Spelfabet

Word sequences

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One of my favourite activities for teaching learners about the building blocks of words is word sequences, in which I make a word using movable letters and then ask them to change it into a different word, by changing one of its spellings.

This is a brilliant activity for impressing learners' socks off with what a compact, reusable system we have for writing hundreds of words.

It's also great for helping them to recognise and use key spelling patterns, like "ck", "sh", "th", "oo", "ar", "igh" and "dge".

Example word sequence

For example, with a beginner, I might start off with the letters "a" and "t" and build the word "at".

Then I say, "here's the word 'at', as in 'we are at school'". Then I put out a couple of other letters they know, such as "p" and "b" and ask them to change the word "at" into "bat", as in a cricket bat, or a bat that flies around at night.

In doing so, they have to be able to listen to both the word "at" and the word "bat", figure out what the difference between them is, choose the right letter to add, and add it in the right place in the word.

Once they've done that, I keep changing one sound in my spoken word to make a new word, and ask them to keep making the relevant change in the spelling. "Bat" becomes "pat", then "pit", then "pig", then "peg", then "beg", then "big", then "bit", then "but" and so on.

As always, I say only sounds, not letter names, when referring to individual letters/spellings during this activity.

Mistakes are good for learning too

If a learner makes a mistake, I just tell them what they've spelt, and then repeat my request.

For example, today I have been working with quite a few Somali students, and at least in the Oromo language, there doesn't seem to be a distinction between "f" and "v".

This means that when I say, "That's the word 'can', please make 'fan', as in 'I'm hot, can we put on the fan?', they are likely to make "van" instead. So I read what they've built, "That's 'van' as in 'my mum drives a van', but I want 'fan' as in the ceiling fan (pointing to it)".

So when they make a mistake, I don't say they're wrong, as it's often a word anyway. Even if it's not, I can usually still read it aloud, as my movable alphabet is colour-coded in a way that prevents learners from making random strings of unpronounceable letters.

For example if they make "than" instead of "fan" (because "f" and "th" are very similar-sounding) I just say "that's 'than' as in 'you're taller than me' (and they mostly are, sadly). But I want 'van'".

If they make "san" I say "That's 'san', I don't think that's a word, except in 'San Francisco' and 'San Diego', or that washing stuff called 'Napi San'", of course only using vocabulary that I think my learners are likely to know or be interested in learning.

This means even mistakes are good grist for the learning-sounds-and-letters mill, and reinforce the idea that if you can say it with English sounds, you can write it with English spellings.

Skills word sequences practise

Word sequences are a focused way to provide intensive phonemic awareness and spelling pattern practice, two things that children with reading and writing difficulties tend to need.

There's no handwriting required, which can add an extra layer of difficulty for some learners.

With added vocabulary!

Because I use each word in word sequences in a sentence or give a definition, this is not just a rote sounds-and-letters activity, it also builds vocabulary. Often learners tell me their own sentences for a word they've made, for example if they've made "set" and my sentence is "ready, set, go!" they might say "or set the table", or "game, set and match".

I try to make the words and sentences as relevant and interesting to learners as possible, for example the word "sick" might be illustrated by the sentence "I feel sick" (with suitable body language, voice and facial expression) for younger or language-disordered learners. However, for teenagers without oral language difficulties, I might say "have you heard this sick new song?", as a teenager told me last week that "sick" is back as a synonym for "cool". Who knew? Everything old is new again.

Because we tend to remember things better if they're associated with an emotional reaction, I often try to make up sentences that will make my learners laugh, disagree or otherwise react. This is actually harder for older learners than younger ones, and sometimes I have to declare an end to the argument about a sentence with my Grade 2s, so we can get on with making more words.

Readymade word sequences

That's enough about word sequences for now, as I hope you are now wanting to try some out with your learner(s).

To help you get started, below is the first part of the list of Level 1 word sequences that you now get as a free download with the movable alphabet available in this website's shop. However, until you get to the two-letter spellings, you can use any movable alphabet that has two of each letter. If you can think of better sentences than mine, please use them instead.

I hope you and your learner(s) find this activity fun and helpful in learning about sounds and letters.

 

Start with the following letters: a, d (X2) o, p (X2) and t (X2).

Make the word “ad” in front of the learner(s). Put out the other six letters.

