Level 2 - Exploring Sounds In Words
The newest version of Exploring Sounds In Words was uploaded in November, 2019. Students use two workbooks to study all the letters of the alphabet. The letters that are easiest to write are taught first. Letters that are more difficult to write are taught later. The books have handwriting warmup pages, handwriting pages, beginning and ending sound pages, put it together pages (beginning, medial, and ending sounds), large sound story pages, and silly sounds pages (two-sound blending).
The books can be used in kindergarten after completing level one, or as a readiness level at the beginning of first grade. The books teach/review the alphabet letters, their sounds, and their letter formation. Students write letters to show beginning and ending sounds for pictures, and also write letters on lined paper from dictation, given their sounds. Students learn to pronounce two-sound combinations consisting of a short vowel and a consonant, such as ab, ac, ad, af, ag, and ba, ca, da, fa, ga. These combinations are called "silly sounds" because they do not have meaning. While working through these books students begin spelling short vowel words with plastic letters in small groups, working with the teacher.
The optional Picture Dictionary A-Z book can be used with Exploring Sounds In Words if desired. It contains illustrated word lists for the alphabet letters in which all of the words begin with the same sound. For many letters, there are also ending sound word lists. These lists are similar to the lists in the level one Learning The Alphabet books. The teacher reads the words for students while they look at the words and pictures, so that they understand that the first letter represents a word's beginning sound, and the last letter represents its ending sound. Students at level four who are already reading could also use this book as a spelling reference during creative writing periods. The words don't have written definitions - a small picture illustrates the meaning of each word. The book also includes the most common three-hundred words. These words are not illustrated.
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Click on any of the blue bars to download a compressed version of the file, with the same content but a smaller file size.
Other Level 3 Materials
- The first book below shows the previous version of Exploring Sounds In Words. All of the alphabet letters are studied in the same sequence in a single workbook. The book does not contain the large sound story pages or the handwriting pages, so you will need a separate handwriting book and the large version of the sound story book.
- There are two versions of the Exploring Sounds In Words Manuscript Handwriting Book. They are almost the same. The 2015 version has pages with very large capital and lower case letters to trace and pages with smaller letters to trace and copy. The 2018 version has an extra page with letters that are between the extra large and small letters in size.
- The last book below is A Sound Story About Audrey And Brad. It has large color sound pictures and letters, making it suitable to read aloud to a full-sized class to introduce the speech sounds in English and the letters that represent them.
The links shown below are for an earlier version of Exploring Sounds In Words from 2013. At the time, the books were called Advanced Learning The Alphabet.
The link shown below is for the earliest version of Exploring Sounds In Words. The book, called Beginning And Ending Sounds, shows just the beginning and ending sound pages from the Exploring Sounds In Words books. Other pages are not included.
