“The” end?

Welcome back as we all prepare for our upcoming Easter egg hunt together. We hope that you follow along and learn these sight words with us! Today we welcome the sight word, “the”! KC found it written out on my bathroom mirror first and screamed with delight. She’s familiar with this word (thanks to her Gigi – my mom), but when she saw it today she was a little confused (see picture for proof) because it started out like “to” but she knew that it wasn’t that word. I asked her to trace and spell out each letter and when she was done with, “t, h, e” she yelled out “Va! It’s va, mommy!” Next, I modeled out how to trace the letters again, slid my finger under it and said, “Yes, this is the word “the”, KC!”. The sound “th” is difficult for her to sound out so I made sure to spend a few minutes practicing the word out loud with her. I asked her to stick her tongue out between her teeth so that the “v” sound would be impossible for her to say.  Low and behold, she said it correctly! Her tongue sticks way too far out, but it’s a start!

Then on her way to the kitchen to find her word on the fridge, she found the word “to” on a mirror in the hallway. She said, “What? That’s not ‘the’!” So we traced it together, slid our fingers underneath it and said “to” together. “The” was on the fridge as she expected, she tracked down the word “the” written out on her bathroom mirror, and later on she found “go” attached to a frame in the living room. She’s also already asking about our game in the backyard. We plan to take our sheets of paper with “go” and “to” from yesterday, add “the”, scatter them around on the grass, and run around yelling out each word as she jumps on them again.

As I had hoped, she naturally started using all three words in a sentence and said, “I’m going to ‘go to the’ potty, mommy!” with a huge grin. I probably shouldn’t be so surprised at how quickly she’s picking up these words, but I still am! Let us know how it’s going for you and your child!  – lifeasallison

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  7 comments for ““The” end?

  1. Amy Byrne
    April 6, 2014 at 6:14 pm

    Hi, it’s Amy – excited to try this with my 2.5 year old son. :)

    • lifeasus@gmail.com
      April 6, 2014 at 11:51 pm

      Hi Amy! Here are my suggestions for modifying this for your 2.5 year old son (any anyone else with a 2-3 year old):
      Let’s focus on just one word – “the”
      “The” is a great sight word to begin with, and you can focus on the individual letters, “t”, “h”, and “e” prior to your Easter egg hunt. For the next few days, introduce the letter “t”. You can write it on a paper or dry erase board, tell him the letter, show your son how to trace it, and have him trace and say it. Use different media like magnetic alphabet letters or even elmer’s glue on a piece of paper (use the glue to write the letter, let it dry, and then have him trace his finger over it). Tactile things are always a great way to learn their letters. Then introduce “h” for a few days, and “e” for a few days in the same way as you did for “t”. Now the next step is fun and similar to my blog post for Monday. Take two pieces of paper (one on top of the other) and fold them in half. Staple the folded side together to make a book. Now you should have 8 pages including the cover and back. Write “the” on each page followed by a picture of something your son is familiar with. For example, “the” (picture of a ball), or “the (picture of a teddy bear). As you read this book, read “the” for him and let him tell you what the picture is. I believe that using 1 repeated sight word rather than 3 will be more age appropriate for your 2.5 yr old. When it’s time for your Easter egg hunt, you can hide paper inside of your plastic eggs that read “the” and a picture of where he can find the next egg, just like the book you made for him. These clues eventually lead him to his Easter basket and how much fun will he have to have found it himself! Last year I made 6 clues with pictures for my daughter (she was 3) and she had a blast. Keep me posted!

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