Phonics Through Poetry

This year, I was introduced to a new resource and I'm not really sure how I ever lived without it! I have always struggled with the idea of teaching phonics whole group because my kids are all over the place in terms of phonics skills. However, this resource makes whole group phonics possible and is something I use daily in my classroom.

(I am not getting paid to promote this product or making anything from this link, just want to share a great teaching tool!)

This book is filled with 115 poems, each with a different focus sound that may be represented by different combinations of letters. Some of these focus sounds include: consonants, short a, short e, short i, short o, short u, long a, long e, long i, long u, l blends, s blends, r blends, and more.

Each week, we focus on one poem and look at it through a different lens each day.

On Monday, I introduce the poem and its focus sound on chart paper. We discuss what's happening in the poem and we echo read line by line. I ask students to listen for the words that have the focus sound as we read it together. Next, we go line by line and the students identify the words that have the focus sound while I underline them.

On Tuesday, we review the focus sound and then echo read or choral read the poem. I call several students up to the chart paper to circle the sight words in the poem (there are usually enough sight words for almost every student to come up and circle one).

On Wednesday, a few students take turns leading the class in choral counting while pointing to each word. Afterward, students underline the words with the focus sounds and circle the sight words on their own copy of the poem.

On Thursday, a few students take turns leading the class in choral counting while pointing to each word. Then, we generate a list of our own words that have the focus sound in them. (My kids surprise me each week with the words they are able to come up with!)

On Friday, a few students take turns leading the class in choral counting while pointing to each word. Afterward, students are able to illustrate a picture on their copy of the poem.

The poems are really catchy and the kids LOVE them! Here is a look at one of our anchor charts at the end of working with the poem. (This is the shortest poem we have done, they are usually much longer!)

Since we are working on blends with our poetry, I am also working on blends in small groups. My kids love these games from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits. Each game board has different blends and we practice stretching and writing each word. We focus on blends but are able to discuss some other spelling patterns as well.

I also put these blend cards in my word work center this week:

These cards can be sorted in a pocket chart center or used as a matching or memory game during literacy workstations. The blends included are: st, sp, sl, br, bl, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, tr
Click on either picture above to be taken to my TpT store where you can get these cards!