Concept Worksheets (CW)
The Concept Worksheets have been designed to support and consolidate the materials
and skills found in Finding Out, especially in book 1. The most important units
in Finding Out are undoubtedly units 7 through 9, where the students learn about
blending and segmenting. Segmenting is the ability to separate words into units
of sound. Blending is the ability to join units of sound into words. To get
the best use out of these Concept Worksheets, it is best to teach blending and
segmenting from the very start and, of course, to continue teaching it right
through the book. It is always important to use only the sounds and letters
which the students have already learnt, when practising blending and segmenting.
As you can see, the order of introduction in Blending a Hand's Concept Worksheets,
matches perfectly the order found in Finding Out. In reality, most of the worksheets
use and practise more than one concept, but the focus is often on a single concept.
Let me speak a little about some of the worksheets and concepts.
Concept 1: initial letter/sound recognition. Block Puzzles, First Letters, Initial
Sounds and Picture Sums focus on initial letters. Picture Sums puts this skill
to practical use.
Concept 2: medial and final letter recognition. Use Missing Letter puzzles.
Concept 3: blending. Word Links, Word Sums and Syllabification practise this
skill.
Concept 4: segmenting. Word Jumble, Word Merge and Blackout Puzzles focus on
segmenting.
Concept 5: letter formation. Use Printing Practice and Letter Formation Worksheets.
Concept 6: word formation. Word Shapes help students to realise the importance
of ascenders and descenders.
Concept 7: sentence formation. Use Letter Formation Worksheets from levels 2
and 3.
Concept 8: spelling. Some Criss Cross Puzzles and Crosswords concentrate on
spelling.
Concept 9: reading. Mazes, Picture Links, Word Searches and some Criss Cross
Puzzles concentrate on reading.
Concept 10: testing. All the worksheets act as an informal test platform which
will help you grade your students and find their weaknesses and strengths.
Concept 11: fun and usability. All the worksheets on designed to make them as
practical as possible and their self explanatory design makes them ideal for
homework.
You can devise classroom activities around the worksheets and use the worksheets
to consolidate the skills taught. Initially, it is best to introduce and use
some of the worksheets in the classroom, but once your students have grasped
what to do, then you can safely give out worksheets for homework. They are also
ideal for time fillers, for when you're quicker students have finished an activity
and are twiddling thumbs, just give them a worksheet or two before they run
off home.
I don't have a complex filing system for keeping my worksheets, I just printed
out photocopying masters, made several copies of each and put them in clear
books according to their segment i.e. GS1, BS1, YS1 etc and clearly marked the
spines of my clear books. There are better ways, but with clear books, you don't
need much room.
CW samples (all are GS1)
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Letter Formation Worksheets (LFW)
Letter Formation Worksheets are printed in a tracing font. In level 1 there is a choice of three different fonts and in level 2 a choice of two fonts, but from level 3 onwards there is only a semi cursive font, which students will have no problem in handling. In level 1 only letters (graphemes) are used and the student is expected to trace over the font, each time pronouncing the sound the letter represents, the anchor word/picture indicates what the sound is, the student continues to the end of the line each time. There is much more practice on these worksheets and than in many fancy and colourful workbooks, you get a lot more practice and less wastage. From level 2 there is a big change, we continue with tracing letters, then we trace the anchor word and then a decodable sentences is traced in each worksheet, so that we get letter formation, reading and joined up writing practice. The same format continues throughout the rest of the worksheets. Levels 1 and 2 follow exactly the sequence found in Finding Out by David Paul, after that the order is a little haphazard but you can use them in whichever order suits you best, just picking out worksheets as the need arises or following the sequence found in whatever programme you might be using.
LFW samples (complete level)
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Bingo
There are 3 levels of bingo on this disc. Level 1 practices all the alphabet sounds and 'anchor' words (pictures) as learned in the first six units of Finding Out. Usually, I give 11 chips or counters to each student and then play the game, at the end, we can see how many bingos each student has. Usually everyone has at least one bingo and a little bit of creative cheating will ensure this if you act as caller or join in. You can use the alphabet flashcards from Finding Out as calling cards if you wish to. I have it on good authority that smaller calling cards will eventually be made available on CD-ROM by Macmillan and that these will be free!
Double Sound Bingo 2 practices the vocabulary and double sounds taught in Finding Out 1, units 11 through 15. Each board contains all 16 double sounds with no overlap so that when the sound or 'anchor' word is called out, then each child must find in which word the sound is and place a chip on the picture. It's a little difficult in the beginning, but once the children begin to understand what is happening, then it's a very good game. Again, you can use the double sounds cards from Finding Out as calling cards.
Double Sound Bingo 3 works in the same way as Double Sound Bingo 2. Because the Finding Out series doesn't teach all of the sounds and spelling patterns found in this bingo game, then I have produced a set of calling cards to go with them. You can either print them out as picture cards, or as double sound cards, or you can print them on the same card back-to-back. I hope you enjoy playing these games.
Bingo samples (complete level)
Note
If you have any questions or comments about these worksheets, games and materials
then please don't hesitate to contact
me. Also, if you find any errors in the worksheets then please let me know.
Sincerely,
David Lisgo
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