Today we started word families!! We've been reviewing letter sounds, so the next logical step was to put them together!! :) We worked on the "at" family, and the "ot" family. (bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat - cot, dot, got, hot, lot, not, pot, rot, tot) It was so fun to watch Hunter's face light up when he put the two sounds together & made a word!! He was READING!!! :) We're going to practice these two families for a couple of days & then move on to a few more!! I'm sure you can just look at the picture & figure out what I did - but just in case, here are the steps:
* Using index cards (or just cardstock cut to about the same size):
- Cut one index card in half & place on top of a full-size card, on the left side. Then, on the right side of the full-size card, write the suffix of the word family, (i.e. "at", "ot", etc.). (Basically, you're just using the 1/2 card to show you where to write, so that when you flip the cards over, you can still read the suffix!!) :)
- Determine how many words will be in the "family" you are working on & make enough "1/2 cards" for each word - you will only need one "whole" card per family. Write the first letter of each word on the 1/2 cards, one letter on each card.
- Punch a hole in the top left corner of each card (1/2 & whole cards). Stack all of the 1/2 cards on top of the whole card, and put a "C' ring through the hole. Now you have a little "flip-book"!!
- You can put all the word families on the same ring, because they're separated by the "whole" cards!!
Hope that all makes sense!! It is totally not rocket science, so just do what works for you!!! :)
