Letter 28
WORD KNOWLEDGE WITH DICTATED SENTENCES AND PATTERNS IN
LITERATURE
Dear Parents and Care-Givers:
Reading sentence strips is another effective way to develop knowledge of individual words. Start first with dictated sentence
strips and then with sentences from predictable pattern literature.
Dictated Sentence Strips
1. Word Pointing: Read old familiar sentence strips to focus on individual words. Read sentence strips to your child while
you point to each word; read sentence strips together with your child as you point to the words; re-read sentences together
while you fade in and out depending on the words your child recalls. Finally, have your child point to and identify all the
words they know in familiar sentence strips.
2. Framing Words in Dictated Sentences: Collect several old, familiar dictated sentences and have your child frame words
they know (by placing a finger at the beginning of the word and another finger at the end of the word). Next, ask your
child to frame the first words in a sentence... then the last words. Finally, you frame certain words in sentence strips and
have your child name the word.
3. Over-Copying and Under-Copying: Copying over and under sentence strips continues to help your child focus on
individual words.
4. Word Matching: Making word cards from familiar sentence strips is a great way to develop word knowledge. To do this,
make a sentence strip to match an old one and cut the new sentence strip into word cards. Then have your child assemble
the words back into sentences again by matching them to the original sentence strip. Also, have your child create
sentences of their own from these word cards.
5. Word Sorting: Sort the cut-up sentence strips in a number of ways, according to objects, names of people, animals, action
words, and color words.
6. Word Keys: As your child begins to recognize individual words on their dictated sentence strips, put them onto a word
chain and keep adding known words to the chain. To increase their understanding of individual words, invite your child
to draw pictures on the back of each word card.
7. Dictated Booklets: Help your child make word booklets of things they like. Record your child’s ideas while they draw or
cut out illustrations for each page. Possible titles might be: My Special Toys (train set, teddy, blocks, lawn mower, bike);
People I Love (Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Kim, Sundeep, Krista).
Developing Word Knowledge from Predictable Pattern Literature
1. Selections: Choose predictable pattern selections that have repeated lines and refrains and minimal print per page that
you have read to them many times before. Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown, 1975) and I Can Blink (Frank Asch,
1997) are good books for this activity. Other selections are listed at the end of this letter.
2. Sentence Strips: Make sentence strips from the repeated lines in Good Night Moon (Margaret Wise Brown, 1975) such
as, “Good night room. Good night moon.”
• From the story, I Can Blink (Frank Asch, 1997), make a sentence strip from the sentence, “I can blink said the owl.”
3. Reading Sentence Strips: While pointing to each word, read these sentence strips to your child; you and your child read
the sentence strips together; then have your child read each sentence alone while you give help with the words when
needed.
4. Copying: Have your child over-copy the sentences and then copy under each sentence.
5. Word Matching: Make word cards to match each of the words in the sentence strips and have your child match the word
cards to each sentence.
6. Identifying Words: Ask your child to frame the words they know.
7. Word Keys: Put all the words your child knows onto the word chain of known words.
8. Re-Reading: Have your child attempt to read the complete story while you chime in for the words your child does not
know.
9. Selections for Repeating This Activity: This activity can be repeated using these selections that may be obtained at the
public library: Good Night, (Jan Pienkowski, 1999); Bugs for Lunch, (Margery Facklam, 1999); A Cake All for Me,
(Karen Magnuson Beil, 1998); Snuggle Wuggle, (Jonathan London, 2000); Wiggle Waggle, (Jonathan London, 1999);
Duck in a Truck, (Jez Alborough, 1999); Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, (Eileen Christelow, 1989); The Wind
Blew, (Pat Hutchins, 1987); Together, (George Ella Lyon, 1994); The Cake that Mack Ate, Rose Robart (1986); Ten Go
Hopping, by Viv Allbright (1985); Today Is Monday, by Eric Carle (1993); The Rose in My Garden, by Arnold Lobel
(1984); The Napping House, by Audrey Wood (1984); All Fall Down, by Brian Wildsmith (1983); What a Tale, by Brian
Wildsmith (1989); Dear Zoo, by Rod Campbell (1982); I Can Blink, by Frank Asch (1997); The Wheels on the Bus, by
Kovalski (1987); I Went Walking, by Sue Williams (1990); Let’s Go Visiting, by Sue Williams(1998); Mice Squeak, We
Speak, by Tomie de Paola (1984); Good-Night, Owl! By Pat Hutchins (1976); Cat on the Mat, by Brian Wildsmith
(1982); Are You My Baby? By Cindy Chang, (1996); I Can Roar, by Frank Asch (1985); Does a Kangaroo Have a
Mother Too? by Eric Carle, (2000).
Have fun doing these activities with your child and let us know if you have any questions or stories to share about the
progress of your child’s reading.
Sincerely,