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My student is a struggling reader so the written clues were too hard. I made a picture ladder and we discussed the sounds that needed to change as we did it. She LOVED it!

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My student is struggling with digraphs so I used one of the blending lines you linked for us. It was such great practice and she got better and better as we went. The whole blending activity lasted about 3 minutes.

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I worked with a high soon-to-be 1st grader using word ladders. Initially, I just started with PA (saying the sounds) and asking her to trade them out. It was *significantly* difficult. When we transitioned to spelling the words, it was easier. A good reminder to me, that the sounds aren't completely fluent for her yet.

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My student just happens to be my kiddo #3.  She will be starting 1st grade and from doing this activity I can tell she is not fluent in her "b" and "d" recognition. She did a great job on all but two words where she gave the "b" sound when it should have been "d". We will intervene with more practice in recognizing the difference in those letters when reading.  I think she liked that it was "quick" and I could easily see that she mastered that short "a" sound, CVC words, but still a little sticky on b/d. I wish I had taken a picture of her dictation after working with this blending line activity. For dictation she was spot on with b/d when writing. I didn't think about timing her. I will try that next practice! (We did the very first one from 1st grade resource from book)

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Use word ladders and for struggling readers that struggle with reading the clues ,we do oral clues.  Love the idea of pictures, I may do that!

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When using word sorts in my first grade classroom, I use a closed sort format where the children are sorting words with a similar phonetic skill.  An example might be -ig vs -it words.  I often find that the children simply look for the pattern and sort them but they are not really reading the words.  Any suggestions to make this activity richer?

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When using word sorts in my first grade classroom, I use a closed sort format where the children are sorting words with a similar phonetic skill.  An example might be -ig vs -it words.  I often find that the children simply look for the pattern and sort them but they are not really reading the words.  Any suggestions to make this activity richer?

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I have used blending lines in  my classroom for many years.  I have however something like a sort on the first day of a new pattern where I would list words in a vertical line with the same phonetic pattern.  For example, a column of at words, a column of ag words, etc.  The author has allowed me to rethink how I am teaching using lines instead of columns.

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I have used blending lines in  my classroom for many years.  I have however something like a sort on the first day of a new pattern where I would list words in a vertical line with the same phonetic pattern.  For example, a column of at words, a column of ag words, etc.  The author has allowed me to rethink how I am teaching using lines instead of columns.

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Besides reading A-Z, can someone please recommend a source for easily decodable books that I can match to the phonics skills covered in my first grade classroom?

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Besides reading A-Z, can someone please recommend a source for easily decodable books that I can match to the phonics skills covered in my first grade classroom?

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My student is an incoming Kindergartener, so I used the early dictation of letter sounds.  I picked 5 letters (m, a, s, p, t) from the high utility letters from the chart that Blevins shares in the book.  He struggled with letter m, but was so excited when he knew each of the remaining letters!  We did this activity over video chat, so he would show me his paper after each letter.  At the end, he gave me a word that begins with each of the chosen letters.

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My student is an incoming second grader and this was her first time completing a word ladder. Because of it being new, she worked on the short o ladder Blevins shared in the book. Jog was not a word she knew, so I gave her the beginning sound as a prompt. This was done over video chat and I would show her my ladder, so she could check her own along the way. She did a great job and was independently noticing that the words all had o's and some p's and t's!

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I have used word ladders in the past with kindergarten. I haven't used clues, but simply pictures of something. I love the idea of using the clues. The picture word ladders they can complete somewhat independently, but would need to do it together if using clues as my kindergartners cannot read them. The kids loved them and once they figure out how they work, they often moved up the ladder without me!

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I have used word ladders in the past with kindergarten. I haven't used clues, but simply pictures of something. I love the idea of using the clues. The picture word ladders they can complete somewhat independently, but would need to do it together if using clues as my kindergartners cannot read them. The kids loved them and once they figure out how they work, they often moved up the ladder without me!

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My struggling student rocked the dictation after working with blending lines! I could not believe how well she was able to do! We were working on digraphs and I added short vowels and blends for rigor and review.

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I was practicing with my much older son and quickly learned what I think is a “good” clue may be very confusing to others. I get that it is part of playing around with sounds, but I will not be making up the clues on the spot in the classroom this year. We did have fun and laugh though.

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My son will be in 1st grade, we are in the car so I did it orally- it was a tad difficult for him- I used the one from the book on pg. 129. I think if he could have seen the ladder and letters he may have had an easier time. He did fine and didn’t take him long but some clues I had to give alternative clues to get to the word.

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I attempted the word ladder on page 129, via Zoom, with an incoming first grader that mom said is "a genius." I used the online white board and he had a white board at home. I started with stop and he wrote it appropriately, as I modeled it on my white board screen. When I got to the second word and my clue was "The opposite of bottom" he wrote "but" and laughed hysterically. I calmly said I was thinking of a word that describes something above me and I cannot reach it because it is on the _____ shelf, he wrote "tall." This was not working for this child. I acted out the bottom and top and then he got it. I decided for this particular child, I needed to modify my instruction and play a game of charades instead. When I acted the word out, I had him show me how he would act out the same word, then he wrote the word on the ladder.Once he understood the way the ladder progressed and we acted out the words, he did significantly better. It is interesting to note that when we got to the top and it was frog, he was upset and threw his marker. Once mom and I supported and calmed him, he said it was "no fair" that it ended with a four letter word. I did not see that one coming. When I do this activity with my own students, I will use what I learned with this experiment to guide my introduction, explanation, and instruction of word ladders.

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I did this with a small group of students, the first few 'rungs' were challenging as they needed to change their thinking about words. They soon got the hang of things and were very motivated to keep going.