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    • beginning sounds
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    • phonological awareness
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    • rhyming
    • sight words
  • reading
    • books
    • comprehension
      • activating schema
      • connecting
      • inferring
      • predicting
      • questioning
      • retelling / summarizing
      • visualizing
    • concepts of print
    • environmental print
    • fluency
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    • spelling
    • word building
    • word consciousness
    • vocabulary
  • writing
    • creative writing
    • grammar
    • informative writing
    • tripod grip
  • math
    • computation
    • counting
    • numbers
  • science
    • animals
    • plants
    • science experiments for kids
  • Activities
    • birthdays
    • cooking
      • new for us foods
    • crafts
    • foundations
      • colors
      • critical thinking
      • fine arts
      • listening
      • pretend play
      • sorting
      • speaking
    • holidays
      • new year’s
      • valentine’s day
      • president’s day
      • st. patrick’s day
      • april fool’s day
      • easter
      • mother’s day
      • teacher appreciation
      • father’s day
      • july 4th
      • halloween
      • thanksgiving
      • christmas
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follow-the-path game

home / early literacy / beginning sounds / follow-the-path game
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I’m trying to work on isolating sounds in words with Owen. When he listens to Maddy sounding out words, he gets confused about sounds he hears in the beginning, middle, and end of words.

If Maddy says, Mommy, how do I spell ‘sun’? Owen will say something like, Ssssuuunnnn, sun. Nnnn. Sun starts with ‘n’. He’s trying, so I want to get him on track.

It’s really not a big deal considering he’s still a little guy, but I know there are easy and fun ways of teaching the isolation of sounds in words, so I broke out a game from my favorite, Bear’s Words Their Way (2003).

  • Beginning Sounds Follow The Path Game: All I did to prepare was copy the picture cards for S, T, P, and D and then copy two of the blank “paths” (there are about six to choose from). Then I glued green construction paper inside a manila folder and put the paths on top of that. I wrote either an uppercase or lowercase letter S, T, P, or D in each of the boxes. Then Owen and I put some Lightening McQueen and star stickers all around, and he grabbed a few of his favorite cars to use as pawns.

We cut out the picture cards and mixed them up. Then we took turns picking cards, figured out which letter the word started with, and moved our cars to the correct letter. The object of the game? Be the first guy to get to the end. Not too hard.

When a card was flipped, I would say, Tie. Ttttie. What sound do you hear in the beginning of the word, ‘tie’?

Owen would (hopefully!) say, Ttttt! And I’d say, Right! What letter makes the ‘t’ sound? Of course, I’d hope that he’d say, ‘t’!

Then he (or I) would move our car to the letter ‘t’. And so it went for the duration of the game. Sometimes the cars would crash into each other, and sometimes they’d speed off the game board, but eventually we got to the finish line. I know he was happy to have “his own” game that he designed and that had cars all around it; I’m convinced he didn’t even realize he was learning while he was playing.

As much as I love Words Their Way and have referenced them often in previous posts, I stumbled across this awesome site, Literacy Connections, that has permission to share a number of WTW activities. It’s worth checking out, especially because they have information on tons of important literacy-related topics. So cool. Enjoy!

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About amy mascott

teacher, mother, dreamer. lover of literacy, fun learning, good food, and three crazy-cool kids. finder of four-leaf clovers | dc metro ยท http://about.me/amymascott
tweet with me: @teachmama

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What better way to get students to engage in civics and contribute to their communities? 

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Have you heard of The National Civics Bee? #ad 

The National Civics Bee is an initiative aimed at encouraging more young Americans to engage in civics and contribute to their communities. 

Organized in partnership with The Civic Trust of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, the competition in your community will inspire middle schoolers to become better informed about American democracy, to engage respectfully and constructively in the community, and to build greater trust in others and institutions. 

Learn how to bring The National Civics Bee to YOUR community now: https://teachmama.com/bring-the-national-civics-bee-to-your-community/

Iโ€™m thrilled to have partnered with @mom_select and @civicsbuzz for this exciting campaign! โ™ฅ๏ธ๐Ÿค๐Ÿ’™

#CivicsBuzz #middleschoolers #teachersofIG #communitypartners
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(Itโ€™s what Rusty the ๐ŸฆŠ is currently reading.) 

Find it at your favorite bookstore or order here: https://amzn.to/3Pu3tWs

(This is my affiliate link, so when you use it, I will earn a small percentage of the sale, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for using my link and supporting my small business!)

#readingteacher #raiseareader #kidlit #bestbooks #linkinbio
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How can people with dyslexia learn to read? ๐Ÿค”

Here are the 3๏ธโƒฃ elements that reading instruction should contain in order to be most effective for students with dyslexiaโ€”

#demystifyingdyslexia #raiseareader #readingteacher #teachreading #dyslexiaawareness
View
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Lately when I find four leaf clovers, Iโ€™ve been leaving them. ๐Ÿ€๐Ÿคท๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ

So if youโ€™re in Maryland, and you happen upon a lonely, little 4-leafer with very little grass, weeds, or leaves around it, I donโ€™t know WHO tried to set you up for success.

#yougotthis #keepyoureyesopen #itsthelittlethings #kilpattyluck
View
Open
Okayโ€”how do we know if someone has dyslexia? 

Which professionas are able to make that important determination? 

โ–ถ๏ธ Watch to find out. 

Hit me with the questions you still have about dyslexiaโ€”and know we have a few more posts to go!

#demystifyingdyslexia #raiseareader #teachreading #readingteachersofig
View
Open
What are some of the common signs of dyslexia?

Watch to learn and find out!

#demystifyingdyslexia #readingteacher #raiseareader #teachreading #dyslexia
View
Open
True โœ… or false โŒ?

#demystifyingdyslexia #dyslexiaeducation #readingteacher #raiseareader #teachreading
View
Open
What do you know about dyslexia? 

What questions do you have about dyslexia? 

For the next few weeks leading up to my own start to the school year I am sharing a new series called โ€œDe-Mystifying Dyslexiaโ€ and I would love for you to join me! 

Follow in my stories or on the highlight above!

#dyslexia #teading  #readingteacher #raiseareader #demystifyingdyslexia

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