Every session opens with the same three warm-ups, in the same order. About six minutes. Set a timer per drill and cover what fits.
1 · Short Vowel Posters
Trace with two learning fingers, say the key word, exaggerate the short sound. Three times per poster.
2–3 min
2 · Quick Drill Decoding (Sound Cards)
Show the card, your child says the sound, not the letter name. Brisk pace.
2–3 min
3 · Phonemic Awareness Drill (Blocks)
Spell words with colored blocks by ear: pull down, tap, underline, say it fast.
2–3 min
Posters: say this
“This first poster says ant. We take our learning fingers (pointer and middle finger together) and trace the a while we say /a/nt. Three times, to build special pathways in our brains. Now you try it.”
Sound cards: watch for
Clean sounds only: /b/, never “buh” (the stray uh sabotages blending later). Watch for duh and guh. And q always brings u along: q is a chicken letter, too scared to go alone.
Blocks: say this
“Each sound in pig gets its own color block: /p/… /i/… /g/. Now tap under each block with your learning fingers and say the sounds. Then underline the whole row and say it fast: pig.” A digraph is one sound, one block; a repeated sound reuses its color.
The pace is the point
Set a 3-minute timer per drill. When it rings, move on. Whatever you covered, you covered. Early weeks you may get through half the cards. That's correct, not behind.
The encoding side: sounds back into letters, hands before pencil. Two drills, two to three minutes each, every Monday.
Drill 1 · Find a Sound (Quick Drill Encoding)
Say this
“When I say a sound like /ă/, you repeat the sound, find the tile that says /ă/, and put it in the center of the mat. Let's begin. Your first sound is /s/… Good. Next sound, /m/.”
Lesson 1's sound listas time allows
r · &obreve; · d · g · ă · p · t · &ibreve; · b · f · l · ŭ · n · qu · &ebreve;
Stuck? Ask “What sound are you looking for?” Still stuck? Give the key word from the posters.
Drill 2 · Spelling on the mat
Say this
“Your word is cat. Find the letters for the sounds and say them as you place them: /k/… /ă/… /t/. Now tap under each sound with your two fingers: /k/ /ă/ /t/. Then underline the word and say it fast: cat.”
Lesson 1's word listbuild, tap, underline
fat · mat · map · sat · can · tan · tam · pam · am · pat · at
Leave the tiles where they land
Don't reset the mat between words. The lists are built so only a tile or two changes each time. Watching mat become sat is the lesson: that noticing is phonemic awareness at work.
No tiles handy?
The Virtual Tile Mat at apricottreeacademy.com works on any phone or tablet. Drag the tiles, tap one to hear its sound.
The thinking drills: every card gets the rule's questions out loud, and your child answers before it lands in a column.
How to run any sort
Ask the rule's questions, every card. Your child answers each one; then the card goes in the Yes or No column.
Then drop the scaffolding. Once they're rolling, just ask “Does this follow the rule?” and follow with “Why, or why not?”
The why is the finish line. A rule they can explain is a rule they own.
Sample: closed syllable sort
“Let's look at cat. Does it have one vowel? Yes. Is the vowel followed by a consonant? Yes. Is the vowel short? Yes, so cat goes in the Yes column. Now boat… it has two vowels, so it's not a closed syllable. No column.”
Memory Match · the Friday finisher
Friday checklist spot10–15 min
Pairs of the week's words, face down
Re-reads happen with every flip. Don't quiz, don't optimize
End the week on the win
Nonsense words · the honest test
Made-up words like vab and shom are in the lists on purpose: they can't be memorized and can't be guessed, so reading one is pure decoding, the clearest proof the system is working.
When they protest, say this
“You're right, it's a made-up word! Can you read it anyway?”
Remember
If they can read vab, they're reading, not memorizing. That's the whole point.
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