Decoding Words

In reading, we are beginning to work with several word families  (phonograms).  So far, we have covered the "at", "an" and  "and" phonograms . When we are reading words that have these phonograms in them, I ask students to identify the chunk of the word that we know. For instance, if the word is "candy," I will ask students to identify the phonogram "an" which is in the middle of the word.  When students are able to identify these phonograms, then they will be able to add beginning and ending sounds.  This is an important skill for decoding words.  We also practice making lists of words that rhyme with these phonograms. 
Examples:
at: cat, bat, sat, fat, hat, that, brat,
an: van, can, tan, man, pan
and: band, land, sand, hand.
At the end of January, we will begin with the "it" and "ig" word families.