Title of Strategy: Making Words with Magnetic Letters (or Letter Cards)
Description: Students learn how “words work” by manipulating the letters and sounds. They will also use the “known” to learn and discover the “unknown” by noticing similarities in how words look and sound. The practice of making words will help children hear sounds in words, as well as notice patterns.
Procedure: There are a lot of variations of “Making Words” for different levels of learners. Some examples are:
Emergent Readers: (Sight word practice) – Give the letters for a word (ie, “and”)
Developing Readers: (Sound Manipulation) Give children pre-determined letters that are placed in a straight line in alpha order, with vowels first.
*(1st Letter) Change the one letter to make “can” into “man”. (fan, ran, etc.)
*(Last Letter) Change one letter to make “can” into “cap”. (cat, cab, etc.)
*(Vowel) Change one letter to make “pan” into “pen”. (pin, etc.
Independent Readers: - (Make & Break Words)
Give out letters that spell a longer word and use those letters to make and break words. “Break it” – by pulling letters that work together apart from the others and pushing them back together to make a word. (ie, br-ing, gr-and-ma, etc.)
*See Making Words by Patricia Cunningham and Dorothy Hall or Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families by Judy Lynch (Scholastic)
For a visual example of making emergent words see the Making Words Video
and for developing readers see Making Words Video 2 :
Description: Students learn how “words work” by manipulating the letters and sounds. They will also use the “known” to learn and discover the “unknown” by noticing similarities in how words look and sound. The practice of making words will help children hear sounds in words, as well as notice patterns.
Procedure: There are a lot of variations of “Making Words” for different levels of learners. Some examples are:
Emergent Readers: (Sight word practice) – Give the letters for a word (ie, “and”)
- Make the word “and.”
- Check it. (Point to each letter saying the sound and then come back and run your finger under the word saying the whole word.)
- Mix it up and make it again. (As fast as you can!)
- Check it. (Repeat above.) If the word is not decodable – have the child point and say the letter names instead.
Developing Readers: (Sound Manipulation) Give children pre-determined letters that are placed in a straight line in alpha order, with vowels first.
- Instruct the child to take the number of letters to make a word. (ie, “Take 3 letters and make the word “can”.)
- Have the child “check it” by placing a finger under each letter and saying each sound, then “blend it” by going back to the first letter and quickly running their finger under the word while saying it. (ie, “c – a – n”, “can”)
- Have the child change the letters to make others words. Use “check it” occasionally; if someone is incorrect, they can see it “doesn’t match”.
*(1st Letter) Change the one letter to make “can” into “man”. (fan, ran, etc.)
*(Last Letter) Change one letter to make “can” into “cap”. (cat, cab, etc.)
*(Vowel) Change one letter to make “pan” into “pen”. (pin, etc.
Independent Readers: - (Make & Break Words)
Give out letters that spell a longer word and use those letters to make and break words. “Break it” – by pulling letters that work together apart from the others and pushing them back together to make a word. (ie, br-ing, gr-and-ma, etc.)
*See Making Words by Patricia Cunningham and Dorothy Hall or Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families by Judy Lynch (Scholastic)
For a visual example of making emergent words see the Making Words Video
and for developing readers see Making Words Video 2 :