Students are getting better at recognizing sight words and applying beginning sounds, but now they have to move on and look at the middle and ends of words, too.
They just don't seem to get that when they look at their books. The students will see a word, get their mouth ready for the first letter sound, and then say any word that begins with that sound. For example, a word that says "home" may be read as "house." House is a great guess in that it makes sense and sounds right interchangeably in a sentence, but it doesn't look right. Home has an M in it and no S, so students really paying attention to the later letters will get it right while those rushing through and only looking at the first sound will get it wrong. It may not matter much now, but it will become a problem if it continues!
Picture and sentence puzzles help students problem solve and find words based on all the letter sounds they see. It gets them in the habit of looking at not just the beginning sound, but the second, third and fourth sounds too!
I show students how to put together the picture puzzle and the corresponding sentence before they begin, so they know what the sentence is supposed to say.
Then students sit down to complete the puzzles. This activity also helps students remember spacing between each word and end punctuation!
We just started these in addition to sentence dictation, and the two go hand in hand. Make sure you review your child's work and discuss mistakes with him/her!
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