The Fables and the Real World series pairs narrative and informational texts together to help students make connections between fiction and reality. This series isn’t just created for teaching valuable life lessons, however. It also serves as a valuable resource for developing foundational literacy skills.
By Grade 1, the Common Core State Standards require that students “know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.A) Digraphs, where a combination of two letters represents one sound, occur frequently throughout the English language. However, early readers can easily mix up the sounds of similar digraphs. The downloadable Fables and the Real World Teacher’s Guide lists different digraphs to focus on in each book, perfect to use for a digraph scavenger hunt with your students! The Teacher’s Guide also offers various exercises to teach digraphs:
Nets for Work and Play (from the Dove King set)
- Have children identify words in this book with consonant digraphs: there, catch(ing), things, sh, ships, trucks, with, something, they, beaches, sharks, other, throw, through, stick, kick.
- Write the words on the board and ask children to take turns circling the letters that make the consonant digraphs.
Marvelous Milk (from the Milkmaid and her Pail set)
- Have children identify words in the book with consonant digraphs: where, what, there, things, with, cheese, pudding, milkshakes, whipped, chocolate, chip, healthy.
- Together, brainstorm words with consonant digraphs. Then have children use the words to make up rhymes.
Sun and Wind Energy (from the North Wind and the Sun set)
- Have children identify words with consonant digraphs wh, th, sh, ph, tch, ck, ng. Ask them to write the words and circle the digraphs.
- Create a chart with digraphs (including ch) as heads. Have children brainstorm words they know with these digraphs.
Turtle or Tortoise? (from the Tortoise and the Rabbit set)
- Have children find words in the book that use consonant digraphs wh, ch, th, sh. Ask where they can be found in words.
Animals are Clever (from The Fox and the Goat set)
- Help children identify words in this book with consonant digraphs th, sh, wh, ch, ck, tch, ng, ph.
Seeds (from the Dove King set)
- Have children find words in the book with final silent e as well as long vowel digraphs: seed(s), inside, waiting, three, goes, rain, sunshine, tree, eat.
- Have children sort the words by their vowel sounds, and then sort them by their vowel combinations.
- Have children find words in the book with final silent e as well as long vowel digraphs: time, race, see, each, ate, tie, shoes, came, eat(ing), take, woke, line.
- As children read other books today, have them look for words with final silent e and words with long vowel sounds made by using common vowel combinations.
- Help children identify words in this book with vowel digraphs: donkey, mountain, road, looked, below, see, straight, slow, stay, head, tail, hay, instead.
- Help children identify words in other books that use the vowel digraphs contained in this book.
Going on a scavenger hunt through the Fables and the Real World series is a great way to learn how to distinguish both vowel and consonant digraphs. You can download the complete Teacher’s Guide for free at the bottom of this post.
What are other clever ways that you use the Fables and the Real World series to teach literacy skills to your students? Let us know in the comments below!