Multisensory Fun for Young Readers

Funded Sep 19, 2024

I am so pleased to share with you the impact that your donations have had on my students. I have been teaching for 21 years, and I have recently learned more about the impact that the Science of Reading has on our students. When kids learn something using more than one sense, the information is more likely to stick. The result is better muscle memory, especially for students who learn and think differently.

I reached out to you all early this year for some tools that would support my students' multisensory learning experiences. We know that multisensory activities are based in whole brain learning. By adding visual, tactile, and auditory components to our lessons, students develop foundational literacy muscles in the brain. These foundational literacy skills build fluency, comprehension, and confident readers.

What are some examples of this approach, you may ask? Well, with my youngest students, ages 5-6, the realia from the Lake Shore Learning tubs has given them a variety of hands-on items that they can use to support initiating the first sound in words. Building phonological awareness with tactile and visual supports, allows my students an anchor as they then learn to recognize the letter that makes that sound, produce the sound on their own, and then write the sound they hear. My English language learners love the realia as a way to interact with new concept words, build oral language, and also learn how to hear and record sounds in words.

Another item that my youngest students have benefitted from is the Theraputty. This is tactile putty that comes in a variety of textures. My little ones use this a couple times a week to help build the muscles and dexterity in their hands and fingers. Working the putty helps with their pencil grip and their ability to press down appropriately to make shapes and letters on the paper. This brings them so much joy, whilst building their capacity for strength and stamina.

The hi-lighting finger tools have been fun for all of my students. We use these to predict and locate our "trick words" in text. They simply put on a ring that has a firm hi-lighted strip attached. This makes hunting for words more fun. This tool also allows them to look for the new concepts we've learned before they read. Searching for word parts prior to reading, brings more intentionality and awareness to the text, and it's also a form of feeding forward, so they can anticipate what they might see, and help to "take the bugs out" so they can build fluency and confidence as they read a new text.

The hand-held mirrors have been so helpful, especially for my students who are striving with speech and articulation. Getting our mouths ready to produce new sounds can be tricky, but when we have a hand-held mirror to check ourselves, we then have a way to visually confirm that we are ready to make the sounds. We also use the mirrors to support our learning around "sister sounds" like p & b or f & v. Some sounds require the same mouth positioning, but with sister sounds, one is voiced and one is not. Seeing our mouths in the same position brings awareness to the concept that some sounds require "voice" and some sounds are subtle and soft.

The magnetic bingo wands and chips have been a game changer for supporting my students with both segmenting and blending sounds in words. There is nothing more satisfying than moving the chips up one at a time to segment and then scoping them all up with a magnetic wand. This tool supports multisensory learning at it's best. My kids love it!

The hi-lighter strips/overlays have been an amazing tool for some of my older students. We use these to build phrasing and fluency. Once students are able to segment and blend words, they are then ready to start putting words together in phrases, using expression and fluency. These colored overlays bring students' attention to one section of the text at a time so that they can sound more phrased and fluent.

What a gift these tools have been! My students are building confidence with joy, and are retaining their concepts and skills more quickly and deeply. I am so proud to be a part of the Donors Choose program, and I am really grateful to all of my participating donors for their generous support. Please know that these materials are being used daily, and words cannot express the value that you've brought to our learning community.”

With gratitude,

Mrs. Weyls