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ALuv has been working on Short u words. In the Word Sorts for Letter Name-Alphabetic Spellers, the next sort after short o is short e. But in the south, short e is one of the hardest and most confusing short vowels for kids to pronounce. Plus, the authors included words that end in -en; which is pronounced more like -in . So we have skipped the short e for now. We will come back to it though.
After introducing the short u word families of -UT, -UG, and -UN by matching the pictures with the words, we played a hide and seek reading game called Snug as a Bug in a Rug in our pocket chart with the UG family.
I honestly don’t know where I printed this game from years ago and I could not find its source no matter what keywords I googled, so I re-made the printables for you to download. {Free download is at the end of this post.}
Snug as a Bug in a Rug Hide and Seek Reading Game
1. I placed a few of the UG rugs on our pocket chart. (I’ve included a list of UG words on the download.) I chose to include a few words with blends to see how he’d do since he did so well on the short a & o assessment. He needed a little extra support to read them, but he did it! I’ve included a list of UG words on the download.
2. He closed his eyes and I hid the “bug” behind one of the UG rugs.
3. I gave him clues as to which word it was behind and he had to find it. If my first clue was general, I kept getting more specific until he had narrowed it down. Here were some ways I phrased the clues:
- The bug is behind the word /h/-/ug/ (separating the onset from the UG rime)
- The bug is behind the word /r/ /u/ /g/ (separating each individual sound so he had to listen for the phonemes)
- The bug is behind a red rug
- The bug is behind a word with 3 letters
- The bug is behind a word that starts like this /sl/
4. Once he found the bug, he had to read the UG word.
Of course, he wanted to take his turn hiding the bug from me. I think he enjoyed doing that more. I was really surprised how well he did giving me clues like I did for him. He was enjoying it so much that NJoy wanted to take a turn hiding the bug, too.
More Word Family Activities
- Short Vowel Word Study App – Level 1 is full of word family fun!
- Word Family Blackout
- Word Family Matching Game
- BOB Books Word Family Printables
- LEGO Word Family Sorting
{Download this FREE printable game HERE.}
Enjoy teaching!
~Becky
Snug as a Bug in a Rug unable to download. Help please.