Letters & Sounds Practice With Your Child
- Practice 2 letters daily (finding, writing and producing sound)
- Identify letters in books and signs
- Find letters in the food pantry on cans, cereal boxes, etc.
- Find and circle letters in the newspaper
- Check out alphabet books from the library
- Provide magnetic letters for the refrigerator
- Practice the ABC sound card provided at Academic Night
- Provide alphabet workbooks
- Practice writing the letters in shaving cream, on a cookie sheet or wax paper.
- Write the letter in your child's hand while his eyes are closed, have him guess what letter it is
- Provide computer games, some examples are on our links page
- Practice writing letters on a Magna Doodle, chalkboard, dry erase board or just paper
- Play "I Spy" with letters. For example: "I see the letter 'r' hiding on this page." "I see a word that begins with the letter 'r'". Have your child find the word.
- Play alphabet bingo
- Play Concentration or Memory with letter cards
Rhyming Practice With Your Child
- Read rhyming books
- Recite nursery rhymes
- Sing rhyming songs
- Play rhyming games in the car or wherever you have wait time. For example: "Tell me a word that rhymes with 'spoon'."
- Think of as many words as you can that rhyme with 'cat'. They can be real words or made up words like: sat, fat, mat, rat, pat, bat, hat, jat, lat.
- Provide rhyming practice computer game time
- Provide workbooks that have rhyming practice
Blending, Segmenting, Beginning & Ending Word Sound Practice
- Play this game in the car or whenever your have wait time: Tell your child sounds and have them guess what word you are trying to say. For example, give the sounds / c / - / a / - / t /. Ask, "What word am I trying to say?" (cat).
- Practice the opposite of blending: segmenting. Tell your child a word and have him tell you each sound he hears. Focus on the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. You say 'cat'; he tells you / c / - / a / - / t /
- Give your child a pair of words: 'bear, bat'. Ask your child what beginning sound he hears in both words. Then give your child two more words that begin with the same sound. Ask him to tell you another word that starts with the same sound.
- Have your child identify beginning sounds of items in the house, in the car or grocery store.
- Do the same activities as in beginning sounds but focus on the last sound.