I’ve been recently hunting for word games and programs as magnetic letters and blocks are no longer challenging for my DS. There are plenty of spelling/ vocabulary/ reading games out there but I stumbled upon what is possibly very interesting: a program called “Touch Phonics”. It comes with teacher’s guide, student book, and manipulatives. Basically, these are like magnetic letters and a sort of a Montessori letter tiles/ movable alphabet hybrid. Here is a better description from the manufacturer:
Word building is the key step in every Touchphonics lesson where students work with Touch-Units to build and manipulate words. Touch-Units are three dimensional letters and linked letter combinations that provide concrete representations of the essential English graphemes. Touch-Units are made of soft, flexible, rubber (latex free)*, with a textured surface to intensify the tactile neurological input—crucial to at-risk readers.
It seems as though the idea is the same, although I do not have any workbooks or ideas to guide me…I am not sure if EL kids would need or want this, but I AM very curious to see if there are any benefits I might be missing out on going at it the way we do!!!
Please let me know if you decide to purchase and your opinion :yes:
I’m still thinking about it as I am already using the scope and sequence of Flesch/ Reading Bear in addition to a very detailed Teacher’s manual by Starfall as well as a Montessori album. I also have a chunky workbook that covers all the phonics. I’ve recently purchased Bananagrams and it’s really fun especially when it’s combined with ASL! So there is a pretty good amount of material to work with but I am missing a more tactile approach to spelling. I was thinking of Montessori letters till I came across Touchphonics. What I really liked about it is how they grouped and color-coded the graphemes in the manipulatives. I may just get those and skip the books OR get Montessori letters and print/ laminate graphemes the Touchphonics way. I’ll keep you posted isA
A_BC
This reminded me of a game I recently bought To play on Friday Family Night to widen her math focus!!! It has proven a lot of fun, and very helpful, although it would be VERY easy to make your own version, especially with existing Candyland or Chutes and Ladders. It has really headed Alex down the spelling path! We can play ‘I Spy with My Little Eye’, in which I fingerspell a word in ASL! When I ask her how she figures it out she just says, “mommy, it’s a picture!” I LOVE combining RB with physical activity!
Thx Keri for your awesome suggestion! Sorry for the late reply as we are on a road trip to the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Monument Valley & Moab Arches. It is our best EL experience so far! Geology, zoology, botany, astronomy, physics, math, geography, history, climatology, poetry, art, etc are all being discussed during this breathtaking adventure!
Ok, back to the topic now: we love spelling using ASL and this game is really cool! As we are traveling now, we are using a magnetic doodle pad for spelling games, like erasing the suffix or prefix and trying to come out with the maximum possible number of words. BTW, I just decided to go for Montessori sandpaper letters and printing/ laminating graphemes à la Touchphonics. I may even use those to play the game you suggested by adding a DIY board similar to the one shown on the product page thx again
Yep, we have a couple of similar spelling games with tiles, including an alphabet soup game similar to banana grams that comes in a large plastic pot with cards and scoops. Alex loves to ‘cook’ up a word in her kitchen…
A_BC-
After much Internet research and trial of the phoneme tiles I mentioned, I just bought the All About Spelling Program…it is very comprehensive, with lessons, the same phonemic tiles (you could even use the materials you have already purchased!) and seems like a lot of fun. Moreover, I think Alex will truly enjoy the methodical, yet fun, nature of its progress
Keri,
In would love your opinion about AAS after you have spent some time with the program. I have thought about it with James in a year or so. But I am not sold on the need for multidisciplinary for him. Most of the times I have no issues incorporating that if he needs it. I am just a little concerned tha there are 7(?) levels and most of it is busy work.
I’m also really interested to hear your views on AAS. Like Korrale, I am very keen to avoid busy work. This concept has been quite a revelation and I’m so grateful to Robert Levy for introducing it to me!
Our problem is very limited time, due to my working part-time and also to my DD’s learning style which requires a small number of fairly focused lessons per day. Her concentration means that there is no time to pad out the learning with complex games - it’s best just to go quickly to the concept being taught and work directly on that in as fun a way as possible!
