Nonsense Word Lists

I constantly make up word lists of common and less-common words for practice. Uncommon English words (cad, dab, and so on) serve the same purpose as nonsense words. It can also be pointed out that even if something is not a word on its own, it is very likely a syllable as part of a larger word, for example “bex” (part of the name Bexhill)

Anyway, to make up a comprehensive list of one-syllables, choose a vowel sound, short a to start, start with b as the first consonant, and ring the changes through the final consonants (being careful of l and r), then the same with ba, and so on.

bab, back, bad, baf, bag, baj, bam, ban, bap, … yab, yack, yad, … beb, beck, …, yux

bay, babe, bafe, bage, … and so on.

You could even write a computer program to generate these.

I am also using the Toe by Toe and finding it a great resource.
helen

I do the exact same thing as Victoria.

I make up my own nonsense word chains to use with each individual child. I’m at the point where I can make them up on the spot as I see in each student what areas need work.

I am giving a power point presentation 10 minutes. Do you have any teaching strategies I might use. It is for Special Education Class in my Masters Degree program.

I put letters and combinations on wooden blocks.
I’ll put together a nonsense word out of b, ink
and show them to my son. The blocks he decodes
correctly go in his pile.

We also play the game where I will write the
word squeek and tell him I want him to make the
word out three blocks.

He enjoys these games and does really well when
tested on his word attack skills.

Anne

I’ve put together a binderful — and a good sample of them are on my site.
I find that it’s best to use *useful* nonsense syllables. So I’ll use “gest” and “ject” and not “jest” and “gect” because aside from the word jest, those are the spellings my guys will actually see in words and if I can make a visual imprint while working on the sound connections, it’s to their advantage.

Anyway, go to the “reading and spelling” section of www.resourceroom.net and help yourself :)

is how it is spelled.

>> Um…squeak…<<

ak! lol!

Since you’ve got some from Lindamood already, you may already have some of these, but the Lindamood people currently have a “Resource Masters” book available on their website (www.lindamoodbell.com/gander) and from Gander Publishing directly (800-554-1819) that is just chock-full of word lists, both real and nonsense, at all syllable levels. It costs about $50 and is only available for a limited time, but that would probably give you just about all you’ll ever need…

Sharon

When doing rhyming lessons for homework I was letting my son us some nonsense words. All of them got marked wrong and he was pretty upset with me.

I teach kindergarten using a systematic phonics approach. For the last few months I have put one short-vowel ending on the board daily for my students to make words with in their journals. After 5 minutes, the children volunteer words that they have written & I copy them on the board. We discuss at that time whether they are real words or not, whether they could be parts of real words. They love it!

I make large cardboard dice and put initial consonants on some… and word endings on the others. So a student rolls 2 dice and puts them together to make a word. Then they decide if it is real or fake. They create their own fake word lists!