sound power

The children continue to play with sounds in words, developing phonological and phonemic skills necessary for decoding unfamiliar words. We have done this in different ways; tapping the sounds we hear in words, using tiles to show how many sounds, using letters to build words and take words apart, and sliding our finger underneath to blend sounds together.

An important part of strengthening our sound power is hearing beginning blends. We know that readers look at the beginning letter of a word and get their mouth ready for the sound. We now know that readers look at the beginning blend, getting their mouth ready for both sounds.

One way we learn about blends is by playing games, like sorting objects by the beginning blend that we hear. We have also played What's the Blend? The children use picture power to say a word, listening for the beginning blend. When they know the blend they say the blend and then uncover it!

Another way we reinforce our knowledge about blends is by making our own big blends chart to live in the classroom. We use this chart to warm up our sound power before private read!

The children have been eager to go on blend hunts, searching for beginning blends in their books! This also provides a little movement during their private read. In our classroom we trust readers to walk to the shelf of sticky notes and take what they need to record something they find in their book. Last week and this week their important findings all connected to beginning blends!

Perhaps the most exciting blend we found this week was in a label that a friend added to the home they build during academic choice. Can you find the L Blend? It's at the beginning of the word plates!

Making the connection to our remote learning, the children went on a hunt for things that begin with the S Blend at home! They used their chart and sound power to try and find things that begin with an S Blend.