Are you ready to explore ways to help your beginning or struggling readers learn to decode CVC words? You’ve landed in the right spot! This round-up blog post includes 9 ways to help you transform your CVC word instruction. 

Go ahead and scroll down to find the ways that pique your interest. Then, be sure to click on the highlighted words. Each link will take you to either a blog post or a product page with additional information. 

Assess Skills to Target Instruction

Let’s get started with some assessments!

Begin by checking out my blog post, How to Get Started With Teaching CVC Words, for questions to ask yourself if you’re teaching students with little to no exposure to decoding.

On the other hand, if you’re teaching readers who can decode some CVC words but have not yet achieved mastery, you might want to administer the first list in my Decoding Assessment for One-Syllable Words (or use a similar assessment) to target the specific skills you need to teach.

Head on over to How to Assess Decoding Skills and Help Target Instruction. You can read more and find links to download this free assessment.

Use Letter Sound Mats to Decode CVC Words

One of my favorite tools for teaching decoding and encoding of phonetically regular words is a letter sound mat.

You can use this flexible activity with an individual or a small group of students. Use it as you follow any instructional scope and sequence.

Find out more in this blog post, How to Get Started With Teaching CVC Words. You’ll also get a link to a free set of letter cards you can download and print.

Build In Support to Decode CVC Words

Do you have students who are constantly searching your classroom walls to find an image that will help them figure out what sound a letter stands for in order to decode unknown words?

So, why not give them what they need right at their fingertips? I created my Blend to Read CVC Words With Key Word Pictures to do just that.

Find out who might benefit and how to use this tool with your students in my blog post, How to Build in Support to Decode CVC Words. In addition, you’ll find a link to download a free sample.

CVC Word Mapping With High-Frequency Words

You’ll want to try this word mapping resource designed to help your beginning and struggling readers connect the sounds they hear with the letters they see in CVC words.

By strengthening those phoneme-grapheme associations, you’ll set your students on the road to orthographic mapping. Plus, you’ll help them build automatic word recognition for high-frequency CVC words.

Each of the 34 words in this resource can be represented by a visual image.

Ready to learn more? Are You Curious About Orthographic Mapping? is the blog post to read.

Rapid Word Recognition Charts

Discover what rapid word recognition charts are, why to try them, who will benefit, and how to create your own. Click to read Do You Want to Know All About Rapid Word Recognition Charts?

While you’re there, check out my ready-made charts using 52 high-frequency CVC words.

Minimal Pairs for Decoding Practice

Take a few minutes to understand what minimal pairs are and how you can use them for decoding. 

When you use minimal pairs (or trios, etc.) you’ll be giving your students a gentle reminder to look carefully at every letter when they decode CVC words. 

My feed-me resources with minimal pairs (and trios) are an excellent way to provide bite-sized decoding practice.

Feed Me S’Mores includes 49 target high-frequency CVC words. 

I’ve included a roll-and-read freebie in the blog post, How to Effectively Use Minimal Pairs for Bite-Sized Decoding Practice, so you can try out decoding with minimal pairs.

CVC Word Puzzles

These farm-themed puzzles are an engaging way to give your beginning and struggling readers the practice they need to decode and encode CVC words. The focus is on 34 high-frequency CVC words that can be represented by a visual image. 

Head over to my TPT store to learn more about these CVC Word Puzzles.

Free Football Fun

Let your students have a little fun with this football-themed activity. They’ll decode a CVC word and then match it to a picture that illustrates its meaning. This read-and-color (or read-and-cover) freebie includes 16 high-frequency CVC words.

Click the highlighted words to download your free copy of Football Fun. 

You’ll find a second set of these Football Fun activity sheets with 16 more CVC words included in the bonus file of my CVC Words Decoding Bundle. 

Phonics Word Lists

Still More…

1. A Pizza My Heart (-at, -ip, and -ug spelling patterns)
2. Roll-A-Rainbow

If you made it this far, I’d love for you to share the idea, freebie, or product that was most helpful for you and your students in the comments below!

The post 9 Amazing Ways to Help Your Students Decode CVC Words appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

Did you know that minimal pairs (or trios) are a terrific way to provide bite-sized decoding practice for your students? 

What Are Minimal Pairs?

Minimal pairs or minimal contrast words are words that are similar or almost the same. They often (but not always) differ by one letter or sound. They can be different in the initial, medial, or final position of a word. The change can be an addition, substitution, or omission. 

Here are some examples of minimal pairs appropriate for decoding practice.

• Initial Substitutions: bat and mat or brow and plow
• Medial Substitutions: pin and pan or prone and prune
• Final Substitutions: let and leg or slide and slime
• Additions: sip and ship, cut and cute, or bat and boat
• Omissions: flit, lit, it

You can use real words, nonsense words, or a mix of the two.

When you use minimal pairs (or trios, etc.) you’ll be giving your students a gentle reminder to look carefully at every letter when decoding words.

Why Bite-Sized Practice?

Using minimal pairs or contrast to practice decoding words is not a new idea. In fact, it is a very old idea. 

I looked for but could not find a workbook for phonics practice, Remedial Reading Drills, that I had used with my students. Surprisingly, I found a copy online. The original copyright date was 1940! And no, I was not using it in 1940! Perhaps I had the 1985 revision. 

What I found then, and now, is that the number of words presented on a single page can be overwhelming for some students. Even when you fold a page or cover part of it, they can feel frustrated and defeated before they even start. Some of your students, undoubtedly also have shorter attention spans than their peers. For these reasons, I found bite-sized decoding practice to be a more effective approach for my beginning and challenged readers.

Please note that there is a newer 2007 version of Phonic Reading Lessons available from Academic Therapy Publications. There are now fewer words with more spacing on the pages. My comments here are strictly about how the layout and the number of words presented on a page can affect young students and are not a reflection in any way of the instructional content or methods. You might find this presentation to be highly effective with your students.