Tell the learner(s) the sound for each letter (this one is “a”, this one is “d” etc), then say:

1. Here’s “ad” as in “I saw an ad on TV”. Can you please turn it into “at” as in “I saw them at the footy”? (assist as necessary, modelling exaggerated sounding-out,  to get the right answer).
2. Now make “pat” as in “don’t pat that dog, it’s dangerous”, or “my friend is called Pat”.
3. Now make “pot” as in “I made a pot of coffee”.
4. Now make “tot” as in “she is just a little tot”.
5. Now make “top” as in “can you climb to the top?” or “I have a spinning top”.
6. Now make “tap” as in “turn on the tap” or “tap him on the shoulder”.
7. Now make “tad” as in “sorry, I’m a tad late”.
8. Now make “dad” as in “my dad did the dishes”.
9. Now make “pad” as in “I bought a writing pad”.
10. Now make “pod” as in “we have to pod the peas” or “they got into the space pod”.
11. Now make “pop” as in “pop the bubbles”.

Add the letters b (X2), g (X2) and u

Tell the learner(s) the sound for each letter (here’s “b”, this one is “g” etc).

1. Make/keep the word “pop” in front of the learner(s). Say here’s “pop” as in “I ate so much I thought I would pop”. Can you please change it into “pup” as in “a pup is a baby dog”?
2. Now make “pug” as in “a pug is a small dog with a flat nose”.
3. Now make “tug” as in “we had a tug of war” or “a tug boat helps other boats get in to the dock”.
4. Now make “bug” as in “we caught a bug in the garden” or “my computer has a bug”.
5. Now make “bag” as in “I brought a shopping bag”.
6. Now make “bad” as in “she did a bad thing and now she’s sorry”.
7. Now make “bap” as in “a bap is a kind of bread roll”.
8. Now make “bat” as in “I have a cricket bat” or “a bat lives in our ceiling”.
9. Now make “but” as in “I want to go but I can’t”.
10. Now make “bud” as in “the bud bloomed into a beautiful flower”.
11. Now make “dud” as in “this machine never worked, I think it’s a dud”.
12. Now make “dub” as in “the Queen said ‘I dub you Sir Lancelot’”.
13. Now make “dug” as in “the dog dug up all our seedlings”.
14. Now make “dog” as in “what a naughty dog”.
15. Now make “dag” as in “he is such a dag”.
16. Now make “dab” as in “dab some sunscreen on your nose”.
17. Now make “dob” as in “I’m going to dob on you”.
18. Now make “dot” as in “I am drawing a dot-to-dot picture”.
19. Now make “got” as in “I got up”.
20. Now make “god” as in “the religion lesson was called ‘who is God’?”
21. Now make “gob” as in “oh yuck, there’s a gob of spit on the ground”.
22. Now make “bog” as in “my car got stuck in a bog” (swap beginning and ending spellings).
23. Now make “tog” as in “we will tog up and go out dancing”.
24. Now make “tag” as in “we played tag at recess”.
25. Now make “tab” as in “a can of drink has a tab on top, and you pull it to open the can”.
26. Now make “tub” as in “I am going to have a long soak in a hot tub”.
27. Now make “pub” as in “pub is another word for hotel”.
28. Now make “pup” again, as in “the pup is asleep because it’s tired from chewing my slippers all day”.
29. Now make “up” as in “go up the ladder”

Add the letters e and i

Tell the learner(s) the sound for each new letter.

Make the word “it”. Say, “Here’s the word ‘it’ as in ‘give it to me’“.

1. Can you please change it into “pit” as in “the little stone in a cherry is called a cherry pit”.
2. Now make “bit” as in “the dog bit me” or “have a bit of my cake”.
3. Now make “git” as in “don’t be a silly git”.
4. Now make “get” as in “please get me that pen”.
5. Now make “bet” as in “I bet I can race you”.
6. Now make “pet” as in “I have a pet possum”.
7. Now make “peg” as in “peg the washing on the line”.
8. Now make “beg” as in “I beg you not to do that”.
9. Now make “big” as in “an elephant is big”.
10. Now make “pig” as in “a pig is a farm animal”.
11. Now make “dig” as in “dig a hole for this tomato plant”.
12. Now make “dip” as in “let’s go for a dip in the pool”.
13. Now make “tip” as in “tip that out, it’s gone off”.
14. Now make “pip” as in “I spat out the grape pip”.
15. Now can you change the first and last letters to make “did” as in “I did my homework”?
16. Now make “bid” as in “we put a bid in at the auction”.
17. Now make “bed” as in “go to bed”.
18. Now make “ted” as in “teddy bears are often called ‘Ted’ for short”.

