I’m Not Sure About this Phoneme…

Sometimes when teaching phonics, we are unsure about the exact pronunciation of the phoneme.  That is OK, as long as we know how to research its pronunciation.  Additionally, sometimes we can’t think of a great student centered activity for our students to practice the phonemes in class.  That is OK too, because there are resources available online, if you can find them.  LINUS students can also benefit from these resources.  Most schools are focusing on LINUS these days, so I want to share some activities that are suitable supplements to the new LINUS curriculum.  In this blog post, I want to share some online resources with you that may be beneficial for your any of your phonics and LINUS classes.

Pronunciation

Oxford Learners Dictionaries

http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/

This website is very handy because you can search for any word and it gives you a lot of information:

1.       British English (BrE) and North American (NAmE) pronunciation

2.       International Phonetic Alphabet spelling

3.       Definition, Part of Speech, Homophones/Homonyms/Homographs

4.       Idioms, Phrasal Verbs

* Useful for looking up pronunciation of words

Phonemic Chart – British Council

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/phonemic-chart

This website has an interactive phonemic chart, and is also useful for looking up correct pronunciation of phonemes.  Please note that you need to know the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) spelling of the phoneme (or else use trial-and-error until you find the correct one).

Activities

Sparkle Box

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/literacy/alphabet/phoneme-collections/#.U6oaN_mSzT8

This website has many activities for phonics available for free download.  They are organized by phoneme, and have both individual and group activities.

Pattie’s Activities

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/activities/phonemic.html

This website has lots of fun games and activities relating to phonics segmenting and blending.

Reading Rockets

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/377

This website has lesson plans and games to increase phonemic awareness.

Sue McCandish, DECS 2006

http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/northernadelaide/files/links/Phonological_Awareness_Bo.pdf

This is a link to a document by Sue McCandish.  She is a speech pathologist and has collated this document to provide interactive activities for children with speech impediments.  However, her activities are perfect for phonics classes.  Please take a look.  The document is available for free download.

I hope you find these resources useful.  I know it is tough to ask someone how to pronounce a phoneme or what are some suitable activities for phonics, but with the right tools, you can find the information quickly and easily online.

-Sarah Higgs, Jempol

Temerloh McDonald’s and TELL2 Mentors Host English Day for Yyasan Kebajikan Perkhidmatan dan Perubatan Malaysia

Temerloh & Maran mentors came together to put on an English Day, hosted by the McDonald’s in Temeroh on 21^st June, 2014 for Yyasan Kebajikan Perkhidmatan dan Perubatan Malaysia.  Tom Hanly, Temerloh TELL2 Mentor, coordinated the event with the help of McDonald’s restaurant owner Mr. Sofian.  Activities were contributed by Maran mentors Tom James and Sarah Higgs, Maran, and activities were led by Temerloh mentors Jimmy Ma and Martina Gilmartin.

After enjoying a breakfast, compliments of Mr. Sofian, owner and operator of the Temerloh McDonald’s restaurant, the children participated in two activities: Racing Robots & Jumping Beans. 

Racing Robots is a game designed to practice listening and speaking skills.  After practicing phrases like “Go straight on!”; “Turn left!”; “Go back!”, one lucky boy donned the robot head and was given directions by his friends.  The game was a lot of fun and the boys were able to practice the language for giving directions.

Jumping Beans is a vocabulary & spelling game.  First, you must draw a card and identify the picture.  Then you must correctly spell the word to have a chance to find it on the floor mat.  You jump from one letter to the next to spell out the word.  The boys had fun helping each other find the words on the mat, and we even had a competition between McDonald’s staff member, Team McMuffin, and Tom Hanly, Team Sausage.  In a shocking result, McDonalds won with the assistance of the boys from Team McMuffin!

It was an overall great day and we were all delighted to give something back to the community.  We all had a lot of fun and feel really great that the boys from Yyasan Kebajikan Perkhidmatan dan Perubatan Malaysia were able to participate.  Hopefully we will be coordinating another event for later in the year!

Sarah Higgs, Jempol

Tom James, Chenor

SK Batu 13 Kicks Off Back-to-School with Sports' Day Practice

SK Batu 13 kicks off back-to-school with a morning full of practice for Sports' Day.  Students learned about and practised sports activities such as long jump, shot put, and running.  When asked to demonstrate for the students, I thought I would have a bit of a laugh with them with the long jump.  I vigorously raced toward the jump mark, then hopped into the landing area!  Everyone had  a good laugh and went back to practising.  

Tom James, Chenor