Hey, Hey y’all!! It’s the second day in my 10 day series and I’ve got another freebie and loads of great info for you!
The second reading strategy I introduce, Lips the Fish, has had some funny stories through the years.
I used to use a hand me down poster with a picture of a fish with ginormous lips. When I first started teaching, in reading groups, when we introduced the strategy, we’d make fish lips for fun.
It turns out that was slightly confusing to my sweet kiddos. Many of them thought their lips had to be in puckered, fish manner to use the strategy. I even had a parent ask me once if there was a reason “fish lips” helped them sound out words.
We scaled back our fun with fish lips, though they didn’t lose their importance!
Who is Lips the Fish?
Lips the fish is a strategy that is the perfect follow-up to teaching Eagle Eye. With Eagle Eye we are teaching them to use picture clues for support while decoding words. Lips the Fish takes that strategy one step further and encourages them to pay close attention to those beginning letter.
By examining the picture and then identifying the first letter, they are able to very quickly to determine word possibilities.
When introducing this strategy, it’s important that students know all, or most, of their letters and sounds. However, I do introduce this very early on. We typically spend about a week with Eagle Eye before moving onto Lips the Fish.
You can grab my Lips the Fish poster here or by clicking on the image below.
Why is it important?
Lips the Fish is a crucial reading strategy as it is the first step to sounding out words.
It lets children dip their toes in the water to build confidence before jumping in. It also reminds them to use both pictures and words to assist in decoding an unknown word.
Beginning readers need lots of access to books that have both repetition and picture support. Level A/B books typically provide this support and help children quickly build confidence as readers.
Looking closely at the picture and identifying the first letter/sound call almost certainly provide the context they need to decode an unfamiliar word.
I typically spend two weeks on this strategy before moving on to the next. I want them to develop a strong understanding of the importance of that first sound in a word before moving on to sounding out the entire word.
How to introduce it
To introduce this strategy, we first have a quick little discussion about fish. Students typically have a decent amount of background knowledge about fish. We discuss different types, where they live, what the eat. I then introduce Lips as a stuffed fish with big lips. I found it at a yard sale years ago, and he’s since gone missing since I’ve stopped teaching. In lieu of that, my daughter and I looked at some pictures from a recent aquarium visit and marvelled over the size of this fish’s lips!
We have a giggle over his big lips and then we practice making our own fish faces. I quickly segway into how important our lips are for making sounds. I have them try to make the /b/ sound without moving their lips. They quickly see how hard it is and we practice over sounds, noting which ones we move our lips most for.
This leads to introducing how Lips the Fish has the job of reminding us to look at the first sound. We review Eagle Eye and discuss how we can combine the two to quickly figure out unknown words.
I also point out, that while fish and eagles usually aren’t buddies in nature (because eagles eat fish!), they are the ultimate reading buddies.
We play a quick little matching game to test out our fish lips. I print out some animal pictures and write their names on index cards, underlining the first letter. Students take turns identifying the first letter and the sound it makes. They then search out the picture that would match the word. I keep it the animal names really short and don’t repeat beginning sounds intitally to avoid confusion.
When introducing this strategy, it is very important to reinforce it by asking, “How do you know that?” (ex. because fish starts with f) and “Does that make sense?” If their suggestion doesn’t make sense, you will need to guide them to find an answer that does.
In the beginning we have a lot of fun making fish faces before trying this strategy. I’ve learned to be very literal with them and remind them that while fish faces are fun, they aren’t relevant to the actual strategy. Hence, they do not need to make a fish face to say every beginning sound. It still happens occasionally, but the benefit is, it’s usually ridiculously cute!
How to practice it
Again, this strategy is one of the most important strategies a young reader can have under their belt! It’s essential that they completely understand it and regularly practice it.
And I know you’re a busy Mom/Teacher/Person, so I’ve not only shared a bunch of free tips in this post but also created an entire affordable file full of resources to make your life easier!
These are offered in my TPT store for the ultra economical price of just $2.75. For real y’all! Less than the price of a Happy Meal and much better for your child!
Additionally, I have a few other ideas that I’ve used through the years that my students greatly enjoyed!
- Guess the Covered Word
This game is a favorite! When I taught, my students would beg me to play it! What it entails is a short story (or it could be just sentences) with several words left covered. We would read the story and then record the guesses based on the context clues in the sentence. Then we’d look sentence by sentence and I’d begin by uncovering the word. We’d mark through our guesses and then add any new guesses that worked with the beginning sound. I’d uncover one more letter and then we’d vote on our best option and see who was right!
My daughter loves playing this and guessing the words. She has really strong beginning sound skills, so once she sees that first letter she usually instantly gets it, but sometimes her guesses without seeing the word are a little out there. That is perfectly fine though, and yet another reason this game is important. It teaches her to focus on what makes sense.
I actually had a pretty awesome book once upon a time that had done a lot of the work for me. I left it at school when I became a stay at home Mom, but again, it’s on my to do list for the resources I’ll be sharing soon, so stay tuned!
- Matching CVC words to pictures.
One simple way I’ve done this is just printed out a bunch of pictures from the clip art in my Office program and write the corresponding words on index cards. I’m working a set to put in my TPT store, but it won’t be available until some time after this series is done.
You can also easily do this with pictures from magazines, supermarket flyers, old mail….the options are endless! Just be sure to keep the words short and easy to connect with the picture.
- Level A/B Books
Again, these lower level books are perfect for beginning readers. By design they are very heavy on picture clues, and they keep the language simple and repetitive. We have a couple of sets of these we purchased off of Amazon and I love them!
It’s also important to note, as your child reads, have he/she point out the pictures and letter sounds that helped them to figure out words. It is so important that children understand how these strategies help them read so they will continue to apply them and experiment with new strategies as they are introduced.
- Write the beginning sound
Another great way to practice this, is to show a picture of something (ex. a cat) and have them write the first letter that picture starts with. We usually do this on a white board to save paper.Again, you can use clip art, magazines, mail…literally anything you can find. I’ve also resorted to drawing the pictures myself. This can also create a fun game too. We’ve play games where we had to draw something that starts with a specific sound.
I also have a game I picked up years ago at Sams club that we used in the classroom. It’s a cute little puzzle where you have to match the picture to the word, that has the beginning sound highlighted.
- Use sticky notes to cover words as you read
You can use this activity again, except this time instead of covering the whole word, cover everything but the first letter.
I know I keep plugging those beginning readers, but they are legit, perfect for this! If you don’t want to invest in them though, this is also pretty easy to do with books at home or from the library. I would definitely try to keep the text very simple though, and select a book that offers lots of pictorial support.
Recommended Books
Below are some of my favorite books to use while teaching this strategy. Don’t forget to check out Amazon’s used books. You can sometimes score some awesome deals that way.
Be sure to stay tuned for the rest of the 10 day series! Tomorrow I’ll be sharing our third strategy, Stretchy Snake, as well as more instructional ideas. And don’t forget, through June 14th, we have an amazing giveaway going on. You could win an Amazon gift card for $150! Be sure to check out the details here.
And don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest, where I’m pinning all kinds of great ideas for instruction!
