Join the Syllables and Write the Whole Word

There is no carpet on this 1st grade join-the-syllables page, only six cards in two columns of three. Each card has a picture at the top, two syllable tiles joined by a plus sign under it, and a three-line handwriting rule under the tiles — trac + tor beside a tractor, read + ing, rain + coat, sweat + pants, pan + da, pep + per on the sheet shown. The tiles are printed in the right order. The child reads the first tile, then the second, says the two together as one word, and writes the whole word on the rule without the gap. Every word on this face has exactly two syllables, and the pictures are drawn from across the themes rather than from one.

The syllables are printed and the child produces the word — that is the boundary between this family and the syllable division pages, where the word is printed and the child produces the break. Reading a long word in two visible parts and then closing the gap is how first graders are shown to attack panda and tractor before they can do it silently, and writing the joined word proves that the parts were read as parts and not guessed from the picture.

Print one per child; the rule is full size and the six words are a short session. It sits between the one-syllable word-family sheets and the read-the-syllables page, where the words grow to three syllables and the picture has to be found in a bank. A single portrait page, pencil only.