vowels and consonants
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Senorita Daniels
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- Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:11 pm
vowels and consonants
Does anyone have any good ideas on teaching vowels and consonants to second graders? This will be a one on one activity.
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
There is a good series that is based on music and singing called Sing, Spell and Read http://plgcatalog.pearson.com/program_m ... ram_id=261
I have seen a new program by Leapfrog with magnetic letters that sing and there is also a Bear that sings. They have these in our local Superstore. They are expensive but the kids love them.
Just like learning the names of the letters of the alphabet through that famous song, I think it gets to a deeper level when they sing and sticks longer. Even older people can sing the alphabet song even when they have lost the memory of other things.
We often don't explain to the children the difference between the names of the letters and the 44 sounds of those letters.
In Mongolia, they study one letter a day and then have a graduating ceremony when the children know the name, sound, and how to print the letter. It is a real deal with the girls in pretty dresses, the boys in suits, dinner with the parents, presents and a diploma. It is their first measureable accomplishment in school so is treated very specially. It was a lot of fun at our school too because the children also got diplomas for learning their English letters and sang in English and did a little play. We as teachers got a lot of gifts from the parents - I remember an address book and a pictuer of Chingis Khan better know as Genghis Khan. There was champagne and good food.
I have seen a new program by Leapfrog with magnetic letters that sing and there is also a Bear that sings. They have these in our local Superstore. They are expensive but the kids love them.
Just like learning the names of the letters of the alphabet through that famous song, I think it gets to a deeper level when they sing and sticks longer. Even older people can sing the alphabet song even when they have lost the memory of other things.
We often don't explain to the children the difference between the names of the letters and the 44 sounds of those letters.
In Mongolia, they study one letter a day and then have a graduating ceremony when the children know the name, sound, and how to print the letter. It is a real deal with the girls in pretty dresses, the boys in suits, dinner with the parents, presents and a diploma. It is their first measureable accomplishment in school so is treated very specially. It was a lot of fun at our school too because the children also got diplomas for learning their English letters and sang in English and did a little play. We as teachers got a lot of gifts from the parents - I remember an address book and a pictuer of Chingis Khan better know as Genghis Khan. There was champagne and good food.
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Senorita Daniels
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:11 pm
I don't think I clearly explained the problem. This kid knows the letters. He technically isn't an ESL/ELL student. I work with him and an ELL student in his classroom on spelling. They write the spelling words on the board, and I correct them. If he's missing a letter, say the silent w in write, I'll say he's missing a silent consonant, and he'll put up a vowel.
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
I suppose he will hear such words as "consonant" or "vowel" from his teachers in the future although they are such abstract ideas and we never hear them in daily conversation. You are teaching grammar metalanguage. It might just be easiest to make a poster of consonants in one colour and one of vowels in another and get him to use coloured chalk as he writes his words. I would think that you have to explain to him why we have both though for it to make sense to him. I am not a big fan of spelling lists that aren't connected to actual texts that make some difference in their lives. I never learned to spell and I did hundreds of spelling lists and spelling tests.
If he is not an ESL student you can explain to him why we have some of the spellings we do - there is always a nice explanation of the history of English in the front of a good dictionary and he might understand better why there is a silent w in write or a silent k in knee. You often hear the good spellers in Spelling Bees ask what country or language the word comes from to help them to predict the spelling.
If he is not an ESL student you can explain to him why we have some of the spellings we do - there is always a nice explanation of the history of English in the front of a good dictionary and he might understand better why there is a silent w in write or a silent k in knee. You often hear the good spellers in Spelling Bees ask what country or language the word comes from to help them to predict the spelling.