Phonics/Word Work

Phonics is a system for attaching sounds to written language. Children must attach sounds to letters and then learn to blend the letters into words to be able to read.

• Make sure your child knows all of their letters and sounds. Your child should be able to say the names of the letters and their sounds quickly and without thinking about them.

• Matching Uppercase and Lowercase letters- Use a deck of index cards with upper and lower case letters.

• Letter Sequence- Child puts the letters from the deck in ABC order.  Then checks by touching and naming each letter and their sound, starting with A and moving to Z.  

• Talk with your child about blending letters to make words. One of easiest combinations to start with is the "at" family. Practice blending the sounds of "a" and "t" together.  Once your child can read "at", add a letter to the beginning of "at" for more word practice. 

• Look for your child's Sight word list to come home and practice using flash cards, or magnetic letters.   

• Practice the sight word phrases available under the Fluency tab.

Below are two links that provide information and activities that you can do at home to help support your child's phonics/word work instruction:

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/playing-word-sounds-stretch-and-shorten

http://www.readingrockets.org/literacyapps/phonics