Blending

One of the key features of the Open Court reading system is its emphasis on teaching children to sound out words. So one of the things that we do with each story is spend time "blending" words. Its surprising how much practice in this skill even apparently proficient readers need!

There are two kinds of blending: letter-by-letter and whole word. Letter-by-letter blending is what all of us did when we first started to read. "Kuh Ahh Tuh -- Cat!" But this kind of blending isn't for kids only: good adult readers will sound out an unfamiliar word in the same way. But children need some practice with sounding out words in this way or else they tend to forget how to do it. And when they forget how to sound out words, then all they can do is guess what they think the word must be. We try to spend a few minutes each story practicing the letter-by-letter blending, but mostly we do whole word blending. When we do this, I have already written the words out on the board before school and we read them through together and discuss any patterns we see.

Remember, tomorrow is not only the LACMA field trip but is also the first day of early dismissal. School will be out tomorrow at 1:30, not 2:30. This will be the pattern until May.

Homework: Do the crossword puzzle. Words and clues are on the back. Do the dialogue worksheet. Keep working on math assignments. Students should be on estimation (mathematical reasoning 2.1) right now. I forgot to photocopy the spelling list, so that will come out tomorrow. Since we have a field trip, this homework is not due until WEDNESDAY!