Onset and Rime Cubes
Onset and Rime Cubes The "onset" is the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. c in cat) and the term "rime" refers to the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. at in cat). Not all words have onsets. Similar to teaching beginning readers about rhyme, teaching children about onset and rime helps them recognize common chunks within words. This can help students decode new words when reading and spell words when writing. Why teach about onset and rimes?
They help children learn about word families, which can lay the foundation for future spelling strategies Teaching children to attend to onset and rime will have a positive effect on their literacy skills Learning these components of phonological awareness is strongly predictive of reading and spelling acquisition -from ReadingRockets.org
_____________________________________________________________________________________ The combinations of onsets and rimes yield thousands of our most common words we read and spell. Think about how many words you can create using the 37 most common rimes:
How do I use the cubes with students? Flexibly! An adult and one or more emergent readers can work with a single onset cube and a single rime cube to practice making, saying, reading, spelling, and/or writing words. A few minutes of practice with previously taught onsets and rimes can be built into a language arts lesson plan and/or used as a “filler” activity during an odd moment. Students with more conventional literacy skills who are able to work independently might be given an onset cube and a rime cube and instructed to record words using a structured sheet such as:
This example is from the Florida Center for Reading Research, which has many resources for onset/rime instruction (and more). Available at http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/Archive/P_Final_Part3.pdf
With such an assignment, the directions could vary from “make two words for each onset” or “make as many words as possible for each onset.” Some combinations are actual words and some are nonsense words. We can share definitions and example sentence for the actual words which a student does not know. For nonsense words, such as “thop” in the example above we might say “yes, “thop” combines th- and -op, but it’s not a real word in English.” (I wouldn’t necessarily cross it out; I might just underline or box actual words – Ann Jacobson note). Even when a student creates a nonsense word they are learning about the building blocks of our language and it strengthens decoding and spelling skills.
How do I make the cubes? 1. 2. 3. 4.
Cut out the cube Fold into shape Scotch tape the closing edge Cover with packing tape if you want to make it more durable
They help children learn about word families, which can lay the foundation for future spelling strategies Teaching children to attend to onset and rime will have a positive effect on their literacy skills Learning these components of phonological awareness is strongly predictive of reading and spelling acquisition -from ReadingRockets.org
_____________________________________________________________________________________ The combinations of onsets and rimes yield thousands of our most common words we read and spell. Think about how many words you can create using the 37 most common rimes:
How do I use the cubes with students? Flexibly! An adult and one or more emergent readers can work with a single onset cube and a single rime cube to practice making, saying, reading, spelling, and/or writing words. A few minutes of practice with previously taught onsets and rimes can be built into a language arts lesson plan and/or used as a “filler” activity during an odd moment. Students with more conventional literacy skills who are able to work independently might be given an onset cube and a rime cube and instructed to record words using a structured sheet such as:
This example is from the Florida Center for Reading Research, which has many resources for onset/rime instruction (and more). Available at http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/Archive/P_Final_Part3.pdf
With such an assignment, the directions could vary from “make two words for each onset” or “make as many words as possible for each onset.” Some combinations are actual words and some are nonsense words. We can share definitions and example sentence for the actual words which a student does not know. For nonsense words, such as “thop” in the example above we might say “yes, “thop” combines th- and -op, but it’s not a real word in English.” (I wouldn’t necessarily cross it out; I might just underline or box actual words – Ann Jacobson note). Even when a student creates a nonsense word they are learning about the building blocks of our language and it strengthens decoding and spelling skills.
How do I make the cubes? 1. 2. 3. 4.
Cut out the cube Fold into shape Scotch tape the closing edge Cover with packing tape if you want to make it more durable
