Reading Buddies Update

Earlier this week, I sent home a "Growing Readers" newsletter to all the Reading Intervention students. This message, however, is specifically for first grade families. I am sending it to families of students I see three times a week, and of students with whom I check in on a regular basis just to keep them growing in confidence as readers.

I love teaching first grade reading intervention because the growth for six and seven-year-olds is amazing. This is a year when sounds and squiggles connect and become words, and words become stories. If this hasn't happened for your child yet, it will...and it's thrilling!

Take time to read to your child each day, and before long, they will try to read with you, or to you. Take trips to the library, or find books online. Read cereal boxes and comic strips. Have fun!

This newsletter, focuses on specific review activities based on what happens in small group sessions. I will share some slides and games students can practice at home, and I'll include copies of some books your child can re-read to you. I hope this is useful to you and fun for the whole family!

In September, we played a lot with rhymes. Knowing how to create and identify rhymes is an important pre-reading skills. At this point, most students are competent at this skill, but enjoy the practice.

Here is a slide show from class, to give you an idea of how we have been practicing. You'll see that it not only is useful for hearing sounds but also for developing vocabulary.

Here is a matching game which students can practice on their own, too.

Next, students practice saying the beginning sound of words.

This is NOT the beginning letter...not yet. The different between "mat" and "cat" is that one begins with the /m/ sound, and the other with the /k/ sound. Knowing how sounds are different from letters will help students shift to blending letters into words later down the line.

Here is a game I made for matching pictures which begin with the same sound.

This is a slideshow for practicing beginning letters and sounds.

Below, there is a phonics song for practicing the letters and the sounds they make.

Many of our first grade reading intervention students are still working on hearing the ending sounds.

This is a little bit different from hearing a rhyme.

• "Camp" and "ramp" rhyme.
• "Cap" and "Ramp" do not rhyme, but they have the same ending sound.

Readers learn to hear the difference, and eventually to match those sounds with letters.

Below is a way to practice hearing ending sounds.

Some of our first grade intervention students are working on hearing the middle short vowel sound.

We love to sing out the words and stop on the vowel to hear what sound is made when your mouth is open.

"CAAAAAAAAT"--- a

"HUUUUUUUUUUG" ---u

Then, we try to sing the sound in our heads and just say the vowel sound alone.