EXTENDED Learning: Creatively Playing with Sound

Shared Elements of Music and Speech

• Associate instrument names with letter-sound clue pictures taught in each group
• Listen to each group’s letter sounds and instrument sounds separately.
• Recall words of the songs that feature the letter sound in each group being reviewed. such as /c/ cat /t/ in tan /s/sun
• Choose two children to play and sync the instrument sound with the letter sound being reviewed. Sing the songs in the group being reviewed from memory in whole group lessons
• Form small groups to sing, play, and sync the instrument sounds with the letter sounds. One group works on Cc, one on Vv….one on Tt
• Ask groups to think of other words that begin with the letter sound being reviewed. The Cc group might think of can, cop, cup The Vv group might think of van, ven…Tt group might think of tap, top, tin
• Ask groups to think of a short sentence using the letter sound in new words and in words taken from the song; examples: The cat is tan. Victor sat. Nan is a cat. The sunset.
• Ask groups to make up their own instrument sounds and rhythms to accompany the speaking/singing of the short sentences.

MUSICAL (work with your school music teacher)

• Teach them the names of instruments, taking turns and caring for the instruments
• Offer them supervised activities playing the woodblock and all the other percussion instruments you have introduced;
• Let them take turns playing the instruments as they listen, play along with the recording, and review all of the Musical Phonics songs introduced to date;
• Teach them rhythmical patterns of all the songs reviewed and practice counting and clapping the rhythms; example Cc is 3/4 time; Vv is 6/8 or beat in two; Tt is 4/4
• Let the kids sing all the songs with the recording or from memory in small or large groups;

MUSIC and MOVEMENT (work with your physical education and music teachers)

• Make up simple to more complex patterns such as clap/tap, clap/snap/tap, clap/slap/snap/tap
• Play Head and Shoulders and Concentration (posted at the website)
• Extend the listening by counting the beats and patterns of other songs posted at the website or songs being learned in music class; move to the beats of 2/4, 3/4, 4/4
• Play circle games such as Tisket/tasket; Engine Engine Number Nine; London Bridge, Morning Name Game.
• Extend learning with opening, transitioning, clean up, and closing songs
• Turn and Talk; (science-of-reading suggestion) teacher makes up the rules for different purposes
• Play the name game, memory, rhyme, and other word games

TRADITIONAL Extended Lessons to listen, see, spell, write, read, and sing!

• Write the new letter/sound in the air, on paper, in short words, and short sentences.
• As the children print/write the new letters, ask them to make the sound of the letter as they print/write on paper
• Using an approved phonics curriculum, teach the many different ways to say and spell all 44 sounds of the English alphabet that include all the short and long vowel sounds.
Examples:
• Hard and soft sounds of the letter c to include c as in cent;
• Teach digraphs such as ch as in cherry; ch as in school; ch as in parachute; /tch/ at the end of a word or syllable as in match; /ck/ at the end of a word or syllable;
• Teach long a sound spelled four different ways; a__e ai, ay eigh ey
• Check the order of instruction for teaching the controlled vowels LRWY (Monsters) such as the /ar/ /er ir ur/ /aw al au/; y as a consonant sound; as a long I sound, a long e sound, or a diphthong sound as in the word boy.
• Teach the schwa sound; reinforce lessons by singing the Monster, Schwa, and Dippy Double songs.
• Example: the ou sound is the exception to traditional phonics rules. Instead of criticizing and complaining, teach the seven different (or 8) sounds. As the song says, “I won’t let them give me any trouble!!”

1. ou as in loud
2. ou as in could
3. ou as in ought
4. ou as in rough
5. ou as in though
6. ou as in journey
7. ou as in resource
As the song suggests, there is one more sound, and “then we are
8. ou as in “through!”

Here’s one last FACT for you, the teacher, to memorize! 50% of Kindergarten-third grade words are High-Frequency words, and 85% of those words are decoded regularly!