Writing phonics poems

Website address

Description

This website has online activities and games for students to practise the spelling patterns of various long vowel sounds . The activities may be used with students who need help with establishing phonological awareness of these spelling patterns. Students read animated versions of poems through shared reading activities in the class. Next they practise identifying the spelling pattern and rhyming words in online activities linked to the poems. They then play online phonics games which have a mixture of long vowel sounds. Finally, students write poems using words with the long vowel spelling pattern.

Objectives

1.	To raise students' awareness of the spelling patterns of long vowel sounds.
2.	To encourage students to use poems, or parts of poems, as models for own writing.
3.	To encourage students' enjoyment of rhyming words and poems through shared reading.

Language focus

Things to do before the activity

1.	Look at the website and try the activity to see if it is appropriate for your students. There are two games. Each game has two levels. Choose the best level for your students.
2.	Read the notes for the guidance of parents and teachers. You can find these at:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/wordsandpictures/teachers/resources.shtml where you need to scroll down to the section on Long Vowel Sounds and click on each vowel sound spelling pattern individually. Here you can also find four additional classroom and online activities for each vowel sound spelling pattern.
3.	Choose the vowel sounds you would like to focus on.
4.	Print and enlarge one copy of the poem for the vowel sound spelling pattern. Alternatively, you can use an LCD projector to project the animated version of the poem onto a screen at the front of the class. Print individual copies of the matching Write your own poem worksheet. These can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/wordsandpictures/longvow/print/print.shtml
5.	Show the online version or read the poem to the class. Show or read the poem to the class again, pausing before the rhyming words to see if pupils can predict and say them. Explain that the words rhyme because they sound the same. Show or read the poem again.
6.	Ask students to go to the computers and do the first online activity for the poem. It is called Sound search. This activity helps students to recognise the spelling pattern of the target long vowel sound. Students should click on all the words in which they see this spelling pattern.
7.	Tell students to go to do the second online activity for the poem. It is called Find the word. This activity helps students identify the rhyming words. Students click on one of three words for the final word in each line of the poem.
8.	Point out the spelling pattern for the long vowel sound. Say the sound in isolation and in some of the words from the poem. Ask students to repeat the words after you. Tell them to face each other in pairs and look at each other when making the sound. They should notice what shape their mouths make.
9.	Ask students to tell you the words in the poem with the spelling pattern. Write the words on the board.
10.	Help the class to focus on the onsets (the letter or letters before the vowel sound) and the rimes (the vowel sounds plus the following letter or letters). Note that students do not need to learn the terms onset and rime. Draw lines on the words on the board to split the words into onsets and rimes.
11.	Make sure students know the meanings of any unknown vocabulary in the poem. Ask them to recall other words they know with the same spelling pattern.
12.	Tell pupils which activity to play (Snap it! or Drag 'n' Spell) and at which level. Explain to them how to play the games online. Allow students to play the games several times. Students who finish one game early may like to go onto the other game. Explain how to navigate between the two.

Things to do after the activity

1.	Ask students to write another verse for the poem they have read. This can be a shared writing activity .
2.	Give out copies of the Write your own poem worksheet for this spelling pattern. Tell students to do the activities on the worksheet. Help them to create a new poem using the framework given. The first time you do this, you may like to do it as a shared writing activity, brainstorming ideas and words with the class. Help them to write phrases and then lines of the class poem. Let students write the poem down and illustrate it.
3.	Ask students to make up their own sentences using the target spelling pattern of the long vowel sound and words they have learnt.
4.	Hold a poetry festival in the class. Students can either read out their own poems or hold choral readings of the poems on the website. Invite other teachers, another class or the Principal to listen.

Related Web activities

Creating poems about planets

Pop-up notes

Things to do before the activity

1.	Note:	The games and their levels are: Snap it! Level 1 is very easy. Students click a button when they see a word with the target spelling pattern in it. They lose points if they click the button for spelling patterns that do not match. Students do not need to know the words in order to do this. Level 2 is harder, students lose points if the click the button for wrong spelling patterns/vowel sounds in a word. This game is for students who already know most of the vocabulary in the poems. This is a better choice than level 1. Drag 'n' spell Level 1 has a limited choice of spelling patterns supported by a picture. Pupils drag the spelling pattern they think is correct into the blanks in a word. Wrong choices will not stick. This is probably the best choice for most students. Level 2 has a limited choice of spelling patterns but with no picture. Instead the correct spelling is flashed on the screen for a short time. Pupils drag the spelling pattern they think is correct into the blanks in a word. Wrong choices will not stick.
3.	Note:	Your criteria for choosing might be: Students often mix up different spelling patterns for the same sound, e.g. grean, cleen. Students are having problems writing down words that they have in their spoken vocabulary. Students enjoy rhyming words. Students need to enrich their written vocabulary of commonly-used words.
5.	Theory:	Knowledge of rhyming words helps students build up their phonological awareness. If students know how one word is pronounced and see a new word that has the same rhyme, they may be able to work out the pronunciation of the new word through analogy with the known word. Words that rhyme usually have the same rime. The rime of a word is usually the final vowel and any consonants following it. For example back, pack and sack all have the same rime and they rhyme. Recognising rhyming words also adds considerably to students' enjoyment of the sounds of a language.
7.	Note:	The lesson plans also include a list of other useful words with the same vowel sound spelling pattern. Choose from these words students already know or teach new words which maybe useful to them in the online activities or when making up their own poem.
8.	Theory:	It is important to move from saying the sound in isolation to saying it in words as soon as possible. While focusing on the sound in isolation can help students hear and recognise it, and may also help them produce it if they can see your mouth position, we seldom hear these sounds in isolation in speech. The sound may vary slightly according to the other sounds said immediately before or after it. Students need to be familiar with the range of slight differences within which we recognise a sound to be the same sound, eg the long vowel sound varies slightly in these words: day, daily, dare.
10	Theory:	Talking about onsets and rimes is a fairly new way of looking at pronunciation and spelling units within a word. The onsets are the starting sounds or letters that occur before the vowel (in a one-syllable word). The vowel sound and any consonants that follow it are called the rime. Every syllable in a word has a rime. Note that oat is a word without an onset. There are many rimes in English, but the most common ones account for a large proportion of vocabulary commonly taught at primary level. It may be useful to teach these rimes and their different onsets to primary students as a way of predicting the spellings of most common words. However, a great number of common words do not follow spelling patterns eg they, you, women. For more information about onsets and rimes see the PELT file:
10	Example:	Onset Rime Onset Rime ag  /  ain gr  /  een cr  /  y m  /  ake d  /  ay s  /  eat
12.	Theory:	As the items are automatically generated the students should find there are different examples of the words with the target sound each time they play. One of the benefits of interactive activities is that the students find it enjoyable to repeat them.
12.	Note:	In order to navigate between the two games, students will need to go back to the page at http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/wordsandpictures/longvow/ and click on either of the games.

Things to do after the activity

1.	Glossary:	A shared writing activity is one in which the stages of the writing process are modelled by the teacher in a whole- class setting. Typically, the teacher brainstorms with students ideas round a topic and writes them on the board. Co-operatively the class identifies useful vocabulary and content for the topic. The teacher also helps students recall and focus on the format and features of the text type. Alterations and improvements are made on the board (the editing and proofreading stages of the process) until the class and the teacher are happy with what they have written. Then students copy down the composition and possibly react to it in a personal way, for example, drawing a picture to illustrate their work.
3.	Example:	I can see the queen. I dream of ice cream. Don't cry, little fly. The moon is bright tonight.

Click to go directly to the website: