Phonics - Ideas for phonics in My Father's World From A to Z

[Marie]

Please share your ideas for enriching phonics in My Father's World From A to Z

[Rebecca]

This has got to be the silliest question in the world, but if I do not get this right in my head, I can't proceed!

The song where you sing "A-a-apple, B-b-butterfly, etc."--how does that sound? I mean, I know the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Tune, but when I sing through this song, it seems awkward. Does anyone know what I am talking about? When i sing it I get through the tune about 2-1/2 times...I told you this was silly. lol

If anyone can help me, I'd appreciate it!

Author: Rebecca
Date: 6/14/2004

Cheryl,

You are right, it does go through the tune more than once. Also, I am not a musician but I am pretty sure that the beat is a little different than the original. It really helps to sing it with the teacher's manual because the punctuation and lines help to show where the pauses are.
The song is a great tool once you gets the hang of it. My dd would hum through to the letter she was trying to figure out when sounding out words for most of the year! She is very auditory.

Blessings,
Rebecca

[JenniferF]

Author: Jennifer F.
Date: 6/15/2004

Yes, It is sung through about 2 1/2-3 times. I think some of the longer words (i.e. butterfly and dinosaur) and throw it off sometimes. And we never end on the same note to continue the last night of the song. But the girls enjoy it. My almost 3yo dd begs to keep doing it over and over! :)

[cbollin]

Here are some things I do with the phonics section for my child who was ahead of the curve in reading, but using MFW K because of her age:
I modify the existing activities for an early reading student to focus on pre spelling and handwriting:
It will make so much more sense when you have the actual manual and detailed instructions in front of you.

Day 1 of phonics
*Step. 1 – say the sound and trace the letter.
*Step. 2 – show the card and introduce science topic
*Step 3 – do the song if they want to. One suggestion – mix up the flashcards and let them just say the sound without singing the song.
Learning those sounds in random order really helps with spelling. Or, you can chose an alternative activity for flashcards based on the
flashcard activity card that has ideas on it.
*Step 4. Picture cards – becomes a time to sort the cards and practice tracing the letter that it starts with. I have my child cut the
pictures, but she doesn't want to color them, so we don't bother to color them. But we still do the cutting and the tracing as that is
geared for writing and fine motor. So, don't skip the tracing with the textured letter. Then I set out several envelopes and we remove the pictures and play a
game to sort them back quickly. First, we get the envelopes in their alphabetical order. Then we sort the pictures back in there. It seems simple, but it is good practice for sorting and is early dictionary and phone book skills.
Step 5 – no change needed for reading child.

Day 2 of Phonics
*Step 1 – use the song, but modify the words to emphasize that the sound is in the middle of the word. Again, this is an important spelling foundation step.
Example, I change the final lyrics to "it's in the middle of the word."
Then, you should try it with other words that rhyme with the key words given. And then step it up a notch. Call out a short vowel word and ask your child to tell you the sound they hear in the middle of the word. In other words, it's a small spelling test done orally.
Ask them to tell you the sound at the end of the word.
Ask them to tell you the sound at the beginning.

*Step 2: no change needed for reading child
*Step 3 – see ideas from day 1 for envelope alphabet order, and tracing. Don't skip the tracing.
*Step 4 – no real change needed for reading child. But you can take it up a notch and have them also identify the last sound of the word and write the letter in the box with the picture.

Day 3
*Step 1 – choose an alternative flashcard activity from the card in the flashcard set. Or pull several cards out and play where in the alphabet does it go? In the first half, or second half?

*Step 2 work on tracing
*Step 3 – work on tracing the syllables instead of just reading them.
Always look for the handwriting opportunity or spelling opportunity when they can already read the syllables or words or stories. You call out a syllable sound and have them put the textured letters on the ladder.
*Step 4 – no change for reading kid
*Step 5 – cut and paste, and/or have them write it in the box
*Step 6 – enjoy playing the game even with a reading child. no change needed.

Day 4
*Step 1 turn it into a game, or skip
*Step 2 – if they can read the word, just have them spell it with textured letters after you call out the word.
*Step 3 – see step 2. and still do the writing part of dictation
*Step 4 – no real change is needed for reading student. Focus on the ability to follow instructions.
*Step 5 – enjoy playing

Day 5
*Step 1, see earlier notes in this post about modifying the song
*Step 2, no real change for reading child
*Step 3 – no real change for reading child.

Day 6 of phonics -- remember to do the Cuisenaire alphabet book and the music CD.

I hope some of those ideas help to beef it up for an early reading child.

