| Basically, consonants are all the letters of the alphabet except for A, E, I, O, U. Consonants Introduction Grade Level: Kindergarten Consonants produce sounds that are more consistent and easier to identify than vowels. Therefore, they make a good starting point for learning to read. Initially, work should be done on identifying beginning consonant sounds (ex: t-t-t tulip). After that, activities can focus on identifying final consonant sounds (ex: cat ends with the t-t-t sound) When children learn to recognize the sounds of consonants at the beginning and end positions of words, they gain the ability to look at a word and make a reasonable guess as to what it might be. Viewing the word in the context of a picture will help reinforce this skill. (for example, a picture of a dog with the word DOG underneath. The ability to sound out the D and G letters will help the child identify that the word is DOG, not puppy or dalmation) The ideas and activities presented in this section will help children develop the following skills: * identifying beginning consonant sounds * distinguishing between two or more beginning consonant sounds * identifying ending consonant sounds * distinguishing between two or more ending consonants * choosing words that have a particular beginning or ending consonant Order of Presentation: The order in which one presents consonants to children is often a matter of personal preference -- there are many different studies available that suggest one method is superior to another. Just keep in mind that you do not have to present the letters in alphabetical order. Every child is an individual -- what works perfectly for 85% of the kids out there, may not be the correct approach for your child. If he is having a tough time with the approach being used, try a different one. How did I do it with my girls? I ended up combining approaches. We did the letters m, r and v (based on reliability) to give Tasha (and myself!) some comfort with learning our letters using letters that only make one sound. Then we hopped to s, t, r and n (based on frequency) to give us a good start on sounding out words. The rest of the consonants we tackled alphabetically. With Kaitlyn, I used an even more unusual approach. We tackled the consonants in her name first (k, t, l, y, n) because that seemed to be the most motivational for her. Then we did the rest the same way I did with Tasha. APPROACH 1: RELIABILITY Some teachers like to deal with the letters based on their reliability (in other words, how many different sounds might that letter make... for example, although "s" is a common letter in the English language, it is not as reliable as the letter "v". This is because in a word like "shark" the s does not make the same sound as in a word like "sat" and makes yet another sound in a word like "does" -- the letter V (though less frequently used when spelling words) always makes the same sound. This makes "v" a much easier letter to teach than "s". However, "v" isn't as useful in reading as it is rarely found in words (to illustrate that point, compare the number of v's used in words in this sentence to the number of s's). See below for a reliability chart. Consonant Reliability Chart: Extremely Reliable: m --> man r --> run q* v --> van Reliable: b --> bat h --> he k --> kid l --> let p --> pan Generally Reliable: d --> doll f --> far j --> jam n --> not z --> zoo Unreliable: c* g --> goat w --> we y --> yes Very Unreliable: s --> sat t --> tan x* * these letters are "unnecessary" or redundant. They do not make a unique sound. * q --> kw * c --> k or s * x --> ks, gs or z APPROACH 2: FREQUENCY Another method some use is to introduce the most common sounds first (s, t and r). This allows the children to quickly begin forming words. Using this approach and ignoring consonants vs vowls: o, s, t, a, r, e appear in 50% of the words in the English language. Adding the next six letters: n, i, l, u, c, p -- gives 80% of the letters. When working on letter sounds, these can be presented "in concert" -- so, for example, one would present "AT" as in rat, hat, cat, mat. In our household, we call these word families and have gone beyond the list below. We often play a game where we try to figure out how many words are in every family. We often have to pull out the dictionary to determine if a word exists and what it means. For example, we did the "ike" word family the other day (we allow names & common abbreviations): bike, like, spike, trike, Mike , pike, etc. We had to look up "pike" which turned out to be both a spear-like weapon and a northern fish Use your judgment when looking up words as it does slow things down a fair bit... sometimes dad and I tell the girls what the words mean, but at least once per session, we have them look up a word on their own to help build their comfort using a dictionary. Word Families: single letter sounds multi-consonant families consonant/vowel families s, t r, n c, l m, p b, f d, g h, v k, j z, w y, q , x ch, th sh, wh sp, sl sc, sm st, sk sn, sq sw, tw br, tr gr, fr dr, cr pr, wr cl, bl fl, pl str, scr ap, an, at en, are, all ub, ate, ail ay, ain, aw ake, ave eat, ear, eep ide, ice, ine, ike ow, oke, old ook, oop, ore ack, ash, ank ent, ell, est, edge ip, in, it ick, ill, ing ot, op, ock uck, ump, ush um, ug Consonant Digraphs ch - chair sh - ship th - thumb (voiceless phoneme - th) ** th - the (voiced phoneme) ** wh - why zh - pleasure ng - sing ** voiced vs voiceless: put your fingers on your vocal cords... now say "the" out loud. Notice the vibration you can feel with your fingers when you make the "th" sound? Now say, "thumb" out loud. This time there is no vibration. Letters that cause a vibration in your vocal cords are called voiced. Letters that do not are called voiceless. Pay attention to the way your mouth makes the sound of the letter "D" and the letter "T"; the letter "B" and the letter "P"; the letter "G" and the letter "C" D is voiced, T is voiceless -- your mouth moves the same for both B is voiced, P is voiceless -- your mouth moves the same for both G is voiced, C is voiceless -- your mouth moves the same for both. If your children are having difficulty distinguishing these sounds, have them use the finger on the vocal cords trick ... it may help them out a bit. Consonant Blends bl - black cl - clown fl - flying dr and ft - draft sk - desk fr - fry spr - spray spl - splash tr - tree tw - twin gr - great sl - slow pr - pretty gr - grasp sp - grasp st - rest str - straits ngth - strength nd - bland thr - thread Sharing Time: In a classroom or daycare setting, have one day each week designated as sharing time. Allow the children to bring an object from home that begins with one of the consonants you've been working on during the week. For example, during the week where you're learning letters m, r and v they might bring a book about the moon, a toy van or a race car. If you're working at home, allow the child to have a similar weekly sharing time with a sibling, grandparent, parents group or with mom and dad. Encourage the child to make eye contact with the people they are talking to. Have the children (or grownups) who are listening, ask a couple of questions about the item being shared. Consonant BINGO: On a 3x3 grid (like a tic-tac-toe board) have the children write down the consonants you have learned so far. The teacher or parent should say words (doll, van, book, etc). The children should mark off the letters used on their boards. You can use the same activity later on for final letters of words. STAND UP, SIT DOWN: The children should each be given a consonant. You can give sheets of paper with consonants written on them or items (like a toy doll). The teacher or parent should say words. Each time a word is said that begins with the same letter as theirs the child should stand up. If a word is said with a different letter than theirs they should sit down. You can use the same activity later on for final letters of words. |