Add the letter m (X2)

Tell the learner(s) the sound for this new letter.

Make/keep the word “ted” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “ted”, can you change it into “med” as in “my sister is in Med School, she’s studying medicine.
2. Now make “met” as in “Have I met you before?”.
3. Now make “mat” as in “the cat sat on the mat”.
4. Now make “mag” as in “sometimes people call a magazine a mag, for short”.
5. Now make “mad” as in “I feel pretty mad with you”.
6. Now make “mid” as in “her skirt was mid-length, not long, and not short”.
7. Now make “mim” as in “the name Mim is usually short for Miriam”.
8. Now make “mum” as in “your mum is nice”.
9. Now make “mud” as in “the girl fell in the mud”.
10. Now make “mug” as in “can I have my coffee in a mug?”.
11. Now, using the same letters, make “gum” as in “don’t chew gum in class”.
12. Now make “bum” as in “he fell on his bum”.
13. Now make “bam” as in “she bashed on the door: bam, bam, bam”.
14. Now make “dam” as in “the water we drink comes from the Thompson Dam”.
15. Now make “pam” as in “My cousin is called Pam”.
16. Now make “pom” as in “an English person in Australia is sometimes called a Pom”.
17. Now make “tom” as in “a male cat is called a tom cat”.
18. Now make “Tim” as in “Tim is short for Timothy”.
19. Now make “dim” as in “can you please dim the lights?”
20. Now make “Dom” as in “Dom is short for Dominic”.
21. Now use the same letters to make “mod” as in “mod can be short for modern”.
22. Now make “mob” as in “a mob of sheep crossed the road”.
23. Now make “mop” as in “mop the floor”.
24. Now make “map” as in “I’m lost, let’s have a look at the map”.

Add the letter n (X2)

Tell the learner(s) the sound for this new letter.

Make/keep the word “map” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “map”, can you please change it into “nap” as in “I’m tired, I need a nap”.
2. Now make “nan” as in “when Nan has a nap it’s called a nanna-nap”.
3. Now make “man” as in “that man is my Pa, he needs a nap too”.
4. Now make “ban” as in “today is a day of total fire ban”.
5. Now make “pan” as in “I put the pan in the oven”.
6. Now make “tan” as in “I got a tan in summer, but I was careful not to get sunburnt”.
7. Now make “Dan” as in “Dan is short for Daniel”.
8. Now make “den” as in “the tiger was in its den”.
9. Now make “ben” as in “Ben is short for Benjamin”.
10. Now make “pen” as in “I wrote it with a blue pen”.
11. Now make “men” as in “the men were shopping”.
12. Now make “ten” as in “I got ten out of ten for spelling”.
13. Now make “tin” as in “can you please get a tin of tomatoes?”.
14. Now make “pin” as in “pin your badge on your jumper”.
15. Now make “bin” as in “throw it in the bin”.
16. Now make “din” as in “what a din! Please be quiet”.
17. Now make “Don” as in “Don is short for Donald, as in Donald Duck”.
18. Now make “dun” as in “dun is a brownish grey colour”.
19. Now make “bun” as in “I ate a sticky bun at recess”.
20. Now make “gun” as in “a gun is dangerous”.
21. Now make “pun” as in “a pun is a kind of joke with two meanings”.
22. Now make “nun” as in “he became a priest and she became a nun”.
23. Now make “nub” as in “now we come to the nub of the problem”.
24. Now make “nab” as in “there is a bank called NAB” or the policeman said, “I’m going to nab you”.
25. Now make “nib” as in “the pointy bit of a pen is called the nib”.
26. Now make “nip” as in “careful, that crab will nip you”.
27. Now make “nit” as in “she had nits and a nit jumped onto me, Aaargh”.
28. Now make “net” as in “I caught a fish in my fishing net”.
29. Now make “nut” as in “I have a nut allergy”.
30. Now make “not” as in “I’m not doing that”.
31. Now make “nod” as in “nod your head if you agree”.

Add the letter h

Tell the learner, “Here’s ‘h’, it’s a beginning spelling, it’s not usually for word endings”.

