03 March 2013

Phone Talking & St. Patrick's Sorting


Do you have whisper phones?  Most of us do have some of these great things & you can even make your own at a cheaper cost if you don't.  I have a basket of these handy dandy phones.



Mostly I used these whisper phones for the students to hear themselves read or to keep their voices from bothering their neighbors.  Some kids, especially starting out, need to hear themselves voice the words.  

But I found another use for them!  Phonemic Awareness Phones!  Some of my kinders and first graders were having some difficulty hearing some of the sounds, especially ending and middle sounds.  These phones work great for that!  They can say and stretch the word into the phone and hear the sounds sooo much better.  Then record the sounds as they write.



We have finally entered the month of March and all things St. Patrick's Day!  One way I can use my phones is to help the students hear their blends as they work their St. Patrick's Day Picture Sort.

Blends and Digraphs Activity

My kids love picture sorts and they really need the practice with the most common blends and digraphs- ch, sh, th, tr, and wh.  Do your students confuse  the /tr/ sound and think it is spelled ch?  or chr?  Some of my little guys cannot get that one sound!  So we will try to remedy that with this St. Patrick's Day activity!

blends and digraphs activity

Click here to be taken to my store if you are interested in the St. Patrick's Day Picture Sorting.  

Do you use the whisper phones in any other unique ways?  I would love to hear how you are using them!


11 comments:

  1. Tr and Dr are my least favorite blends...they trick my kids all the time!!
    Vickie

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  2. I use them for fluency phones. I like the idea of using them with kids who need to hear sounds better. That's a great idea.
    ❀ Tammy
    Forever in First

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  3. I have a couple, but I like yours better. I've used them for kiddos who have difficulty hearing rhyming words. When my kinder kids use the phones for reading, it's awkward for them because they need 2 hands to turn the pages. We have to work on how to hold the phone and turn pages. It's hard for some of them to do that. Yes, TR is CH, and DR is J. Those are so tricky!

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  4. I've been meaning to get those phones for years! Now's the time. I wonder if Scholastic has them?
    Barbara
    Grade ONEderful
    Ruby Slippers Blog Designs

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  5. Hi Lori
    Cute sorting activity...and I love my whisper phones and so do the kiddos!
    Vicky
    Traditions, Laughter and Happily Ever After

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  6. I think the tr and dr are so hard for some children to hear. Thanks for coming by, Vickie!

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  7. The phones work great for fluency too! Lots of uses for these things. Thanks Tammy!

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  8. I agree, Lee Ann, the phones are harder for the younger ones to use since they need their hands on their books. I usually use them in first grade for quiet reading. Thanks so much for coming by!

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  9. Barbara, I think I probably ordered these phones from Lakeshore. I can't remember for sure. I know the kids love them. :)

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  10. Thank you Vicky! My kids love using the phones too and will ask if they get to use them. :)

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  11. tr and dr are very hard for ELL children to hear. My co-teacher and I had them spelling with jr for dr so we got out the dictionary and had the students look up a word with us using jr. We asked them if they found it and when they said no we then asked if they found any jr words. The answer was no! So they knew from then on that jr at the beginning of the word was never going to happen. So I know have no children writing jr now just to get a handle on the tr.

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