LA 4.04Moveable Alphabet: Phrases and Sentences
The child builds short phrases and sentences, learning to leave a space between words.
Age 4½–5½Work 4 of 5 in Encoding / Moveable Alphabet
Presentation
- 1
Say a short phrase about something in the room: "a red hat."
- 2
Say, "Let's make these words. The first word is a." Build it.
- 3
Leave a space the width of one finger. Say, "Now the next word: red." Build it.
- 4
Leave another finger space and build "hat."
- 5
Read the phrase back while pointing to each word.
- 6
Invite the child to build a phrase about something they see.
- 7
Later, show a sentence with a capital letter at the beginning and a period at the end, using the punctuation pieces in the box.
Extensions, easiest to hardest
- Building sentences about pictures
- Building a sentence about something the child did
- Adding a period and a capital letter to each sentence
- Building two or three sentences on one topic
Control of error
The adult; finger spacing makes word boundaries visible for the child to check.
Ready to move on when the child…
- Builds a sentence of four or more words with spaces between words
- Uses a period at the end of a sentence