Feed Me Activities for Minimal Pairs

By their nature, feed-me activities provide bite-sized practice. My two read-and-feed resources with minimal pairs (and trios) are an excellent way to have your students apply their decoding skills.

What Words Did I Choose?

I chose phonetically regular high-frequency short vowel words from two popular lists, one with 220 words and the other with 1000 words. 

I created two resources. Feed Me S’Mores includes 10 VC words and 39 CVC words. These are the target words. The target words are presented in pairs and trios contrasted with other similar real words. The only change, typically, is the short vowel sound.

Feed Me Cookies includes 109 short vowel target words with initial and/ or final consonant blends and/ or digraphs. I also added words with double final consonants. There are two sets of minimal pairs and trios. The first set contrasts single consonants with blends and digraphs. The second set contrasts short vowel sounds.

How Will My Students Benefit?

These Feed Me activities will give your students the opportunity to:

• apply their decoding skills
• get oodles of practice in bite-sized chunks
• gain automatic recognition of high-frequency words
• develop a sight word vocabulary
• increase their accuracy and fluency

And don’t forget the inherent motivation and fun!

What Prerequisite Skills Do My Students Need?

This is a practice activity that is designed to be a follow-up to your direct phonics instruction. It is intended to help your students achieve mastery in decoding accuracy and/ or automatic recognition of the target words. With that in mind, your students will need to…

For CVC Words

• have near mastery with letter/ sound knowledge of consonants and short vowels
• be able to blend 2 and 3 phonemes to decode VC and CVC words with a developing level of accuracy

For Blends and Digraphs

• have near mastery with letter/ sound knowledge of consonant digraphs
• be able to blend 3, 4, and 5 phonemes to decode CCVC, CVCC, and CCVCC words with a developing level of accuracy

How Can I Use This Minimal Pairs Activity?

Try this activity:

• with your small instructional, intervention, or resource groups
• when tutoring individual students
• in a center

It’s perfect to use for:

• a warm-up
• an exit activity
• practice
• review

Get ‘Em Decoding

Your students will take turns to:

1. Pick a card.
2. Read the minimal pairs or trios on the s’more or cookie.
3. Feed the s’more or cookie to the hungry bear or monster.
4. Color a s’more or cookie on the optional reward strip.

Roll & Read Minimal Contrast Short Vowel Words

Here’s a little roll & read freebie so you can try out decoding with minimal pairs. Or use it as an add-on to my feed-me activities for even more practice with those high-frequency phonetically regular short vowel words.

For this activity, I chose 18 short vowel words without consonant blends and digraphs and 18 short vowel words with initial and/ or final consonant blends and/ or digraphs for the target words. All of the target words came from the same two lists of high-frequency words.

The target words are presented in trios contrasted with other similar real words. The target word is the first one in each row. The only change is the vowel letter.

Get ‘Em Reading

Your students will:

1. Roll a die.
2. Find the corresponding row of words.
3. Read each word in the row.
4. Color one cookie or marshmallow at the end of each row.
5. Roll and read again, and again, and again! Color a cookie or a marshmallow each time you read a row.
6. Play until each row has been read one time or one row read three times, or time is up!

For students who are overwhelmed or lose focus, reduce the number of rolls and/ or spread out the practice over 2 or 3 sessions. 

Click on the highlighted words to download your free copy of Roll & Read Minimal Contrast Short Vowel Words.

More Ways to Incorporate Minimal Pairs For Decoding Practice

You can easily incorporate bite-sized decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) practice with minimal pairs when using letter/ sound mats. These two blog posts will help you start thinking about how you can do this.

1. How to Get Started Reading CVC Words
2. Is the Silent E Pattern Proving to Be Prickly?

Bonus: Discover another free roll & read activity!

Word ladders and making words activities are two more bite-sized ways to work with minimal contrast words, particularly for encoding.

More Decoding Practice With Phonetically Regular High-Frequency Words

Check out these two blog posts for information on orthographic mapping and rapid word recognition charts. Help your students to develop automatic word recognition using words from the same high-frequency word lists.

1. Do You Want to Know All About Rapid Word Recognition Charts?
2. Are You Curious About the Importance of Orthographic Mapping?

You can also head directly to my TPT store to check out these products.

1. CVC Rapid Word Charts For Automatic Word Recognition of High-Frequency Words
2. CVC Word Mapping – Phoneme Grapheme Matching With High-Frequency Words
3. CVC Words – Minimal Contrast Short Vowel Word Decoding Activity
4. Consonant Blends and Digraphs – Rapid Word Charts With High-Frequency Words
5. Consonant Blends and Digraphs – Minimal Contrast Words Decoding Activity

What is your experience with using minimal pairs for decoding? How do you provide bite-sized practice? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

The post How to Effectively Use Minimal Pairs for Bite-Sized Decoding Practice appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

Perhaps, some definitions would be a helpful place to start!

Definitions for Understanding

• High-frequency words are simply words that are found frequently in the text that we read. These words can be phonetically regular or irregular.
• Sight words are those words that we recognize instantly and can retrieve from memory without conscious effort. These words can be phonetically regular or irregular, decodable or nondecodable, high-frequency or low frequency.
• Phonetically regular words can be decoded by using common phonics knowledge. They have the expected letter-sound relationships.
• Phonetically irregular words deviate from common phonics patterns and letter-sound relationships. Of note, most irregular words have only one irregular letter-sound relationship. For instance, in the word from, only the sound that the letter o represents is different from what we expect.
• Decodable words are words that have letter-sound relationships you have already learned. And yes, this is personal! For example, one child has learned to decode CVC words while another child also knows all the long vowel patterns. The set of words that is decodable for each child is different, even though all of these words are phonetically regular.
• Nondecodable words are words that either deviate from common phonics patterns and letter-sound relationships (permanently nondecodable, irregular words) or that you haven’t learned the patterns and relationships so you can’t decode them yet (temporarily nondecodable).
• Popcorn words, heart words, flash words, and trick(y) words are labels that educators have used to make learning more kid-friendly. Popcorn words refer to both high-frequency and sight words. Heart and trick(y) words are terms for (temporarily or permanently) nondecodable words. Although, I’ve also seen heart words used to encompass all high-frequency words. Flash words are high-frequency words with a regular spelling.
• Orthographic mapping is the connection between how we pronounce a word and how it is spelled.

