to use in your phonics lessons.

 

Using the Blends in Student Activities

You can also give your student the blends list and have him/her attach each blend to the target phoneme to see if it make a word.  Variation: Print/write each blend on a card. Take a card with your target phoneme on it and have student put the phoneme and each blend together to try to make a word. If the result is a word, student writes it. 

 

Beginning Blends Cards

Download Beginning Blends Cards

 

Tomorrow, insha Allah, my remedial phonics routine………….

 

Soft C/Hard C Sound

A few resources I put together for distinguishing between when c says /s/ and when it says /k/.

Mini Lesson (explanation of rule and an exercise)

Hard C/Soft C Word Sort

Search for C (student looks in books, labels, etc. for words with the letter c and tells what sound the c makes).

 

Phonics – C/CK/K resources

Here are a few things I put together for the sound of k (c, k, or ck)

Gameboard of ck words:

• la_phonics_gameboard_ck

Worksheet for practice determing whether a word ends with ck or k. Explains the rule as well.

• ends-with-ck-or-k1

Worksheet and gameboard with rule explanation of when to begin a word with c or k.

• start-c-or-k

 

Sample Phonics Teaching Routine

Here’s a more detailed outline of a sample Phonics teaching routine than in the previous post on this topic. If its too much for one session, you can break it up.

1. Review

Letters

• • Recite the alphabet (point and say) in order
  • Recite alphabet in order without looking
  • Random letter recognition drill (write several letters and have student tell the name and sound)
  • Random dictation of letters, student writes (upper and lowercase)
  • Sequencing (cards), what letter comes next? before? between?

Sounds

• • Given a phonogram, give its sound (flashcards, quiz game format)
  • Read one word for each phonogram learned with that phonogram in it (or select just a few phonograms)

This review can be done before the main lesson or saved for later in the day.

 

2. New Learning

• Introduce new phonogram and its sound
• Give list of words with the phonogram to read (underline new phonogram in each word; teacher can read first, then student, or have student initially read the list)
• Word Drills: Provide a table of the words in the list repeated over and over in random order for student to read (or place words on steps written on the board, student must read each word (one per step) to advance towards the top.
• Have student read the new words in sentences (teacher created sentences)

3. Optional: Sight words

• Review past sight words
• Give new words
• Give student sentences with new phonogram sound and new and old sight words

4. Practice (Assign as many of the following activities as desired)

• Have student put new words in abc order
• Have stuent sort words by # of letters in words
• Have student fill in the blanks of sentences with an appropriate new word (for younger students: give student a choice of two words that can fit)
• Have student read word and draw a picture
• Have student look at picture and write correct word
• Play Spelling Stairs (write words on stairs and student reads (same thing as the word drills)
• Play Bingo
• Play Tic Tac Toe putting words on the spaces, student must read words to make a move
• Clue game (give student a clue for one of the words in the list, student IDs and writes the word that fits the clue)
• Write the new words in sentences.
• Unscramble sentences with the new words.

5. Grammar (optional)

Find a grammatical concept related to the words and teach (.e.g. your list has a lot of adjectives in them).

6. Wrap Up

Ask student what sound new phonogram makes, read new words again

7. Independent Practice

• Assign more activities from number 4 above
• If alphabetical order is in need of reinforcing, do spelling stairs (student writes):

a

ab

abc

abcd

etc

8. Reading

• Do assisted reading with student sometime during the day; student reads, teacher helps; check comprehension orally.

 

You can use a modified version of this for teaching Arabic, too, insha Allah.

 

Short Vowel Phonics Board Games

I made up a few board games for my six year old who is working on the short vowels a, i, and o.

Short vowel a CVC words

Short vowel i CVC words

Short vowel o CVC words

Insha Allah, as we go along, I’ll be making more games/activities to post.