Categorization is grouping together things or ideas that have common features.

it  Ask her to pick a color for each box, then write the color with an appropriate
is the process through which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, pen or marker. For example, use a red marker to write “red.”
classified and understand.  Help your child glue a few of the collage items into the correct boxes. For
example, red sequins go into the “red” box, as do red pompoms… When you
Very early in their instruction, children will be able to look at the following list think she’s got the hang of things, let her go at it on her own. (Keep in mind
of words and classify the words into such teacher-supplied categories as "people", that even though she may have the sorting part down, she may still need
"things to play with", "things to eat", and "things to do". some help with the glue!)
 Challenge your child’s ability to articulate the process she’s using. Ask her to
tell you why she’s gluing the items where she’s gluing them. And once she’s
Word list got color sorting down, consider throwing her a curve ball by asking her how
else she might sort her items. For example, she might put all the buttons
doll bicycle ball run girl
together, or all the things that are soft (feathers, pompoms, etc.) As she
candy cookie boy baby sit works on her collage, talk about what makes the items the same and what
makes them different.
toy dig sing mother banana  When there are enough sparkles and glue to satisfy your young artist, and
the macaroni is just barely hanging on to the edge of the page, the
masterpiece is complete. Congratulations. You’ve helped sharpen your child’s
How to teach categorization to students? sorting, color recognition, and fine motor skills, and thrown in a bit of artistic
expression as well.
Engage the students in an activity.

Activity: Create a Color Collage Picture analysis is the extraction of meaningful information from images.

What You Need:

 Collage materials in mixed colors, such as sequins, stickers, beads, pom-
poms, buttons, feathers, macaroni, and foam shapes
 White glue
 Heavy construction paper, divided into four parts with lines or folds
 Markers
How to teach picture analysis to students?
 First present a picture to the students.
 Ask the students to look closely to the picture.
 Ask the students to describe and derive meaning from the picture.

What You Do:

 Spread the collage materials out on a table or other work area. Make sure
the materials are mixed up, so that the sorting isn’t already done!
 Give your child a piece of heavy construction paper that has been divided
into four boxes with lines or folds.
 Semantic maps (or graphic organizers) are maps or webs of words. The purpose
of creating a map is to visually display the meaning-based connections between a
word or phrase and a set of related words or concepts. Semantic maps help
students, especially struggling students and those with disabilities, to identify,
understand, and recall the meaning of words they read in the text.
Teaching students to use semantic maps
Below is an example of a step-by-step set of directions, which can be especially
beneficial for struggling students.
 Pick a word you don’t know from a text you are reading and mark the word. If
you're using digital text, you can highlight, bold, or underline the word.
 Use a blank map or begin to draw a map or web (either on paper or using an online
tool).
 Place the word you don’t know in the center of the map.
 Pronounce the word. If necessary, use an online dictionary with audio to help you.
 Read the text around the word to see if there are related words you can add to your
map. If you're using digital text, you can get the computer to read the text to you
using the text-to-speech function (if necessary).
 Use an online dictionary or online thesaurus to look up the word and find a
definition.
 Find words and phrases that fit with the meaning. Select pictures/images (online or
from available resources) or draw pictures that fit with the meaning.
 Add these words, phrases, or images to your semantic map.
 If you're working online, print out the map.
 Read the text again, applying the meaning of the word to the text.
 Share and compare your map with your classmates.
With direct instruction and repeated practice, struggling students will find that using
semantic maps is a very good way of expanding their vocabulary.
Word webs are another way to represent the relationships among words
graphically. Students construct these diagrams by connecting related words with
lines.
Teaching students to use word webs.
Word play is verbal wit: the manipulation of language (in particular, the sounds
and meanings of words) with the intent to amuse. Also known as logology and
verbal play.
Wordplay Examples
 Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
 The Dalai Lama walked into a pizza shop and said “make me one with
everything.”
 My brother Cody lost his CD. Now I just call him Oy.
 The illustrator was seen at the crime scene, but the details are still a bit
sketchy.
 He said I was average. That’s just mean.
 I really get a kick out of that donkey.
 The butcher doesn’t gamble if the steaks are too high.
 Never hit a man with glasses. Hit him with a fly swatter instead.
 What did the popcorn say when it was hit? Help, I’ve been a-salted!
 What did one DNA say to another DNA? Do these genes make me look fat?
 What do you do with chemists when they die? You barium.
 What’s a golfer’s favorite meal? Tea time.
Teaching students to use word play.
Phonetic Analysis
 a letter representing a vowel sound, such as a, e, i, o, u.
Phonetic the science or study of speech sounds and their production,
transmission, and reception, and their analysis, classification, and
transcription.
How to teach vowels effectively:

