Double Letters

After spending the beginning of the year learning about phonemes on our Sound Wall, and reviewing and practicing skills with short vowel words, we have started studying digraphs -- a combination of two letters making one sound. The first pattern we learned is the "FLSZ Spelling Rule," sometimes referred to as the "Floss" rule.  When you hear a /f/, /l/, /s/, or /z/ sound at the end of a one syllable word after a short vowel sound, you double that letter. A helpful way to remember these letters that are doubled is with the sentence, "Jeff will pass Buzz." Check out the silly animations below to help you remember!

 

Practice Opportunities

Please see the UFLI Foundations Home Practice slip sent home in your child's Home Literacy bag for a FLSZ practice word chain, as well as a short vowel review Home Practice slip.  In class, we use magnetic letters to "play" with these, but a simple pencil and paper or white board and pen will work just as well!

This online game helps students practice reading FLSZ short vowel words by matching words that they hear and see: FLSZ Match Up

This online "quiz show style" game requires students to identify the correct spelling based on a given picture (good practice for distinguishing vowel sounds as well as FLSZ words!):FLSZ Quiz Show

If you would like more offline practice, feel free to print off a free Floss Rule Game by clicking the following link from the blog, "The Measured Mom": The Floss Rule Game

 

Heart Words

Heart words are high frequency words where some components do not follow predictable "sounding out" spelling patterns. We can use our knowledge of phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) to decode some parts of heart words, but they have some parts we must learn "by heart." Please find the following list of heart words we have learned so far in your child's Home Literacy bag, as well as a page of possible suggestions for playful ways to study and practice them. I include a handful of heart words along with sample words that follow our current spelling pattern on the check-in spelling assessments.