Final -LE

 The students know that a syllable is a word or part of a word with one vowel sound, and learning about different types of syllables helps us read and spell bigger words.

Remember, closed syllables end in one or more consonants (like "sandwich bread,") and the vowel is short/ Open syllables end in a vowel (no sandwich bread on the end!) and the vowel sound is long.

A"final stable" syllable is the last syllable in a word, and the sound is always the same. Consonant + LE is a common and useful example! LE spells the /l/ sound like at the end of "apple" and "puzzle."

How do you know if the first syllable is open or closed, which in turn makes the vowel long or short? To correctly read and spell the first syllable in these types of words, it is helpful to remember: Final LE? Count back 3! (There will always be 1 consonant before the LE: bub-BLE, squig-GLE, ta-BLE, noo-DLE...)

Fun Practice

Solve these -LE anagram scrambles -- for an extra challenge, you can select the crossword template on the sidebar on the right. Don't forget, you need a double consonant for a short vowel sound!

Math Practice Games

 And now for something completely different...

If you are taking time to practice your learning at home, thank you so much! Please feel free to explore these games to reinforce and practice the addition and subtraction skills and concepts we have learned.

Something that is challenging for many students is figuring out whether a word problem question is asking us to add or subtract. We have learned about some common language that gives us clues. Click on the picture below to practice matching word problem language to the correct operation (addition or subtraction).

Grab a white board or pencil and paper, and click on the picture below to practice 3 digit subtraction with regrouping. Remember: Start with the ones (on the right), it's so much fun. More on top? No need to stop! More on the floor? Go next door and get ten more!

Grab a white board or pencil and paper, and click on the picture below to practice 3 digit addition with regrouping. Remember: Start with the ones (on the right), 'cause it's so much fun. If it makes ten or more, regrouping is in store! Carry the ten next door.

Sneaky, Sly Y!

 So here's the story...

Sneaky Sly Y gets tired of making its consonant sound /y/ all the time, and wishes he were a superhero vowel who can say their own name! So...sometimes he slyly sneaks and steals the super capes of long I and long E -- but *only* at the end of words, so he won't get caught! At the beginning of a word (which is like the front of the line, where everyone can see), he makes his regular consonant sound. BUT at the end of a short / one syllable word (like "try" or "why,") Y makes the long /i/ sound. At the end of a two (or more!) syllable word, Y makes the long /e/ sound, as in "baby" or "happy." We learned that in a short vowel 2 syllable word ending in Y (like "puppy" or "silly", we almost always have to double the consonant to keep the vowel short. This is because of how the word breaks into syllables. Without a double consonant, those words would sound really strange or funny! 

Enjoy these videos to review the pattern(s):

Games to Practice Sneaky Sly, Y:

Click on the picture below to practice unscrambling and spelling Sneaky Y (long E) words. For an extra challenge, you can click on the "Crossword" template option on the right side bar to spell the words without the help of an anagram scramble!

Click on the picture below to practice spelling Sly Y (long I) words with a hangman game. Alternatively, you can click on the right sidebar to change it to a crossword template (the students love practicing spelling patterns as crosswords when we have a spare moment in class!).

High Frequency Words to Practice:

funny, only. family, lucky, study, fly. try. why, myself

Ending Spelling Patterns: -tch and -dge

 The students are experts at remembering short vowel word patterns like "-ck" and double letters f/l/s/z -- this past week we added 2 more to our tool belts. Short vowel words with a /ch/ as the final sound are spelled with the trigraph (3 letters making 1 sound!) "-TCH." Examples of this include "match" and "switch." Short vowel words with a /j/ sound at the end are spelled with the trigraph "-DGE," as in "smudge," or "bridge." 

Games to Practice New Skills

Fill in the blank game to practice -dge and -tch reading. (Click the picture)

Practice your spelling with this fun picture match crossword! If this game appears first as a match-up, click on "crossword" on the "Switch Template" sidebar on the right. (Click the picture below to open).

Multisyllabic Words: Open and Closed Syllables

 This week we honed our multisyllabic reading and spelling skills by focusing on the vowel sounds in open and closed syllables. A closed syllable means the vowel is followed by at least one consonant, which makes the vowel sound short (like in the word "ship" or "bun.") An open syllable means the vowel is not followed by a consonant, which makes the vowel 'say its name' or long sound (such as the words "we" or "so.") These cute videos review the concept:

Games to Practice:

Can you combine open and closed syllables to spell and read all of the 2-syllable words? Click the picture to play:

This game helps practice identifying how many syllables are in a word. If you have trouble reading a word, you can also use the sound option. Remember, every syllable has one vowel sound, and you can hold your hand flat under your chin -- when you say a word, every time you feel your chin drop, that's a syllable.

"Heart" (irregular) and High Frequency Words to Review

These words are all part of the Alberta Curriculum list of 300 words we want our students to be able to read. Some are "heart" words with irregular spellings we have worked to learn, and others follow the open and closed syllable patterns we have practiced this past week.

 

they	children
being	once
been	even
sometimes	begin
something	began
friend	also
because	along
until	open
sentence	does
second	change

Inflectional Endings: -ed, -es, and -ing

 This week we learned about inflectional endings -- word part "tails" on the main "body" (or base word) that change the number (single or plural), or tense of the base word. 

We already knew that the -S ending is used to make nouns plural. Now we know that if a word ends with CH, SH, S, X, or Z, we add -ES instead of just -S to make it plural, like in "bunches," "dishes," "glasses," and "foxes."

We learned about "Time Traveler -ED," which takes verbs into the past! There are 3 different ways it can be pronounced when we read it: If a voiced sound comes before -ED, we say /d/ (like in "called" and "tamed.") If an unvoiced sound comes before -ED, it's more of a /t/ sound (like in "sniffed" or "helped.") If the sounds /d/ or /t/ come before -ED, the E is pronounced like the E in -ES -- this relaxed vowel sound is called a "schwa," which the students find pretty funny!

The students were already familiar with -ING from when we learned about the -NG digraph, and we reviewed how -ING is an ending we can add to verbs to change their tense when we are talking about actions that continuously happen (like "going" or "jumping").

Games to Practice Inflectional Endings

Practice reading -es words in this memory match game (click the picture):

Read the -ed verb and decide whether the -ed inflectional ending "tail" makes the /t/, /d/, or /əd/ sound and sort them accordingly (click the picture to play):

Choose the -ing verb that best matches the picture:

Heart Words + Spelling Patterns to Review

(This was sent home as a hard copy on Friday)