A. Consonant Digraphs 1. USE VISUALS

The first thing I did for these kids was show them the visuals for the vowels and
A digraph is a group of two successive letters that represent a single sound
shared a shortened version of the story for each letter. For the visuals to be
(or phoneme).
effective, the object has to match the shape of the letter. The visuals worked
beautifully to help cement the sound of the vowel.
Consonant Digraphs are two (or three) letters that come together to
make one sound. 2. USE HAND MOTIONS

Examples of consonant digraphs include bl, br, ch, ck, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gh, gl,
gr, ng, ph, pl, pr, qu, sc, sh, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, th, tr, tw, wh, wr.
Some trigraphs are nth, sch, scr, shr, spl, spr, squ, str, thr. There are also
digraphs that produce a distinct vowel sound.
For some children, even as old as middle school, the hand motions were what
helped them figure out a word they didn't know. They grew to associate the body
motion with the shape of the letter and also the sound they heard themselves
saying. Over time, they no longer needed to make the hand motion - sounds had
become automatic. Hand motions are essentials for tactile and kinesthetic learners!

HERE ARE THE HAND MOTIONS FOR OUR VOWELS:

Teaching students to use consonant digraphs.

Engage the students in an activity.

For this activity we focused on the common beginning digraphs: sh, and ch.

 Provide poker chips or other manipulatives.

 Provide a printed material of the consonant digraph you want to teach
the child. 3. USE STORIES
 Have your child name the featured picture at the bottom and cover
the other pictures whose names begin the same. For A, we make an anthill with our fingers, and then touch thumbs to make the
tunnel Abner made as he tunneled through the anthill For E, I asked the kids to
B. Vowels make a fist and notice the lowercase E their fingers made. For I, we had an upraised
hand similar to the feathers on Ike’s head. The O was Oscar’s wide open mouth, and
Vowel is a speech sound that is produced by comparatively open configuration of
the U was Uncle Ule’s upside-down umbrella. Stories are great for beginners and for
the vocal tract, with vibration of the vocal cords but without audible friction and is a
visual, right-brained, and kinesthetic learners.
unit of the sound system of a language that forms the nucleus of a syllable.
C. Vowel digraphs
Vowel digraphs are combinations of letters that make a single sound (like in the
words boat, rain, sheep, team and moon).
Digraphs that spell vowel sounds include the letter pairs ai, ay, ee, ea, ie, ei, oo, ou.
ow, oe, oo, ue, ey, ay, oy, oi, au, aw.
Teaching students to use vowel digraphs.
Full Class Activity
Together with the class, make a poem containing a list of words that use the digraph
that you are teaching. Because many words with the digraph rhyme with each other,
this is easier than creating a typical poem. For example, you could put the words
"feel," "heel," and "wheel" at the end of the lines of the poem so that the poem
rhymes. This is also a way to help students differentiate between two digraphs that
make the same sound, such as "ea" and "ee." Include all of the "ee" words (which
are less common) in a poem, and students will remember those words as "belonging
to the 'ee' poem." This will help them learn how to spell easily misspelled words.
Group Practice
To complete this activity, pass out lists of words containing two or several digraphs
to each group of students. Then challenge each group to make a note-cards
containing pictures of some of the words. For example, one note-card might have
the picture of a sheep, while another might have a picture of a pie. Groups should
then swap piles and sort the note-cards into two or several piles, based on the
digraph that spells the picture. For example, the picture of the sheep and the bee
would be in one pile, while the pie and the die would be in another pile.
This phonics activity gives artistic students the chance to shine, while helping all of
the students practice decoding and sorting skills.
D. Diphthongs
Diphthongs are sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single
syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves toward another (as in
coin, loud, and side ).
Examples of diphthongs
How to teach diphthongs to students?
 Explain to them that some letters make a more complicated sound together,
and that you have to move your mouth around to make the sound. Write the
letters "oy" on the board.
 Pronounce the sound that they make, emphasizing how your mouth moves
around to make the sound.
 Teach each diphthong individually or in pairs (e.g., "oy" and "oi"), leaving
plenty of time for practicing each diphthong before moving on to another.
 By the end of the diphthong unit, you should have covered the following
diphthongs: oy, oi, oo, ou, ow, aw, au, ew.
Sight words is a common term in reading that has a variety of meanings. When it
is applied to early reading instruction, it typically refers to the set of about 100
words that keeps reappearing on almost any page of text.
“Who, the, he, were, does, their, me, be” are a few examples.
Sight Words Teaching Techniques
Introduce new sight words using this sequence of five teaching techniques:
 See & Say — A child sees the word on the flash card and says the word while
underlining it with her finger.
 Spell Reading — The child says the word and spells out the letters, then
reads the word again.
 Arm Tapping — The child says the word and then spells out the letters while
tapping them on his arm, then reads the word again.
 Air Writing — A child says the word, then writes the letters in the air in front
of the flash card.
 Table Writing — A child writes the letters on a table, first looking at and then
not looking at the flash card.
These techniques work together to activate different parts of the brain. The
exercises combine many repetitions of the word (seeing, hearing, speaking, spelling,
and writing) with physical movements that focus the child’s attention and cement
each word into the child’s long-term memory.
The lessons get the child up to a baseline level of competence that is then reinforced
by the games, which take them up to the level of mastery. All you need is a flash
card for each of the sight words you are covering in the lesson.
Word banks are quite simply lists of words to support children with their writing.
These will vary according to the age of the child and the task given.
A word bank is a list of words that is created by the teacher or student that relates
to the core content and academic material the student is learning. The word bank
provides the student with access to the key vocabulary and helps with instructional
level vocabulary development, spelling and writing.
Contractions is two words made shorter by placing an apostrophe where letters
have been omitted.
Apostrophe (') indicates that one or more letters have been left out when two
words were combined as one word.
How Do We Teach Contractions?
1. Use a rubber band to demonstrate to your student the concept of
expanding and contracting. When you stretch the rubber band, it
expands; when you let it go, it contracts. That’s what we’re doing
when we contract words – we’re just making them smaller.
2. Demonstrate the concept by writing he is on a piece of paper, or use
letter tiles if you have them. Cross out the i and replace it with an
apostrophe. Read the new word to your student to show how the
pronunciation changes from he is to he’s.
3. You may need to explain that an apostrophe is a type of punctuation
mark. One of its jobs is to help us form contractions. However, many
students put the apostrophe in the wrong spot, as in ar’nt.
Understanding that the apostrophe must always take the place of the
omitted letters will help prevent such errors.
4. Now write or build the words she will. Cross out the w–i and replace
those letters with an apostrophe. Explain to your student that she’ll is
a shortcut, a shorter way of saying she will.
5. Underscore the importance of the apostrophe by removing it from the
contraction she’ll. Point out that without the apostrophe, the word is
shell and not she’ll. Never forget the apostrophe!
6. Finally, in All About Reading we include an engaging activity sheet
where students create contractions out of printed strips of paper. The
strip starts out with a pair of words, such as I am.
The student folds the word strip on the solid line to reveal the contraction, such as
I’m.
Compound words are two simple words put together to make a new word. When
this is done, it creates a word with multiple syllables. Sometimes we need to find the
syllables in compound words. Words with multiple syllables have patterns. If we find
the pattern, we can separate the word. This video will help you practice compound
words and syllables.
4. Once a pair finds each other, they are to shout, "We found our long-lost pair!"
and run to the teacher. The teacher then checks the compound word formed, then
instructs the pair to get each other's cards and tape them on the board in the correct
order.