Why Teach High-Frequency Words?

First and foremost, why do we want to teach high-frequency words?

We want our students to instantly recognize words, for words to become “sight” words. We want them to read words automatically, without the need for overt decoding. When they can do this with most of the words they encounter in connected text (hmm… would those be high-frequency words?), fluency develops. Consequently, the development of a “sight word” vocabulary has a direct impact on reading fluency.

There’s been a shift (maybe a seismic one!) in how to teach high-frequency words in recent years.

I taught them through a combination of repeated exposure, multi-sensory experiences, and word cards with visual cues. My focus was on naming the letters in sequence and reading the word. But, what’s current?

Current Thinking About Teaching High-Frequency Words

So, what’s important when teaching high-frequency words? How do we help our students develop a lexicon of sight words? Here are a few take-aways from my readings on this topic.

• Learning to recognize words by “sight” or with automaticity is not dependent on visual memory or visual skills.
• Memorizing words as a whole is not efficient. It is an arduous way to acquire new sight words.
• Teach a small set of 10-15 irregular and nondecodable (based on your students’ levels of phonics knowledge) words before or concurrently with learning to decode in kindergarten. The words you choose should be those your students will encounter frequently in the text they read. They should be the words that will glue together the decodable text you’re using. Examples include the words the, to, was, and you.
• Include high-frequency word instruction with your phonics lessons. Many (Dare I say most!) high-frequency words are phonetically regular.
• Use phonetically regular high-frequency words to help your students learn to decode new words (decoding by analogy approach).
• Teach words (phonetically regular or irregular) in groups that have similar patterns. The words can, man, ran, than, and began are phonetically regular high-frequency words. While the words have, give, and live (the letter v is followed by an e because no English words end in v); some, come, and done; or to, do, and into have irregular spellings.
• Meaning and context are important. When you introduce a new word, say it and use it. You need to fuse the pronunciation, spelling, and meaning of a word together.
• Practice reading high-frequency words in lists, phrases, sentences, and in books.
• Don’t forget to also practice writing high-frequency words in isolation and in sentences.
• In other words, teach your students to both decode and encode (read and spell) new words.

What About Orthographic Mapping?

Is this just the latest buzz word or is this something I need to be doing?

• Your students must understand the connection between phonology (the sounds) and orthography (the strings of letters) in order to store words for automatic retrieval. Wait, is this the same as orthographic mapping? Is this how students remember words?
• We need to teach the relationships between the sounds we hear and the letters we see, even when it is an irregularly spelled word. Here’s where all the current references to orthographic mapping, mapping, and heart words come into play.
• Students need to possess letter-sound proficiency and phonemic proficiency to develop efficient orthographic mapping. Efficient orthographic mapping leads to sight word acquisition.
• Phoneme blending and phoneme analysis are both necessary skills for orthographic mapping. Phoneme blending is blending sounds. Phoneme analysis is a bit more ambiguous. It includes segmenting but also rhyming, manipulation, alliteration, isolation, and categorization. A (still somewhat vague) phonemic proficiency that exceeds the ability to segment and blend develops naturally in most students. Exactly what skills struggling readers need to master is still a subject for further research.

Sounds like something I need to be doing!

More About Orthographic Mapping

One of the things that stood out to me when I read about orthographic mapping is that it starts with the oral pronunciation of the word. The first step in introducing a new word is to say it, not to show it.

I can relate this to how I introduce phonetically regular key words using the decoding by analogy approach. The process I employed is based on Linnea Ehri’s work. Now I know, this same process can also be applied to phonetically irregular words.

Here’s what I do.

• Say the word. But, don’t show it, yet!
• Have your students repeat the word.
• “Thumbs up! Let’s stretch it out.”
• “How many sounds do you hear?”
• Now, you can show the word to your students.
• “How many letters do you see?”
• “What can you tell me about the relationship between the sounds we hear and the letters we see?”
• Demonstrate the letter-sound relationships visually and verbally on the board or chart paper.

You can get a better sense of this process by downloading a free sample of my Phonics Program for Analogy-Based Decoding. This sample will also show you how you can use phonetically regular high-frequency words to help your students learn to decode new words.

I suggest introducing new high-frequency words with this or a similar process before moving on to the more visual and concrete mapping activities you frequently see. Try it and tell me what you think!

A Few Ideas for Teaching High-Frequency Words

Memory Match or Concentration

One of the examples I saw for sorting and categorizing words by phonemes used a good ole Memory Match game. Instead of having students match two of the same word, they can match two words with the same phoneme. For instance, the words that and there would be a match because they both begin with the /th/ sound. The words men and run would match because they both end with the /n/ sound.

Partner Pair-Up

Get your students up and moving with a partner pair-up. Apply the same sorting and categorizing strategy as above. Select pairs of words with matching phonemes. You will need one word card for each student.

First, pass out the cards randomly. Next, have your students get up and find someone who has a word with a matching phoneme. Finally, have each pair of students read their matching pair of words. How’s that for a quick activity?

Use my free Phonetically Organized High-Frequency Word Lists along with the high-frequency word cards found in my High-Frequency Words- 6 Activities and Games With a Sandcastle Theme or Roll A Rainbow resources to create your own memory match games and partner pair-ups based on the high-frequency words your students are learning. These resources are based on a list of 354 high-frequency words. I merged together the words from two popular lists.

Try modifying some of the activities and materials you already have!

Other Games

Playing a game to practice reading high-frequency words? Have your students write the words that they read on a whiteboard or piece of paper. Or have them choose 3-5 words to write in sentences. Don’t forget to have them read their word lists or sentences- to you, to a parent, to a partner.

