Does anyone remember the Saturday morning TV show starring Pee Wee Herman? That show featured a word of the day, and any time someone would say that word, everyone would scream real loud and act crazy.
Why not try this with your preschooler? Each day write a word on several colorful note cards, and display the word in different places throughout the house. Phonics is great, but many of the most frequent reading words are not phonetic, and even if a word is phonetic, to attain fluency for comprehension, children must master instant recognition of words. As an adult you would soon give up reading if you had to sound out every word in a text you were reading. As most words are instantly recognizable to us, we only occasionally stumble across a new word which requires our phonetic skills. Reading a passage at a “phonic's pace” is totally frustrating, and detrimental to comprehension.
It is fascinating to me that one hundred high frequency words make up about half of all written materials. Think of how empowered your child could be if he or she could instantly recognize these one hundred words!
These are the most common words in English, ranked in frequency order.
The first 100 make up about half of all written material.
The First 100 Words
The first 100 make up about half of all written material.
the or will number
of one up no
and had other way
a by about could
to word out people
in but many my
is not then than
you what them first
that all these water
it were so been
he we some call
was when her who
for your would oil
on can make its
are said like now
as there him find
with use into long
his an time down
they each has day
I which look did
at she two get
be do more come
this how write made
have their go may
from if see part
Not only could you have a word of the day, you could even have fun phrases of the day. If there were more people, what would we do?
Whatever you do, make it fun. Games are always more fun than school. (This is coming from someone who has spent over thirty-seven years in school.) Maybe one day you could hide the word of the day, or make it a treasure hunt with clues to find it. Play school and let your preschooler be the teacher to teach you the new words. After a while, write your own stories and books using your high frequency words.
They’re only little once, and they have been put in your trust. Love them wisely.
This is the School Marm
Ringing Her Bell
School's out!
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