Think of a blue tongue to remind you how to correctly spell the word tongue. They both have the same /ue/ ending.
Teaching with card games.
Spelling tip today.
Think of a blue tongue to remind you how to correctly spell the word tongue. They both have the same /ue/ ending.
The other day we were playing the CVCC Uno card game after our reading group. The word tong, was one of the cards that we took the time to discuss vocabulary and meaning. That brought us to the word tongue and blue, in a roundabout way. One student was thinking the word (tong) might be “tongue.”
They were surprised when I wrote the words tongue and blue on the whiteboard. I underlined the ue and told them to think of the word blue to remind themselves how to spell this tricky word.
There are many teachable moments in these small reading groups. It is pure joy for me to hear them working out new words that they have never read before and discuss their meanings during our games. Teaching the students with flashcard games helps them to sound out new words that they may not find in regular reading passages. When they have confidence in their decoding abilities, then they can stop guessing with the whole word strategy. It is awesome, to hear the shock in their voice when they realize they can read a new word they never knew before.
I have created some hints within the letter shapes to help remind the students of words that make the same digraph sound.
Creative Picture Embedded Hints with the Letter Shapes
Digraphs might be more complex to learn than blends, especially with all the tricky sounds, silent letters, and spelling rules. I have hidden some hints within the letter shapes to help remind the students of words that make the same sound as the digraph. Example ch – one of the sounds of ch is in chomp and chicken. The letter c has teeth to chomp or chew on the chicken leg, which is very similar to the h shape.
This is the first sound of ch, as in chicken. Some kids have it mixed up with the sound /tr/. I was very surprised by this until they explained that /ch/ is for the train picture. (oops!) Some programs have a Choo-choo train for /ch/ sound and it was confusing the emergent readers.
There are many more clever hiding pictures with the digraphs and trigraphs in this set. Including the 3 different sounds for the ch.
These grapheme images incorporate the letter shapes with embedded images to help students recall the sounds that they make. Pictures aid phonemic sound recall and link to memory pathways.
3 different sounds of ch ch, k, sh:
ch – 1 st sound ch, Letter c has teeth to chew the chicken on the letter h.
ch – 2nd sound k, Christmas tree image, letter c is a sack of gifts and letter h on the tall tree has the “sh” silent hand.
ch – 3rd sound /sh/ chef, letter c shape is uncovering the food. (French Word Origins)
3 different sounds of gh:
gh – Ghost images laughing, thinking, and shhhh hand. (3 sounds on one card)
gh – Gh sleeping and coughing with h shhhh hand.
Other digraphs
ck – Duck image with bubbles on letter c and letter k has duck feet
th – Letter t is sticking a tongue out at the thumb image on letter h.
ph – Letter p using a phone and h looks like a phone.
wr – Wrench image with silent w.
tr – Covered with train tracks and a train on letter t.
and much more……
Check out the whole set on my Teachers Pay Teachers page Pure Joy Teaching
The cards can be printed with a word list on the back. Some cards have very helpful spelling tips too. Color-coded to help highlight the digraph or trigraph.
Keep watching this space, I am working on a card game to help reinforce some of these tricky sounds and teach some spelling words at the same time.
VC included. Vowel Consonant and CVC is very common, and VC is sometimes overlooked. The capital /I/ can be very tricky for some emergent readers. They learn that the capital I, says it’s name when it is on its own, sometimes when they see it next to another letter, like at the beginning of a sentence, it can create some confusion. ( The capital letters A and I, can be used to make words like: In, It, If, An, At.
Practice building CVC and VC words, quick set-up, and super fun
This booklet-style setup creates an easy and organized way to play and store this fun CVC and VC resource for students and teachers. Dramatic play with educational games has been a huge hit in my classroom. Kids love to play and they are learning at the same time.
Customize to Fit Your Needs
The back page is larger and has the barbecue grill image on it. This creates a fun playing surface to lay out all the vowel hotdogs on.
