Reading Lessons Update & NEW Home Activities Coming Soon

Prepare yourself...this post is a biggie!!! 

The past couple of weeks during our in class activities, we have been showing what we know with our phonological awareness, what words have become sight words (instant recall) and what words we can decode based on our understanding of phonics. Next week, we will be jumping into reading full texts to show what we can do with decoding accuracy and fluency. As we work through getting to know the students, we will be adjusting student programs by sending home reading books at their challenge level based on these tasks they have been completing, along with some additional reading activities that will come home in their Snuggle Up & Read folders.  

Thank you for jumping into our nightly reading program!!! Students are eager to earn some desk pets! Please find a balance that works for you, at home, for this home reading program.  

During our daily in class lessons, we have started to jump into phonemic and phonological awareness review. As an introduction, here is a letter to families to help build skills at home...

Every couple of weeks for the beginning of the school year there will be a parent letter and some information posted about what we are working on in this part of our program.

Letter Sound Rings

The past couple of week's focus in class has been letter sounds (other wise known as phonemes - the smallest unit of sound in the English language). In the next week, I will send home letter sound practice for students that is individualized for what students are personally working on. This will be a ring with 5 letter sounds they are working on mastering. These will be stored in your child's Snuggle Up & Read folder for home/school practice. While some students are working on the phonemes, others have mastered the phonemes and working on blends, diagraphs, vowel teams. A parent resource of how to form the sounds will come home along with it. Below is a video that helps with some of the tricksters that some of us may not have even realized when we practice! You will need to click to watch on youtube but it is a quick and worthwhile little video to help understand some common misconceptions about letter sounds! 

Here is a little video to demonstrate the alphabet of the letter sounds. Of course there are also some more letter sounds that are diagraphs, blends and teams (meaning more than one letter put together) but this is where we are starting with review to really reinforce the letter sounds and recognize the letter association. 

Word Rings

Further, we will be also sending home a word ring for some students. These are words we would like them to be able to read instantly by the end of Grade 2 to help build fluency and accuracy so they can focus more on comprehension skills which is our ultimate goal. These words align with our in class phonics/spelling lessons so we have assessed where each child is working. Therefore, everyone is working at their own pace with their own understanding. So some students will have rings and some have already mastered these words with the lessons taught in class in their previous school year(s). If your child is bringing these home, these will be stored in your child's Snuggle Up & Read folder for regular home/school practice. An information page will come home as well about this.  

Phonics Lesson 42: flsz rule ff/f/, ll/l/, ss/s/, zz/z/  

We also started reviewing some phonics concepts from last year called the flsz (floss) rule. This was a quick intro last year for the Grade 1's but the Grade 2's would have started with this lesson at the beginning of last year and build on with this double letter learning. We are using this as a starting point to review and get back into routines of how these lessons are completed.  

This flsz lesson is one of the first examples of how two consonants can be doubled to make one sound. When the /f/, /l/, /s/ and /z/ sound comes after a short vowel sound in a one syllable word, these letters get doubled at the end. One example is Jeff will pass Buzz.

When you see these ff, ll, ss or zz double letters when reading, you sound them out the same way as f, l, s, and z.  

In this week's text focusing on the flsz rule called, Buzz Sells Milk, students are looking for words that have one of our special ff, ll, ss, zz spellng pattersn following the flsz rule. They are looking to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern). Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that include those letters that are not doubled. Students are also looking to illustrate the story to demonstrate their understanding of the text.  

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.

We are introducing as new words:

• your
• want

Fluency Grids
With each lesson, there is a fluency grid with the lesson focus that is intended to help students recognize the phonics rule and assist in reading it with accuracy and automaticity. 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 acts as 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.

Homework Reminders 

Students have been working on the story in their Reading Practice book that will come home on Friday. At school, they work with a partner to complete their fluency grid, read with someone their story and highlight the focus words. Following, they are illustrating a picture for the text to show their understanding. At home, students are to finish the above tasks and read to an expert. After completing, parents are to initial at the indicated spot at the top. This week, we are have completed one lesson so there will be one story to complete in their white Reading Practice booklet. Please see the information letter in the front of the book for more, detailed information about this weekend practice book coming home. Please return on Monday (or Tuesday if there is a no school day on Monday). 

Happy reading!