Welcome back to Read Not Guess. Today is a review day. We’ll give you a game to try with your kids and then practice blending some words using the sounds we’ve learned so far.
Let’s start with a word game.
Sound Subtraction
This is a speaking game. You’re going to divide words into their sound parts, and then ask your child to name the new (short) word.
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 “back” from “backpack?”
Answer: pack
Question: What word do you get when you remove “soft” from “softball?”
Answer: ball
Question: What word do you get when you remove “sun” from “sunscreen?”
Answer: screen
Question: What word do you get when you remove “green” from “greenhouse?”
Answer: house
Now try some where you remove the last syllable:
Question: What word do you get when you remove “boy” from “cowboy?”
Answer: cow
Question: What word do you get when you remove “brush” from “toothbrush?”
Answer: tooth
Question: What word do you get when you remove “night” from “goodnight?”
Answer: good
And finish with a couple harder ones:
Question: What word do you get when you remove “er” from the word “teacher?”
Answer: teach
Question: What word do you get when you remove “er” from the word “banker?”
Answer: bank
Question: What word do you get when you remove “less” from the word “breathless?”
Answer: breath
Question: What word do you get when you remove “less” from the word “careless?”
Answer: care
If your child struggled with any of these, go back and have them do it again. Repeated practice is good for kids.
For a harder challenge, swap roles. Have your child give you a word to guess based on subtracting sounds. Made-up words are fine! What's important here is for your child to hear the individual sounds and practice combining them together.
(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.)
Word Practice
Now we’re going to work on blending the "th" sound that we learned earlier this week. Your child can start slowly by saying each sound individually, but each time, they should try to say it just a bit faster.
Let’s start with this one:
p a th
p ath
path
Did they get it right? If they're still reading it as "puh-ah -thuh" by the end of the sequence, have them do it faster until they are reading the word "path" correctly. Let’s do some more:
sl o th
sl oth
sloth
And:
cl o th
cl oth
cloth
Now a few harder ones:
th r a sh
th rash
thrash
And:
th r ow
th row
throw
And:
th e f t
th ef t
theft
Hard Word Challenge
If you think your child is ready, see if they can read this word:
Thunder
How did they do? We haven’t worked on the “er” ending yet, but were they able to sound it out? If they stumble, have them read it another time or two to get it right.
That’s it for today. We’ll see you next time.