My favorite manipulatives for teaching spelling, reading and writing

What are golf balls doing in an article about teaching literacy, you ask? Well, I'll go into more detail in another blog, but the short version is they can help the student learn to identify the sequence of sounds in a word.  Colored tiles, pieces of colored paper, beads, Legos, and many other things can serve the same purpose.  This technique in various forms is found in Carmen McGuinness' Reading Reflex,  Susan Barton's Barton Reading system and other literacy programs.

The other items I have pictured here are more obvious-- the alphabet puzzle, Scrabble tiles, and letter stamps can be used to play with the sounds in a word to practice both reading and spelling.  

The colored pencils are used to mark spelling patterns in words and divide them into syllables.  When we were homeschooling, one of the best spelling programs we used was The Writing Road to Reading.  An important component of this program was having the students mark the sounds represented in each word, and identify rules that applied to each.  For example, each occurrence of silent e was numbered according to which of the five reasons for using a silent e was in force.  It was a tedious process, but was very helpful for my children.

Recently I have seen a newer program, Spelling You See.  This one looks like a keeper!  It is put out by the Math-U-See people.  This program also has the student marking spelling patterns, and includes workbooks to make things less tedious.  There is a dictation component, as recommended by education gurus from Charlotte Mason to Susan Bauer, so the students are analyzing words in context.  If I were homeschooling today, I would definitely give this one a try.

Other manipulatives that can be used include magnetic letters, modeling clay for forming the letters, dry-erase or chalk boards, and letters cut from foam, felt, or sandpaper.   Pans full of sand or baking soda are great for tracing the letters.  Glass markers can be used on windows and mirrors, sidewalk chalk in driveways, and soap crayons in the bathtub.  Beginners would appreciate the large wooden "curves and lines" made by Handwriting Without Tears that allow them to practice letter formation before they have the fine motor skills to print.

While "hands-on" is not the first thing one might think of when the subject of literacy comes up, there are actually many techniques and tools that can help a child build a foundation for reading and writing.  In future blog posts, I will go into more specifics.