Fun in the Mud - Tip Sheet

Fun in the Mud! - Teacher Tip Sheet

Yellow Series - Book 8 - Fun in the Mud!

Grapheme/Phoneme Correspondence

Tips and Activities to Try

Introduced in This Book

• <w>/w/, <j>/j/
• consonant digraphs <zz>/z/, <ss>/s/, and <ll>/l/

Previously Introduced

Vowels

• all short vowels

Consonants

• <c>/k/, <g>/g/, <s>/s/ and /z/, <d>/d/, <h>/h/, <m>/m/, <n>/n/, <p>/p/, <t>/t/, <b>/b/, <f>/f/, <r>/r/, <l>/l/, <z>/z/, <x>/ks/, <v>/v/, <k>/k/

Digraphs

• <th>/TH/ voiced (only in the), <ck>/k/, <ff>/f/

Additional Concepts

• final consonant cluster <nd> (only in and)

Key Concepts to Understand

• the phoneme represented by <w> can be hard to pronounce in isolation (e.g., without a schwa “w-uh”) - ask students to get their mouth in the /w/ position, and then blend straight into the word (e.g., /w/, /e/, /t/ NOT /w-uh/, /e/, /t/)

Words and Phrases for Reading and Writing

Here is a list of words that can be used for phonemic awareness activities, reading, dictation, games cards, etc.:

• wet, win, wit, well, wag, web, wig, will, jet, jazz, jam, jiff, jig, jug, jog, jab, job, mess, less, hiss, bill, pill, doll, sill, off, huff, buff, puff, buzz, fuzz

Here is a word chain you could complete with blending cards:

• wet → wit → win → will → well → bell → tell → ten → tin → tiff → jiff → jig → jug → jog → job → jab → jazz → razz → ran → pan → pass

Here are phrases that can be used for reading and/or dictation practice. These phrases can be combined to create sentences. A good opportunity arises to address syntax if the resulting sentence is not grammatically correct (e.g., Jazz and his doll jogs in the muck. → Jazz and his doll jog in the muck. )

Orthographic Conventions/Patterns and Generalisations

Tips and Activities to Try

• BOMP (Buzz Off Miss Pill) (double <z>, <f>, <s> and <l> at the end of a base after single (short) vowel) 

Key Concepts to Understand

• double the <z>, <f>, <s>, and <l> final to a base after a single short vowel (e.g., class, tell, buzz)
• the acronym BOMP (Buzz Off Miss Pill) can help students remember this convention (some resources refer to this as the FLOSS convention

Activities to Try

• provide students with a deck of word cards to read and/or spell including the digraph <zz>, <ff>, <ss>, <ll>
• have students play a board game (any board game will work) - before rolling the dice, students need to either read or spell a word from the deck
• have students make their own deck of BOMP words to use in the above game
• here are some additional BOMP activities: https://alongthelearningjourney.wordpress.com/2019/12/28/post-8-closed-syllable-spelling-patterns/

Morphology

Tips and Activities to Try

Previously Introduced

• suffix <-s> third person singular
• suffix <-s> as plural

• note suffix <-s> as students encounter it and support where needed

High Frequency Words

Tips and Activities to Try

• “to”

Key Concepts to Understand

• to, two and too are homophones (words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings)
• homophones usually have different spelling, which helps readers differentiate between the words
• to is a function word, and as such, it has as few letters as possible (e.g., to has fewer letters than too and two)
• the <o> is often pronounced as a schwa - say the sentence, “I am going to the store” to help demonstrate this
• making connections to similar words such as do and who can help students remember the spelling of to

Comprehension Corner - Fun in the Mud

Vocabulary Development

• What is a mess?

Making Connections

• Do you like to play in the mud?
• Have you ever jumped in a puddle? Was it fun?

Inferencing

• Why do you think Cat had “less fun” in the mud?
• Why do you think Cat is sad at the end?

Retelling/Summarizing

• Which page of this text was your favourite? Why?
• Do you think “Fun in the Mud” is a good title for this book?Why or why not?