Christmas Scrabble Word Game Christmas Scrabble Word Tile Game Children learn by play. Teaching your child phonics and phonemic awareness needn’t be dull and uninteresting. From a very early age your child will begin to recognise the shape and sound of letters, and be able to sound and associate the correct words to pictures shown. Once your child has learnt the alphabet a whole new world of fun learning experiences opens up to him or her. file I devised this Letter Tile game which worked wonderfully for my children when they were younger, and who, after successfully “spelling” out simple Dolch words with the letter tiles, pushed their own envelopes and sounded letters and words to pictures, thereby gaining awareness of more complex words and far advancing their initial knowledge. And the kids didn’t even know they were learning! mp le It soon became apparent to the child that adding an “s” in most cases to the end of a word actually created “more than one…” – a plural. Sa To play the game print out the Scrabble Letter Tiles. You might like to print 2 sheets of letter tiles. Laminate each sheet and cut out letter tiles. Use the storage envelope provided or store the game pieces in a container. Print each sheet of Picture Cards. Again laminate for durability and protection and cut out picture cards. All images in this game are Christmas-themed and purchased from Green Label Clipart. Blank cards and letter tiles are provided should you decide to create additional or more advanced words. Each child will be given 2 or 3 Picture cards (more for fewer players or older children), and after selecting 11 letter tiles (which have been either placed upside down or in a container) will try to place the correct letters on the appropriate squares for the picture card. If the player decides he or she isn’t happy with their letters they may skip a turn and replace “X” amount of tiles. The winner is the first player to correctly fill in the word on each of his or her picture cards. Some cards will have more than 1 possible answer. Let your child use his or her imagination. The extent to which these word/picture cards can be used is limited only by your own imagination. www.staidenshomeschool.com © 2011 Donnette E Davis Christmas Scrabble Word Game While researching Phonemic Awareness some years ago, I came across a beautifully simple description of Phonological Awareness and would like to quote a short excerpt therefrom: Why does phonological awareness precede phonics? Children need to first develop a strong listening awareness of the sounds in words. They need to be able to: • hear rhyming words • hear the different individual sounds in words • blend individual sounds into words • play with sounds in words [If I take away the "K" sound in cat, what word will be left? If I add the "b" sound, what new word will I have?] Children should also name and recognize the sounds of letters in the alphabet. • • • • le • mp • Read nursery rhymes. Ask children to guess the next rhyming word. Sing and make up silly songs such as "K..K..K..K..K..K K..K..K..K..K..K ..Katie give me your answer...... answer. Play a version of Simon Says; "Simon says to take as many giant steps as the sounds in flat." (...f......l .f......l....a...t .f......l....a...t) ....a...t Group pictures by the number of sounds in their names. Go on a scavenger hunt for objects whose names have 3 sounds etc. While riding in a car, play guessing games. "I am thinking of a word that sounds like this when you pull it a part.........t....r....ai.....n. ..t....r....ai.....n. Can you guess what I said? Play a version of pig Latin. "Katie, if I dropped the k (say sound) from your name, what would it be? [answer: atie]. t" (say sound) to you name, what would atie What if we added a "t" it be now? [answer: Tatie] Tatie Sa • file Activities to help young children to develop phonological awareness What is “phonics”? phonics”? Phonics is learning what sound individual letters make and then blending those sounds into words. The more quickly students can recognize and blend these sounds, the more fluent readers they become. Note: Students may have good phonic skills and still not be good readers. To be a good reader students must use both phonic/ word attack strategies and comprehension strategies. What are the consonants? b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q (qu), r, s, t, v, w, x, z, z (sometimes y) Strategies to help your child learn the consonants www.staidenshomeschool.com © 2011 Donnette E Davis Christmas Scrabble Word Game • • • • • Have child draw lower case letters on large newspaper. Have a product search when grocery shopping [What can we buy that makes a "p p--give sound"?] Find pictures in colouring books that begin with the same sound. Write the letter that makes that sound next to the picture. Using, a narrow strip of shelf paper, have child glue/tape words from newspaper and magazines that have the letter_____ in it. Make up silly tongue twisters using a consonant sound. What are vowels ? Vowels are the letters that glue the consonant sounds together in a word. In English, you cannot have a word without a vowel. Each vowel has two sounds: long and short. Vowels also combine with other vowels to make special sounds. Vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y file Vowels are difficult for children to learn. Some short vowel sounds are very similar and children have difficulty hearing the difference. [Spelling is often more difficult for these children.] a i o u an e Key word: apple gesture of pulling apple from mouth Key word: itch gesture of scratching an itchy nose Key word: octopus gesture of tracing the letter o around lips when saying the letter o Key word: up gesture of moving hand up or pushing umbrella up to open it Key word: Ed gesture of pulling each corner of the mouth as child says "eh" Sa mp le Vowel Tips: Children remember short vowel sounds more easily if they have a key word and a gesture to help recall the sounds. Needham children learn the following cues for the short vowel sounds: Note: Students should know the short vowel sounds by the end of grade one. References & Thanks : Reading Together http://www.readingtogether.org/parentsphonics5.html www.staidenshomeschool.com © 2011 Donnette E Davis Christmas Scrabble Word Game Christmas Scrabble Word Tile Game Sa mp le file Print 1 or more of this sheet of letter tiles onto cardstock, laminate for protection and durability and cut out letter tiles. Have your child spell out the words to the pictures by placing letter tiles in the appropriate spaces on the word cards. Store in enclosed envelope. www.staidenshomeschool.com © 2011 Donnette E Davis Christmas Scrabble Word Game Christmas Scrabble Picture Cards Sa mp le file www.staidenshomeschool.co m www.staidenshomeschool.com www.staidenshomeschool.com www.staidenshomeschool.com © 2011 Donnette E Davis Christmas Scrabble Word Game www.staidenshomeschool.com Sa mp le file www.staidenshomeschool.com www.staidenshomeschool.com www.staidenshomeschool.com © 2011 Donnette E Davis