The top half is left open with enough space to attach a small snack-size recloseable bag. This is a great option for storing all the pieces that go with this dramatic games-style teaching resource. Sight word condiments and vowel hotdogs.
The bottom half of this resource can be printed double-sided and attached to the grill with rings or a binding machine. This lays out nicely and removes some of the reversal issues.
VC Vowel Consonant – Closed Syllable Pattern
VC included. CVC is very common, and VC is sometimes overlooked. The capital /I/ can be very tricky for some emergent readers. Letter I, and A, are examples of an open syllable vowel.
They learn that the capital I, says it’s name when it is on its own, sometimes when they see it next to another letter, like at the beginning of a sentence, it can create some confusion. ( The capital letters A and I, can be used to make words like: In, It, If, An, At. Now they changed into closed syllable vowels.
Sight Words
Sight words – Tricky non-decodable words are included: said, of, the, his, all, is, do, was, are, what, as, have, too.
The sight words are grouped by color to make teaching a little easier. All the yellow mustard words have the letter s that makes the /z/ sound: his, is, was, as, has. ( I call these the sleeping snake words. He falls asleep and snores zzz…. sometimes)
R-Controlled
All of the consonant buns should make decodable words. The letter r, is not included as an ending letter. This is not the time to teach bossy r-controlled words. This is purely for early sound-letter decoding.
Tricky – Y
The letter y, is only in the first position making the correct sound. This is not the time to teach digraphs ay, ey, oy, uy, gym, or eye. All those fun words will come later. As well as words ending with w, aw, ow, ew, should be taught later.
Here is a fun game for short o sounds with /wa/Candyland-style Fruitland.
Print the grill back page on full-sized 8.5×11 paper.
Print the hot dog vowels, single-sided, 2 to a page.
Print the Bun Consonants, double-sided, 2 to a page.
Use a piece of cardstock or scrap of laminated paper inside of the sandwich bag to make it ridged and strong enough to punch holes through.
Snack-sized reclosable bag attached with a binding machine. Pure Joy Teaching
This booklet was created with the smaller half-page grill, attached on the long side. But it could be set up with a larger full-page-sized grill. Very easy to customize to your classroom needs.
Great way to teach remotely or in class with a large display cast to the classroom TV or student Chrome books.
We have been using small laminated letters in class, but it can be a struggle to find all the letters and keep them sorted. Now that I have these Google slides my lessons can be saved and sorted out quickly.
I have them sorted by the vowels. This one is the letter /e/ the vowels are red. It includes long, short, and vowel combinations like:
Silent e, ey, y that says “e”, er, ed, pre, re, ei, ei, ee, ea, e_e,
Prefixes and suffixes (pre, re, er, ed) with whole word tiles.
The first slide is color-coded for younger students. This is a neat way to help them with sorting out the line place for the letters and to aid them in making the left-to-right reading connection. Green for go, Yellow in the middle, Red stop. This is the direction of reading and writing. * The teacher can choose any of the letters the student will need before the slide is sent to the student. This slide is a good one for CVC words or small 2 & 3-letter words.
This slide is for the small 2 letter words that make the long e sounds.
Great for open syllable words: Words like he, we, be, me, & 3 letters she.
* Notice here that the /sh/ tile is one box to drag and drop. This is to help students make the phonics connection that /sh/ is one sound digraph and NOT two separate sounds /s/h/.
If you like these slides and think they will work in your classroom or remote learning world, you can get them from my shop at TPT. TeachersPayTeachers.
the perfect book for young learners! This colorful, interactive resource is designed to teach preschool and kindergarten children the correct starting and stopping points of lowercase letters, making it a fantastic tool for early literacy development.
Awesome Animal Alphabet Poems: A Fun and Engaging Learning Adventure
Welcome to Awesome Animal Alphabet Poems—the perfect book for young learners! This colorful, interactive resource is designed to teach preschool and kindergarten children. Practicing the correct starting and stopping points of lowercase letters, makes it a fantastic tool for early literacy development.
