The sentences that I
have posted on the website are for extra practice at home. There is also a “word wall” for you to print
out for your child to use at home. The
purposes of these sentences is to let your child practice using resources in
the room (the word wall), spell past spelling words correctly each time they
are used in writing, and hear “chunks” in words as they are being written. All of these take practice, practice,
practice until it becomes natural and not something that has to be thought about.
I would recommend doing 3 or 4 sight word sentences at a time. Encourage your child to write the words from memory and to refer to the word wall only when needed. If you find that he or she is having particular difficulty with certain words, repeat the sentences with those words again another night. Also, go ahead and make up some sentences yourself. (I’d love for you to share them with the rest of us if you do.) I’ve used mostly spelling words, but there are other words that can be spelled either phonetically or by using chunks. Encourage listening for parts instead of trying to memorize letter by letter. A word like dinner may be spelled d-in-er. That is a super-close approximation and develops hearing those chunks in words. You can then show your child the “book” spelling if you want, or just let him or her be satisfied with doing a really good job spelling like a first grader.
For the sentences to practice chunks, I would again limit practice to 3 or 4 a night. A good way to start – before writing any sentences – is to do a writing spree where your child writes as many words that he or she can think of that rhyme with or have the chunk you want to work on. I try to limit nonsense words, but one or two can be kind of fun (and any word can be considered a nonsense word if you’ve never heard it before). You may also come across first-grade BAD words. These are words that sound like they should be spelled with a particular chunk, but they don’t follow the rules; hence the label BAD word. For example, they sounds like it should be spelled thay; yacht sounds like it should be spelled yot. If it is a known word (like they), then it should be spelled the correct way. If it is not a known word (like yacht), then let them spell it like a first grader using the chunk that we hear when we say it. Personally, I’m thrilled if a first grader wants to use a word like yacht! These sentences also will provide some additional practice using those past spelling words so keep the word wall handy, just in case.
Finally, make sure every sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark. The kids have heard this a million times (that may be an exaggeration, but maybe not J), and they must be held accountable for this. You may even find it helpful to establish some type of reward system when capitals and punctuation are used WITHOUT a reminder. A suggestion might be to keep a tally each time it is done without you having to give a reminder. If your child gets 4 tallies, an extra 10 minutes of TV time or video game time is earned. Keep it simple and cheap. Your ideas for this and other sentences are welcome for sharing, too.
Have fun, let me know how it’s working, and contact me if you need more information or have questions. I’ll add some more sentences in a few weeks!
I would recommend doing 3 or 4 sight word sentences at a time. Encourage your child to write the words from memory and to refer to the word wall only when needed. If you find that he or she is having particular difficulty with certain words, repeat the sentences with those words again another night. Also, go ahead and make up some sentences yourself. (I’d love for you to share them with the rest of us if you do.) I’ve used mostly spelling words, but there are other words that can be spelled either phonetically or by using chunks. Encourage listening for parts instead of trying to memorize letter by letter. A word like dinner may be spelled d-in-er. That is a super-close approximation and develops hearing those chunks in words. You can then show your child the “book” spelling if you want, or just let him or her be satisfied with doing a really good job spelling like a first grader.
For the sentences to practice chunks, I would again limit practice to 3 or 4 a night. A good way to start – before writing any sentences – is to do a writing spree where your child writes as many words that he or she can think of that rhyme with or have the chunk you want to work on. I try to limit nonsense words, but one or two can be kind of fun (and any word can be considered a nonsense word if you’ve never heard it before). You may also come across first-grade BAD words. These are words that sound like they should be spelled with a particular chunk, but they don’t follow the rules; hence the label BAD word. For example, they sounds like it should be spelled thay; yacht sounds like it should be spelled yot. If it is a known word (like they), then it should be spelled the correct way. If it is not a known word (like yacht), then let them spell it like a first grader using the chunk that we hear when we say it. Personally, I’m thrilled if a first grader wants to use a word like yacht! These sentences also will provide some additional practice using those past spelling words so keep the word wall handy, just in case.
Finally, make sure every sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark. The kids have heard this a million times (that may be an exaggeration, but maybe not J), and they must be held accountable for this. You may even find it helpful to establish some type of reward system when capitals and punctuation are used WITHOUT a reminder. A suggestion might be to keep a tally each time it is done without you having to give a reminder. If your child gets 4 tallies, an extra 10 minutes of TV time or video game time is earned. Keep it simple and cheap. Your ideas for this and other sentences are welcome for sharing, too.
Have fun, let me know how it’s working, and contact me if you need more information or have questions. I’ll add some more sentences in a few weeks!