Read, Build, and Write Mats

Using a Read, Build, and Write (or similar) mat? Have your students say the word and then stretch out the sounds they hear. Encourage them to think about the letter(s) that match those phonemes as they build and write the word. Ask them to tell or write a sentence with each word.

Download a free mat with a snow or turkey theme.

Some Reading to Get You Started

Feeling more up-to-date on teaching high-frequency words? As I started to research this topic, I found myself going down a rabbit hole, a seemingly bottomless one at that!

Here are a few of the sites I visited to get up-to-speed on teaching high-frequency words.

• Teaching Sight Words According to Science Ohio 2019 (presentation, some blurry visuals, still worth reading)
• Teach “Sight Words” As You Would Other Words (International Literacy Association 2016, Nell K. Duke and Heidi Anne E. Mesner)
• High Frequency Words? Sight Words? Is There a Difference (The Reading Teacher’s Top Ten Tools, Dr. Deb Glaser)
• Why Phonemic Proficiency is Necessary for All Readers (CORE)
• This reading skill may not sound exciting, but is it the ‘missing piece’? (EdNC, Rupen Fofaria)
• RIP to Advanced Phonemic Awareness (Shanahan on Literacy)
• Heart Word Magic (Really Great Reading)(Be sure to scroll and check out the free student practice activities.)

I still have a few lingering questions about teaching high-frequency words. So, back to the books! I’d love to hear about your experiences and questions in the comments below!

Photo in title image by rawpixel.

The post How to Make Sense of Teaching High-Frequency Words appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

Thinking about developing your own program? Be sure to read these suggestions!

How to Start Teaching Analogy-Based Phonics

Follow these 6 tips!

1. Make it explicit and systematic. Yes, it can be teacher-directed. Teach a predetermined set of letter-sound relationships in a clearly defined sequence. I love this blog post, Synthetic or Systematic Phonics, by Shanahan on Literacy.
2. Base your program on common spelling patterns. Wylie and Durrell identified 37 spelling patterns or phonograms in 1970. These phonograms can be found in nearly 500 primary-grade words. Edward Fry created a list of the 38 most common phonograms in 1998. There are more than 600 one-syllable words with these phonograms. Find a list of these phonograms in Teaching Analogy Phonics (ATLAS, 2016).
3. Use a consistent set of key words. I read a suggestion to let your students choose their own key words based on their individually known words. Hmmm… not my students, but perhaps yours! I suggest picking a consistent set of high-frequency words as your key words.
4. Teach grapheme-phoneme relationships. Don’t just teach your students that -ack stands for /ack/. Break it down. Teach them that the letter a stands for /a/ and that the two letters -ck together stand for one sound /k/.
5. Be sure your students are ready. Your students should recognize most letters and be able to produce their corresponding sounds. They need prior exposure to producing rhyming words They should have some experience with blending and segmenting onsets and rimes as well as 3 phonemes.
6. Model how to use the decoding by analogy strategy. Give your students plenty of opportunities to apply the strategy. Provide a variety of text including poems, decodable readers, and leveled books.

Thinking you’d rather start with a ready-to-go program? Keep reading!

Keys for Decoding: An Analogy-Based Phonics Program

Would you like a phonics program designed for kindergarten and first grade that:

• helps you teach decoding and encoding skills?
• is explicit and systematic?
• provides detailed lesson plans for you?
• has built-in visual supports for your students?
• helps students who struggle with blending and segmenting individual phonemes?

Well then, this teacher-directed analogy-based phonics program is just right for you! Get ready to have your students use words they know to read and spell new words!

What Do I Need to Know?

This program is based on 46 spelling patterns (rimes, phonograms, word families) drawn from the high utility/ most common lists compiled by Wylie and Durrell and by Fry.

Each spelling pattern is represented by a key word. Each key word has a corresponding picture that shows its meaning. The pictures provide visual cues to support learning.

The patterns covered are:

• vowel-consonant (VC),
• vowel-consonant-consonant (VCC),
• vowel-consonant-e (VCe),
• vowel-vowel (VV),
• one r-controlled pattern, -ore.

The program focuses on one-syllable words without prefixes and suffixes.

The sequence is fixed in this cumulative program.

All materials are either black/ white or color with a black/ gray/ white option.

You can download a free sample of my Phonics Program for Analogy-Based Decoding to try it before you buy it! Keep reading to find out more!

How Can I Use This Analogy-Based Phonics Program?

You can implement this phonics program in:

• a whole class or
• a small group setting,
• a general education or
• an intervention setting.

You can adapt the pacing and setting to address your students’ instructional needs. I include ideas for compressing or extending the lessons.

The core of the program is based on 3 days of lessons for each key word. Each lesson includes a variety of activities for reading and spelling.

Allow 45 minutes per lesson until you determine the amount of time (less or more) that works for your class/ group.

What’s Included With Keys for Decoding?

All printable materials for teaching the lessons are included in the program. These are teacher-directed activities. I provide detailed lessons with ways to support student learning.

• Teacher Information
• Detailed Lessons for the 46 Key Words
• Worksheets and Recording Sheets

Supporting Materials Including:

• Wall Charts
• Strategy Bookmarks
• Word Wall Headers
• Key Word Cards
• Word Cards
• Picture Cards
• Onset and Rime Cards
• Word Lists

What Else Will I Need to Teach This Analogy-Based Phonics Program?

Your students will need basic classroom supplies such as pencils, highlighters, scissors, and glue.

You’ll need paper, cardstock, and laminating film to prepare the materials plus space for a word wall. You’ll also want a chalkboard, a whiteboard, or large chart paper; and a pocket chart.

Most importantly, you’ll want to provide a variety of text for your students to read in small guided reading groups. They’ll need plenty of opportunities to apply the decoding by analogy strategy while they’re engaged in reading text.

When I was in the classroom, I collected poems from various poetry books for each of the spelling patterns I taught (think summertime leisure activity). I wrote them on large chart paper for my students to read chorally and to highlight the patterns. You can’t imagine how popular highlighter tape was!

