Helping Your Child With Unknown Words

"HELP! I don't know how to read this WORD!"

Strategies to help your child read unknown words at home:

*   Use the picture clues

*   "Get your Mouth Ready" based on the first letter sound, give the sound

*   Look for smaller words within the larger word (example: basketball has the words basket or ball)

*   See if you can find a word family or pattern in the unknown word (example: mall, wall, ball, call, tall, stall, etc. are all part of the -all family)

*   Cover the ending...does the word look familiar

*   Skip the word and read on (remember to go back and make a prediction)

*   Make a prediction (guess), ask yourself "Did it make sense?"

*   Use the context of the story to make a prediction

*   Try to sound out the word using knowledge of letter sounds