UFLI Lesson & Story Focus: April 14-17

This week's focus has been looking at r-controlled vowels. We have started with ar /ar/ and this week we have focused on or, ore /or/ with some review of both to really practice these reading skills and spelling patterns. When we put the /r/ sound after a vowel, it completely changes the way the vowel sounds. It makes what we call an ‘r-controlled’ vowel but does have to include the vowel or some words would be missing a vowel and therefore, not a real word!

or, ore /or/
Another r-controlled vowel sound is /or/. This sound is usually represented using the letters or and ore. The or spelling can come in the middle of a word, such as fork or corn. It can sometimes come at the beginning of the word such as orb. It can also come at the end of a word, such as for. However, when we hear /or/ at the end of a word it usually is spelled with a silent e like in the words more or store. 

For the /or/ sound, we begin with our lips rounds, almost like we're going to say /aw/, but the /r/ pulls the sides of our tongue up to say /or/. Your voice is on and this is a continuous sound that can be stretched out.   

In this week's text called Marvel at the Shore, students are looking for all the words that have the /or/ sound based on the two different spelling patterns or, ore to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern), followed up illustrating a picture of the story.  

ar /ar/ and or, ore /or/ Review

We also did a review lesson reminding us of all of these sounds and what we have learned so far with r-controlled vowels. 

In this week's text called Trip to the Market, students are looking for all the words that have the /ar/ or the /or/ sound in the words to highlight, followed up illustrating a picture of the story.  

Next week, we will begin to explore er, ur, ir all making the same sound as /er/. 

Heart (Irregular) Words of the Week

Heart words are words that do not decode or follow the spelling rules that we have been learning. We have to know them by 'heart'. However, once we learn more spelling rules, they may be only temporary heart words and the rules will come along later! In the meantime, we have been focusing on reviewing and learning the words below. 

This week we are reviewing:

• friend
• four 
• fourth
• forty *no longer a heart word as of this week*
• people
• pretty

And we are introducing as new words:

• nothing

Fluency Grids

Continuing to practice the fluency grids are helping students recognize the phonics rule and assist in reading it with accuracy and automaticity. We have created a little game in the classroom with this activity but at home, challenge your young reader to read the word (aim is to decode/read each word within 3 seconds) and then recall it each time they see it within the grid of mixed up, repeated words. A couple minutes of practice is all they need. This is going to be a little bit of a warm up before reading the text that also applies the same skill while building on all the previous skills as well. Each week we are building on the previous week to become more fluent readers so we can focus on what the text is sharing rather than spending all the time decoding the words. 

**If this is too much at home with all the other things you are busy with, we totally understand! We will be using it in the classroom and saving paper to keep them all together in one spot. Thank you in advance if you do give it a whirl as another way to support your little reader based on the Science of Reading.** 

Happy reading!