These contractions flash cards help kindergarten to 4th grade students see how two words join to make a contraction, with 24 fold-over cards and a practice page. Answer key included.
Two little words squished into one
Kindergarten is just a sneak peek at contractions. Kids already say can't, don't and it's all the time, so we show them what those words look like in print. The big idea: two words squish together and a little mark called an apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter, like do + not = don't. Kids learn to read a few common contractions in their books. Writing them comes later, mostly in 1st and 2nd grade.
Keep it light and hands-on. These moves make the idea of a contraction visible to little learners.
Write "do" and "not" on two cards. Kids slide them together, then you cover the "o" in "not" with a little apostrophe sticker. Read it together: "don't!" Physically squishing the cards shows exactly what happens to the words.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
Try it withContractions Flash CardsFlash CardsOpen it →Hold up a contraction card and kids read it, then say the two words it stands for: "Can't! Can not!" Keep it to four or five cards, two minutes a day. Short, quick rounds help them recognize these words in their books.
Why it works: pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than rereading it, one of the strongest findings in learning research (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
Try it withContractions Flash CardsFlash CardsOpen it →Draw the apostrophe as a tiny character who holds the place of a missing letter. Kids love finding him in big books and pointing him out. Turning a punctuation mark into a friend makes it easy to remember.
Why it works: children learn more from words and pictures together than from words alone (Mayer, 2009).
Just a little. Kindergartners learn to recognize a few common contractions like can't, don't and it's in their reading. Formal contraction lessons usually come in 1st and 2nd grade.
Say it's two words squished into one, like "do not" becoming "don't." The apostrophe is a little mark that holds the spot where a letter was taken out.
Start with the ones they say every day: can't, don't, it's, I'm and I'll. These show up often in early readers, so recognizing them helps kids read more smoothly.
When you say a contraction, point it out: "I said can't. That means can not!" Look for apostrophes together in picture books and read those words aloud.
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