Sounding out Words

      Many students in our class have begun "sounding out" words to try to spell them.  This is a process that has just recently been introduced.  On our morning message, we always have a picture that we work together to sound out and try to spell (often times it's a word beginning with the letter we are working on).  The children are learning how to use their hands to imitate "stretching out" a word.  As they move their hands from close together to farther away (like they were stretching something out), they say the word very slowly to hear many sounds in it.  Since we are just beginning this, most children can only hear the initial sound correctly on their own.  With modeling and demonstrating, they can often hear additional middle or ending sound(s).  At this point, many children are being asked to sound out only one or two words on various assignments they complete during literacy stations.  

     One of these activities is sticker writing.  Children love stickers and for this activity they get to choose their favorites from a big pile of stickers.  After making their choices, they need to "sound out" the words and write what they hear.  I will usually model sounding out a word for them one or two times and encourage them to try to "stretch out" the word to hear more sounds on their own afterwards.  When they are done I will do "book spelling" for them (I use this term to refer to the way that words are spelled in books, rather than saying I'll spell it the correct way).  Below are some examples of what you might see your child produce when trying to sound out words.  At this point, all of these ways are perfectly fine for your child to be doing. 

 Some kids are able to just identify the initial sound and will not attempt to write any additional letters.

 

Other children are able to identify the beginning and ending sound (since they may emphasize the initial sound when stretching it out and really stress the ending sound in their attempt).

 Some children may hear a beginning and initial sound but not be able to stretch the word out to hear an ending sound at this point.

Some children write some or all letters that are not actually in the word.  At this point, this is fine for them to be doing.  It is a part of the writing process and how many children begin to learn to write.  Children are learning that letters make up words.  They are learning that several letters need to be written next to each other and they are making an attempt to stretch out a word.   

No matter what their word ends up looking like after they stretch it out, I always praise them for their efforts, point out which letters/sounds they got correct and model "sounding out" the word when I do book spelling.  With more practice they will become more comfortable with this process and be able to identify more sounds in words.