-crystal

[cbollin]

On the Day 1 picture cards, instead of tossing the card with just the letter on it, we take that card and glue it on the front of the envelope for that letter.
***
For extra practice in phonics as the year progresses, we've found it fun to use starfall.com
to help with more visual and audio with phonics. my child with autism likes it, and so did my middle child.

Also, on starfall.com they have an a/a/ alphabet song. That song helped us to understand the A/A apple song in MFW better. same idea to be chanted/sung to twinkle twinkle
***
For math - my suggestion for kids who need more -- do more real life applications (talking about math while cooking, cleaning, etc), and do the alphabet pattern book with the c. rods.
When I did MFW K with my middle gal, I started off during MUS Primer -- it was in my house. I was familiar with it. Then, as I got into MFW K, I realized -- this the same stuff in the workbook -- why should I duplicate it? So I just did MFW K, added in fun games in math, talked about concepts.

-crystal

[2mymasuly]

We have found an additional phonics resource to use each unit study.

The Sound Box Library book series by author Jane Belk Monroe.

i.e. My "a" Sound Box
My "b" Sound Box, etc

My dd has enjoyed the book and listening for the beginning letter sounds.

[homebychoice]

great ideas! I'll be adding those to my list of things to do!

[jasntas]

Things we have done this year to beef up or just customize MFW K for my slightly advanced dd. (this is in addition to and sometimes in place of the program as written):

Day 1

Step 3. Tape letter on the front of the envelope. Then after scheduled Picture Cards activity is done, take all envelopes used so far, mix them up and lay them out on a table or floor and let child put them in alphabetical order with help if needed.

Day 2

Step 2. After demonstrating the proper way to form the letter or number, allow child to use a salt tray to practice letter and number before writing it on the handwriting page. (My dd hated tracing the letters with her finger but loved the salt tray and also didn't mind practicing her letters/numbers/words on a personal sized white board.)

After writing the number on an index card, lay them out on a table or floor out of order and have child put them in numeric order with help if needed.

Day 3

Step 4. Math Page. If child doesn't want to draw pictures, use stickers. (Or you could also use tiny rubber stamps or stencils or bingo daubers, etc. For my dd, stickers were the medium of choice.) If using stickers, have child decide what number to use and pick which stickers to use. (We usually use stickers that go along with the unit we are on at the time or I let her choose. I am always on the look out for the $1 stickers at Target, Michaels, etc.) My dd even made the sheet into math problems. For example: X# of big butterfly stickers + X# of small butterfly stickers =. (That was her own idea.)

Day 4

After Step 1. Have the child name the letter before and the letter after the letter you are currently on.

Day 5

Step 2 Drawing Page. If child doesn't care to draw, reuse the Cut and Paste page from day 3. (Or make a copy of day 3 page. I hope that is permissible.) Have child pick 4 of the 6 pictures from the day 3 page and cut them out and glue the picture to the Day 5 worksheet. Then write the word below it. (We also used stickers, rubber stamps and stencils in lieu of drawing but my dd liked this method best as it became difficult to find the right stickers, etc. for the words she wanted to use and she usually didn‘t want to draw it.)

Step 3. Lessons 15-26. At first my dd felt a bit overwhelmed with the whole page story so for a while I cut them apart and stapled them together like a book.

Day 6

Cuisenaire Rods Alphabet Book

An alphabet maze book. Have child do the maze for the letter you are currently on.

A dot to dot book. Up to 10 for first 10 units. Up to 25 after that to reinforce number sequence and recognition.

Beginning dictionary skills. (We have a "My First Dictionary" with lots of pictures.) Teach child how to find the section with the letter you are currently on. Then let child find a picture of the subject you are currently learning about. (My dd does this completely on her own now. The dictionary we use had all but 1 or 2 of the subjects we studied in K. If a picture of our current subject wasn’t there then I would just give her an alternate picture to find.)

We also added in easy K addition/subtraction up to 10 math pages once or twice a week as well.

My dd would also read easy readers usually daily. But sometimes she would hit a rut and need to slow down so I let her lead on that.

Some of the books we used in addition to the stories included in K:

Now I'm Reading Level 1 books by Nora Gaydos (There are 2 sets of level 1 and 1 level 1 advanced set )
Bob Books Set 1
I Can Read Biscuit Phonics Fun set
Dr. Maggie’s Phonics Readers Set 1
Starfall Learn to Read set. (The first 5 books feature short vowel sounds only.)

We also used the books from the Hooked on Phonics K program because we already had them.

Most if not all of these books only featured short vowel sounds and a few site words.

I hope some of these ideas are helpful to others or even spark some new ideas.

We have thoroughly enjoyed MFW K and how flexible it is. It has truly been a blessing in our home.