Wilson Phonics

We finished up glued sounds when we got back from break.

ing, ang, ong, ung

ink, ank, onk, unk

These were hard for the student but now they are reading them as chunks instead of sounding them out. Examples: thing, hang, junk, dunks, song, sang, lung, king, bank, links

After that unit we began blends which are two consonants side by side. 

sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw

bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl

br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr

We also learned about digraph blends which was a consonant and a digraph side by side, such as bunch.  The n and the ch are the digraph blend. 

Last week we introduced closed syllables which is actually all the words we have learned so far now we just call them closed syllables.  A closed syllable has a consonant that closes the door on the vowel and makes the vowel say its short vowel sounds.  We mark the short vowel with a breve (the smile)  and we syllable swoop the syllable.

Here are a few examples on how we mark the words.  We start with marking because it is concrete and visual for the children and slowly they don’t need to mark it to see the phonics patterns anymore. 

Fang has a glued sound and we box the glue sounds.  These are all the glued sounds we know, all, an,am, ing, ang, ong, ung, ink, ank, onk, unk

Rings has a suffix s we underline the base words and circle the suffix s. 

Crash has a blend which we underline the c and the r separate to show they still say their own sound and the digraph ch gets one line because a new sound is made.

Lunch has a digraph blend where we underline the n and and the ch.

Skips has a blend and a suffix s.

The next 4 words are how we mark a closed syllable word.  The breve is over the short vowel and the syllable is swooped.

 

If you have any questions about phonics let me know.  I use to teach it in small group but we have made some changes to our reading block. I now teach it whole group at our desks. We do a dictation almost everyday on our white boards which includes 3 sounds, 3 words, and a sentence.  For example: all, ch, ing,  hangs, chips, bunch, Jeff could walk past the red ball.

Poetry and Text Features

We came back from break and finished up our unit on poetry which was so much fun.  The students compared and contrasted the difference between a poem and a story.  Poems are usually on one page, have rhythm, contain rhyming words, are not in complete sentences, and create an image in our minds.  We discussed more in-depth rhyming words and rhythm of poems.  We also had some fun with alliterations: Sam slipped on the sauce spill at the store.  We used the students names to come up with some silly ones. We jumped into adjectives so that students could identify them when they were creating images in their minds while listening and reading poetry. 

We have been circling nouns, underlining verbs and boxing adjectives like crazy.  We make a BIG DEAL when someone uses an adjective in their writing these days!

We have made the switch from using fiction to teach reading comprehension skills in the first 2 semesters to non fiction for the rest of the year.  We begin this transition with teaching nonfiction text features: photograph, captions, title, heading, glossary, tables of content, illustration, labels, using graphs to interpret information and many more. We took a little over a week to investigate the features and determine their purpose for the reader.  We charted our thinking and now they have been working on their nonfiction text feature books. I brought in magazines and the student have been finding the features and putting them in their feature book.  We have 2 more pages to complete.  We also have compared and contrasted how a non fiction book is different from a fiction story.  They both have a different purpose but can be just as enjoyable. 

We used non fiction books on the Tumblebooks program to introduce captions and photographs! Students have been putting nonfiction books and magazines in their green reading bags since we have been talking about nonfiction text features. 

What is a fact family……

The students have been subtraction kings and queens since we have been back from break.  We have counted back, used numbers lines to hop back, drew pictures and crossed out, put out counters and took away, put up fingers and put them down all so the students can find a strategy that works best for them.  At this point now students have attached to a strategy and they are putting them to good use. 

We have been equation detectives these days.  I have been giving them equations such as this  6 +7 = 14-0.  They then have used their counters and a index card with an equal sign to check if it is balance.  IS is true or false?   Ask your kiddo they can tell you!  Use beans or cheerios as counters at home.  Here are a few more examples:

4+5=6+3

6-0= 3+3

9-2 = 8+1

10-0 = 12+2

We have used subtraction to find the missing addends/factors.  We first used counting on to solve a problem such as this 5 +___ = 12.  They would have put 5 in their head and put up a finger until they reached 12.  Try it, how many fingers did you have up? Now I was teaching them to use inverse operations to find the missing addend or factor.  12-5 =____ . 

Here as few examples to try: 6+ __=14      17-____=10      4+ ____=12

Fact Families has shown how addition and subtraction are related.  We have a dice widget on our easiteach software that looks like the dice bubble in the games Trouble.  They go over an pop it and it gives them 2 dice. They use those 2 numbers to find the third number in their fact family.  Say the dice are 2, and 3, well third number would be 5. Here is what your fact family would look like:

2+3=5

3+2=5

5-2=3

5-3=2

Here are a few fact families, see if your child can make the family.

4,5,9

6,7,13

7,4,11

8,2,10

We have stepped away from our math workbooks and have used a lot of manipulatives and our little white boards.  Once they understand the skill we use the workbooks for practice.  They have been loving math!! 

If you have any question please shoot me an email or call the school! 

We also have been using our third 9 weeks math journal as a review and introduction to new concepts that won’t be directly taught until later in the year. 

We also do a math fact races several times a week so that these addition facts become automatic so they are not counting on their fingers for ever.  They get 1 minute and what ever is competed in colored pencil was finished after the minute is up. 

Students get what ever manipulates they need when they complete their tests.