Friday Tip

We have been working a lot with closed syllables this year. An easy way to remember a closed syllable is check and see if a consonant is blocking the vowel, or closing it in.  We sometimes refer to this as the vowel being in jail.  Words with only one vowel are single syllable words (we are not getting into diphthongs at this point). If a student has trouble with this, have him or her color all of the vowels in with a red pen or marker.  This will help them see how many syllables are in a word, and how to pronounce the word. (If the syllable is closed the vowel is short, if it is open it is usually long).

"stup" is supposed to be "step"- However, the same rules apply for nonsense words.