The "ph" Sound

The special letter-sound association we are studying this week is "ph" as in "Phillie Phanatic." Here are some activities you can do with your child at home to reinforce our classroom activities.

1. Play a listening game: Beginning, Middle or End?
"Where do you hear the "ph" sound in these words?"

pheasant   elephant   phrase   sphere   graph   pamphlet   symphony   phone
telephone   morph   physical   hyphen   paragraph   nephew   photo   phony
photograph   apostrophe   triumph   telegraph   phosphate   sophomore

2. Play a word guessing game. All the words your child guesses should have the "ph" sound at the beginning.

a. The Liberty Bell is in what big city in Pennsylvania? __________ (Philadelphia)
b. The twins on The Rugrats are ________ and Lil. (Phil)
c. Gym Class is also called _______ Education. (Physical)
d. When someone takes your picture with a camera they take your ________. (photo or photograph)
e. A popular baseball team in Philadelphia is The ________ (Phillies)

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** Sing a song - Tune: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
P-H, P-H, what's your sound?
/ph/ /ph/ /ph/ /ph/ /ph/ /ph/ /ph/
phone has the /ph/sound
and so does graph
also Philadelphia
and photograph!
P-H, P-H, what's your sound?
/ph/ /ph/ /ph/ /ph/ /ph/ /ph/ /ph/

** Phone Home - Do you know your telephone number? Do you know your area code? If you are at a friend's house and need to use a phone to call your mom or dad, can you push the correct numbers? Practice if you don't know how.

** Phoenix - Phoenix is the capital city of Arizona. Do you know where it is located? Look on a map of the United States to find Arizona and Phoenix.

** Photosynthesis is when the leaves of a plant make food with the help of the sun. Look here for some Plants and Seeds activities. Try to grow your own little garden this summer. Grow some phlox outside or a philodendron inside on a windowsill.

** Physical Education is another name for "gym" class. What inside games did the gym teacher teach you this year? What was your favorite outside gym activity?

** Photograph - With a parent or grandparent, look at some photos. Remember the fun times you have spent together and tell about the events in the photos.

** Get a copy of any "P" encyclopedia or use the internet together to
look up some of these "ph" things:
pheasant  Philippine Islands   Philadelphia   Pharaoh    phonograph   Phoenix

** Phonics is one of the ways we learn to read. When we see a new word we "sound it out" by making the common sounds of the letters in the word. This works about 50% of the time. We also look for small chunks of words we already know such as, "at, in, ing," etc. There are some printable phonics rules for grownups here: http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/phonics.rules.html.

Try to sound out these words:
jet had zip rub yes
fog fun box wig cat
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Mrs. Jones' Room    Letter of the Week