Teaching Trick Words to Kindergartners

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Colese Brown: Good morning.

Students: Good morning.

Colese Brown: How you guys doing?

Students: Good.

Colese Brown: Guys, this morning we're going to get to work on our trick words today. Melody, do we know what trick words are? What are our trick words?

Melody: Our rule breakers?

Colese Brown: Oh, yes. Those are our rule breakers. Everybody say rule breakers.

Students: Rule breakers.

Speaker 3: Okay.

Narrator: Trick words don't follow the regular phonics rules. You might also hear them referred to as heart words, red words, or irregular words. Watch as reading coach Colese Brown guides a small group of kindergartners through a review of some of these tricky terms. 

Colese Brown: So I'm going to go over some trick words that you guys should already know, and then we're going to get to look at some new ones today. Cool beans?

Students: Cool beans.

Colese Brown: Okay, here we go.

Students: To.

Colese Brown: What's the word?

Students: To.

Colese Brown: What's the word?

Students: To.

Colese Brown: Let's spell it.

Students and Ms. Brown: 'T-o', to.

Colese Brown: Again.

Students: 'T-o', to.

Colese Brown: Thank you. How would we use the word to? Ooh. Melody.

Melody: We got, if you said, how do you use the word to probably in a sentence.

Colese Brown: Could you give a sentence with to?

Melody: Yeah.

Colese Brown: Okay.

Melody: Can you go to the shop?

Colese Brown: Ooh. Can you go to the shop?

Narrator: Practicing trick words like to and do in sentences helps students remember both what they mean and how do you use them correctly?

Colese Brown: What's the word?

Students: Do.

Colese Brown: My turn. 'D-o', do. Your turn.

Students: 'D-o', do.

Colese Brown: Here's another one. Ready?

Students: My.

Colese Brown: Oh, my. My turn! 'M-y', my. Your turn.

Students: 'M-y', my.

Colese Brown: Noah. Do you think you can use this word in a sentence?

Noah: Yeah. My favorite is the ice cream.

Colese Brown: Ooh. So your favorite is ice cream. I gotcha. I'm sharing a connection, friend. Carter, use my in a sentence.

Speaker 2: My mom is great.

Colese Brown: Ooh. My mom is great. When you use the word my, what are you talking about? You're talking about something that belongs ...

Melody: To me.

Colese Brown: You're talking about something that belongs to you. Next word. Are you ready?

Students: Was.

Colese Brown: Yes. This is the word was. What's the word?

Students: Was.

Colese Brown: What's the word?

Students: Was.

Colese Brown: Let's spell it?

Students and Ms. Brown: 'W-a-s', was.

Colese Brown: My turn. 'W-a-s', was. Your turn!

Students: 'W-a-s', was.

Colese Brown: Okay. The rule that they broke ...

Melody: Was the 'a' rule.

Colese Brown: Well, what does 'a' supposed to say?

Students: /ă/

Colese Brown: Why? Because, look, this gate is closed. So 'a', when the gate is closed, it's supposed to say /ă/, Is 'a' saying /ă/, in this word? No.

Students: No.

Colese Brown: It's making a completely different sound. So that's why this is a rule breaker. Okay.

Students: Or.

Narrator: Even though the word or is spelled in a predictable way with an r-controlled vowel, it's still a trick word for these students because they won't learn about r-controlled vowels for a while.

Colese Brown: I'm going to spell the word, or, It's 'o-r', or. I want you to try it. You spell it.

Students and Ms. Brown: 'O-r', or.

Colese Brown: Now this is another one of our rule breakers. This is another one of our rule breakers, so we're going to have to keep the word "or" in our heart. That means that we're just going to have to know it. Okay.

Narrator: Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Hastings/Quillen Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the AFT, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and anonymous donors. Special thanks to Hope Hill Elementary, Reading is Essential for All People, and Atlanta Public Schools. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel @RUteaching. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, D.C., the Barksdale Reading Institute and First Book.

Colese Brown: My name is Colese Brown, and this is Reading Universe.