Gingerbread People

Gingerbread Men or People

Fun, easy, delicious recipe to do with children. A holiday favorite.

Mix with a mixer:

• 1 c. butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 c. molasses

Sift or mix together:

• 5 c. flour
• 1 1/2 t. soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 t. ginger
• 1 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. cloves

Mix wet and dry ingredients together.

Chill for about an hour.

Cut with people cookie cutters. Decorate with raisins, chocolate chips, slivered almonds, licorice, and/or tiny candies.

Bake in the oven at 375 for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Spellings and Their Sounds

This is a handy list of the sounds for each spelling.  

List of Consonant Sounds for Each Spelling.

• b/bb                      Bb or silent
• c                            Kk or Ss when the C is followed by an e, i or y.
• ck                         Kk
• cks                       Xx/KS
• ch                         CH, SH for French origin words, or Kk
• d/ed                      Dd or Tt for the suffix -ed
• f/ff                         Ff or rarely Vv (of)
• g/gg                      Gg or Jj when the Gg is followed by an e,i or y
• gh                         Gg, Ff or silent
• gn                         Nn
• gu                         Gg (guess)
• h                           Hh, or silent as in hour
• J                             Jj
• k                           Kk
• kn                         Nn
• ks/kes                   Xx/KS
• l/ll                          Ll, rarely Rr (colonel) or silent when followed by f, m, k, or d. (calf, calm, yolk, could)
• le/el                       Ll
• m/mm                   Mm or rarely silent.
• mn/mb                  Mm
• n/nn                      Nn or silent
• ng/n                      NG also when a N is followed by a K it has the NG sound
• p/pp                      Pp
• ph                         Ff or Pp
• pn                         Nn
• ps                         Ss
• pt                          Tt or at the end of a syllable it can have a Pp/Tt blend.
• qu                         Qu/KW
• r/rh                       Rr if at the beginning of a syllable or word
• s/ss                      Ss, Zz, _S_(ZH), or SH (sugar)
• si                          _S_ (ZH) or SH
• sh                         SH
• t/tt                         Tt
• ti                          SH, or Tt
• th                         TH as in thumb, TH as in this, or Tt (thyme)
• v                           Vv
• w                          Ww or silent vowel helper (know)
• wh                        WH, or rarely Hh (who)
• wr                         Rr when at the beginning of a syllable
• x                           Xx/KS at the end of a word/syllable, or Zz at the beginning of a word
• y                           Yy when it begins a word/syllable otherwise it is a vowel (Look at Vowels)
• z                           Zz or rarely _S_ (ZH) (seizure)

List of Vowel Sound for Each Spelling

• a                  Long A, UH, AW (all), or short Aa when followed by a consonant in the syllable
• a_e/ai          Long A, Short Ee (said), short Ii (mountain), Long I (aisle) or Short Aa (plaid, have)
• air                AIR
• ar                 AR OR when following a “W” (warm), or ER when it is a suffix (dollar)
• are               AIR or AR when all alone (are)
• au                Long A, AW, or Short A (laugh)
• aw               AW
• ay                Long A or Long I (kayak)
• e                  Long E, UH or Short Ee when followed by a consonant in the syllable
• ea                Long E, Long A (break), or Short Ee (head)
• ear               EAR or AIR (bear)
• ee/e_e         Long E or rarely Long A (matinee)
• ei                 Long A, Long E when following a “C”, or rarely Long I
• eo                Rare Long E (people) or Long O
• et                 Short Ee, or Long A (ballet)
• ew               Long OO or Long U
• ey                Long E, Long I (geyser, eye) or Long A (they)
• i                   Long I, UH, Short Ii when followed by a consonant in the syllable, Long E (pizza)
• ia                 Long I (diamond)
• ie                 Long I if it ends the first syllable, Long E, or rarely Long A (lingerie)
• i_e               Long I, Long E (machine), or Short Ii (give)
• igh               Long I
• is                 Long I (island), or Long E (debris)
• ir                  ER or Long I (fire)
• o                  Long O, UH, Short Oo when followed by a consonant, short I (women), Long OO (to), Short OO when following a “W” (wolf), or UH (son)
• oa                Long O
• oe                Long O or Long OO (canoe)
• o_e              Long O, UH (some), Short Oo (gone), or Long OO (move)
• oi                 OY
• oo                Long OO (boo), or Short OO (book)
• or                 OR, or ER when it follows a “W” (work) or at the end (doctor)
• ore/oar/oor  OR
• ou                OW, UH (double), AW (cough), OR (four), Long OO (soup), or Short OO (could)
• ow                Long O, or OW
• oy                 OY
• u                   Long U, Short Uu/UH when followed by a consonant in the syllable, Long OO (tuna), or Short OO (put)
• ue                 Long U or Long OO
• u_e               Long U, Long OO (tube) or UH (judge)
• ui                  Long OO
• ur                  ER
• y                   Long E multi-syllable words, Long I first syllable, or Short I when followed by consonant

More phonics materials available through our website.    http://www.phonicsbyspelling.com/

Lesson Ideas for the Cracking Sound of Cc.

