How to Use Teaching Aids for Phonics
An understanding of phonics is essential to learning how to read. Phonics are the building blocks that lay the foundation. If you know phonics, you can figure out how to read short words such as "cat" and "dog," or even tackle those long dinosaur names like "edmontosaurus."
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Flashcards
- Sandpaper Letters
- Alphabet cards or blocks
- Objects
- Pictures
- Easy readers
Instructions
-
Introducing the Phonetic Alphabet
-
1
Start the child with phonetic education, by first teaching him the sounds that each of the letters make. Avoid confusion by not introducing the name of each letter until he has mastered its sound. For example, many children think the letter "c" says "s" or the letter "y" says "w" because those are the sounds at the beginning of the letter's name. Also introduce the short sounds of the vowels before the long sounds and combinations. Short vowels are "a" as in "ant," "e" as in "elf," "i" as in "itch," "o" as in "octopus," and "u" as in "umbrella."
-
2
Implement as many senses as possible, because children learn best this way. Purchase or make a set of sandpaper letters. Introduce the sound as you guide the child's hand along the letter. Let him practice tracing the letter as he makes the sound. He can then also practice tracing and saying the sounds as he traces the letter in rice, sand, shaving cream or finger paint. Visual learners may also benefit from practicing with flashcards.
-
-
3
Have the child practice hearing sounds within words once the child demonstrates recognition of the letter sounds. Have him sort objects and/or pictures by their beginning sounds. Later he can practice sorting them by middle sounds, and finally by their ending sounds.
-
4
Play games with sounds to further auditory training. Play "I Spy" using either a controlled group of objects or pictures, or items in the room. Read nursery rhymes and rhyming stories, such as those by Dr. Seuss. Sing songs. Read books that focus on a particular sound.
Putting Sounds Together
-
5
Start blending sounds with the child once she shows an understanding of beginning, middle, and ending sounds. Practice auditory blending by isolating each sound: "c-a-t says cat". Visually demonstrate this by pulling out the sandpaper letters, spreading them out across the work area as you say their sounds, then slowly push them together as you say the sounds faster and faster.
-
6
Provide a moveable alphabet for the child to phonetically spell with when she is ready for independent practice. Ideally she should use wooden or plastic letters that are the cutout shapes. Magnetic letters can also work, but it is preferable that she use the lower-case ones. Later she can move to the move abstract letters on cards to practice spelling. Other spelling materials also exist, such as Unifix cubes with letters, three-letter word puzzles, and step boards.
-
7
Allow the child to practice spelling words on her own. You can also provide her with simple phonetic words in the form of objects or pictures. The beginning words should be consonant-vowel-consonant (c-v-c) words (mat, sit, hop, bed, tub).
-
8
Start work in simple phonetic readers at this point. Series by Scholastic, or the Bob Books are great for emergent readers to practice sounding out phonetic words. They will also start to introduce some of the high frequency and sight words that must be learned in conjunction with phonics to develop a strong reader.
-
9
Introduce your child to the phonograms as she grows in confidence with the c-v-c words. These include consonant blends and digraphs, and vowel digraphs and diphthongs. Introduce them one at a time, using lists and word families. She should practice labeling and spelling pictures and do word sorts. Continue moving through various early reader series.
-
1
