This Breathing exercise focuses on the amount of air and holding time to better calibrate and enhance the power of breath. Learning how much control we actually have over this simple act for powerfully improving our physical, mental and emotional aspects is crucially important. This Breathing exercise is very beneficial to do before dealing with any uncomfortable situation, such as taking tests, giving speeches or having challenging discussions.

• Kk doesn’t want to hurt anyone, so they kick towards the back

• Capital letter Ll doesn’t want their toes stepped on.

• Jjs’ jobs are to make people happy, so they smile in the front. A smile in the back would do no good.

“The Long Sound is the Letters’… Name!”

This goes in sequence building upon previous vowel understandings.

Directions:

Parent/Instructor - “The long sound is the letters’….

Student - “…NAME!”

Parent/Instructor - immediately responding “Hey!”

Suggested Activity:

Have student hold his/her arms out. While Parent/Instructor holds the student’s hands while saying, “The long sound is the letters’…. After the student replies, “ …Name!” The Parent/Instructor gently shaking student’s arms up and down while saying, “Hey!” [Again - keeping the rhythmic tune of the saying is essential for effectiveness.]

This simple activity bring concreteness to an abstract concept. Blends are a great way to build fluency understanding. The mini-poster is a visual reminding tool for the exercise.

bl cl fl gl kl

Directions: Put the first sound in one hand and the next sound in the other. As your place your hands together, blend those two sounds in to a single one.

Referencing ‘Sliding’ helps students experience how individual letter sounds connect together to form a word. It provides a simple reference that encourages continuous sound production rather than stopping between letters. As students gain confidence and automaticity, the need to consciously "slide" disappears, naturally leading to smooth, fluent decoding.

Try picturing yourself sledding down a hill as you slide the sounds of the letters together. Let ‘s try with this word…. g..l..a..d Did you get stuck and stop – or did you have fun sliding the sounds together to hear the word, glad?!