Tag Archives: vowel sounds

Vowel Sounds

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short-vowelsThis week, our groups will focus more intentionally on vowels and their different sounds. Vowels are often the trickiest part of a word. When trying to figure out an unknown word, readers have to be flexible and persistent, trying different sounds until they find the right combination that sounds right, looks right, and makes sense.

We will practice the short and long sound of each vowel, as well as the schwa sound, that crazy sound that sounds like you just caught a football in your stomach. Although our language is full of exemptions, there is one rule that does work most of the time. Some of you might remember, “when 2 vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” This does actually hold true for many words. When there are 2 vowels together, the first one usually makes the long sound (says its name) and the second vowel is silent. This rule also works with a “vowel-consonant-e” word; the first vowel is long and the second vowel (e) is silent.

Our groups will practice applying this rule in isolated words and in books. At home, you can help build this understanding by asking your child about vowel sounds and finding words that may or may not follow this rule.

Happy reading!

 

Flippy the Dolphin & Reading to Learn

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Hoping that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with fun and lots and lots of reading 🙂

First Grade: This week, we have been expanding our knowledge of vowels and their sounds, long and short. This information is important because good readers are flexible in finding a vowel sound that sounds right in a word. When stretching out a word, readers should try the short sound first. If the word doesn’t make sense, readers can “flip the vowel sound” to try the long sound. This is a very complex skill! We practiced this at the letter level, then at the word level, and then finally at the sentence level in books. We will continue to work on this new strategy, Flippy the Dolphin, throughout the rest of the year. Check your child’s understanding of vowels by asking him/her to tell you the 5 vowels (we learned a song to help with this!) and also the short and long vowel sounds.

Second Grade: Readers have been continuing to work on quick recognition of common sight words and also on deepening comprehension. We have been using word patterns that we know to help us read new words. Our brain is a constant pattern seeker. Learning becomes more solid when the brain recognizes frequently occurring letter patterns in words. For example, we know the sound -ou makes in the word “out”. This -ou pattern can be applied to read the words, “proud” and “found”. Along with having quick recognition of words, we are continuing to work on understanding characters and their importance in our books. We are discussing why characters make the choices they do and the lessons that we can learn from the characters. Our focus is shifting from learning to read to reading to learn. As your child reads a just right book to you, stop several times during the story to ask How? and Why? questions about the characters. I promise that you will have some wonderful discussions!

Happy reading!!