I love word families! If you’ve read my blog before you know I have several posts all about word families or onset and rime. Helping students break down words between the onset and rime can help build a foundation for decoding and encoding.
Break and Blend
Students need practice breaking a word into onset and rime, but they also need to practice putting them back together again. Having a picture can help set the student intention. Using the cards in the picture above, students can use the picture cue and beginning sound, students can create the word.
Word Building
Students can also use what they know about one word to create more. The first time I heard the phrase, “If you know, then you know” was at a literacy conference. It made so much sense. Use what they know to build something new. In the picture above, the student is using the known or decodable words “cap, ten, and “not” to build new words. Some of the words are familiar, some of the words have blends and digraphs, and some are new vocabulary.
Find and Write Rimes
Students have a card with a picture and several rimes. They need to use their understanding of the picture to find the rime. Once the rime is identified, they will write the onset. Students can use laminated cards to write on or they can use the recording sheet to write the number and the word. Every opportunity to build and write with onset and rime builds a greater capacity of word knowledge.
Writing with Rimes
Finally, writing with rimes can be a funny proposition. Who doesn’t love a pig with a wig, a vet with a net, and a plum on the drum. Students can use familiar words, known words, or decodable words to create funny writing.
So far, we have moved from identifying words in sentences, to syllables in words, to now onset and rime. The steps in phonological awareness build student word knowledge and deepens the capacity of learning.
Check out the ONSET AND RIME set, if you need extra ideas for making sure onset and rime is firm with your students.
Need an additional blog post about onset and rime? Check out ONSET AND RIME: TEACHING ENCODING AND DECODING WITH WORD PATTERNS.
