http://www.youtube.com/user/breakthruchris
scroll down to the Geraldine the Giraffe videos - phonics
I know some of you use the All About Spelling (AAS) program and I think this might complement it nicely. While my son is 5 in two weeks and can read very well, he finds these basic videos HILARIOUS!!! We’ve been watching them randomly for days now. I’m thinking of stopping the random viewing, and only showing them when we begin a new lesson of our AAS. Geraldine (hand puppet) behaves like a typical 2-3 year old - sometimes naughty, sometimes sweet, sometimes obedient. After introducing the featured sound, Geraldine is asked to go find things around the house with that sound in it’s spelling. Then she does a bit of a show and tell with the items. It’s the same format for all the videos, but her antics send my son into fits of giggles. Repeatedly. They are funny, but for some reason they strike my son as hilarious…like fall off his chair funny.
Sometimes we pause the video and make predictions about what types of things Geraldine may find for the show and tell part. Or, you could go on your own scavenger hunt and physically collect things.
Anyway, thought you might like it if your kids like Ziggy (the AAS zebra puppet)…Geraldine could be introduced as one of Ziggy’s friends.
Oh, it is British though so if you’re in North America you might want to avoid some of the sounds
ie the schwa sound (still a super cute video) or the “er” (think of how a Brit may say “letter” - more like “letta”)
He also has a slew of North American pronounciation videos - more like a LR stream of words featuring a specific sound…not as cute as with Geraldine, but I’m sure helpful, none-the-less.
