Why Do We Practice Nonsense Words?

Brain research tells us that learning needs to be meaningful. We need to connect our learning with things that are important in our lives. 

Typically, it's not too tough to convince children that reading is meaningful. In fact, reading has its own reward: as you get better at reading, the books and stories get better.  

It's a little tougher to convince children why we practice reading nonsense words. Despite what I've heard from some, it's not to have more successful test scores on the DIBELS tests.  

This is what I tell the kids: 

When we practice the "sounding out" skill, we'll be better at figuring out new words!

if we practice the "sounding out" skill with actual words, the visual memory can get in the way of this skill, and they're not actually practicing the "sounding out" skill, they're just recognizing the word from the way it looks.  Therefore, we use nonsense words.

Of course, there are some children who are strong sight word readers, and feel they pretty much know all the words.  

So we talk about some of those ten-dollar words they'll see as they grow as readers.

Words like Constantinople, or Emancipation Proclamation, or Deoxyribonucleic acid or even supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!  

Here are some activities I do to practice that "sounding out" skill.

Word Sort and Fluency Practice

Nonsense Word Sort and Game Board

Multisyllable nonsense word game: Buggy Syllables

What do you use to help your children practice looking for letter sounds and patterns in new words?

Recreating the Setting

We've been enjoying Dr. Seuss all week!  We've had lots of great discussions on his use of nonsense words and rhyme.  I've read several of his books this week, and the kids are starting to realize that even though most of his stories are made of silly words, silly characters and silly situations, he has some real things to say in his stories.

Today we read The Lorax.  It's one of my favorites, and it has something important to tell us.

As I read, the children were very enthusiastic, and I had lots of great comments throughout the book.  They realized real fast there were similarities between this book and the book I read last week for the Booking Across America project, A River Ran Wild.  (Also dealt with damage to the environment.)

After a great discussion on Dr. Seuss and his lessons, the children paired up and made some great structures based on The Lorax.  Some were designed to look like the factory of the Once-lers, others made Truffula Trees, and others made the creatures so beautifully created by Dr. Seuss.

Check out their structures!  Don't you just love kids creating with blocks?

Here's a Truffula Tree

Here's the factory of the Once-lers.

Here's a machine of the Once-lers.

Here's what the land looked like before the Once-lers destroyed it.

Here are some Truffula Trees.

Here are some of the Once-ler factory workers.

I hope you've been enjoying Read Across America week as much as I've been!

Celebrate the King of Nonsense

Read Across America Day is coming up!  

Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss on March 2nd!

We'll be celebrating the whole week of his birthday!

Dr. Seuss was the master of rhyme and nonsense.  In his books, if he didn't have a word that rhymed that fit, he made one up!  And he did it well! Just look at this list of some of my favorite Dr. Seuss books! (Each image is an affiliate link to Amazon.)

                                     

So, how do I celebrate Dr. Seuss?  With Nonsense words, of course!  Click the image to read more about this resource!

This resource has 30 short vowel words, 18 long vowel words, and 18 vowel pairs, and R-controlled vowels. Explore the image for the link to this resource.

Nonsense Word Sort and Game Board

  

Looking for a little more about Dr. Seuss? Try these activities in this Science and Social Studies resource! (This has 2 activities related to Dr. Seuss, plus several other March-themed Science and Social Studies activities!)

Social Studies and Science for March

 

How do you celebrate the King of Nonsense?

Hanukkah Game Board

Looking for a little something to help your kids celebrate Hanukkah?

 

This game can be used in many ways in the classroom!

 

Brain research tells us that frequent repetition helps bring information from the short term memory to the long term memory. (Rather than "Practice Makes Perfect", I prefer "Practice Makes Permanent"!)  

 

I use board games like this to practice sight words, math facts, sentence fluency, task cards, or any skill that needs practicing! The children just roll one die, but before they can move their place marker that many spaces, they have to perform a task. I sometimes have a selection of cards the children can choose from, and sometimes I have a specific skill for them to practice. Here are some ideas for practice cards: Practice Card Bundle, Word Work Bundle, or Reading Celebration Game.

Just click this link to download your Hanukkah Game Board

To practice the important skill of reading nonsense words, try this resource: Hanukkah Two Syllable Nonsense Word Game.

Want a little more on Hanukkah and other seasonal holidays? Try this collection of informational texts and Winter Holidays Reader's Theater

or looking for something digital?

Try this Boom Learning 

December Holidays Around the World

 How do you bring Hanukkah into your classroom?