Make the word “hot” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “hot”, as in “it’s a hot day”, can you please change it into “hat” as in “put on your hat”?
2. Now make “had” as in “I had a sandwich for lunch”.
3. Now make “ham” as in “a ham and cheese sandwich”.
4. Now make “hem” as in “the hem on my skirt is coming down”.
5. Now make “hen” as in “the hen laid an egg”.
6. Now make “hep” as in “Hep B is a nasty disease, it’s short for Hepatitis B”.
7. Now make “hip” as in “I hurt my hip” or “that music is pretty hip”.
8. Now make “hid” as in “she hid behind the curtain”.
9. Now make “him” as in “she saw him, but he didn’t see her”.
10. Now make “hit” as in “hit the ball”.
11. Now make “hut” as in “we went bushwalking and stayed in a hut”.
12. Now make “hug” as in “give your brother a hug”.
13. Now make “hum” as in (hum a tune).
14. Now make “hub” as in “they are building a new community hub”.
15. Now make “hob” as in “the witch put her cauldron on the hob, and got ready to make spider soup”.
16. Now make “hog” a hog is a kind of big pig.
17. Now make “hop” as in “can you hop on one leg?”

Add the letter w

Tell the learner, “Here’s ‘w’, it’s another beginning spelling”.

Make the word “wag” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “wag”, as in “the dog will wag its tail”, can you please change it into “wig” as in “that’s not her real hair, that’s a wig”?
2. Now make “win” as in “she will win the prize”.
3. Now make “wit” as in “he is a great wit, and gets everyone laughing”.
4. Now make “wet” as in “My clothes are wet because I walked home in the rain”.
5. Now make “web” as in a spider web.
6. Now make “wed” as in “Cinderella wed the prince, and never had to sweep the fireplace again”.

Add the letter y

Tell the learner, “Here’s ‘y’, it’s another beginning spelling”.

Make the word “yum” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “yum”, as in “yum, yum, this food is delicious”, can you please change it into “yam” as in “a yam is a bit like a potato”.
2. Now make “yap” as in “the little dog said ‘yap, ‘yap’”.
3. Now make “yep”, sometimes people say “yep” to mean “yes”.
4. Now make “yet” as in “I’m not ready yet”.
5. Now make “yen” as in “I have a yen for a long voyage” means I would like to go on a long trip.
6. Now make “yon” as in “they ran thither and yon”, it’s an oldfashioned word a bit like “yonder”.
7. Now make “yin” as in “yin and yang are opposites in Chinese philosophy”.
8. Now make “yip” as in “the little dog got tired of yapping and started to yip”.
9. Now make “yup” sometimes instead of saying “yes” or “yep”, people say “yup”.

Add the letter c

Tell the learner, “Here’s ‘c’, it’s usually a beginning spelling in little words like these”.

Make the word “cup” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “cup”, as in “a cup of tea”. Can you please change it into “cap” as in “a baseball cap”?
2. Now make “cab” as in “we’ll take a cab to the airport”.
3. Now make “cam” as in “web cam”, or sometimes people called Cameron call themselves Cam for short.
4. Now make “can” as in “I can do this” or “a can of drink”.
5. Now make “cat”, as in “miaow, miaow said the cat”.
6. Now make “cot” as in “the baby sleeps in a cot”.
7. Now make “cut” as in “don’t cut your finger”.
8. Now make “cud” as in “the cow chewed her cud”.
9. Now make “cub” as in “a baby lion is called a cub”, or “my brother is a Cub Scout”.
10. Now make “cob” as in “I like corn on the cob”.
11. Now make “cod”, a cod is a type of fish.
12. Now make “cog”, a cog is a part of an engine.
13. Now make “cop” as in “when she grows up she wants to be a cop”.
14. Now make “con” as in “he is a bit of a con man”.

Add the letter k

Tell the learner(s), “Here’s a different ‘k’, at word beginnings this one usually goes before “e” and “i”.

Optional extra information: We use ‘k’ before ‘e’ and ‘i’ because when you put ‘c’ before these letters, its sound is like ‘s’, as in ‘cell’ and ‘city’ (and also ‘y’ used as a vowel, as in ‘cycle’. Build or write these if you like, to show them).

Make the word “kit” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “kit”, as in “a first aid kit”, can you please change it into “kid” as in “she’s a nice kid”, or “a baby goat is called a kid”?
2. Now make “kip” as in “I might have a little kip, I’m tired”.
3. Now make “Kim” as in “Kath and Kim”.
4. Now make “kin”, that’s an old word meaning a relative or a person from your clan, like in movies about the olden days they say “He is my kinsman” or “he is no kin of mine”.
5. Now make “Ken” as in “Barbie and Ken are famous dolls”, or “Ken Rosewall was a famous tennis player”.
6. Now make “keg”, a keg is like a big barrel of beer, cider or other drink.

