Snow!

I just thought I would share these fun pictures of our snowy soccer field. I hope everyone has a fun and safe snow day!

Dividing Syllables

Our class has been working with multisyllabic words, and using strategies to decode these words. The first part of tackling multisyllabic words is to segment them into manageable chunks, so we are learning how to segment words into syllables. I ask the class to look for syllables that are by themselves (not vowel teams or diphthongs at this point) and count them. That is the number of syllables in the word. We then have three rules for segmenting words.

When words have a cvccvc format they are easy to segment because the word is segmented between the two consonants. in this case "public" segment between the b and the c. then tap and say each syllable- p-u-b, pub; l-i-c, lic- "public." (remember that the ck option is only used after short vowels in 1-syllable words). 

With cvcvc words like relish, the word is segmented between the l and the i to "close in" the vowel so that it will make the short sound. r-e-l; del, i-s-h, ish, "relish." 

Finally, with cvcccvc words, we first look for digraphs, in this case the th. Digraphs always stay together so we segment the word between the h and the t. b-a-th, bath; t-u-b, tub- "bathtub." 

These steps may seem trivial, but it is amazing and empowering it is for early readers when decoding! We also use similar techniques for spelling, and I will add more about that later. 

As promised, this is our 100 year bulletin board. I was so impressed by their thoughtful responses!