Reading help for 4th grade, 5th grade...fun side of words

Once children have turned away from reading it is a real trick to get them to take a second look.

One of the tricks you have is the history of the words themselves.

Look at the word fence.  Fence comes to us from a short-cut slang word for defense.

A swordman fencing was defending himself:

Alfred was lunging with a glimmering sword to thrust away danger. Parrying with a low feint, before swooping in with a surprising upper-thrust assault. (feint say faint.)

The art of fencing gives us several words to entice our reader: 

1) foil: means to stop something, frustrate the opponent's goal, thwart an action: Alfred foiled his sister's plan to snack on a cookie by gobbling down every last one.

The word foil comes to us from a short-cut for foliage - leaves and flowers - a foil being like a little leaf stuck on the tip of the sword to avoid injury during practice. (also called a button)

2) from foil comes foible (say foy b'l): meaning the little weaknesses people have, habits and mannerisms that can get them into trouble: Alfred's foible of exaggerating minor mishaps into huge events gave Ajax the chance to tease Alfred in front of the prettiest girl in the world. 

Foible originally referred to the weakest part of the sword, running from its mid-point to the tip. Feeble comes to us from this word family.

Another fun word is defeat, meaning to thwart another from gaining a feat. Feat: an unusual act of daring, a remarkable deed, a prize.

I have created books to make reading much more fun. I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. All books are brand new and full of the skills and comprehension exercises your child needs. All books include my contact info; email or call for help.  Rule: ce, ci, cy always say s. Rule: ge, gi, gy most often say j. 

My wonderful graphics are from Corel Clipart; put together by the talented group at Micrografx.

Thank you for visiting my blog, Mary Maisner

Sight Words: the transfer skill helps your child read

  

Teachers use the word transfer to mean your child has learned a lesson and knows that lesson can be used in several places.  New readers do not have enough experience of the world to realize, for example, that the word the - is used forty times in his favorite story. 

It is important to help your child; let's get started:

The first ten sight words are:

the,   of,   and,   a,   to,   in,   is,   you,   that,   it.

Begin with the word the. Put your child's finger under the the first time it appears in the well known story. Hold your child's finger under the.

Tell him that when we talk our words run together like water coming out of the faucet but when we read, each word is separate. When we read, words are like cars on the street. There is space between each car - there is space on the page between each word. (A tiny space but a space.)

Tell you child that each word has its own letters.  Ask if your child knows the word he is pointing to?  Tell him it is the word the. (Fabulous if he knew the word.)

Take a minute to see if he can name each letter in the >  t   h  e. 
Tell him the is a word we use when we talk. We say things like: close the door, where is the phone, who has the answer. Help your child make up a sentence using the.

Now ask your child if he sees any other the words on the page?   Ask him to point, help him find the throughout the story.   Read the story, asking him to point to the each time it is used in the story.  

After reading the story, find a piece of paper for keeping track of your child's growing word list.
Title the paper with your child's name: Adam's word list
Below the title write his first word the, or allow your child to write the word the.

As you read other stories ask your child to point to the.  When you child recognizes the in several stories, then, and only then, he actually knows the word the. This is called transfer.

The second sight word is of . Proceed with these same steps with the word of. And, add of to his word list. Remember that review is a critical part of keeping these words well anchored.

I have created a few books to help your child learn all of the tricky lessons plus a special comprehension method. My books are full of color pictures and special tools to help your child be a reading star. I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you.  

Thank you for visiting my blog. Please feel welcome to leave a comment or question.
Have a great day, Mary Maisner

Short vowel rhyming families

Short vowel rhyming families are an easy way for your child to slide into reading.  You and your child can print these exercises but you can also provide your child some action while learning.

For example, ask your child to stand with his back to the wall and permit him to take one step forward with each correct answer.

You say, "Our rhyming family is cat, sat, that; you can take one step forward if you tell me a word in this rhyming family that starts with r (rat).

OK, now we have cat, sat, that, rat; you can take one step forward if you tell me a word in this family that starts with m (mat.) So, now we have cat, sat, that, rat, mat. 

You can take one step forward if you tell me a word in this family that starts with f (fat.)  This time you say the rhyming family with me: we have cat, sat, that, rat, mat, fat.

You can take one step forward if you can tell me a word in this family that start with b (bat). Say the rhyming family with me: we have cat, sat, that, rat, mat, fat, bat.

If you run out of space, ask your child to take one step backward each time. If you have a set of stairs, you can allow your child to sit on a stair and move up and down - sitting each time - sitting is safer than standing.  Other words you can add to this rhyming family: pat, hat, scat, brat, drat, splat.

Asking your child to repeat the rhyming family each time with you helps strengthen both the rhyming element and your child's short-term memory span.

I have create several books to help your child become a Star Reader. I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up.  Being smart from the start is what you want for your child!

By the way, this wonderful squirrel was drawn by Hans Hoffman in the year 1578.
Have a great day, Mary Maisner