Now that we are reading fairly confidently, it’s a great time to introduce spelling. We are using the Montessori crosswords app and that is great. I’ve also been looking at a variety of options from inexpensive snap cards that make words, to word and sentence building dominoes, and games such as bananagrams and pairs in pears (looks similar to bananagrams but I think a bit simpler).
It’s a bit overwhelming to know where to start! So any reviews of products would be grateful received
Hmmm… We have been using AAS for 4+ months now, and we are almost done with level 3. It is a solid, mastery-based phonics approach to teaching spelling, and I have yet to encounter any busy work with this program! A typical lesson consists of a demo of a spelling rule followed by a list of words/phrases/sentences for dictation. If your child “gets” the rule right away and remembers it, you can opt not to go through dictating the entire list. (I still have Ella spelling everything on the list before moving on and we don’t skip anything just because she really enjoys writing and spelling.) Most people using it go through 1-2 lessons a week. Daily spelling work can be as short as 10 minutes.
I bought the student packet with the teacher’s manual for the first level, but hardly used the letter tiles or index cards except for the first few lessons. For level 1, instead of the letter tiles, we just used the Ipad app Montessori Crosswords free play mode, since this was less cumbersome to use and there were no tiles to clean up after each lesson. Starting with level 2, Ella’s writing had advanced to the point where it wasn’t too time-consuming anymore for her to write down each word I dictate, so we stopped using the Ipad and I just had her write down the words in her spelling notebook. With the way we are doing it, I found that I only needed the teacher’s manuals for level 2 and up. I am very happy with the way the program is working out for us, and I anticipate finishing all 7 levels (which, according to the AAS website, will have her spelling at a post-high school level) before she turns 5. The most important thing is she also enjoys this program and is very proud of her rapidly-progressing spelling skills!
Aangeles-
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with AAS. We do quite a bit of fun spelling here, with games and ASL, but I really wanted something a bit more systematic, especially because Alex has never needed systematic phonics instruction. I think this will allow me to ensure she does not miss anything, especially as she is not quite three yet.
I didn’t notice that it seemed like busy work in the samples, and I am very glad you don’t find it as such in subsequent levels.
It does seem that much of level one will be repetition. Did you find it to be? Or did you skip some of the initial materials like letter sounds, etc.? I have just planned on quickly running through everything until we hit something new. I also plan to do away with the manipulatives as she gets a bit older because A) I don’t want her dependent upon them B) for portability- this is why we finger spell many words for practice.
Love to hear your thoughts on getting started
I can see that I would love to go with AAS however the main drawback for me is the shipping cost to the Uk - nearly $50 for the level one set and tiles :ohmy:
I really like the idea of using Montessori app for this as tiles in our house sometimes end up as missiles, or else get transformed into play food or some other game so it’s hard to keep focussed and learning! The iPad is a lot easier to control!
So I got thinking about a budget version of systematic spelling teaching. I remembered the fabulous Don Potter site with his remedial reading list which is very similar to the flesch lists. I used this when teaching reading to make a whole lot of phonics power points. He also has a free downloadable spelling book here: http://donpotter.net/pdf/websterspellingbookmethod.pdf
This book literally dates back to 1824!!! lol
It certainly does cover a lot of material although probably moves a bit too quickly. I am wondering if with a blend of this and his phonics books whether this might be a budget way to cover spelling. I could buy tiles or use the app until we are writing more confidently. I could probably put together some simple worksheets too.
So for those using the programme could you help me understand what the main differences might be in a possible DIY method compared to AAS. What might I miss by doing this? Or are there particular ways of learning with the AAS method that I might try to incorporate?
Finally one more question for Aangeles - you are clearly making fabulous progress with AAS in quite a short space of time. I can say that your milestones are a long way ahead of ours so I’m wondering if there is a reason I should hold off spelling practice until we reach 4 ( which will be in about 6 months).
