Tag: high frequency words

Mr. Thorne Does Phonics

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on Mr. Thorne Does Phonics13439 views

What it is: Mr. Thorne Does Phonics is a website and YouTube channel dedicated to teaching kids phonics through videos.  The site has a great tag line, “Where learning to read becomes reading to learn.” The videos are divided up by categories which include:

  • Introduction to Phonics
  • Geraldine the Giraffe Videos
  • Alphabet Letters and Sounds
  • More Alphabet Letters and Sounds
  • Consonant Digraphs
  • Long Vowel Sounds
  • Consonant Blends
  • Alternative Sounds
  • Alternative Spellings
  • 200 High Frequency Words
  • Grammar

Christopher Thorne hosts all of the phonics videos with occasional guest appearances from his friend Geraldine the Giraffe (who has her own book!).  The videos are engaging, help students listen for phoneme segmentation, and give them encouragement to replicate the phoneme sounds themselves.  This library of phonics videos is wonderfully comprehensive!

How to integrate Mr. Thorne Does Phonics into the classroom: Mr. Thorne Does Phonics is a fantastic introduction to phonics, phonemes, and decoding words. Students can practice word recognition, pronunciation, and phonics rules with fun videos that can be played, paused, and rewound.  The Mr. Thorne Does Phonics site would be a wonderful site to have available for students on classroom computers as a reading center. Students can visit the reading center and pull up the video of the exact phonics skill that they need to practice.  Mr. Thorne Does Phonics would also be a wonderful way to introduce your whole class to a new phonics skill by playing the videos for them using a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard.

If you have access to a built-in webcam or portable video camera, encourage students to create their own Mr. Thorne inspired phonics videos.  These can be shared with other students in the class, parents, and younger grade levels.  The videos also make a great record of progress throughout the school year.

Tips: You can also find Mr. Thorne’s phonics videos on YouTube. Can’t access YouTube at school? Download the videos for offline viewing using a tool like Kick YouTube or Keepvid.

What’s the Time Mr. Wolf

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on What’s the Time Mr. Wolf3353 views

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What it is: What’s the Time Mr. Wolf is a fun sequencing and time activities for students in kindergarten or first grade.  (I was just looking for one of these for a Treasures unit in first grade, great timing!).  In this game, students are asked to sequence pictures based on the time of day that they happened.  After sorting the photos, students must choose the correct time-of-day description to match the photo.  Finally, students are given analogue clocks with various times on them.  Students have to choose the correct clock to match the narration of the story.  

How to integrate What’s the Time Mr. Wolf into the classroom: What’s the Time Mr. Wolf is a great short activity that helps students practice sequencing, recognizing time-of-day high frequency words, and reading an analogue clock.  The activity is narrated and builds listening and direction-following auditory skills.   What’s the Time Mr. Wolf is a short and sweet activity that students can complete independently.  The game includes progress monitoring and provides students immediate feedback as they interact with it.

Tips: What’s the Time Mr. Wolf is another free game from Sherston.  They also sell this game as part of a complete software package.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using What’s the Time Mr. Wolf in your classroom.