I also printed individual copies for my students to highlight and keep in a poetry notebook. What a handy source of reading material!

What About the Lessons?

There are 3 days of lessons for each key word. Support for success is built into each lesson and activity!

Day 1

1. Introduce the New Key Word- This is a teacher-directed auditory and visual activity that includes segmenting the sounds and mapping the sounds you hear to the letters you see.
2. Generate and Read Rhyming Words- Students brainstorm words that rhyme with the new key word. Follow-up by having your students write the words (an optional activity).
3. Read Sentences- Find and highlight words with the new spelling pattern. Read sentences with the new spelling pattern.
4. Sound Letter Match (Spelling) Students segment the sounds they hear in key words. They write the letter or letters that stand for each sound in a box.

Day 2

1. Review Key Words- This is a group, choral activity.
2. Blend and Read- Use onset and rime cards to create and read words with the new spelling pattern. Choose from 3 options.
3. Keys to Spelling- Students use key words to spell new rhyming words.
4. Rhyming Word Sort- This is a cut and glue sorting activity. Students highlight spelling patterns in new words. They cut out and glue the new word cards in columns under their key words with the same spelling patterns. Then, they use the key words to read the new words.

Day 3

1. Review Key Words- This is a group, choral activity.
2. Snap, Clap, Stomp, or Not or Where’s the “Teddy Bear”?- Two more ways to get your students reading words with their new spelling pattern. Plus, who can pass up a chance to move and make noise!
3. What Do I Hear? (Spelling)- Students listen for the rhyming part of new words. They think of the key word with the same rhyming part to help them spell the new word.
4. What’s My Spelling Pattern?- Students highlight the spelling pattern in each new word. They write the key word with the same spelling pattern under each new word. Then, they use the key word to read the new word.

Ready to give it a try? The free sample of my Phonics Program for Analogy-Based Decoding has everything you need to teach the first two spelling patterns.

Want to jump right in with both feet? Purchase the complete analogy-based phonics program with all 46 spelling patterns or the program limited to the first 17 VC spelling patterns from my TpT store. Be sure to click the green “View Preview” button to get a closer look at each product.

Phonics Activities for Analogy-Based Decoding

You don’t want to forget the fun stuff!

Do you have students who would benefit from engaging in additional reading and spelling activities that supplement these lessons?

Then, my add-on sets of reading and spelling activities are exactly what you need! Your students will get plenty of practice using words they know to read and spell new words with these reinforcing activities.

The activities can be used in small groups, in centers, or as independent work to reinforce the skills being taught.

These activities can be used during the 3-day lesson cycle of my Keys for Decoding Analogy-Based Phonics Program or used to expand those lessons to a 5-day cycle. They are the perfect addition to help you address the needs of students with learning challenges or to just add a little variety and fun.

Go ahead and peruse the description and preview for my Phonics Activities for Analogy-Based Decoding for all 46 spelling patterns or the first 17 VC spelling patterns.

What else would help you to get started teaching with an analogy-based phonics program or approach? Let me know in the comments below!

The post Would You Like a Free Sample of an Awesome Analogy-Based Phonics Program? appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

You can implement phonics instruction in several ways. Your choices include synthetic, analytic, and analogy-based approaches.

I used one or more of these instructional approaches at all times throughout my teaching career. Most children will benefit from consistent instruction using any of these. Some children will learn more easily with one approach over another. However, the trick can be figuring out which approach or which blend of approaches works best for each child!

In other words, different approaches lead to different options for meeting the needs of different children.

What is Analogy-Based Phonics?

In analogy-based phonics, generally, students

• learn keywords with spelling patterns (aka rimes or phonograms)
• use parts of words they already know to decode words they don’t know.
• apply this strategy when new words share similar parts in their spellings.

For example, students will recognize they can use the spelling pattern -at in the known word “cat” to help them read the new word “sat”.

How Is This Different From Other Approaches?

Synthetic Phonics

• Students are taught letter/ sound correspondences and how to blend individual sounds to form words.
• Orton-Gillingham-based programs are an example of a synthetic phonics approach.
• Keywords/ pictures are often used to represent letter-sound relationships.

For instance, students will blend the individual sounds /s/ /a/ /t/ to read the word sat.

Analytic Phonics

• Students analyze the letter-sound relationships in known words.
• Word study is a prime example of this approach.

To illustrate, students are led to recognize that words with the VC pattern (i.e. man) tend to have a short vowel sound while words with the VCe pattern (i.e. mane) are likely to have a long vowel sound. Then, they sort a set of words based on those vowel patterns.

Hmmm… Analogy-Based Phonics Sounds Like Word Families to Me

You’re right!

Both approaches are based on common spelling patterns (also called rimes or phonograms) in words.

So how are they different?

Word Families

• Teaching word families tends to be an exercise in following patterns.
• Typically, just the pattern being taught today or this week is the one emphasized.
• With word families, the focus tends to be on one-syllable words.

Analogy-Based Phonics

• Teaching key words should be an integral part of this approach.
• You teach students to discriminate between patterns. Cumulative application should be built-in.
• You can easily apply this approach to reading multi-syllabic words.

Let’s use the word “happen” as an example.

• “I see the spelling patterns -ap and -en.
• I know (my key word) map so I can read hap.
• I know (my key word) ten so I can read pen.
• I know map and ten so I can read happen.”

Reasons Why You Should Try Analogy-Based Phonics

Here are some of the reasons why you need to add this approach to your repertoire!

• You can teach analogy-based phonics in an explicit and systematic way.
• It is easier to blend onsets and rimes, /m/ /at/, than individual phonemes /m/ /a/ /t/.
• You can teach individual phonemes/ graphemes right alongside rhymes/ rimes.
• It teaches predictable, reliable, and decodable spelling patterns. Vowel sounds are generally more stable within specific rimes.
• Students can apply this strategy to decoding multi-syllabic words and with any level of text.
• With teacher modeling and sufficient opportunities, students will transfer and generalize this strategy to reading new words with the same and similar spelling patterns.

