All About Teaching and Learning Phonics

[jedamum]

[Moderator's note: Topics split and merged.]


Buds/Tamarind,

I started on 'at' and is getting good progress.
Which one should I do next?
Is there any sequence of which is easier to introduce earlier follow by the more challenging ones?

TIA.

[tamarind]

jedamum:

Buds/Tamarind,


I started on 'at' and is getting good progress.
Which one should I do next?
Is there any sequence of which is easier to introduce earlier follow by the more challenging ones?

TIA.

Hi jedamum,
I went for those words which are more commonly used.

From my list of 3 letter words containing \"a\" :

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/3-letter-words.html

The longest list is \"at\" and \"an\" so I started with these first.

Actually I think that the more important thing is for the child to be able to distinguish between the different 2 letter words. So I always teach at least 2 sets together. For example, I taught \"at\", \"an\" together, so that my boy can understand that they sound different when a letter is added at the beginning.

\"ab\" and \"ad\" are the tough ones for him, because at that time he had a problem differentiating \"b\" and \"d\". So I taught these later.

Another important thing is to read out the word, like \"cat\", then ask the child to pick up the correct word on his own. In this way he learns to translate the sounds that he hears into letters, a very important technique which will help him to spell words later.

My boy, who is going to be 5 years old this year, likes to spell words now. I have not started to drill him on spelling yet, he actually learns on his own from books, and his Jie Jie helps to correct him. I believe that his strong foundation in phonics makes it easy for him to learn spelling. Even for words which are not phonetic, like \"two\", at least he knows that it should start with a \"t\".

[jedamum]

thanks tamarind!

my boy...his attention span is like only a few minutes...there after he'll mess around and intentionally say all the wrong stuff ie 'cat' is cat, 'mat' is cat, hat is cat and then laugh loudly :roll:

[buds]

jedamum:

Buds/Tamarind,


I started on 'at' and is getting good progress.
Which one should I do next?
Is there any sequence of which is easier to
introduce earlier follow by the more challenging ones?

TIA.

Kudos for the progress jedamum!
There is a sequence you can follow,
i'll put it up on the Fun Materials for Phonics thread ok.

And btw, this shud go under the \"Anyone keen to teach children
Phonics at home\" started by Tamarind lah.. right or not? But since
we're here, below are some you can try out for a while. See how
it goes.... some suggestions.

/ab/

Some ideas, jedamum!

Lesson for > cab
Colour a picture of a cab.
Cut out a shape of a steering wheel.
Design together. Painting or Crayon colouring.
Stick stickers (star stickers, animal stickers, number stickers)
Paste each of the 3 letters on A4 paper. Likening this game to
playing hop-scotch, paste /c/ first... up ahead /a/... and lastly... /b/.
Use the finished steering wheel to walk/hop/run over the letters and
you demonstrate... \"Mummy'll go first!\" /c/.... /a/.... [drag this sound
a little longer] - (open-mouthed) and blend the /a/ sound with an
abrupt /b/. Touch your hand on the picture of the coloured cab you
have pasted on the wall, then shout, \"CAB!\"

Lesson for > dab
Painting Time! Dab cotton balls inside the template of the word /dab/.
Use word art. Make thicker and chubbier letter with comic sans or
century gothic, spread over A4 paper. Mummy shows first, how to dab
the cotton ball from top to bottom. ie. start from the inside curve of the
letter d, followed by the straight line from top to bottom.. likewise for
the letter a, (shorter wall) and lastly letter b, top t bottom first and
followed by the big bouncy belly. Depending if mummy allows for more
painting time, child can paint his own picture using the cotton balls for
reward. Dun want to get hands sticky, peg the cotton balls. For older
children, can use chopsticks too. When using hands, good experience
to demonstrate \"lightness of touch\" whereby only gentle
movements can still create the dab effect. This is future preparation for
writing, where we encourage children to write neatly without the pressure
of fingers and the too-dark(ness) of the pencil lead.

Lesson for > jab
Place two cups or beakers of coloured water.
Play with syringe of different sizes, transferring
water from one beaker to another. While pushing
the syringe, say /j/... aaaaaaa.... /b/. (abrupt b sound).

Lesson for > nab
Play catching. Police and thief!
If you allow, but the policeman set with
the baton (to run with) and handcuff (once nabbed).
The person who is the catcher (police) says nab when
the thief is caught!

Put the word \"nab\" on A4 paper. Each side with point markers
so you can keep count who has \"nab-bed\" how many times.

Have fun... inspire... and this time, sure perspire.
Think one can do with all the exercise!

:celebrate:

[jedamum]

buds:

And btw, this shud go under the \"Anyone keen to teach children
Phonics at home\" started by Tamarind lah.. right or not?

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=877&start=45 i guess we should.
Thanks Chief!

[buds]

Thanks, Chief!

[Wesim]

Hi,


I need help.

My girl is currently 23mths. I have registered her at Zoophonics. Besides this once a week lesson, i will find time to go thru the basic letters sound with her everyday, when time permits. However, i realise that she is not pronoucing the sound correctly. I think she has trouble curling up her tongue. I tried showing her face-to-face, unfortunately she will just ignore me.

Any suggestion?


To Tamarind,
I like your blog.

To buds,
your contribution to this forum is just simply wonderful.

[buds]

Heyya wesim,


:thankyou:

Thats sweet of you.

Btw, :idea: have you tried the Starfall.com
site for your girl? Instead of face to face,
Starfall has the \"mouth-to-our-face\" version
of pronunciation for single letter sounds. :lol:

Mebbe she prefers to go digital?

:?

Then, if she does make effort and let her
play some of the starfall games. This site
highly recommended by tamarind.

[tamarind]

buds,

Thanks

The activities you wrote above are very important when teaching phonics and reading.

I have also done similar things. For example, when learning \"fin\", I pulled out a real frozen fish from the fridge, and let my boy touch the fin. When learning \"smash\", I let my boy smash a real biscuit, which he really enjoyed and asked to do it again and again :lol: Even my older girl wanted to do the same thing.

When my older girl attended phonics enrichment class at Montessori, they only did worksheets, nothing as fun and exciting as what we did at home

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/

[buds]

Heyya tamarind,


You're welcome.

I specially designed that for
jedamum's ds2. Cause she's
always saying how her ds2
can't sit still for long... plus
the activities listed can nicely
include ds1, if he finds them
interesting enuf to join in...
Unless... if ds1 finds it too
easy.. blah.