Welcome back to Read Not Guess.
Today is a review day. How are your child’s reading skills progressing? Can they recognize the letters and the sounds they make? Can they blend those sounds into words, without pictures or other context clues?
Let’s get started.
Rhyming Challenge
Say each word pair. Ask your child if the words end with the same sound (rhyme):
girl/ twirl
sing/ stung
first/ worst
coat/ shop
seen/ queen
Sound Subtraction
This is a listening/ speaking challenge. You’re going to say a word very slowly and clearly, and then ask your child to subtract a sound from the original word to make a new (shorter) one.
It’s important for kids to hear how words change when you add, subtract, or change sounds. It helps them hear the individual sounds in words and understand that different sound combinations convey different meanings.
Read your child the questions and see if they can come up with the answers:
Question: What word do you get when you remove “boy” from “cowboy?”
Answer: cow
Question: What word do you get when you remove “boat” from “steamboat?”
Answer: steam
Question: What word do you get when you remove the “m” from “meat?”
Answer: eat
Question: What word do you get when you remove the “p” from “play?”
Answer: lay
Question: What word do you get when you remove the “n” from “stain?”
Answer: stay
Now try ones where you remove some common prefixes:
Question: What word do you get when you remove “in” from the word “infield?”
Answer: field
Question: What word do you get when you remove “out” from the word “outdoors?”
Answer: doors
Question: What word do you get when you remove “super” from the word “superstar?”
Answer: star
Question: What word do you get when you remove “non” from the word “nonsense?”
Answer: sense
Question: What word do you get when you remove “over” from the word “overtime?”
Answer: time
If your child struggled with any of these, go back and have them do it again. Repeated practice is good for kids.
(Note that this is a game you can play anywhere. Try it at the dinner table, in the car, or anytime you’re waiting around.)
Letter Quiz
Your kids should know all 26 letter sounds so far, plus a lot of combination sounds. Let’s check for understanding. Ask your child to say the correct sounds as they point to the letters:
i
e
sp
bl
th
gr
ang
Word Practice
Now we’re going to work on “blending” letter sounds into words. Your child can start slowly by saying each sound individually, but each time, they should try to say it just a bit faster.
Ask your child to say the correct sounds as they point to the letters:
ch ai n
ch ain
chain
Did they get it right? If they're still reading it as "ch-ay-nuh" by the end of the sequence, have them do it faster until they are reading the word "chain" correctly. Let’s do some more:
g ir l
girl
And:
c ur l
curl
And:
b ox er
boxer
Now a couple harder ones:
wh ir l
whirl
And:
r ai der
raider
And:
st ar ting
start ing
starting
Try the “Roll a Sentence” Game
For this game you’ll need a sheet of paper and one normal (6-sided) dice. Start with one piece of paper. Draw a 6x6 box, and label far-left column with the numbers 1-6.
Then you’re going to fill in the columns with words that will add up to a short silly sentence. I’ve laid out one possible grid for you to use:
To start the game, roll the dice and read whatever is in the box of the first column. If you roll a 1, you would read “The tall…” The next person takes their turn and reads the word(s) in the box in the next column. For example, if they rolled another 1, that person would read, “The tall girl…”
There’s no “winner” in this game. Just keep playing until your child has mastered all of the words or gets tired of it. You can also create a new board with different words and scenarios.
That’s it for today. See you next time!