There seems to be a little confusion on the parents' part about the homework regarding stretching, breaking and writing words as part of our writing instruction. So I thought I'd give a little tutorial here so that you can work with your child at home.
Our focus for writing at this level is not for spelling (although spelling is very important, that comes later on), but for learning to hear sounds within words. This can be tricky, especially with vowel sounds and what I like to call "Letter Buddies". So here are the steps that we do in class to help us figure out how to write words phonetically:
- Say the word ("Jump.")
- Stretch the word, or say it very slowly. It will probably sound something like "juuuuuummmmmp".
- Break it up, or try to say each sound individually, like this: "/j/, /u/, /m/, /p/". We sometimes count the sounds we heard by using our fingers, or by putting one manipulative down on the table for each sound we heard.
- Write one letter (or Letter Buddies) for each sound you heard. Letter Buddies are just two letters that, when placed together, make one sound. Some common ones we learn are /ou/, /sh/, /ch/, /th/.
- Now you can discuss what your child wrote and compare their phonetic spelling with the real spelling. English is a very strange language, with many silent letters, as well as letters that sometimes break the rules!!!! For example, "rake" is a word that has four letters, but only three sounds (thanks to Sneaky Silent E.) Also, "house" has five letters, but only three sounds because of the /ou/ Letter Buddies and a Sneaky Silent E. Begin to compare and discuss these things with your child every day and watch their writing soar!
Jonathan and Mrs. Jenkins give a demonstration on how to stretch out and break up words in order to hear and write the sounds.
Mr. Harry makes videos on just about every subject that we teach in Kindergarten, so if you would like to watch many more, please surf over to the Harry Kindergarten Channel on YouTube and check it out. I'm sure you'll find more videos that you and your child can watch together.
Well, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!