4. Video: See Onset-Rime in the Classroom

Blending Onset-Rime with Stephanie Fincher

In this first video, teacher Stephanie Fincher in La Verne, California, demonstrates how to blend onset and rime with her kindergarteners. 

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Stephanie Fincher: Are you ready to get started? Yes. Are you ready to become experts?

Student: Yes.

Stephanie Fincher: Today we are going to work on blending two parts of a word into the whole words. So we're going to work on that. We're going to use these little manipulatives here to help us identify the onset and rime. So look at Mrs. Fincher's. This little square is going to represent the onset, the first sound in a word, and the small rectangle is going to represent the rime. That's the ending part of the word. So this to me is I do it, I'm going to model for you first and then you're going to try some. Okay. So eyes on me. Look at my board now. Okay. My two sounds. The two parts of my word are /b/ /ăt/. And when I blend them together I say bat. Okay. So now you're going to try with your cards. Go ahead and bring them in front of you. /sh/ /ip/. Your turn.

Students: /sh/ /ip/ ... ship.

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. Pull 'em back apart. My sounds are /f/ /ish/.

Students: /f/ /ish/ … fish.

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. Pull them back apart. My sounds are /sh/ /ark/.

Students: /sh/ /ark/ ... shark.

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. Now you try some. My sounds are /s/ /and/.

Students: /s/ /and/ ... sand.

Stephanie Fincher: Nice job. My two sounds are /s/ /eel/.

Students: /s/ /and/ ... seal.

Stephanie Fincher: Nice job.

Narrator: For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Laverne Heights Elementary School, Bonita Unified School District and the Los Angeles County Office of Education Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation and two anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of W E T A, Washington dc, the Barksdale Reading Institute and Burst Book.

Stephanie Fincher: This is Reading Universe.

Segmenting Onset-Rime with Stephanie Fincher

Now watch Ms. Fincher and her students pull words apart — segmenting onset and rime! 

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Stephanie Fincher: Nice job. Okay, now we're going to work on segmenting our onset and rime. So our onset is still our small square, and our rime is our small rectangle. So we're going to go ahead and put them together for the whole word. I'm going to say the word, and then I'm going to segment them into their two parts. So my word is shell. Watch as I do this, just watch the first time. Shell. My onset is /sh/, my rime is /l/. So I separate them apart. I'm segmenting them. Let's try them together. So go ahead and keep yours together. And now listen to my words. Repeat the word after me. My word is bell. Say bell. Say bell.

Students: Bell.

Stephanie Fincher: Onset ...

Students: /b/

Ms. Fincher: Rime ...

Students: /l/

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. You pull them apart. Go ahead and put them back together. [The students are using cards for the sounds so on the desk, they are sliding the cards apart, then pushing them back together.] My word is well. Say, well.

Students: Well.

Stephanie Fincher: [She points to her two cards and pulls them apart ...]

Students: /w/, /l/

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. back together. [She pushes the cards back together.] My word is tell.

Students: Tell. /t/, /l/

Stephanie Fincher: Good. Let's try another one. Put it back together. Okay. My word is vest.

Students: Vest. /v/, /est/

Stephanie Fincher: Good, Vivian. Okay. Maddox, I want you to show me with your manipulative [teacher points to Maddox's cards.]. Are you ready? My word is vest. Say vest.

Maddox: Vest.

Stephanie Fincher: Look at yours [she points to his cards] and show me how to segment it.

Maddox: /v/, /est/ [he slides his cards apart to show the two different sounds as he says them.]

Stephanie Fincher: Nice job. Okay. My word is west.

Students: West. /w/, /est/

Stephanie Fincher: Nice job. My word is test.

Students: Test. /t/, /est/

Stephanie Fincher: Beautiful. Nice job. Okay, my next word is nest.

Students: Nest. /n/, /est/

Stephanie Fincher: Nice job! I heard you. Okay. My word is pest.

Students: Pest. /p/, /est/

Stephanie Fincher: Let me hear that one again. Put it together. [She points to their cards.] My word is pest.

Students: Pest. /p/, /est/

Stephanie Fincher: Okay, so I heard, did you hear a little /p/? It's a unvoiced sound, so we don't want to feel it on our vocal chords. [The group puts their fingers to their throats where their vocal chords are.] Say /p/.

Students: /p/

Stephanie Fincher: Now, let's try the word again. Are you ready? The word is pest.

Students: Pest. /p/, /est/

Stephanie Fincher: Now, when you tell me the first sound, try popping your lips. Ready?

Students: /p/ ... /p/

Stephanie Fincher: And the rime?

Students: /est/

Stephanie Fincher: Good job. Okay, let's try the word chest.

Students: Chest. /ch/, /est/

Stephanie Fincher: Good job.

Narrator: For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Laverne Heights Elementary School, Bonita Unified School District, and the Los Angeles County Office of Education. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and two anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, DC, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

Stephanie Fincher: This is Reading Universe.

Blending Onset and Rime with Autumn and Linda Farrell