The Seven Steps to Beginning Curriculum for The Young Reader
Each month we will be featuring a different part of the Seven Steps. If you miss any of the parts or just want to go back and re-read a part, just click on the links below .
1. Strategies For a Positive Mind (August 2005)
2. Writing Plain and Clear (September 2005)
3. Vocabulary By Example (October 2005)
4. Spelling In Parts (November 2005)
5. Listening With Feedback (December 2005)
6. Comprehension Puzzle (January 2006)
7. Phonemic Awareness (March 2006)
PHONEMIC AWARENESS
Methodology in phonemic awareness must first begin with groups of words that have some commonality. Children need patterns or rules to base reading foundation upon to be able to refer back to as vocabulary increases. This article is a collection of general definitions of these phonemic groupings with words to practice with your child. Hopefully this will be a great basis to start reading vocabulary.
For the sake of clarity, let’s divide our basic word rules/definitions into twelve areas that are simple to concentrate on during vocabulary reading building with your child.
1. CONSONANTS: These are the letters b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y and z.
Singing these letters with their initial sound can be fun for small children. Repeat them often in the same way to get the consonants firm in the mind of your child. Later, write the lower case letters on a blackboard and let your child point to each as the letters are song in order.
2. VOWELS: These are the letters a, e, i, o and u. Also, sometimes y and w are vowels.
Write with ink on the five fingers of your child the five lowercase vowels. On the other hand write the five upper case letters. Have him match the letters with his fingers. Children love the feel of the tips of their fingers touching the letters. Sing and show the vowel sounds. Explain that there are short vowels and long vowel sounds.
3. SHORT VOWELS: When a three-letter word has one vowel, it is most likely to be short in sound as in hat, pot, and sit. If one syllable has a vowel between two consonants or at the beginning of a consonant, it is likely to be short as in bug, an, and ten.
a e i o u
apple elephant igloo octopus umbrella
Connect, through song, the sound with a word. Ask for the five short vowels by asking for the five words above always in order. The child will later connect the initial sound of each as a short vowel sound.
4.LONG VOWELS: When there are two vowels together in a word, usually the first one says its own name and the second one is silent. In a four-letter word, ending with e, the vowel sound most likely will be long.
Vowel Team ai: bail, fail, hail, jail, mail, nail, pail, rail, sail, rail, wail, frail, trail, snail, quail, gain, plain, lain, slain, main, stain, main, stain, pain, strain, rain, brain, train, drain, grain, paint, chain.
Vowel Team ay: Say, may, bay, ray, day, clay, stay, hay, pay, fray, delay, replay, maybe, birthday.
Vowel Team oa: Oat, boat, moat, coat, goat, soap, float, gloat, throat, road, load, toad, boast, toast, roast
Vowel Team ow: Own, snow, show, bowl, nlow, throw, grow, below, mellow, yellow, fellow, sorrow, willow, pillow, shadow, grown flown, growth, elbow, minnow, hollow, follow, mow
Vowel Team oe: Toe, hoe, doe, tiptoe
Vowel Team of ee: See, feel, peel, seem, seen, screen, beep, weep, deep, keep, jeep, sleep, peep, seep
Vowel Team of ea: Eat, beat, feat, heat, meat, neat, seat, cleat, treat, leaf, scream, heal, mean, east, team
Vowel Team of ie: Brief, grief, thief, field, shield, belief
Vowel Team of ey: Key, chimney, monkey, parsley, hockey, valley
Ending with e: Take, bake, snake, make, flute, these, those, nose, came, same, name, home, gate, late, skate, gave, ripe, five, joke, time, shine, fine, mine, nine, size, prize, while, white, quite, hike, bike, like, ape, grape, robe, use, ate, cane, cape, cube, cute, bit, dime, fade, hide, hope, kite, made, note, pane, pine, ride, tape.
Long Vowel Sentences:
Dale and Dan wade in the lake.
Did the man run in the cave?
The ape is safe in the hut.
Nan will gaze at the lake.
Dave saves his dog.
Jane has a date with a friend.
Dale is mine.
Jim and Jan take the kite.
The dime that fell is mine.
The time is five o”clock.
The horse is a big size.
The owl is big and wise.
Sue will go back with nine gals.