Add the spelling ck

Tell the learner, “Here’s another ‘k’ spelling, this one is used for word endings”.

Make the word “back” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “back”, as in “come back here” or “I have a sore back”. Can you please change it to “buck” as in “that horse will buck you off”?
2. Now make “duck” as in “quack, quack said the duck”.
3. Now make “yuck” as in “yuck, this tastes disgusting”.
4. Now make “puck” as in a hockey puck.
5. Now make “muck” as in “please don’t muck around in class”.
6. Now make “tuck” as in “tuck your shirt in”.
7. Now make “tick” as in “I got a tick for every right answer” or “a tick is a kind of insect”.
8. Now make “kick” as in “kick the football, not your brother”.
9. Now make “wick” as in “I lit the wick of the candle”.
10. Now make “pick” as in “don’t pick your nose” or “we dug a hole with a pick and shovel”.
11. Now make “pack” as in “pack your bags”.
12. Now make “peck” as in “birds peck up their food” or “give her a peck on the cheek”.
13. Now make “neck” as in “he is a pain in the neck”.
14. Now make “nick” as in “Nick Riewoldt is the captain of the St Kilda Football Club” or “don’t nick my stuff”.
15. Now make “dick”, some people called Richard call themselves Dick for short.
16. Now make “deck”, a deck is the top part of a boat.
17. Now make “dock”, a dock is where boats get tied up to load and unload.
18. Now make “mock” as in “don’t mock your sister”.
19. Now make “mack”, which is a brand of trucks, have you seen Mack trucks?.
20. Now make “tack”, a tack is a kind of small nail like they put in shoes or to put covers on furniture.
21. Now make “hack” as in “hack it off with the scissors, it’s in the way”.
22. Now make “heck” as in “what the heck?”.

Add the letter f

Tell the learner, “Here’s ‘f’, it’s used for word beginnings in these sorts of little words”.

Make the word “fin” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “fan” as in “please turn on the ceiling fan” or “I am a fan of pop music”. Can you please change it into “fat” as in “if you eat lots of junk food, you’ll get fat”?
2. Now make “fab” as in “darling you look just fab”.
3. Now make “fad” as in “this is just a fad, it won’t last”.
4. Now make “fed” as in “I fed the dog”.
5. Now make “fen”, a fen is a very flat marshy piece of land.
6. Now make “fun” as in “are we having fun yet?”
7. Now make “fin” as in “we could see the shark’s dorsal fin”.
8. Now make “fib” as in “I told a fib”.
9. Now make “fit” as in “I need to get fit” or “these shoes don’t fit properly”.
10. Now make “fig” as in “we have a fig tree in our yard”.
11. Now make “fog” as in “there will be some morning fog, which should clear by 9am”.
12. Now make “fob” as in “don’t fob him off onto me”, or a watch on a chain is called a fob watch.

Add the spelling ff

Tell the learner, “Here’s ‘ff’, it’s used for word endings”

Make the word “off” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “off” as in “please turn that off”. Can you please make it into “toff” as in “when someone is a bit posh, people might call them a toff”
2. Now make “tiff”, a tiff is like a little argument or disagreement, as in “they had a little tiff”.
3. Now make “biff”, which is the short name for the Brisbane International Film Festival, BIFF.
4. Now make “buff” as in “he must go to the gym a lot, he’s looking pretty buff”.
5. Now make “cuff” as in “I got beetroot on the cuff of my shirt during lunch”.
6. Now make “huff” as in “she is in a huff, she’s not talking to us”.
7. Now make “puff” as in “she disappeared in a puff of smoke”.

Add the letter l

Tell the learner, “Here’s ‘l’, we’re going to use it for word beginnings”

Make the word “let” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “let”, as in “let me go!”, can you please change it to “lit” as in “she lit the fire”?
2. Now make “lot” as in “don’t go to a lot of trouble for us”.
3. Now make “lob” as in “the tennis player hit a lob, and her opponent smashed it”.
4. Now make “lab” as in laboratory, “we did experiments in the lab” or Labrador, as in “we’ve got a new puppy and she’s a Lab”.
5. Now make “lack” as in “I lack the ingredients to make this recipe, I’ll have to go to the shop”.
6. Now make “lock” as in “lock the door”.
7. Now make “lop” as in “they had to lop a few branches off the tree before they fell off”.
8. Now make “log” as in “they cut the branches up and gave us a log for our fireplace”.
9. Now make “lug” as in “the log was heavy and we had to lug it home ourselves”.
10. Now make “luck” as in “good luck, hope you win”.
11. Now make “lick” as in “don’t let that dog lick you, did you see what it ate?”
12. Now make “lip” as in “I burnt my lip on the hot soup”.
13. Now make “lid” as in “put the lid back on the toothpaste!”
14. Now make “led” as in “she led them up the garden path”.
15. Now make “leg” as in “I hurt my leg”.
16. Now make “lag” as in “he started to lag behind the others” .
17. Now make “lad” as in “he’s a nice lad”.
18. Now make “lap” as in “I have to do one more lap of the pool” or “the baby sat on its mother’s lap”.

