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Try Playing the "Roll a Sentence" Game

Welcome back to Read Not Guess.


Today is a check-up 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:


g oa t

goat


Did they get it right? If they're reading it as "guh-o-tuh" by the end of the sequence, have them do it faster until they are reading the word "goat" correctly. Let’s do some more:


ch ai n

chain


And:


st air

stair


And:


b ox er

boxer


Now a couple harder ones:


ch ee ry

cheery


And:


r oa d

road


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 always create a new board with different words and scenarios.


That’s it for today. See you next time!


P.S. If you’re looking for more free practice activities, check out the free learning materials from Nessy.com, especially this printable phonics sound card for your child to practice.

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