Today was our first day back to reading lessons after Christmas break. My darling 1st grader "K" was being very resistant to reading any words out-loud. (Happens sometimes.) So I improvised with the ABC Beginners Cards to get her interacting with me. :)
First I grabbed a piece of 12x12 cardstock and drew the words and boxes with markers. I set the cards on the floor, gave her the paper, and let her match the cards to the words.
While she was doing that, I picked out a few more cards and placed the movable alphabet letters for each word on top. By removing the task of deciding which letters to use, the task is narrowed to two skills: 1. sounding out the three phonemes (sounds) in the word, 2. matching a letter to each phoneme.
I left her to that while I got up to grab the Go Fish cards, and when I came back she had already finished. (Which is fascinating, as she's still having trouble, especially at school, sounding out words or recognising sight words - which leads me to believe she understands alphabetic principle in theory, but has a mental block about reading. She protests every time I try to get her to read a word, even when she can. My task with her goes beyond just teaching her skills, I have to convince her that she can learn them.)
P.S. An extension of this activity, once a child is confident with it, is to add extra flashcards and extra letters to her choices (being sure to TELL her that there are some she won't need to use.) This way she not only has to sound out the words, but she has to discriminate between her choices - less chance of guessing your way through it.
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