Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Flippy Dolphin


So how many of you love using the "Beanie Baby" strategies with your littles?  As a product of the '90s, I'm proud to say that I was a TY enthusiast.  Like .... HUNDREDS of beanie babies packed away in my closet because I could never bare to part with them.  (I mean c'mon ... do you know how hard it was to get my hands on that Princess Di bear?!)  Point being ... I'm loving that my little old beanie baby collection is actually serving *some* purpose in my big girl life.

One strategy that seemed particularly tough for my kids was the "Flippy Dolphin" strategy.  We practice flipping vowel sounds in isolation all the time, but when they kids got stuck on a word while reading and I said "Flip the Vowel" they looked at me like I'd grown wings.  Ultimately I came to realize that my kids were lacking the phonemic awareness skills they needed to manipulate phonemes within words.  I have quite a few awesome word lists I use for all skills on the PA continuum, including manipulating phonemes.  I decided to add to this collection by creating word lists where instead of telling the kids which sound to manipulate, I would just tell them to "flip the vowel".  This is a bit more challenging because the kids must (1) identify which sound is the vowel, (2) remember the flip of that vowel, (3) and manipulate the word.  It's super hard to think of words off the top of your head, so it's nice to have a list in front of you.


Feel free to click on the picture above if you think this is a resource your kids could use.  I can honestly say this has helped my kids TONS with their decoding skills.  They really *get* what I"m asking them to do when I tell them to flip the vowel now!


4 comments:

  1. Thank you!! We were just working on this strategy today and I have been scrounging around trying to make a list or two and now I can use your lists! Thanks for sharing. Jodi

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    1. Hi Jodi! I've been trying to find the best way to get in touch with you, but I can't find your email so I'm hoping you will see this comment reply! You've been one of my most loyal customers/followers since I started this little hobby, and I wanted to say thank you by sending you my latest TpT pack. I'd love to hear what you think! If you get this shoot me an email at arkirker@gmail.com - Thanks!!

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  2. I'm so glad you'll be able to use them!

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  3. This is exactly what I have been looking for! You are right; it is hard to come up with words on the spur of the moment. Thank you!

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