5. Everyone else is to go on finding their pairs and taping their compound words on
Teaching students to use compound words. the board.

Full Class Activity
My Long-lost Pair
One of the compound words interactive activities that you can do in the classroom is
"My Long-lost Pair." Gauge how well your students use visual clues and measure
their previous knowledge on what compound words they already know by doing this
activity. Here are the guidelines or directions:
After the game has been concluded, the teacher then proceeds by discussing each
compound word and how they knew about the existence of those words. Examine if
(1) the compound word is composed of two words that form a meaning related to
the individual words, as in book + case = bookcase (a case for books) or (2) the
compound word is composed of two words that form a completely different meaning
unrelated to its two halves as in dead + line = deadline.

1. Prepare flash cards, the number of which should match the number of students
you have in your room. Written on each flashcard is a half of a compound word. For
instance, bookworm would be split into two cards--book and worm. Depending on
the grade level you are handling, choose compound words appropriate to the
vocabulary proficiency your class profile dictates.

2. Have your students pick out a card from the set that you made. Then, tell them
not to show their cards to anyone yet. The teacher then proceeds to tape a card on
each student's back. After a student is done having his/her card taped onto his/her
back, s/he is to go to any area with his/her back to the wall. The procedure is the
same for everybody else, until all the students have their backs to the wall.

3. At the teacher's signal, everyone pries away from the wall and mingle with the
rest of the class. Their task (to be accomplished in three to five minutes, depending
on the grade level) is to search for their missing other half. The challenge here is to
have someone else read their words for them since they are unable to see what half
is assigned to them and what other half they should be looking for. For early grades,
this is an effective way to practice both reading skills and life skills as the task will
require that they read words aloud and they work cooperatively with each other.