Fun with letter sounds

I sound like a broken record, but my New Year’s resolution is to blog more.  Teaching fourth grade, writing books and raising two kids keeps me pretty busy, but I love sharing ideas about reading and writing so I am really going to try!!

Try this today with your beginning reader:  Play some “mixed up” word games and have fun with the sounds in words that can be moved every which way.

*Pick a familiar song such as Happy Birthday or Zippety Doo Dah.  Choose a letter sound and change all the words of the song so that they start with that sound. This is super silly and sure to be a funny game that will build phonemic awareness skills.

*Pick a sound of the day, like T. Now change the names of your family members to names that start with T. (Mom would be “Tom” – Dad would be “Tad” – Luke would be Tuke – Owen would be Towen.

*Play a “what’s missing?” sound game. If your mom is om and your dad is ad, those words must be missing a sound. Can you figure it out?  More examples: bring me an encil (pencil) – please set the able (table) – would you like a nack? (snack)

Have fun and let me know if you’d like more ideas like these….