Hard Cc Sound

Objective: Teach children to recognize the hard sound of Cc in words.

Preparations:

•  Have an egg ready to crack.
• Have Phonics By Spelling music and books.   View at our website.        http://www.phonicsbyspelling.com/      
• Collect some pictures with the hard sound of Cc as the beginning sound and letter.   If the sounds are a review, teach Cc and Kk together.
• Get cornmeal and trays for practicing letters and names.   (To get the cornmeal to be smooth, shake the tray gently.)
• Have paper and pencils ready for handwriting practice and an art project.

Lesson:

• If you have the Phonics By Spelling books, listen to at least the first half of the Phonics By Spelling, Book 1.   If each child has access to a book or student book, have each child touch each letter, picture, and spelling if possible.  Enjoy the chants.
• Now replay the “Cc Cracking Egg” song.  Johnny is cracking an egg to make a cake.  Crack an egg and listen for the sound.  Show how Kk also has the “Cracking Egg” sound.   Ask if the capital and lower case Cc look alike or different.  Discuss how they are alike and how they are different.
•  Show pictures of things that have the Hard Cc sound at the beginning, and some other pictures.  “Which pictures have the “Cracking Egg” sound?”  Sort the pictures into those with the Cracking sound and those without the Cracking sound.  Point out that “Cracking” starts with and has in the middle the hard sound of Cc.  Write words such as “can, cat, cut” on yellow sticky notes, and put on the wall card or word wall. 

Activities:

• Young children can hear and recognize the sound easier than they can write the letter.  Show them how to make a “c”.  Then let them try it to write a large “C”.    Have them try to turn their “C” into a cat or can.
• Take a few children at a time and have them form the letter C in cornmeal spread lightly on a tray.  Then have them make the “c” into a lower case “a”.   Practice other letters and their names.

For more educational products and information visit www.phonicsbyspelling.com

Lesson Plan for Short Vowel Uu

Letter Uu

Objective:  Teach the short Uu or Schwa sound,  recognize some words with that sound, and compare it to the long sound of Uu .

Preparation:

• Be prepared to talk about the sound of disappointment.  (Uh!).  Check out our website for phonics materials taught through music and our phonics lesson plans.  http://www.phonicsbyspelling.com/
• Copy the poem, “Look Up”.
• Collect some pictures That start with the short sound of Uu and the long sound of Uu.
• Copy this word paper. Uu words
• Have a large paper to write an “UP” poem.
• Write some high frequency Schwa words on cards. (the, a, love, come, some, away, up, us, but, etc.
• Possible book:  Great Day for Up by Dr. Suess

Lesson:

Listen to at least 10 songs in Phonics By Spelling books including the long and short sounds of “Uu”.

Johnny worked so hard to build his block tower.  Uh! He was so sad when he made it fall.  Let’s make the “Uh! So Sad!” sound together.  This sound or schwa sound is the most used sound in the English language.  Every vowel can make this sound.  In multi-syllable words, the unaccented syllable often has the schwa sound.

Read the poem, “Look Up”.

• Look up at the sky.
• What do you see?
• Gray clouds up,
• Rain coming down.
• What will we do?
• Where will we go?
• Under my umbrella,
• Don’t you know.
•   -Anonymous

Talk about the short Uu words in the poem.

Show and discuss pictures of things that have the short and long sound of Uu.

Activities:  

Give each child a paper with Uu words. Uu words

• Read the words together.
• Have them draw the pictures for each word.  You may want to help by step by step showing them simple ways to draw each picture.
• Have them practice writing some of the words, make rhyming words or make the letter Uu.
• Read together some Schwa high frequency or short vowel U words.  Have them write some of the words on the back of their paper.   

You may also write a poem about “UP” together.

Possibly, read the book, Great Day for Up, by Dr. Suess.