Writing Worksheets

Confidence
The Writing Worksheets are only introduced to the child when he or she is confident reading and writing with the sounds.  This confidence is measured by how easily the child reads the phrases at the phrase levels of the Reading Worksheets and Picture Packets - Phrases, and by the quality of the stories the child stamps out.  Quality in this case means how well the sounds in words are heard, and not is the child a budding Shakespeare.

No child should be rushed into the transition level.  Learning takes time.  When there is time, it takes place.

Transition
The Writing Worksheets in combination with the decoding chart transitions the child from reading with sounds to reading with letters.

First
Use of Writing Worksheets and the decoding chart is learned by the parent or teacher first, who then teaches the child.

Four Lessons for the Parent or Teacher

Lesson One
Have a downloaded copy of the decoding chart available. On the Writing Worksheets app, press "two-sound triangle" at the top of the main page. Next, press "1 one" at the top of the "two-sound triangle" contents page.

Note: If you do not currently have access to a downloaded decoding chart, you can use the Decoding Chart - Flip app and switch back and forth between the two apps.

Look at the first word on the page and its codings. The first sound has a yellow rectangle beneath it.
Look for the on the decoding chart.
Look for the letters in the yellow space directly beneath the on the chart.
Use your finger or an iPad compatible stylus to write these letters beneath the first sound on the page. If you make a mistake, there is an eraser button at the end of each row.

Now, look at the second sound in the word. This sound has no rectangle beneath it. No rectangle means it uses the white spelling for the sound.
No rectangle is needed since the worksheet is already white.
Look for theon the decoding chart.
Look for the letter in the white space directly beneath theon the chart.
Use your finger or stylus to write this letter beneath the second sound in the word.

If lesson one’s instructions have been clear, you have written:

Lesson Two
On the Writing Worksheets app, press "three-sound triangle" at the top of the main page. Next, press "3 three" in the third row of the "three-sound triangle" contents page.

Look at the second word on the page and its codings. The first sound has no rectangle beneath it. No rectangle means it uses the white spelling for the sound.
Look for the on the decoding chart. Use your finger or stylus to write the letter in the white space directly beneath the on the chart.

Now, look at the second sound in the word.
The sound has a yellow rectangle beneath it.
There are two letter in the yellow space directly beneath the on the chart. Unlike the blue spelling for this same sound, these two letters have a space between them. The space means that another letter is to be written between these two letters. So write the first letter, leave a space, and write the second letter. Or, if you prefer, wait a bit and see what the in-between letter is to be.

Now, look at the third sound in the word. This sound has a yellow rectangle beneath it. Yellow rectangle means it uses the yellow spelling for the sound.
Look for theon the decoding chart.
Write the letter in the yellow space directly beneath theon the chart. The two letters from the second sound go on either side.

If lesson two’s instructions have been clear, you have written:

Lesson Three
You have now used the decoding chart to translate words written with sounds into words written with letters.  That is almost all there is to it.  Before you become a decoding chart expert, however, there are two other decoding rules you need to know.

On the Writing Worksheets app, press "two-sound triangle" at the top of the main page. Then, press "1 one" at the top of the "two-sound triangle" contents page.

Look at the second word on the worksheet.
The sound has no rectangle beneath it, which means it uses the white spelling for the sound.
Write the letter for the white spelling of in the space below the sound.

Now, look at the second sound in the word. This sound has no color coding beneath it, so the white spelling rule applies.
Look at the white spelling for.  Do not write it just yet.
The two black stars that appear beneath the indicate that the spelling is to be written twice. So, write the white spelling beneath twice.

If lesson three's instructions have been clear, you have written:

There is one more rule to learn.

Colors First
Color codings are introduced as children first begin writing letters for the sounds.  Colors are easier for children to use at the start when figuring which letters to copy from the chart.  Colors draw the child's attention immediately to the correct spelling to be used.

Numbers Second (or From the Beginning)
As the child becomes increasingly familiar with his or her decoding chart, number references can be used.  When the child begins the Sightwords Worksheets, number references alone are employed. The numbers are also present from the beginning so a child who is color-blind can still tell which spellings to use.

The Number Advantage
Colors are easy, but numbers have an advantage, too.  If a parent or teacher wishes to print out something from the Stamping app for a child to translate into letters, the parent or teacher can add the required sound-letter codings more easily with numbers than with colors.  Writing a 2 or a 3 requires only a pencil or a pen.  Drawing colored rectangle requires a box of crayons.  Numbers are included as a part of each coding from the outset to make the transition from colors to numbers a smooth and natural one.

Lesson Four - The Silent Letter Stamp
On the Writing Worksheets app, press "two-sound square" on the main page. Next, press "1 one" at the top of the "two-sound square" contents page.

Look at the first word on the page and its codings.
Neither the nor the have any colored rectangles beneath them.
So, we already know to use the white spelling for each of these sounds.

Sound-images are a highly effective method of allowing children to learn to read and to write because they reduce the complexity of the task into manageable units.  Traditional methods can overwhelm the child from the very beginning with too much that is confusing.  However, once the child has demonstrated his or her ability to read and write with sounds, the complexities are gradually introduced.

One of the confusing aspects of written words is that the letters in some words do not make any sound at all.  The 'L' in the word “walk” does not stand for a sound.  The word could just as well be spelled “wawk.”

Silent Letter Codings
As children begin the transition from reading with sounds to reading with letters, they also begin learning about the silent letters tucked away in some words.  When a silent letter occurs in a word, the decoding chart lets the child know which letter to write.

Look again at the first word on the page.
The at the end of the word is a space holder used to indicate the presence of a soundless-letter.

The 26 letters of the alphabet are in one long row at the bottom of decoding chart, with an identifying symbol printed above each one.  For easier location, the symbols are also enclosed in colored squares.

Let's finish writing the word in the example above.

The symbol below the silent letter stamp is enclosed in a small yellow square. Find that symbol on the bottom of your decoding chart. What letter is the symbol meant to represent? Use your finger or stylus to write this letter beneath sound on the worksheet.

If lesson four's instructions have been clear, you have written:

When You Feel Comfortable
Try a few more pages on your own to test your understanding of using the decoding chart to translate sound-words into traditional words.

When you feel comfortable using the decoding chart to convert sounds into letters, you are ready to teach your child to use the Writing Worksheets and the decoding chart to begin transition from reading with sounds to reading with letters.

For parents or teachers who wish to use the Stamping app to write out stories for their children to translate into letters, or modify stories already written by the child, the silent letter stamp is available for parental use in the bottom right-hand row.