Luke and Pete sit on a cube.
5. Y AS A VOWEL : When y comes at the end of a word, it can sound like a long I, as in sky, or the sound of a long e as in bunny, funny, or sunny.
6. BASIC WORDS: These few words account for 75% of the Fisrt and Second Grade readers.
These 13 basic words are as listed: A, and, it, is, to, the, of, was, you, for, he, in, that
7. RHYMING WORDS: These are words that have the same ending vowel and consonant sounds. See number 12 for word families.
CAKE and LAKE, CAT and BAT, GOAT and COAT, BIKE and HIKE, TOAD and ROAD, JUMP and STUMP, BUG and RUG, MAN and TAN, TREE and BEE.
8. CONSONANT BLENDS: These are two or three letter consonants sounded together in a word so each letter is heard.
Bl blanket block
Cl clock clown
Fl flag flower
Gl globe glove
Pl plane plant
Sl sleeve slide
Br brain broom
Cr crab crayon
Dr dress drum
Fr frog fruit
Gr grapes grass
Pr pretzel princess
Tr tree truck
Sk skate skunk
Sm small smoke
Sn snail snowman
Sp spider spoon
St star stool
Sw sweater swim
Tw twig twine
mp lamp stamp jump
nk bank sink pink
nd hand pond sand
lk walk chalk milk
sk mask whisk desk
ft gift lift raft
nt paint ant tent
st list nest vest
9. CONSONANT DIAGRAPHS: These are when two letters stand for one sound as in thumb, whale, cherry, or knee.
Beginning Diagraphs:
Ch chair cheese
Sh shell sheep
Th thimble thumb
Wh whale whistle
Ph phone photograph
Ending Diagraphs:
Ch couch sandwich
Sh brush fish
Th bath tooth
Ng king ring
Dge badge judge
Tch switch watch
10. COMPOUND WORD: When two small words are joined together,such as blackberry, the new word is a compound word.
Crabapple, crawfish, dashboard, mudscreen, automobile, brightness, pineapple, eggplant, fairytale, gasmask, gatecrasher, keystone, strawberry, middleman, mindset, poppycock, postcard, roadway, signboard, upward, vouchsafe, waffle iron, washout.
11. CONTRACTIONS: In order to shorten writing, two words may leave out a letter or more and replace it with an apostrophy.
| He will |
He’ll |
| She will |
She’ll |
| They will |
They’ll |
| It is |
It’s |
| Do not |
Don’t |
| Is not |
Isn’t |
12. Word Families: This is a collection of words that end in the same two letters.
Ab cab,dab,gab,jab,nab,crab,grab
Ad bad,dad,lad,mad,pad,sad,brad,glad
Ag bag,nag,rag,sag,tag,wag,drag,flag
Am dam,hamjam,ram,Sam,clam,slam
An can,fan,man,pan,ran,Stan,van,plan
Ap cap,gap,lap,clasp,snap,nap,tap
Ar bar,car,far,jar,tar,char,scar,star
At bat,cat,fat,hat,rat,sat,flat,that
Ed bed,fed,led,Ted,shed,sled,red,
En Ben,den,hen,men,pen,ten,then,when
Et jet,let,met,net,pet,set,wet,fret
Id bid,did,hid,kid,lid,rid,grid,slid
Ig big,dig,fig,jig,pig,wig,spig,twig
In bin,tin,win,chin,skin,kin,pin
Ip dip,hip,rip,sip,tip,zip,ship,trip
It bit,fit,sit,kit,quit,pit,split
Ob Bob ,cob,job,rob,sob,blob,knob
Og bog,dog,fog,hog,jog,hog,frog,log
Op bop,cop0,pop,hop,mop,stop,shop
Ot cot,dot got,hot,not,pot,knot,spot
Ub cub,tub,rub,sub,club,scrub,shrub
Ug bug,dug,hug,mug,rug,tug,plug,slug
Um bum,gum,sum,chum,drum,plum
Un bun,fun,nun,run,sun,shun,spun,stun
Ut but,cut,hut,nut,strut,rut,shut
These twelve areas of phonemic awareness are vital in the basic foundation of reading English. English does not follow all of the rules for every word as European influences are prevalent. Use these twelve to get the confidence going and the reading flowing.
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