Other than visiting Sea World when I was eight, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dolphin in real life. We’ve visited many aquariums and I don’t think any had a collection of porpoises.
I’ve read it’s due to the fact that dolphins are such social animals and that keeping them in a tank is total torture to them.
I find this fascinating. In fact, I find everything about them fascinating. One of my life’s dreams is to one day go swimming with dolphins and meet one of these majestic mammals face to face.
Until then, I suppose I’ll have to settle for seeing their friendly faces on the next reading strategy!
Who is Flippy Dolphin?
Dolphins have long been regarded as helpful creatures. That makes them the perfect addition to our reading strategy family.
Flippy Dolphin is a reading strategy that teaches children to “flip” the vowel sound. For example – before using this strategy, a reader might read the sentence, “I like to fly my kite.” as “I like to fly my kit.” Flippy Dolphin teaches they to try the long vowel sound when the words don’t make sense.
You will need to wait a bit before introducing this strategy. I wait until we are ready to introduce long vowel sounds. Typically, I do a week or so of silent e spelling words before jumping into this one so they have some foundation to build on.
You can grab my Flippy Dolphin poster here or by clicking on the image below.
Why is it important?
For quite some time now, young readers have become accustomed to saying the short vowel sound while saying words. However, clearly the English language doesn’t always work like that. This means vowel sounds can be a tricky thing for young readers.
Flippy Dolphin teaches them that if a word doesn’t make sense with a short vowel sound, they should “flip” that sound and try a long vowel sound.
This strategy is super important because it unlocks a whole slew of new words and language patterns for beginning readers.
How to introduce it
To introduce this, we first talk about dolphins, and what we know. We discuss what they are (mammals), where they live, what they eat, and what they do. We watch a short clip of dolphins at Sea World doing flips.
After, we discuss how a dolphin flips and moves and from there transition into introducing our new friend.
As I mentioned earlier, we have done a preliminary introduction to long vowel sounds, so they have some knowledge of them. I explain to them that Flippy Dolphin “flips” short vowel sounds and makes them long.
We then practice with several long vowel sound words including silent e and vowel teams. It’s also important to discuss “tricky y” and how it sometimes says “I” or “E.”
How to practice it
As always you can find lots of resources for Flippy Dolphin on Pinterest. However, I have a few I created that I have found to be really fun and keep beginning readers engaged.
- Flip-it Fast
In this game, you will write a bunch of long vowel words on a white board. You then set a timer (usually for 30-60 seconds) and see if your reader can decode them before the alarm goes off.
You can also play this without the clock by turning by making it child against teacher. Simply make a t-chart at the bottom of board and award the child points when they get it correct and yourself points when they get it wrong.
It is important to note, when you begin doing these activities with a child, it may be difficult. In the beginning it doesn’t hurt to give them some context clues much as they would get in a book. For example, if they are struggling, write the word in a sentence to help provide some more background that may help them decode the word.
- Flip or not
On index cards you will write a series of long and short vowel words. Your child will need to then flip the cards over to determine if they belong in the long vowel (or flipped) category or the short vowel category.
You can also do this as a speed sort sort and have another fun timed game.
- Level D-F Books
Long vowels will becoming increasingly more common as the levels of books rise. You probably won’t find a ton of long vowels in Levels A-C, but you should find them in levels D-F and higher.
Be sure to point them out as you read, and discuss with your child how Flippy Dolphin helped them decode the word. A useful pre-reading activity can also be to read the book and look for words you anticipate may need to be “flipped” and/or revisit the book after reading to discuss which ones made long vowel sounds.
- Flip it Hunt
This is a simple activity you can do with materials you have lying around the house.
Using magazines, newspaper, or even junk mail, have your child hunt for long vowel words in different mediums of text. Have them glue them on to a sheet of paper and then attempt to decode them.
Similarly, you can also turn this into a sort activity, and have them also locate short vowel sound words.
- Flip it Board Game
As I said in my sight word series, almost any board game can make great review. Remember that stack of cards you made for the Flip or Not Sort? You can use them also with a board game.
The rules are super simple. All you have to do is correctly determine if a word needs to be flipped or not, Again, remember you may need to provide a sentence with some context if your child is struggling.
Recommended Books
Below are some of my favorite books to use while teaching this strategy. Don’t forget to check out Amazon’s used books. You can sometimes score some awesome deals that way.
For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from these links I may make a small commission at no cost to you.
If you’ve missed any of the previous strategies, you can find them here. Be sure to stay tuned tomorrow for the next strategy. And don’t forget, through June 14th, we have an amazing giveaway going on. You could win an Amazon gift card for $150! Be sure to check out the details here.
And don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest, where I’m pinning all kinds of great ideas for instruction!
