Skills Block - Bossy e

All children come to Kindergarten with different phonics knowledge of letters and sounds. We introduce a letter a day. The letters are not introduced to the students in alphabetical order. We begin with the letters that say their sound when you say their name (Tt, Bb, Kk, Jj, Dd). The students learn how to form the capital and lower-case letter when they write it, the name of the letter and the sound that it makes. We might listen to a story, share the reading of a poem or share the reading of a big book that focuses on the letter. We create a student generated list of words that begin with the letter sound. The words are added to our word wall so that the students can refer to it during workshops. Once all of the consonants are introduced, we focus on the vowels. The boys and girls learn songs about the vowels and their long and short sounds.

Now that we have talked about all of the consonants and vowels we are ready to learn language rules that will help the children read. It is not enough to tell a child to "sound it out" because the English language is not that simple. The first language rule we teach the students is the "Bossy e" rule. The following words have a "Bossy e" - bake, kite, nose, cute, & name. The "e" on the end of the word bosses the vowel to say it's name (the long vowel sound), and then the "e" says nothing. "Bossy e" words only have one consonant between the vowel and the silent "e". The children begin to notice this pattern in words which helps them decode words. When reading with your child at night help them find words with a "Bossy e".

"The Long and the Short"

Last week during Reader's Workshop the students learned a new reading strategy. Because we have focused on the short and long vowel sounds in Skills Block, the kids were ready to "Try Both Vowel Sounds" as they read. When a child decodes a word they should think of the sounds that each of the letters make. When it comes to the vowels they will need to decide if it is the long or short sound. Because all words have a vowel they need to try both sounds to decide which one works in the word. In the word "nine", students should notice that the long sound works, but the short sound does not. Trying both sounds will help them master both vowel sounds. As we begin to introduce language rules the children will begin to notice the patterns in words that make the vowel sounds long or short.