The Mom I Want to Be

The Letter G is an unreliable letter.  It makes the “guh” (hard g – /g/ sound) as in garden or dog or the “juh” (soft g – /j/ sound) as in giraffe.

When combined with the letter “d”, a grapheme is formed which sounds like /j/  (as in ledger)

G is part of the ‘gh’ digraph which can make the /g/ sound as in ghost or the /f/ sound as in cough.

G is part of the ‘ng’ digraph which can make the hard sound as in finger, the soft sound as in change, or the combined sound (the most common) as in sing.  The difference in these pronunciations is minor, but important (to see why, try pronouncing singer like you would finger).

G is sometimes silent as in gnat or gnaw.

When G is followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’ it sometimes has the soft sound /j/ (as in gem or giraffe). 

1. Present a capitol and lower case G to your child.  See if she knows the name of the letter and the sounds it makes; explain that you are just going to talk about one sound today.  Give examples of G words, such as gift, good, glue, green and garden.  Ask questions with G answers and encourage her to answer with G-G-G Green (or whatever the word is)

2. Read The Grouchy Ladybug

3. Create a G bag for the week with items from around the house, such as gum balls, grapes, glasses, golf ball, goat, gorilla, gloves, green items, grass, ghost, guitar, etc

4. Create a G collage.  Have your child search through magazines for G words, and glue them to paper for her alphabet book.

5. Glittery G’s. Provide a cut out G, taped to a piece of waxed paper for easy cleanup.  Use glitter paint or a bit of poster paint mixed with glitter and a little glue.  Have her cover the entire G with paint.  Once dry, glue to a piece of paper and place in her alphabet book. 

6. Provide a worksheet (photocopy from book) with a line of G’s to trace across the top and an empty gumball machine below.  Offer markers, small circles cut from colored paper and glue (or round stickers).  Have her color the gumball machine and glue her circles to fill the globe.

7. Other activies: Pretend to be grasshoppers and hop to music, make collages with green and gold items, look at a globe, taste grapes, create a paper garden, brainstorm a list of green items.

Graham crackers
Goldfish
Grapes
Green-colored snacks
Gingerbread Men Cookies
Green Tortilla Chips