Ways to Get Started

On Your Own

If you’re interested in developing your own lessons, this Teaching Analogy Phonics resource (Marn Frank / ATLAS) may be helpful.

Stay Tuned

Look for my next blog post. I’ll provide details on ways to implement an analogy-based approach.

In addition, I’ll highlight my new line of Analogy Based Decoding products available to purchase in my TpT store.

Grab a Free Resource

Here’s a freebie (also included in my new line of products) to help your students apply this strategy to reading new words!

Guide your students through these step-by-step strategy charts and bookmarks to help them apply and transfer their decoding by analogy skills.

Use the easy to prepare strategy charts during whole class or small group instruction.

Choose color or black/ gray/ white. Then, print and go! Use cardstock and laminate for durability. Post the charts in your teaching area(s).

Let your students use the bookmarks for at-home and independent reading.

Click on the highlighted words to download your free copy of the Strategy Charts and Bookmarks for Analogy-Based Decoding.

Check out this blog post, Who Wouldn’t Love to Download A Free Pizza Activity, for another freebie.

Give your students the opportunity to decode CVC words with the -at, -ip, and -ug spelling patterns and have a bit of fun at the same time.

This activity is compatible with synthetic, analytic, or analogy-based phonics instruction.

Looking For More Phonics Resources

First, take some time to explore my blog posts about phonics. I started to list them here until I realized just how many there were!

Then, go ahead and browse the Phonics category of my TpT store.

What else would you like to know about analogy-based phonics? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Everything You Need to Know About Analogy-Based Phonics appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

In my last blog post, I suggested a vertical number line as one way to help your students connect numerals to number words.

Unfortunately, the only ones I had handy to show you were ones to 12 or 20 that I used to teach addition and subtraction strategies.

Eventually, I located the 0 to 100, floor to ceiling, vertical number line I made for my classroom on an old thumb drive. Then it was easy to create a new and improved free version for you based on the old template.

Still wondering about the benefits…

Vertical number lines can help your kindergarten, first, and second-grade students:

1. visualize the pattern of increasing tens and ones in two-digit numbers. They can easily see the sequence and repetition of the digits.
2. understand the value of numbers faster and easier. They are able to see the numbers increasing or decreasing in value. 24 is lower or less than 25 and 48 is higher or more than 38.
3. grasp the concepts of counting up and counting down when adding or subtracting. It is evident that sums increase and differences decrease in value.
4. make a connection between the terms rounding up and rounding down to the nearest ten to what they see.

While I taught rounding with a number line, I never thought to use a vertical one, even with it right there on the wall!

You can also create empty and interactive vertical number lines.

How to Prepare Your Vertical Number Line

Of course, this is technically a number path and not a number line. A number path is an effective counting model as opposed to a length model. Each number is clearly marked with a rectangle. Each rectangle can be counted.

I added stars in rectangles to make counting even easier. The stars are also color-coded for counting by 5’s and 10’s.

This number path is approximately 93 3/8 inches or 7 foot 9 3/8 inches tall.

• Start by choosing color or black/ gray/ white.
• Print the selected pages. Use cardstock and laminate (consider glare) for durability.
• Cut each strip carefully along the outside edge of the solid and dotted black lines.
• Put the strips together with tape. Start with zero and one. Place tape in the blank spaces. Align and overlap the ends of each strip, covering up each blank box.
• Or you can create one that folds up accordion-style for storage. To do this, cut off the empty boxes. Lay the strips face down so the ends abut. Then, tape across the edges.

Now you’re all set to post it on your wall!

More Ideas for Vertical Number Lines

Find ideas and resources for using an interactive vertical number line to develop number sense (Mr. Elementary Math) and using vertical number lines for adding multiples of tens (What I Have Learned).

Looking for More Resources…

• Frog Hopping Count Down (blog post with a freebie that includes a vertical number line to 12)
• Piggy Bank Count Up (a resource to purchase with a vertical number line to 20)
• Candy Bag Count Up (same as above with a different theme)

Click the highlighted words to download your free copy of the vertical number line 0-100.

I’d love to hear your ideas for using vertical number lines in the comments below!

Photo in title image by Coffee Beans and Children’s Dreams.

The post 4 Beneficial Reasons for Using a Vertical Number Line appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

You’d think it would be easy peasy after your students learn to identify the numerals 0 to 10.

But then, along come the tricky teens, particularly eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fifteen. And quickly following on their heels some thorny tens, mainly twenty, thirty, and fifty.

What Makes Identifying These Numerals So Confusing?

Well surprisingly, it seems to be the irregularities of the English language!

It starts with the teen number words. Instead of saying one ten, we say teen.

Eleven and twelve don’t even include the syllable teen even though they represent one ten and some more.

For the teens, we say number words that reverse the order of the digits we see. We don’t say ten four when we see 14, we say fourteen.

In place of three-teen and five-teen, we have thirteen and fifteen.

Moving to the twenties and beyond…

Now, at least, the order of the number words we say matches the place of the digits we see (forty-two and 42). Ten is now represented with the suffix -ty. In place of four tens, we say forty. That’s easy enough!

But then (you know there’s got to be a but), two tens becomes twenty.

At least thirteen, thirty, and third are consistent as are fifteen, fifty, and fifth. But goodness gracious, twelve, and twenty are only left with the “tw” in common. And the word second will leave you scratching your head.

Ways to Help Students Connect Numerals to Number Words

Make explicit language connections. Your students need to know that teen and -ty mean the same as ten.

Play with the language.

Two tens ought to be two-ty. But oh, no it’s not. It’s twenty.

Three tens ought to be three-ty. But oh no it’s not. It’s thirty.

Five tens ought to be five-ty. But oh no it’s not. It’s fifty.

(I couldn’t find one but surely there’s a teacher who has created a catchy poem or song for this!)

