Helium Filled Balloons Add Another Dimension to Syllables!
Remember how we taught our kiddos to actually feel syllables by tapping balloons in the air? In my blog post entitled Learning Syllables Involves Their Whole Body, I shared tapping a balloon in the air for each syllable as they say a word. As you can imagine, this is a popular whole-body activity that helps them internalize the feeling of syllables.
Let’s take the balloon idea a step further to activate even more parts of their brains after they have achieved the initial step of actually feeling and hearing syllables.
Let’s advance to teaching children to read multisyllabic words.
I begin with compound words.
Compounds words are thoroughly taught in Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, Part 9. However, I do introduce the easiest concept of compound words – two words being pushed together with no finger space – as early as the 67th sight word (into) in the Fry List. It’s just natural to begin teaching 2 syllable words with compound words and I begin this concept with helium balloons. Again, as you can imagine, this activity is a hit. It takes their learning into different parts of their brain.
Ideally, I would give each child two helium filled balloons, one for each hand. In a classroom, the cost is a bit prohibitive, so I have the kids team up with their reading partners. Since they understand partner work, the child without the balloons knows they are the teacher in that moment and are listening carefully to their partner. (I’ve seen helium balloons as low as $.99/ balloon at Party City.)
Here are my lesson instructions:
1. Provide each child a list of compound words and/or write them on the whiteboard. (See below for a beginning list.)
2. Tell children to release one balloon right above their heads as they read the first word in the compound word.
3. Then have them read the second word in the compound word as they release their second balloon.
4. After they have read the compound word and the balloons are floating above their heads, have them sequentially reach up and pull the balloons back to themselves as they reread the whole word focusing on listening and saying each word within the compound word.
5. Ask them how it felt to let the balloon go free to float above their heads when they read the first word.
6. Guide them to understand that letting one balloon go for the first word relaxes their mind/brain so they can confidently focus on and read the second word. This helps them realize and feel that even though the whole compound word may have looked so long at first, by focusing on the first word as they release its balloon, it becomes easy for them to focus on the second word in the compound.
7. Praise them for being awesome readers of really long words!
You can bring back the helium balloons as you continue teaching division of multisyllabic words when you introduce
· Prefixes, root words and suffixes (Parts 4-14) and
· Open and closed syllables using the VCCV, VCCCV, VCV and VV rules (Part 14).
After they have the feeling of syllables within words using the real balloons, we begin pretending we have balloons as we practice more multisyllabic words.
I remind the children to release their real and/or imaginary balloons within arm’s reach, so when they are ready to read the entire word, they can sequentially reach up and pull each syllable balloon back down into their hands as they reread the word. Most often, once they have pulled down syllable balloon number one and number two, the rest of the word just pops into their mind! It’s exciting!
Often times, my severely and profoundly dyslexic children are filled with fear when they have to read a long word. This balloon “work” guides them to see and feel compound words, root words, prefixes, suffixes and open and closed syllables. This whole-body activity helps them relax and gain control and confidence in their reading of multisyllabic words.
Here are some simple compound words to begin with: into, upon, something, somewhere, someplace, backpack, homemade, paperboy, housepaint, grandmother, grandfather, eyesight, lifelike, football, cakewalk, shortcut, cookbook, without, racecar, and nightstand.
Have fun teaching rules for syllabification as you watch smiles of success spread on your children’s faces both from the fun of the balloons and the realization that they “get it”. Reading those long words just got easier.
If you have any questions about teaching syllables or Silent Elephant “e” contact us.