I actually didn’t think there was any busywork at all in this program, even in the first level. Maybe you are referring to cutting out the letter tiles and index cards, but those are for the parent to do so I consider them teacher prep work rather than busywork for the student to do. As for the manipulatives (letter tiles), I think they are great for allowing the child’s spelling skills to develop independently of his fine motor/handwriting skills. This is especially true for our EL kids, most of whom will be ready for spelling instruction much earlier than their writing will allow. Of course, you can always substitute with something else that is more convenient for you, such as ipad apps, ASL, etc.
Ella also learned to read via the whole words approach and simply intuited the phonics rules so I never went through systematic phonics instruction with her. She did find the first level very easy, as she was already spelling CVC words by the time we started AAS. We simply went through the first lessons (including letter sounds) very quickly instead of skipping them. One of the things that attracted me to AAS was its systematic and methodical approach and I didn’t want to tweak the program so much as to defeat its purpose. So far it has been working wonderfully for us.
I found another app by the maker of Montessori crossword called Word Wizard - Talking Movable Alphabet & Spelling Tests for Kids
Sorry I don’t know how to link to an app
It’s similar to the crosswords app but has a more advanced free play area with boxes to put the tiles in and which will read out any words that are built. It has 2 x US voices, one British and one australian accent.
It also has a wide range of CVC and sight word lists according to themes. Best of all you can easily create your own list (for example, based on the AAS curriculum - when I realised it could be purchased in the uk I could not resist buying level 1!)
Hope someone else finds this useful. I love it already.
Thank you so much for your reviews Aangeles and Keri. I have been seeing AAS posted all over the web on homeschooling blogs. And the things that parents seem to rave about is the multidisciplinary approach and all the hand on aspect. I was just worried that there would be a lot of little fiddly games that the kids would be spending time on rather than just downright systematic instruction.
Unless I can find a cheaper program that introduces all the rules in a systematic way I think I will be just going with the AAS teachers manual. All I need to know is the rules and the words.
If you do decide to use the Montessori Crosswords app, I would suggest muting the sound effects to minimize distraction while spelling. Also, AAS suggests laying out the letters in alphabetical order. However, once Ella had mastered this order, I started using the QWERTY option of the app, and this has helped tremendously in speeding up her typing skills.
Actually, I did not plan it that way. Ella had started spelling CVC words when she was 2.5, and I ordered AAS shortly thereafter to help her progress. However, life got in the way lol and I did not get to start it with her until she was almost 4. In retrospect, she was already ready a year earlier, and I don’t think starting earlier would have slowed down her progress significantly. She most likely would not have been writing the words by level 2, but conceptually, she was ready. AAS level 1 is so gentle in its approach I don’t think you would have any problem starting it now.
Izp11-
I have both the Montessori Crosswords App and the Word Wizard, and definitely agree! I love both of them and we use them interchangeably! We do a vocabulary word of the day, including spelling it out, and I LOVE that Word Wizard will allow me to make a list of them to review!
I also agree with Aangeles that kids that read earlier are ready to start spelling earlier, especially if they intuited the phonics as many children learning to read via a whole word approach do. We have been spelling CVC words and more complex words, even practicing basic suffixes and prefixes for awhile now, but I don’t think that is strictly necessary to start AAS if the child is reading. In fact, one of our favorite games is a spelling variation of ‘I Spy’. I say, 'I Spy With My Little Eye, …and then fingerspell something in ASL." She is able to remember, sound out, and combine the finger spelled letters in her head to come up with the answer about 80% of the time (of course, the scientist in me argues that she also has the benefit of looking around for
visual clues!) Still, it is not always obvious and a bit complex, even using Digraphs and blends, so makes me feel as though she is ready for a bit more of a systematic approach to learn specific spelling rules…
Aangeles- thanks for the suggestions. I agree that the attractiveness of this program lie in its mastery approach, so we will start as you have suggested. And whilst we have ordered all of the manipulatives, it may well end up being redundant as she has been playing and spelling with letter tiles and apps for awhile already…thanks so much for the input