Demonstrate the consistent visual patterns of numerals. The pattern of increasing tens and ones can best be illustrated with a vertical number line. I had one with 0 to 100, floor to ceiling, on a classroom wall.

The photo only shows vertical number lines to 12 or 20. They were all I had handy. I also used them for teaching addition and subtraction strategies.

Provide plenty of opportunities for your students to count and group objects beyond ten. Be explicit. Show the relationships between the objects we count to the words we say to the numerals we write.

Check out my free treasure report recording sheets and this blog post about place value, for ideas. Be sure to count and group objects by tens before moving on to tens and ones.

After all the concept development, your students will be ready for this spring-themed resource with numbers in the twenties and thirties. Try it with small groups of 2 to 4 students. (You can adapt it for a single student or a large group.)

Use this activity for morning work, in a math center, or with your small instructional groups.

Get “Flowers in Bloom For Numerals 20-39” Prepared

There are 4 different activity mats. Each mat has a garden with 10 tulips. Each tulip has a numeral (20-39) on it.

There are 18 cards with the numbers 20-39 represented by wormy ten frames and extra ones.

YOU WILL NEED:

• One copy of the activity mat for each participating student
• One or more sets of the cards
• Crayons or counters

Choose color or black/ white. Print the black/ white mats on paper to use with crayons.

The color or black/ white mats can be printed on card stock and laminated for reuse. Use counters to cover. Try erasers, buttons, gems, or any one-inch or so counters that you have handy.

You can also use one and two-inch-sized Measuring Worms^TM.

Print the cards on card stock and laminate for durability. Prepare one or two sets for 2 students and two sets for 3 to 4 students. Cut out the cards.

Get “Em” Engaged With “Flowers in Bloom”

Shuffle the cards. Place them in a stack, a messy pile, or a decorative container. A flower pot fits perfectly with the theme!

STUDENTS WILL:

• Draw a card.
• Determine the number. Say the number word.
• Look for the corresponding numeral on their mat.
• If the numeral is on the mat, color or place a counter on that tulip.
• If the numeral is already colored or covered, you lose your turn.
• Discard your card.
• Take turns.
• Reshuffle the discarded cards, as needed.

Who can be the first one to color or cover all your tulips?

Click on the highlighted words to download your free copy of Flowers in Bloom for Numerals 20-39.

Do you have any helpful ideas for teaching these thorny tens? Be sure to share in the comments below!

LOOKING FOR MORE RESOURCES…

If you’re teaching about gardens and plants, you’re going to want…

Oreo Dirt Cups Recipe (Modern Meal Makeover)

Books About Worms (Growing Book By Book)

Books About Seeds (Gift of Curiosity)

Paper Plate & Paint Splat Tulip (Glued To My Crafts)

Plastic Cup Greenhouses (Mama.Papa.Bubba.)

Seed Experiments (Gift of Curiosity) (Scroll down in this post to click on more seed experiments.)

Be sure to check out all my resources for kindergarten and first grade in my TpT store!

Photo in title image by Cherkas Photography.

The post How to Make Important Connections Between Numerals and Number Words appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

Of course, you don’t need a leprechaun to tell you that a solid foundation in number sense is worth its weight in gold!

Hands-On Ways to Develop Understanding of Teen Numbers

Help your students make sense of these numbers by providing numerous opportunities for them to show, see, and feel that a teen number is a ten plus some more. Get out those double ten frames with counters, popsicle sticks, interlocking cubes, and base ten blocks.

Create those teen numbers with concrete objects in as many ways as possible!

Show them on double ten frames. Use a variety of counters to keep it fresh.

Construct tally marks with popsicle sticks. Or make a bundle of ten and some extra ones with those popsicle sticks.

Build a stick of ten with interlocking cubes. Show that teen number as a ten plus some extra (loose) ones. Once your students grasp the concept, bring out the base ten blocks.

Practice recording “_ is ten and _ more” or “10 + _ = _” with these activities.

Here’s a free set of folding Expanded Form Cards (Number Sense Guy) to help your students visualize the standard and expanded forms of teen numbers (and beyond).

Keep emphasizing the words teen and ten and the relationship (a teen number has one ten) between them.

After all the hands-on concept development, your students will be ready for this St. Patrick’s Day-themed resource for teen numbers. Use it with small groups of 2 to 4 students. (You can adapt it for a single student or a large group.)

Try it for morning work, in a math center, or with your small instructional groups.

Let your students match double ten frames, tally marks, base ten blocks, and expanded form with the corresponding teen number whilst having a little mischievous fun!

Get “A Pot of Gold for Teen Numbers” Prepared

There are 4 different activity mats. Each mat has a pot of gold with 10 gold coins. Each coin has a numeral (11-19) on it. One numeral appears twice on each mat.

There are 4 sets of 9 cards with representations (double ten frames, tally marks, base ten blocks, and expanded form) for each number.

You will need:

• One copy of the activity mat for each participating student
• Two or more sets of cards
• Crayons or counters

Choose color or black/ white. Print the black/ white mats on paper to use with crayons.

The color or black/ white mats can be printed on card stock and laminated for reuse. Use counters to cover. Try gold coins, erasers, buttons, gems, or any one-inch or smaller counters that you have handy.

I had two sizes of plastic gold coins in my stash. The smaller ones (about 1.25 inches) will work with some overlap.

Print the cards on card stock and laminate for durability. Prepare at least two sets for 2 students and at least three sets for 3 to 4 students. Cut out the cards.

Get ‘Em Engaged With “A Pot of Gold for Teen Numbers”

Shuffle the cards. Place them in a stack, a messy pile, or a decorative container.

Students will:

• Draw a card.
• Determine the teen number.
• Look for the corresponding numeral on their mat.
• If the numeral is on the mat, color or place a counter on that gold coin.
• If the numeral is already colored or covered, you lose your turn.
• Discard your card.
• Take turns.
• Reshuffle the discarded cards, as needed.

Who can be the first one to color or cover all your gold coins?

