As summer winds down, it time to start thinking about back to school. These days that means back to school assessment tests. One of the tests our upcoming 1st grader will have to take is the “nonsense words” test, and one he struggled a little with in kindergarten. The test is simple, random consonant, vowel, consonant and you have to sound out or read the “nonsense” word the letters make (HUC, KOF, RAV ect). Our little guy has been really interested in his trains recently and less interested in school work. Well, dad figured out a way to do both.
Inspired by school house rock’s “Conjunction Junction” I took our switcher engine, 3 box cars and a handful of sticky notes. I would sticky the letters to the sides of the car on one side of the layout and drive them around to the side where he was. His job was to sound the letters or read the word. He did as well as he ever did trying to do the same task from paper. When I used to teach skiing, one of the things they always said worked well to kids was make a skill relatable to something they like.
He asked me last night before bed if we could play the letter game again today. So add “Teach reading” to things that model trains can do…