Good readers learn to recognize and make new words by swapping letters within words. In this activity, children build new words by swapping letter-sounds.
What you'll need:
* Two words written in large print. The first word is a whole word (such as sat). The second word has a blank for the first letter (_at). A set of letters (g, s, t, m, p, r, h, f, k, l) with each letter written on a separate piece of paper.
What to do:
* Sit beside your child. Put the large-print words in front of your child.
sat
_at
Say, "We're going to see how many words we can make like sat. I'll pick a letter from the pile. My sound is r. I can change sat to rat. Put the r in the blank space in front of at."
* Have your child do this again, picking different letters and making new words. Change to a new word such as map or fill.
* Do this activity often with new words.
READ*WRITE*NOW Activities for Reading and Writing Fun - May 1997