6
Rabbit River Reading
HOW TO PLAY
The hungry rabbits want to cross the river to eat
Leap’s harvest of vegetables. Players use arrow
buttons to help the rabbits hop onto logs with letters.
The object of the game is to get all the rabbits across
the river by responding to the questions.
Scoring:
Players collect bonus carrots.
WHAT’S BEING TAUGHT?
Letters, Sounds, Spelling:
Learning the letters of the
alphabet and what sounds they represent, as well as spelling 3- to 5-letter words.
Level 1:
Players must identify letters by name and match letters with sounds.
Level 2:
Players must build 3- and 4-letter words with the silent
e
rule. Visual clues are
provided.
Level 3:
Players must spell 3- and 4-letter words with the silent
e
rule. Visual clues are
not provided.
Level 4:
Players must spell 4- and 5-letter words with consonant blend and complex
vowel rules. Visual clues are not provided.
WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT?
Once children associate printed letters to sounds, they can begin to sound out words
for reading and spelling. Reading blends letters and sounds together. Spelling breaks
these sounds down to letters. Phonetic spelling begins with
regular
patterns, such as
c-
a-p
, in which each letter stands for its own sound. Rules are then applied. For example,
silent
e
signals that a preceding vowel has its long-vowel sound. A child learns how
cap
becomes
cape
,
pin
becomes
pine
, and so on.
Try This at Home:
◆
Build word families by changing the first letter or sound in
words with magnetic letters or letter cards, for example,
den, hen, men, pen
and
ten.
◆
Write the consonant blends
bl, cl, fl, pl; br, cr, dr, gr, pr, tr; sm,
sp, sn, sw,
and
st
on individual paper plates. Spread them
across the floor and take turns with your child throwing a penny into one of the
plates. Each of you must think of a word that begins with that blend. Say it, spell
it and use it in a sentence!
