Making Words: Real or Nonsense

by Nikki Smith

“Making Words: Real or Nonsense?” contains 23 word building reproducibles that include a variety of letters and sounds for first grade. Children will practice using beginning and ending consonants, short vowels, long vowels, and r-controlled vowels to make words and determine if they are real or not. These reproducibles incorporate phonics, vocabulary, spelling practice, and word families (rhyming words). Dictionary skills can also be incorporated for children to determine if words are real or not. They are great to use for literacy centers, independent work, or homework.

26 pages, Paperback

First published November 26, 2010

About the author

Nikki is an artist and a first grade teacher. She enjoys using a variety of artistic media. Currently, her illustrating technique combines the use of watercolor, collage, and graphic design. Her children's books bring together her experiences with children and art. Nikki spends most of her free time as a "lake girl," or enjoying the ocean. She slalom water skis on a lake in Michigan where her family lives and she has been scuba diving in Bonaire, Puerto Rico and Roatan. Nikki has cared for many wild creatures including: robins, frogs, fish, turtles, butterflies and ducks. Her work is inspired by her love of water, animals and family.

Reviews

[Megan Palasik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as a first-reads giveaway.

I am a speech-languge pathologist who works with children of all ages. While spelling is not something I commonly work on, sounding out words (which this is good for) is something I do sometimes as well as those 'Bossy R' words (which I call vocalic r).

This is a short little book containing 23 activities. There is a quick note to teachers and parents at the beginning of the book explaining the directions as well as why nonsense words are important.

The 23 activities use the short vowels a, e, i, o, u, as well as a, i, o, u with a selent e on the end, long vowel sounds, ai, ee, ea, oa and vocalic r sounds ar, er, ir, or, ur.

The idea is that in the left column there is an initial consonant (or sometimes a blend). The student first rights that in the appropriate place on the grid. Next, the student writes the vowel sound for the page. Finally, along the top are final consonants (or blends) and the student writes that to complete the word. After all "words" are written, you then retrace the "real" words and circle the nonsense words.

Ultimately, these activities, if used in a sequential fashion, can get at a lot of repetition of writing for students, sounding out words, being able to decide between real and nonsense (and explain why) and learning vowel sounds and rhyming.

I think this would be a great quick resource for any teacher K-2 (or speech-language pathologist) who is working on rhyming, sounding out words, explaining real/nonsense. Easy and quick! I just wish there were more!