Word Building Lesson

'Word building activities provide the opportunity for students to manipulate letters and sounds to develop a solid understanding of the alphabetic principle. To begin, teachers select several consonants that the students have learned to recognize and associate with the correct sound. The teacher also selects a vowel that will allow the students to create several single-syllable words. This activity is very similar to the higher level phonemic awareness activities with sound boxes. Students are provided magnetic letters or letter tiles to manipulate during the activity. The teacher says a word. The students are asked to think about the first sound of the word and find the letter for that sound. Then they listen for the next sound and find the letter for that sound. Last they listen for the final sound and pick the letter. Then everyone blends the sounds as they move their finger under the word they have made.

c    m  p   t   s   a

s a t
 

Then the teacher asks the students to change the beginning sound to form the word sat. The students should change the   s to a c.

c a t

When the students are ready, then the teacher can have the students manipulate the final sound in the word. Change the /t/ to /p/.
c a p

Finally, the students can begin to substitute the vowel sound. The teacher would add a second vowel and have the students make additional words using that vowel pattern—for example: cap to cop to top.