Words, Words, Words- Consonant Blends and Digraphs, Triple Consonant Blends, Short Vowels, Long Vowels

Consonant Cluster Word Lists and worksheets

Post from: Blisstree

What is a blend?

Take for example the word marry (as in, to marry someone).

1. ma-rry

2. mar-ry

In the first example the pronunciation is May-re but in the second it is mar-ee, which is correct.

Now, to learn how to find the number of syllables and to count them please head to this site on Syllable Rules (because I can’t summarize the entire thing without copyright issues).

Post from: Blisstree

Reading Activity: Sound it Out, Counting Syllables

Benedictus and Burgess have captured the “spirit and quality of those original books,” stated Michael Brown, the trustee of the estate.

Look for the book in early October from Penguin Young Readers. As Jeffrey A Trachtenberg of the Wall Street Journal said today, even Eeyore might smile about this one.

Post from: Blisstree

Winnie the Pooh Returns to Print

When I was teaching middle school I would incorporate predictions into every reading log and students would predict at the end of each chapter or reading session, even if it was as simple as “the girl will go into the house”.

Another activity you can do is make predictions on what will happen in the story based just upon the title. This best works with an entire class.

The final activity that I loved to use is to make predictions as we were reading as an entire class. I would make a t-chart on the board for the class with predictions on the left and evidence on the right. Before we began reading I would ask students what their predictions for the chapter were. As we were reading students would add evidence that proved their predictions came true or evidence their predictions were disproved.

In sum, predictions work well to make students think about what they are reading. Active thinking and active reading make active learners.

Post from: Blisstree

Prediction Activities

Do your kids?

Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell have teamed up again to write Big Words for Little People, a Big Book to help kids learn Big Words.

With grown-up words like cooperate, respect, patience and considerate, a big, boisterous and zany family celebrates the power of language and discovers that words—big or little—are the bridge that connects us all.

Head to Jamie Lee Curtis’s website to play the Big Words Spelling Game, learn more about her new book (and the other books listed below), download teaching guides, and play games with the kids.

This is Curtis’s eight book.

• Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day
• Is There Really a Human Race?
• It’s Hard to Be Five: Learning How to Work My Control Panel
• Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born
• When I Was Little: A Four-Year-Old’s Memoir of Her Youth
• I’m Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem
• Where Do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery

Post from: Blisstree

Big Words for Little People

But, when did we, as children, start learning spider tales? Well, there are the pre-school versions of the Itsy Bitsy Spider, There was an old lady…, etc.

And apparently, October is the month for SPIDERS! Classrooms all over the country are building webs, singing spider songs, and counting legs. Over the next few days watch our site for spider resources…lesson plans, printables, and of course, the best books.

Post from: Blisstree

October is Spider Month!

His first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, published, however, required a great degree of persistence – it was rejected 27 times before being published by Vanguard Press. The Cat in the Hat, perhaps the defining book of Ted’s career, developed as part of a unique joint venture between Houghton Mifflin (Vanguard Press) and Random House. Houghton Mifflin asked Ted to write and illustrate a children’s primer using only 225 “new-reader” vocabulary words. Because he was under contract to Random House, Random House obtained the trade publication rights, and Houghton Mifflin kept the school rights. With the release of The Cat in the Hat, Ted became the definitive children’s book author and illustrator.

As a teacher or as a parent you can use Dr. Seuss to help teach Word Families and reading.

Post from: Blisstree

Dr. Seuss Teaches Word Families

Word families also encourage children to find patterns in words so they can recall this information in a timely fashion.

Word families encourage children to spell better as you guide them to search for a word in the family that they already know how to spell. For example if they know how to spell can then they can remember the chunk (an) to spell van. They have to only replace the first letter.

I just read a book to AJ yesterday that had great word families in it and he giggled the entire way through…Duck in a Truck. See, Duck is driving a truck and gets stuck in the muck.

Patterns are important to kids, especially kids who have trouble reading, paying attention, or listening. If we can show them that reading is fun because sometimes it rhymes, then we can catch their attention. How much fun is a Duck who goes flying into the muck and gets stuck?

Now, take for example, the word “all”. Once a child has learned this sight word we can teach that child to “chunk” or about word families.

“all” can become ball, call, fall, hall, mall, tall, wall, etc. all with the same sound.

There are 37 common word families:

The most common word families include: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck ,ug, ump, unk.

Post from: Blisstree

What are Word Families?

Why the strange dates? Well, it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries including Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

For a Mayan Craft today see A Child Chosen. For some great children’s reads check back tomorrow.

Post from: Blisstree

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

The list is divided in to give age groups, from infant to ages 12 and up and contains an annotated bibliography of librarian recommended reading. There is also a Classics section.

“One of our goals as librarians is to provide all children with quality reading materials,” said ALSC President Pat Scales. “By teaming up with Oprah’s Book Club, we’re able to connect with a wide range of people we may not have reached otherwise. Whether children come into our library or are given a book from our recommended reading list, we are helping our youngest and most important patrons.”

The list was compiled by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Quicklists Consulting Committee.

Post from: Blisstree

Oprah’s Kids Reading List Announced