Click on the highlighted words to download your free copy of A Pot of Gold for Teen Numbers.

Do you have a favorite tip for teaching teen numbers? Be sure to share in the comments below!

Looking for more resources…

Here are a few links for recipes and crafts, plus a bit of science and math that continue the pot of gold theme!

• Pot of Gold Addition (Recipe for Teaching)
• Sink the Pot Leprechaun Science (Little Bins for Little Hands)
• Easy Pot of Gold Card Craft (Simple Everyday Mom)
• Pot of Gold Paper Plate Craft (The Simple Parent)
• Hidden Pot of Gold Brownie Cups (Pizzazzerie)

Check out some of my other number sense blog posts along with these two St. Patrick’s Day-themed posts.

• Roll-a-Rainbow (practice or review reading CVC or high-frequency words)
• Give and Take Make Ten (a game for learning, reviewing, and retaining the Make Ten number combinations)

Finally, be sure to sneak on over to TpT and check out some of my number sense and St. Patrick’s Day resources.

Photo in title image by Grafvision photography.

The post How to Make Sense of Those Tricky Teen Numbers appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

Use this easy to prepare resource with small groups of 2 to 4 students. (Adapt it for a single student or a large group.) Try it for morning work, in a literacy center, or with your small instructional groups.

Give your students the opportunity to decode CVC words with the -at, -ip, and -ug spelling patterns and have a bit of fun at the same time.

Get “A Pizza My Heart” Prepared

There are 4 different activity mats. Each mat has a heart pizza with 10 slices of pepperoni. Each slice of pepperoni has a picture representing a CVC word on it. There are 15 cards with CVC words, 5 for each of the spelling patterns; -at, -ip, and -ug.

You will need:

• One copy of the activity mat for each participating student
• Copies of the word cards (2 pages)
• Crayons or counters

Choose color or black/ white. Print the black/ white mats on paper to use with crayons. The color or black/ white mats can be printed on card stock and laminated for reuse. Use with counters. Try erasers, buttons, gems, felt hearts, candy hearts, or any one-inch or smaller counters you have on hand.

Print the word cards on card stock and laminate for durability. Prepare one set for 2 students and 2 sets for 3 to 4 students. Cut out the cards.

Get ‘Em Engaged With “A Pizza My Heart”

Shuffle the word cards. Place them in a stack, a messy pile, or a decorative container.

Students will:

• Draw a card.
• Read the word.
• Look for the corresponding picture on their mat.
• If the picture is on the mat, color or put a counter on that pepperoni slice.
• Discard your word card.
• Take turns.
• Reshuffle the discarded word cards, as needed.

Who can be the first one to color or cover all your pepperoni slices?

Click on the highlighted words to download your free copy of A Pizza My Heart.

Looking For More Resources…

Here are a few links to recipes and crafts!

• Heart-Shaped Pizza Tutorial (Lil’ Luna)
• Valentine Vegetable Pizza (This Ole Mom)
• Mini Heart Shape Pizza (Growing Up Gabel)
• Sponge Painted Pizza Cards- You Have a Pizza My Heart (Glued to My Crafts)
• Valentine’s Day Pizza Paper Plate Craft (Surviving a Teacher’s Salary)

Check out some of my other phonics and Valentine’s Day blog posts.

Find a few related freebies from other stores on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Finally, don’t forget to peruse some of my resources on TpT.

• Phonics Resources
• Valentine’s Day Resources

Photo in title image by DalaiFood.

The post Who Wouldn’t Love to Download a Free Pizza Activity? appeared first on Just Ask Judy.

A Sale For the New Year

Check out this hashtag sale, #NY2025, on TPT to snag some fabulous dollar deals! What better way to get excited about teaching and learning in 2025?

The last time I checked, there were over 1,800 resources listed. But hurry because these deals are only available on December 31, 2024, and January 1, 2025.

With so many resources to choose from, you’ll want to use the categories at the top of your TPT screen to narrow down your search by grade level and subject area.

You’ll find two of my resources listed in this sale. My Addition Facts to 20 Addition Strategy Math Posters is a year-round seller. Roll and Read Consonant Blends and Digraphs is a newer resource that will give your kindergarten, first, and second-grade students the repeated practice they need to read 119 short vowel high-frequency words.

Check out these blog posts for more resources, ideas, and freebies related to addition facts, repeated reading, and consonant blends and digraphs. 

1. Addition Facts (site search for posts)
2. 6 Cool Penguin Resources to Energize Your Math 
3. Do You Want to Know All About Rapid Word Recognition Charts?
4. How to Address the Challenge of Consonant Digraphs

An Updated New Year’s Freebie for You

The year on this freebie has been changed to 2025.

I’ve never succeeded at making or keeping New Year’s resolutions. Have you? Here’s a free print-and-go resource that’s a little different.

The focus is on anticipating the possibilities a new year offers. I’m all for instilling a little hope for a better future right now.

Try this activity with children of various ages, at home or at school. The clipart and prompts are geared toward children, but the activity is suitable for all ages. The youngest can dictate their responses. You can also have children choose to respond to just 3 to 5 prompts or to complete them over more than one session.

Simply download, print, and provide writing tools.

Then, do a little brainstorming and you’re all set.

Use the first word as a prompt to complete the phrase in a way that’s meaningful for you. For example, my eight-year-old grandson might finish “See” with “The Grand Canyon”.

Here are a few of my possibilities for 2025.

• Make a quilt.
• Eat healthy.
• Be patient.
• Try to walk even farther.
• Learn more about teaching writing skills and decoding multisyllabic words.

Ah… the possibilities are wide-ranging!

Click the highlighted words to download your free copy of A New Year of Possibilities.

My hopes are for a healthy and forward-looking new year for everyone!

I’d love to hear from you! Pick a prompt and share how you would complete it in the comments below.

Photo in title image by Tigerpix LLC.

The post Who’s Ready to Ring in a New Year? appeared first on Just Ask Judy.