We will be reviewing the consonant sounds for the first 2 weeks of school.
This means that the students will not have spelling lists or spelling tests.
Spelling tests will begin when we start vowel valley.
Consonants: p, b, t, d, ch, j, k, g, f, v, s, z, sh, zh, th, m, n, h, w, wh,
l, r
Vowel Valley:
/ee/ as in cheese
/i/ as in igloo
/e/ as in egg
/a/ as in apple
/u/ sound as in umbrella
/o/ as in octupus
/au/ as in August and /aw/ as in paw
/oe/ as in toe
/oo/ as in foot
/oo/ as in boot
/ie/ as in tie
/ue/ as in blue
/oi/ as in coin
/oy/ as in boy
/ou/ as in ouch
/ow/ as in cow
Consonant blends: 2 or more consonants with no vowel between them that keep
their own sound. Blends can come at the beginning and at the end of words.
i.e. st as in stop or fl as in flip
Borrowers: They are called borrowers because the letters y, x, c, and qu do
not have their own sound, but have to borrow sounds from other letters. For
example, when you hear the /k/ sound, it is usually spelled with a c before
the letters a, o, or u and with a k before the letters e or i.
R controlled vowels growling r's: The combination 'er', 'ur', and 'ir' all
make the same sound. The r controls the vowel, altering its sound. 'er' is
the most common spelling (40%), 'ur' is the second most commom spelling
(26%), and 'ir' is the least common spelling (13%). This will help your
child make an educated spelling guess. We are also learning about 'or'as in
stork and 'ar' as in armadillo.
REVLOC
Closed Syllables: Syllables containing one vowel and at least one
consonant to the right of the vowel. Examples: it, hat, fish, branch.
Closed syllables are the most frequent syllable type. Words like how, boy,
and arm are not closed syllables because the 'w' and 'y' are a part of the
vowel team and the 'r' is a part of an r controlled vowel.
Open Syllables: Syllables containing one vowel with nothing to the right of
the vowel. The vowel will say its name. Open syllables are the 2nd most
frequent syllable type. Examples: we, try, no
Consonant 'le' Syllables: Syllables containing a consonant + le. Students
count back 3 from the 'e' and divide the syllable. Consonant le takes
precedence over Closed and Open syllables so try it first when reading a
word. Examples: lit/tle, ta/ble
Vowel Team: A syllable containing 2 vowels that make 1 sound. A vowel team
takes precedence over consonant le, open, and closed syllables so try it
first. examples: re/main, poo/dle, cof/fee
Bridge 'e' Syllable: contains a single vowel followed by a consonant + e and
the e makes the vowel say its name.
Examples: make, bike, handmade
Growling r Syllables: Syllables containing a vowel followed by an r. The r
controlls the vowel and does not let it say it's name or sound.
Hard and Soft 'c': When 'c' is before an 'i', 'y', 'e', it makes the /s/
sound, as in city. When 'c' is before any other letter, it makes the /k/
sound as in cat.
Hard and Soft G: When 'g' is before 'i', 'y', or 'e', it makes the /j/ sound
as in genie. When 'g' is in front of any other letter, it makes the /g/
sound as in go.
Begin Clockface:
1:00 c or k spelling rule: At the beginning or middle of a word, when you
hear the /k/ sound, it is usually spelled with a 'c' and you use 'k' if it
is followed by an 'i', 'e', or 'y'.
2:00 ge or dge Rule: To spell /j/ at the end of a one syllable word
use 'dge' so the 'd' blocks the 'e' from making one vowel say its name.
(example: fudge) se 'ge' everywhere else. (example: huge, barge)
3:00 u, v, or j rule
Words in English do not end in u, v, or j.
At the end of the word, if you hear:
/ue/ add an 'e' (Ex. venue, cue)
/u/ it is most likely spelled with an 'a' (Ex. panda, agenda)
/v/ add an 'e' (Ex. active, give)
/j/ apply the ge/dge rule
4:00 Floss Rule
Double the final consonant if the word:
1. is one syllable (Ex. fluff, miss)
2. has one vowel (Ex. less, fill)
3. ends in f, l, s (or z)
5:00 ck Rule
To spell /k/ at the end of a one syllable word use:
1. 'ck' after one vowel (Ex. stack, sick)
2. 'k' everywhere else (Ex. sneak, hawk, stork, milk)
To spell /k/ at the end of a multisyllable word, use 'c' (Ex. fantastic,
plastic)
Red words: a, I, the, do, to, of, was, you, be, he, me,
she, we, as, has, his, is, been, have, said, were, what, come, from, some,
word, your, one, two, all, into, who, and, find, could, should, would, give,
water, their, there, go, no, so, are, many, they, my, by, want, work, four,
eight, pull, gone, thought, put, both, brought, done, friend, does, know,
world, new, please, few, once, where, buy, sure, clothes, wash, poor, wear,
door, early, pretty, ready, very, enough, something, because, cause, any,
anything, carry, half, warm, though, eyes, course, built, more, front, before
country, today, sometimes, people, mother, father, brother, together,
another, head, learn, suit, woman, questions, national, condition, labor,
doctor,wonder, certain, company, love, move, office, service, above, across,
against, again, among
Extended SMART activities: Here are some suggestions for reinforcing the
phonics skills we are
learning in school each week. Our phonics time is limited everyday but very
important for the
child to become a fluent reader. These are fun ways to review phonics with
your child outside
of school.
*Discuss the sound of the week. Have your child tell you the story and the
rule at the dinner
table.
*Brainstorm words that have the sound of the week in the beginning, middle,
or end. Dictate
words to them and them tell you if it is in the beginning, middle, or end of
the word.
*Dictate real or nonsense words for your child to write in sand, shaving
cream, paper/pencil,
chalk/chalkboard, whiteboard/expo marker, etc.
*When your child is reading or you are reading with the, have them identify
words with the
sound of the week in the story as well as red words.
*Write the consonants all over a beachball or any other ball. Toll the ball
and say the sound
of each letter your thumb lands on. Then have your child put the vowel sound
in between each
consonant and make a word. i.e. my thumbs land on /p/ and /f/. I make the
individual sounds
of each letter and then put the /ee/ sound in between to make 'peef'
and 'feep'.
*Do a mad lib asking for words with specific sounds. i.e. give me a noun
with the /ee/ sound
in it.
*Play CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) war with card decks.