Animal Theme
Each page features fun, animal-themed poems that guide children step-by-step as they trace the letters with their fingers. With clear starting points marked by a green dot and arrows that direct the movements, little learners can easily follow the animal actions while mastering each letter.
Engaging & Fun: Simple rhymes and vibrant illustrations captivate children’s attention and make learning the alphabet an enjoyable experience.
Kinesthetic Learning: The finger-tracing activity helps build muscle memory, promoting better letter recognition and laying the foundation for handwriting skills.
Memorable Rhymes: Easy-to-remember sayings help children recall the movements of each letter, supporting both reading and writing success.
Perfect for Home or School: Ideal for classroom activities or at-home learning, this book is designed to nurture early literacy skills in a way that sparks curiosity about animals and the world around them.
Builds Confidence: With every turn of the page, children will gain confidence in their letter-writing abilities, setting them up for future success in handwriting and reading.
Letter Sounds: Poems use words that tie into the main letter sound. Letter sounds are extremely important for reading and decoding skills.
From A to Z, Awesome Animal Alphabet Poems is a fun, effective, and memorable way to help children discover the world of letters through animals, movement, and rhymes. Whether in the classroom or at home, this book is sure to be a favorite for young learners as they begin their journey toward literacy!
Students can pretend to be an airplane, and mirror the letter movements of the teacher. This exercise can help them learn the correct starting and stopping points of the capital letters. The helpful green dot shows the starting point of the letter, with numbered steps for letters that have more than one step. Valuable teacher instruction pages and Flash Card pages that can be cut out of the book to use in class. The reversed alphabet chart on the back cover of this book, helps to remind the teacher in which direction to make the letters. Very helpful when the book or the card is facing the students.
Mirror image; Why does it look backwards?
Remember my right is your left, when we are facing each other. This book will help teachers so the students will NOT be seeing the reversed Image by mistake. It can aid and support future handwriting success, while learning feels like play.
After reading we talked about ways that we might paint like the pets in the story.
The kids in room 6, really enjoyed the story this week.
Based on the Book If A Pig Could Paint
When the pig hides the paints from the other pets, one little girl said, “I see them hiding in the hay.”
The class did not think the pig would share the paints.
Brainstorming in ideas
After reading we talked about ways that we might paint like the pets in the story. Next week they will make story bubbles and write sentences based on the book.
This children’s book features animals creating paintings, with some of their artworks resembling true masterpieces. It was thrilling to discover how many of the great artists were familiar to the young readers!
There are lots of ways to use flashcards in the classroom.
Hook them together: a small little hole punched in the corner of each one will keep them together, & make them easier to flip. * I love to hang my flashcards right next to my circle time chair. The flashcards add to the decor of the room instead of creating clutter on my shelf.
Dry Erase: Some cards need to be laminated first, but Dry Erase pens are great for tracing and circling counted items. This works well at the writing table and can easily be put on a tray as a choose your own activity on the math shelf.
The mnemonic abcs & handwriting cards are very useful cards to link together.
In my preschool classroom, we use letter-of-the-week items. I try to include many real creation facts in the week. This has had an amazing result on the students. Many parents are surprised at the new thing their kids are interested in.
One example is the letter O for octopus.
Octopus lives in the ocean, has 8 arms, and squits ink. Cool right!
I have grouped together a book, counting cards, and few playdough activities, and a coloring sheet.
Using olives, onions, on, off, odd, oval, opal, and open, all of these words are better than using the word orange. Yes, the words do start with the letter o. The phonemic sound is actually the r-controlled sound “or” and the letter g is softened to the soft “j” sound by the silent e. These can be confusing concepts for emergent readers. Now that I have started using easy-to-decode words with my students, my results have improved.
I save the word orange for lessons about r-controlled words and reasons for silent e.
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