Add the spelling ll

Tell the learner, “Here’s ‘ll’, it’s usually an ending spelling”.

Make the word “bell” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “bell”, as in “has the bell gone yet?”. Can you please change it into “yell” as in “don’t yell at me”?
2. Now make “well” as in “I don’t feel well”.
3. Now make “fell” as in “he fell off his bike”.
4. Now make “fill” as in “fill up your drink bottle”.
5. Now make “ill” as in “I feel quite ill”.
6. Now make “will” as in “I will have to lie down”.
7. Now make “pill” as in “take this pill, it will make you feel better”.
8. Now make “till” as in “just lie there till the doctor comes”, or a till is a cash register.
9. Now make “kill” as in “people kill animals to get meat”.
10. Now make “hill” as in “Jack and Jill went up the hill”.
11. Now make “mill” as in a windmill.
12. Now make “bill” as in “My phone bill was $200!”
13. Now make “dill” as in “he’s a bit of a dill”.
14. Now make “doll” as in “the little girl played with her doll”.
15. Now make “toll” as in “to drive on some roads, you have to pay a toll”.
16. Now make “tell” as in “don’t tell your sister”.
17. Now make “dell” as in “the farmer’s in the dell” or Dell is a computer company.
18. Now make “dull” as in “this TV show is very dull”.
19. Now make “gull” as in a seagull.
20. Now make “hull”, the hull is the main part of a boat, the part that goes in the water.

Add the letter j

Tell the learner, “Here’s ‘j’, it’s used for word beginnings”.

Make the word “jam” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “jam” as in “I want some jam on my toast”. Can you please change it into “Jack” as in “Jack in the box”?
2. Now change it into “jab” as in “don’t jab me with your elbow”, or sometimes an injection is called a jab.
3. Now change it into “job” as in “do you have a job for me?”
4. Now change it into “jot” as in “can you jot this down?”
5. Now change it into “jog” as in “let’s go for a jog”.
6. Now change it into “jig”, which is a kind of dance, as in “they did an Irish jig”.
7. Now change it to “Jill” as in “Jack and Jill”.
8. Now change it to “Jim”, which is short for James.
9. Now change it to “Jem”, which could be short for Jeremy or Jemma.
10. Now change it to “jet” as in “the Prime Minister’s private jet took off”.
11. Now change it to “jut” as in “does the jetty jut out a long way into the lake”?
12. Now change it to “jug” as in “a jug of water”.

Add the spelling dge

Tell the learner, “Here’s a different way to spell ‘j’, it’s an ending spelling”.

Make the word “judge” in front of the learner(s). Say:

1. Here’s the word “judge” as in “the judge sentenced her to three years in jail”, can you change it into “fudge” as in “I like chocolate fudge”?
2. Now make “nudge” as in “nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more”.
3. Now make “budge” as in “I am not going to budge till I get what I want”.
4. Now make “badge” as in “she wore her Sergeant’s badge proudly”.
5. Now make “Madge”, which is a name that can be short for Madeline, Marjorie or Margaret.
6. Now make “midge” a midge is a small flying insect.
7. Now make “didge”, sometimes didgeridoo players say “I play the didge”.
8. Now make “dodge” as in dodge ball.
9. Now make “lodge” as in “when we went skiing, we stayed in a ski lodge”.
10. Now make “Hodge” as in “Luke Hodge is the captain of the Hawthorn Football Club”, or you can say “this is a complete hodge podge”.
11. Now make “hedge” as in “we have a hedge in front of our house, instead of a fence”.
12. Now make “ledge” as in a window ledge.
13. Now make “wedge” as in a Choc Wedge icecream, or you can cut food into wedges.
14. Now make “edge” as in “I sat on the edge of the pool, but it was too cold to get in”.