ELF Module 5 – Animal Tails

ELF module 5 moves on from identifying the initial sounds in a word to identifying the final sounds in words.

Learning Activities

1. Following directions – students follow simple 3 step instructions acting out animal moves. As previously the final instruction is the same as the first e.g. do duck walking, do frog hops, do duck walking.
2. Final sounds – students play a board game where they have to add a letter to the end of the word.
3. Animal tails – to help students understand the concept of final sounds, students make an animal with a pipe cleaner tail which they use to remind them of the final sound for a word.
4. Segmenting sounds – this is a really critical skill for students. They learn to sound out 3 letter words. Watch the video for examples. Blending Sounds
5. Final sounds – the students use word wheels to create words with different end sounds Final sounds word wheels
6. Final sounds – students add the final sounds to real and nonsense words.
7. Handwriting – smiley letters, these go down, up and around – y u v w.  We identify head, tail and body parts of letters. Students also identify words beginning with the letter sounds and write whole words into their books placing them correctly on the red and blue lines.
8. Language development – teachers read books to the students and discuss the content using Blanks Questions as a basis to extend language and vocabulary. Training in Blanks Questions is available at Blanks Questions Training
9. Write their first name and surname. The students initially trace the letter and learn where to place the letters on the red and blue lines. For many  students they have not been exposed to red and blue lines in Prep so this is a good introduction and will be built on in later sessions.
10. Sight words – students are exposed to and play games focusing on the Orange words from Magic Words