Here’s a fun activity to do tomorrow in class for Valentine’s Day! Valentine Code gives students practice with vowels while they crack the secret code to solve vocabulary words. (more…)
literacy
Phonics Lesson: A to F
Improve your young learner’s printing, writing, spelling, and pronunciation with Sprout’s Phonics Cafe! This section starts with the alphabet and works up to letter combinations and words that are difficult to pronounce and spell. This week we’re featuring our colorful lesson on the letters A to F. (more…)
Phonics Lesson: Words with /ch/
The /ch/ sound (/tʃ/ written phonetically) is commonly confused with /sh/ (/ʃ/ written phonetically), so English language learners usually struggle to pronounce words spelled with “ch.” Our phonics lesson on “ch” words will have your students pronouncing and spelling words like cheese, cherry, match, and chair with ease! (more…)
Phonics Lesson: S to Z
Improve your young learner’s printing, writing, spelling, and pronunciation with Sprout’s Phonics Cafe! This section starts with the alphabet and works up to letter combinations and words that are difficult to pronounce and spell. This week we’re featuring our colorful lesson on the letters S to Z. (more…)
Phonics Lesson: G to L
Sprout’s Phonics Cafe section offers many lessons to help improve low-level English learners’ printing, writing, spelling, and pronunciation. This section starts with the alphabet and works up to letter combinations and words that are difficult to pronounce and spell. This week’s Spotlight lesson is on the letters G to L. Your students will love the colorful illustrations and engaging activities! (more…)
“th” Words: Phonics Lesson
The /th/ sound (/θ/ for the voiceless sound and /ð/ for the voiced sound, written phonetically) is not common in many other languages, so English language learners usually struggle with this sound. I’ve found that encouraging students (both children and adults) to “stick out their tongues” (put their tongues between their teeth) is a fun way to get them to practice making this sound. Our phonics lesson on “th” words will have your students pronouncing and spelling words like month, thanks, these, and father in no time! (more…)
Silent E, Evil E, Magic E: Videos and Songs
I’ll never forget the day my son came home and told me all about how evil the letter ‘e’ can be. He taught me that the letter ‘e’ sometimes goes at the end of words and makes the vowels say their names. How rude! While I remember learning about Silent ‘e’ (worked for me), I’ve since learned that there are many other names for this trickster of a letter, including Evil E and Bossy E.
Are you using Sprout English’s Spotlight Phonics lesson in class this week? Have you reviewed Tanya’s pronunciation tips? Here are some fun songs and stories to share with your learners to get these rules to stick!
Evil E
“Say it Vowel! Say your name!”
Young kids act out a funny play with letters and demonstrate how ‘e’ hops over other letters and makes the vowel in front say its name. Evil E is bit of a bully, isn’t he?
Silent ‘e’ Words: Pronunciation
Do your students have difficulty with the pronunciation of short and long English vowel sounds? There are some spelling rules that can help young learners recognize when a long vowel sound is needed. One such rule involves the final, silent ‘e’ in a word, and this is the focus of this week’s Spotlight lesson: Silent ‘e’ Words 1.
This lesson is one of four involving four-letter words with a silent ‘e’ ending. There are 11 pages of spelling and writing practice in the first lesson, but what about audio? Listening and oral repetition is essential for a good pronunciation lesson. The teacher can certainly model the words, but it’s a good idea to have another source for listening practice too. (more…)
Silent ‘e’ Words: Phonics Lesson
English spelling and pronunciation can be difficult to master, but we can help! Sprout English has four lessons on words ending in the unpronounced final ‘e,’ a little letter that greatly affects the pronunciation of the main vowel of a word. This week’s Spotlight lesson is Silent ‘e’ Words 1. (more…)
