Chocolate Chip Cookie CH, CH, CH

I am often asked how I teach certain skills. My answers vary according to the topic or skill being taught. Most often teaching a skill involves a game. Some I buy. Some I create.

Lately my children have enjoyed a game I created called Chocolate Chip Cookie CH, CH, CH. Several rounds later, my girls had a pretty good handle on decoding words with CH in the initial position (words starting with CH). Here is a sampling of how the girls (ages 5 and 7) used my Chocolate Chip Cookie (could be pancakes if you'd rather) game.

For the first game we dealt out the CH cookies and put all the "ending" cookies face down in the middle. I drew a card and said the ending. If it was a two-letter ending (-at, -in, -um) I handed it to the younger player. If it was a three-letter or four-letter ending (-arm, -ant, -ess, -eese, -eat, -eap, -est) I handed it to the older player. The player said the ending and then added the CH sound, reading the word.

For the second game we dealt out the CH cookies and again put all the "ending" cookies face down in the middle. Players took turns drawing an "ending" cookie, joining it with a CH, and saying the word.

For our third game we followed the directions above but included the additional requirement of making up a silly sentence with the word. This was especially fun, a great way to end our lesson.

Later, the younger player decided to match the CH cookies with the "ending" cookies and "spell" them on the white board.