Kindergarten Phonemic Awareness Fun!

I have had the wonderful opportunity to begin working with two groups of students from Mrs. Hendricks' and Ms. Villa's Kindergarten classrooms to enhance their phonemic awareness skills. The skills we will be practicing for the rest of the year include:

Word rhyming

Syllable segmentation

Beginning sound substitution

Sound isolation

Phonemic segmentation

PBS Kids offers several fun online games that even young children can play to develop phonemic awareness skills:
Elmo Rhymes
Elmo shows the child a selection of objects on the shelves of a closet. He names one of the objects and asks the child to select all of the items in the closet that rhyme with the named object. As the child mouses over an object, Elmo says the name of the object.
Pounce
The child hears a short word spoken and is asked to look at three written words and click on the word that he heard. The child gets multiple chances to get it right, and after making a correct match, sees the written word next to a picture of the named object.
Fuzzy Lion Ears
The child sees a picture and a word label for the picture. A letter is missing from the word. It is the child’s task to select the missing letter from three letters provided. The game also provides a little help: the child can mouse over several letters to hear the sound each one makes before selecting an answer.

I will be sending home books that the children have practiced many times and are proud to share with you.  These books highlight one or more of the phonemic awareness skills that we have practiced.  These skills will lay the foundation for your child to be a successful, confident reader.

Best books for boys

Books Boys Want to Read

If you find getting your son to read a struggle, you're not alone. Boys consistently score lower than girls on national reading and writing tests. This may be because many boys develop language skills more slowly than their female counterparts. But there are other causes as well, like the fact that many boys are uninterested in the books teachers assign. Also, many boys lack male reading role models. As a result, they view reading as a feminine activity.
But don't be discouraged; just because your son doesn't like Little Women or The Secret Garden doesn't mean he's not a reader. Jon Scieszka, a former New York City elementary school teacher and author of titles such as The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Stinky Cheese Man, founded Guys Read, a Web-based literary initiative that targets young male readers. It proposes a way to beat the odds: let boys read the books they want to read rather than the ones we think are good for them.
So what do boys want to read? You may need to expand your definition of reading to encompass their wide-ranging interests. Boys who crave action and information often like browsing through the Guinness Book of World Records or a sports almanac. Many devoted doodlers prefer graphic novels. (Even The Hardy Boys series is available in graphic editions.) Sports fans may devour magazines like Sports Illustrated for Kids or websites like espn.com. Don’t worry if your son isn't hooked on Charles Dickens. Validate his reading choices and let him discover his own classics.
Here are some places to start:

Humor

There's nothing like a really silly book to convince a boy that reading can be fun. Remember, however, that his idea of humor may differ from your own. Let him enjoy titles like Captain Underpants and The Day My Butt Went Psycho without passing judgment on the merits of potty humor. Even Shakespeare got laughs from bawdy jokes.

Nonfiction, Sports and Nature

For some literature-loving adults, a book doesn't count as reading if it's not fiction. And while many of the best children's books are novels, nonfiction can also open a boy's mind. Today's informational books are far from the dusty encyclopedias you may remember from your childhood. Even kids who don't like reading have subjects they want to know more about, from basketball to dinosaurs to snakes to magic.
Nonfiction fans in particular need access to a good library. While many novels and picture books are often reprinted in affordable paperbacks, most good nonfiction titles are not.

Mystery and Adventure

Many boys are drawn to stories that allow them to solve puzzles or live vicariously through the daring exploits of others. Well-crafted plots can keep even struggling readers turning pages to find out "who done it."

Fantasy and Science Fiction

Even though they are set in imaginary lands, fantasy books deal with problems that are relevant to many boys. Themes of bravery and fear that pervade these stories resonate with youths trying to understand their place in the world.

Poetry and Wordplay

You may consider poetry to be a genre reserved for highbrow intellectuals, but children's verse can often engage reluctant readers. Kids who hesitate to tackle an entire book may feel a sense of accomplishment upon finishing a poem. Poems also introduce children to wordplay, rhyme and catchy rhythms, helping them to appreciate the sheer joy of language.

Feelings and Relationships

As a society, we often teach boys to suppress emotions. Books can help correct that trend by letting boys explore the full range of human emotions and help them realize that they aren't alone with their problems. This can be true on many levels, from the young reader who recognizes that Frog and Toad need each other as friends to the older reader who experiences more complex feelings when he reads about a fictional middle school boy coming to terms with his parents' divorce.

Graphic Novels

Comic books have come a long way since Superman and the Archies. Now known as graphic novels, these brightly illustrated books are especially attractive to reluctant readers who have outgrown easy readers but are daunted by uninterrupted pages of text. There are now graphic versions of classics as well as hundreds of new titles sure to capture a boy's attention.

(from: http://www.pbs.org/parents/best-books-for-boys/books-boys-want-to-read.html)

"Celebration books"

Each night, your child brings home a reading bag that contains a green sign-off sheet and a book that we have practiced many times at school.  These books are meant to be "celebration books" because they should be easy books for your child to read.  They are celebrating how fluent (smooth) of a reader they have become and are also showing off their wonderful reading strategies that they use daily to help them when they get stuck on a word. 
These strategies include:

Please set aside a quiet time to have your child read this book to you. They are proud to share how hard they are working to become a better reader. After your child has read the book to you, please sign the green sign-off sheet and write any comments you have for me on the sheet.  This communication will help me to know if we need to work on word parts, sight words, or reading with expression more.  Your child will bring the book (and bag) back to school the next day.  After we have exchanged books 10 times, your child can pick from my prize box. I really appreciate your partnership with me in helping your child become a super-star reader!

Working with Words

In every reading lesson, the students work with words in a variety of ways. The goal of working with words is to provide children opportunities to spell and read words through activities that build phonemic awareness and application of phonetic skills.

Depending on the level and need of the students, some of the word work that students may complete within a Title One reading lesson include:

Adding suffixes to base words (often changing the spelling of the base word.)

Using manipulatives to learn sight words.

 

                                          Manipulate word parts to learn contractions.

In addition, you can use technology at home to also work with words.  Below are some helpful websites you and your child can explore together:

Funbrain: http://www.funbrain.com/words.html

Study zone: www.studyzone.org

Adrian Bruce: http://adrianbruce.com/

Starfall: www.starfall.com