Making Words Routines Go over the letter names and sounds of each letter in the lesson. Build a starting word. You give them the new word and the kids have to figure out the letter or letters to substitute to build that word. You give them the letters to substitute and the kids have to figure out what the word is.

Have the student read the sentence more than once. Have him or her think about what word might make sense in the sentence. Try the word and see if the sentence makes sense. Have the child read past the unfamiliar word and look for clues to help recognize the word.

In Making Words Second Grade, Pat and Dottie introduce second grade teachers to 100 lessons that teach all the phonics, spelling, and phonemic awareness skills included in most second grade curricula. Each Making Words activity leads children through a systematic and sequential phonics curriculum.

Making Words strategy also helps students develop their decoding skills, which is an important part of becoming a proficient reader and reading for meaning. Another benefit of using this strategy is that is provides students with a tangible way of making words using the letter cards.

Making Words is a hands-on activity in which students learn how adding and moving letters can create new words.