Thursday, November 14, 2019

Lively Letters

Hello Families,

Over the past couple of weeks, we spent some time on strategies for spelling and reading.

First, we reviewed what vowels and consonants are.  Students were reminded that every word (or every syllable in a word) must have a vowel.

 



Next, we looked at the first of many syllable types: CVC or consonant/vowel/consonant.
When a word (or syllable) is a CVC, (E.g. bed, not, Bob, hip) the vowel makes the short vowel sound.  Can your child tell you all of the long and short vowel sounds?  Listen carefully for the short e and i as some students will switch those around.

Then, we talked about open syllables CV or consonant/vowel.  The vowels in open syllables (E.g. hi, no, go, we) make the long vowel sound.

We also looked at mean King Edward (silent e).  When King Edward follows a word, he turns around, looks at the vowel and yells, "say your name!"  For instance, the o in hop makes the short vowel sound.  When we put King Edward on the end, hope, the o says his name (the long vowel sound).



After, we moved on to blends.  Consonant blends are a group or two or three consonants that make a distinct sound (E.g. shed, play, blend, small).

Earlier this week, we looked at the vowel path.  At times, we may hear a long vowel sound but it is actually made by two vowels.  Here's a tip to remember what these vowels sound like: When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.  For example, in boat, the o is leading and it will say it's name.  In fair the a is leading and it will say it's name.

Later, we will find out what sounds the vowel pairs in the box make!




This is a quick example of an activity for helping your child with spelling at home:
Ask them to spell the word not. Can they change not to note? 
Ask them to spell rid.  Can they change rid to ride?

You can even get them to spell alien words (words that are made up, you're watching to see if they can identify the sound you're targeting).
Ask them to spell beak.  Can they change beak to boak?
Ask them to spell loaf.  Can they change loaf to shoaf?



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