Cheerful Children’s Book connects /ch/ sound

/Ch/ is a digraph – two letters that make one sound. “Chester’s Way” by Kevin Henkes is an entertaining connection to /ch/. Chester and Wilson enjoy the same interests – an obvious indicator that they are best friends. A girl in their neighborhood named Lily enters the story as a cheery outsider who does things

Itsy Bitsy Short /i/

A common visual cue used with short /i/ is to act out itching. I discovered “Itsy Bitsy” Spider by Keith Chapman at the public library this summer. Not only does it include many opportunities to hear short /i/, there are many animal sounds. This would be a great book to read for examples of onomatopoeia.

House Hunting with /h/

One of my favorite authors is Eric Carle. Students can be swept up by all of the colors and whimsical mixed media in his stories. Carle’s “A House for Hermit Crab” is a great literature connection to /h/. When I read it, I remember a class pet hermit crab my teacher allowed us to take

D is for David

The consonant /d/ is a tricky one for some students. They reverse it in their writing with /b/. They may even produce the /b/ sound instead of saying /d/. The key is, again, multiple experiences including a connection to literature. “No, David!” By David Shannon is a quick read but a solid example of /d/.

A Cap Salesman Connects Short /a/

Short /a/ is fun to teach students because it also has a visual cue – we put our hand under our jaw when we say /a/. Visuals like apples are great objects. My favorite /a/ connection to literature is “More Caps for Sale” by Esphyr Slobodkina with Anne Marie Mulhearn Sayer. This is a childhood

A Blue Ox Connects to Short /o/

Listening to an example of the short /o/ in literature like “Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox The Pancake Adventure” by Matt Luckhurst is a great way to connect all of the dots. /O/ is a short vowel which means we also give a visual cue in tutoring for this sound. We point our

“M” is for Maggie

How many ways does a student have to experience hearing, seeing, and touching a new sound that’s just been introduced? With usually only 30 minutes in a classroom, we hope to give them as many different experiences as possible. This includes a connection to literature. I read “Muggie Maggie” by Beverly Cleary after introducing /m/.