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Sounding Out Nonsense Words and CVC Words

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Learning to sound out words can be really hard for some children to master, especially in Kindergarten.  My district now has the children tested not only on sounding out CVC words as before, but also nonsense words as well.  Here are some methods that I have come up with that work really well for me. One thing to keep in mind is that certain consonants will be easier to start with than others, since they can be drawn out.  These consonants, called “fricatives” (as opposed to “stops”) include the following:  f, l, m, n, r, s, v, and z.  The sounds of /th/ and /sh/ can also be included in this list of fricatives, but since they must be read as digraphs (two consonants that form one single sound), they are not great ones to start with unless you are working with the children on blending strictly as an oral activity, without showing them any letter cards.  I usually start early in the school year having the children practice blending just two sounds together orally.  It’s a good id