Page 3 - Play Onwards Vol. 1e

Play Onwards Volume 1

INTRODUCTION

Special Feature
Invisible ink is what makes this workbook so special. As certain missing words are mechanically
read, students hear but do not see them. And to make the exercises sufficiently easy to be

handled by beginning students, there is a blank space for each missing letter in all the many
sentences provided herewith.

Vocabulary
Volumes 1 & 2 of Play Onwards, like their sister workbooks Volumes 1 & 2 of Work on Words,
contain approximately ninety-five percent of all the everyday, monosyllabic words in the English

language and often two or more disparate usages of the many usages of each word. The only
other single-syllable words not covered are jargons (i.e., those words unique to a particular

trade, profession, or industry) and a handful of words that the built-in mechanical reader is
unable to pronounce correctly.

Phonics

Being that the exercises follow the same format of The Red Well-Read Reader, students will
learn phonics thoroughly. They will see how a typical word is formed by combining one of 43

consonants or consonantal blends with one of the 361 roots or families (180 in this volume)―e.g.
ab, ack, ad, and so forth.

Spelling Rules

Without the tedious rules ever being explicitly stated, students will learn them, or rather some
of them. For instance, they will when to double the last consonant to form a regular verb’s past

tense or its progressive form (e.g. lap to lapped or lapping); and they will learn when not to do
so (e.g. hike to hiked or hiking). Occasionally students will have to supply a “y” as the last missing

letter. Being that only the root words are listed, students will have to the extra ending
consonant, the “ed” or the “ing.” In any regard, there is always one blank space for each missing
letter.

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