Teaching and learning phonics can be fun!!

Below are excerpts from an old textbook that are good examples of the phonics methods that are used regularly in the Reading Window program.

What if the child(ren) don’t seem to enjoy this style of phonics after all? Look for the [? What If ?] section below.

The green words are what I’ve added to the old textbook excerpt:

Remind the children that the sound for sh is the sound they hear at the beginning of shout and shovel. Tell the children that you are going to say some words. Some words will have the sound for sh at the beginning of the word, and some will not. Tell the children that they should clap their hands when they hear a word that begins with the sound for sh. Tell them to listen carefully. While saying the following list of words, emphasize but do not isolate the beginning sound:*

shop, hat, shoe, cow, shovel, boat

*In all listening discrimination activities, it is important to emphasize but not isolate the target sound. This suggestion will not be repeated in subsequent activities.

Tell the children to listen very carefully as you say some more words. Ask the children to clap when they hear a word that begins with the sound for sh. Before or after the clapping for each word, be sure to talk about and have fun with the meaning of the word.

shell, cheese, shout, chicken, ship, chip, chop, cheap, sheep, short, shiny, sharp

On a different day, remind the children that the sound for sh can also come at the end of a word – as in wish and rush. Tell the children that you are going to say some words. Some words will have the sound for sh at the end of the words, and some will not. Tell the children to clap their hands when they hear a word that ends with the sound for sh.

fish, hat, cow, dish, push, trash

Tell children to listen very carefully as you say some more words. Ask the children to clap when they hear a word that ends with the sound for sh.

wish, rich, wash, much, fresh, bench, dish, such, push

One of my changes is “ship” to “shout” because “shout” is a more interesting and meaningful word to small children. A “shout” can be fun to experiment with. For example, how loud a voice is a “shout” outdoors, but how loud a voice would be called a “shout” indoors.

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What if the child(ren) don’t seem to enjoy this style of phonics after all? As in almost all Reading Window School activities, if the child(ren) seem to be struggling instead of enjoying this, praise them for trying, and shorten that activity. You’ll need to think of a different, easier approach (or phone or e-mail me for alternate suggestions).

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