Download Word Families plus Consonants Teaching the Blends

Word Families plus Consonants
1. Take a piece of chart paper and fold it in half, then open it back up again.
2. Ask your students to do the same with a sheet of paper.
3. Write cat at the top of one column, and ask your students to write cat on their paper.
4. Write will at the top of the other half and have students do the same on their own paper.
5. Under cat write hat. Have students read the two words with you. Have them chant the spelling of cat and
hat (cat: c-a-t; hat: h-a-t).
6. Help students to notice that cat and hat rhyme and they have the same vowel and last letter when you write
them.
7. Write hill under will and have students write it on their paper.
8. Pronounce and chant the spelling of hill and will (hill: h-i-l-l; will: w-i-l-l).
9. Make sure they notice that the two words sound alike and that the vowel and ending letter are the same.
10. Tell the students that you will say some words that rhyme with cat or will. They will write the word under
cat if it sounds like cat or under will if it sounds like will.
11. After each word is written. Ask someone to spell the word and tell what it rhymes with. Then you write it
under the correct column.
Word List
bat
bill
fill
fat
mat
mill
pill
pat
rat
sat
Jill
kill
Teaching the Blends
1. Use the chalkboard or chart paper to make three columns. Head one column with d, the second column with
r, and the third column with dr. Also write one to two know words to head each column.
d
r
dr
dog
run
draw
down
right
dragon
2. Give each child a d, r, and dr letter card or have them write the words in large print on a piece of scrap
paper. The letters should be written big and bold so that you can easily see their cards.
3. Have children read the known words that head each column (ex. d—dog, down; r—run, right; dr—draw,
dragon).
4. Say words which begin with d, r, or dr. Have children hold up the appropriate card to show you what
column to write the word in.
5. Acknowledge someone with the correct response, and ask that child to tell you what letters you should use
to begin the word.
Word List
drive
drink
dish
drew
duck
drop
raw
drag
dentist
dip
dig
dark
rain
rocket
rocks
drill
Other options:
• Teach tr by using t, r, and tr together.
• Or use a combination of blends and initial consonant:
f, fl, fr
b, bl, br
s, st, sp
More on Teaching Blends
1. Divide your chart paper or chalkboard into five columns. Write these words at the top of each column: ran,
ray, Rick, rip, and ride.
2. Ask your students to do the same on their own paper.
3. Under ran, write the word ran three times. Ask your students to do the same.
ran
ran
ran
ray
Rick
rip
ride
4. Tell them that you can make two new words by adding to the beginning of ran. Have students add b and F
to the beginning of ran.
ran
bran
Fran
ray
Rick
rip
ride
5. Continue to the next column and write the word ray three times, then add letters to make gray, pray, tray.
Follow the same process to finish the other columns with brick, trick; trip, grip, drip; bride, pride.
6. Help students to verbalize that if they see a word beginning with another letter and then an r, they can often
figure out how to read the word by thinking what it would be with just the r and then adding the sound of
the first letter to that.
Other options for lessons:
• Have students head the columns with lump, lot, lay, lack, and lick, and have students write the words again
add letters to make clump, plump, and slump; blot, clot, plot, and slot; clay and play; black, clack, and
slack; click and slick.
• The same format can be used with ending blends. Head the five columns with an, men, Ben, car, and Stan.
Add a d to change the words to and, mend, bend, card, and stand. The same can be done with bar, bun, sun,
pin, and thin followed by adding k to make bark, bunk, sunk, pink and think. The words Ben, den, ten, tin,
pan, ran, star, bun, and run can be changed to bent, dent, tent, tint, pant, rant, start, bunt, and runt.
Word Sorts
Word sorts are a good way for children to develop the habit of analyzing words to look for patterns. The
principles for the different ways to do word sorts are the basically the same:
• Children look at words and sort them into categories based on spelling pattern and sound.
• Children say the words and look at how they are spelled.
• They learn that to go in a certain category, the words must “sound the same and look the same”.
Notes:
1. Sorting can be done with pictures, with initial sounds, with rhyming words, with vowel patterns, and with
sophisticated multisyllabic patterns.
2. Once children can sort pictures and can sort for initial sounds, they are ready to sort for rhymes. It is good
to begin with three or four words that are very different in look and sound so that children experience
success and understand what they are doing.
3. For the first several sorts, it is good to be sure that the words have different vowels and different ending
letters. An early sort might include the three words big, ran, and old as category headers. The children
then would be shown rhyming words and put them under the correct category heading.
4. Later rhyming sorts can include words with the same vowel (rat, at, and back).
5. As children become sophisticated with sorting rhyming words, sorting usually shifts to including all words
with a particular vowel sound and is not restricted to rhyming words. The children are given three
categories and an “other” category for words that do not fit—either bec/they do not look the same or sound
the same. For example:
hat
make
rain
?
6. The words to be sorted for the above list include:
back
stamp
shade
paid
said
what
ham
champ
cave
have
face
stab
law
crab
pail
crash
sail
jam
7. Be sure to notice the words that go under ? category. The word have has the vc+e (vowel- consonant plus
e), but it does not have the same long vowel sound as make.
Grouping formats: The sorting activity can be whole class, small group, or partner formats.
2 different types of sorts:
• Closed sort—the teacher gives the children the category headings.
• Open sort—the children work with the words and determine what the category should be.
Example :
hat
make
rain
?
Print out the words on paper. Students cut up the words and place in correct category label (shown above):
back
stamp
shade
paid
said
what
ham
champ
cave
have
face
stab
law
crab
pail
crash
sail
jam
Rhyming Words
1. Using one of the Dr. Seuss’ books, read through the story and fill in the missing rhyming word.
2. After reading the book, make a list of the different rhyming words that were found in the book.
3. Return to the book to help students find the rhyming words again.
4. Read the words on the list together.
5. Add other words that are spelled like that and rhyme AND make rhymes with those.