Closed Syllables A closed syllable has one short vowel followed by a consonant or consonants. The consonant “closes in” the vowel. The vowel can only run a short way, so it spells its short sound

Big Idea In a closed syllable the single vowel will spell its short sound.

Consonant Team Consonant teams (sh, wh, th, ch, qu, ng) are two consonants that team together to spell one new sound.

Big Idea Two consonants will team together to spell one brand new sound

Open Syllable Open Syllable have long vowel sounds. When a single vowel ends a syllable, it is open. It can run a long way, so it proudly calls out its name, which is its long sound.

Big Idea When the vowel is open, it can run a long way and spell its long sound.

Silent E Syllables The Silent Magnetic e Syllable is when a VC or CVC pattern is followed by a silent e. The silent magnetic e tugs on the consonant, which allows the vowel to spell its own name or its long sound.

Big Idea Silent Magnetic e sets the vowel free to spell its long sound.

The Hungry Rule The Hungry Rule introduces these spellings: ff, ll, ss, ck, tch, dge. We call these spellings “supersized.” A short vowel in a one-syllable word is very hungry. It will demand the supersized spelling if it is immediately followed by /f/ or /l/ or /s/ or /k/ or /ch/ or /j/.

Big Idea One-syllable word, one short vowel, super-sized spelling.

Complex Ends A closed syllable can end with two consonants. We refer to these as Complex Ends.

Big Idea We segment Complex Ends for spelling and we blend them for reading.

Suffixes Suffixes are word parts that are added to the base /root word to change its meaning.

Big Idea Suffixes are added to the end and change the meaning of the base/root word.

The Bully Rule The Bully Rule teaches the spelling convention of doubling the final consonant before adding a vowel suffix (a suffix beginning with a vowel).

Big Idea Protect the Base Word At All Cost! Is the base/root word a closed syllable with one consonant at the end? Then, you must protect the word from the Bully Vowel Suffix by doubling the single consonant at the end.

Tall, King, Think Words The vowel sounds are changed in these word families: -ing, -ink, -ang, -ank, -all.

Big Idea We read words with -ing, -ang, -ink, -ank, and -all as Word Families.

Complex Fronts A closed syllable can begin with two or three consonants. We refer to these as Complex Fronts.

Big Idea We blend Complex Fronts for reading and we segment them for spelling.

Soft C and G Two consonants (c and g) have two sounds, often referred to as the hard sound and the soft sound.

When the consonant c is followed by i, e or y, the sound of c is /s/, which is c’s soft sound. This is a highly consistent pattern.

When the consonant g is followed by i, e, or y, the sound of g may be /j/ which is g’s soft sound. This is not a highly consistent pattern; it occurs about fifty percent of the time.

Big Idea The consonant c has the /s/ sound before i, e, and y. The consonant g sometimes has the /j/ sound before i, e and y.

Vowel Tag This concept introduces students to the first step in dividing multisyllabic words into separate syllables.

We divide words using the strategy, Vowel Tag. Vowels like to run the way we read. When a vowel tags a consonant or consonant team after it, it creates a closed syllable. (More than 50% of all syllables are closed, which is why we divide words with Vowel Tag first.)

Big Idea When dividing a word with more than one syllable, first try Vowel Tag. The vowel tags the consonant after it and makes it a closed syllable.

Ending Syllables An Ending syllable is a consonant -le syllable.

Big Idea An Ending Syllable is a consonant before -le.

Prefixes A prefix is a group of letters that is added to the front of a base/root word to change the word’s meaning.

Big Idea Prefixes are added at the beginning of the base/root word to change the word’s meaning.

Changing If Vowel Tag doesn’t work to divide a word into syllables, use Changing. This involves changing the vowel sound from the short vowel sound to the long vowel sound. If long doesn’t work, try schwa.

Big Idea If Vowel Tag doesn’t work, change the vowel sound from short to long to schwa.

Dividing Steps dividing a multisyllable word into separate syllables. 1. Divide compound words. 2. Box off prefixes and suffixes. 3. Box off Ending Syllables. 4. Divide with Vowel Tag. 5. Divide with Changing.

Big Idea We can follow steps to divide words into syllables. We can go with the flow by following our Flow Chart.

Long E In one-syllable words, the Best Spelling is ee, followed closely by ea. In multisyllable words, there are three Best Spellings (The Big Three), depending upon where the vowel is in the word. If the vowel is open, use just the vowel. If a consonant sound follows the long E sound, use the silent magnetic e. If the long E is at the end of a word, use a spelling with a tail (-y).

Big Idea In one-syllable words, the Best Spellings for Long E is ee, ea. In multisyllable words, the Best Spellings for Long E is e-open syllable, e-consonant-silent e, and y at the end.

R Family R Family: When a vowel is before r, (er, ir, ur, ar, or), the sound is /er/. There are two teenagers in this family: /ar/ which is spelled ar and /or/ which is spelled or.

Big Idea In the happy R Family, er, ir, ur, ar, or all spell /er/. But the two teenagers, ar and or have their own sounds. They will spell the family sound sometimes, but ar likes /ar/ and or likes /or/.

Rebel R Rebel R. A Rebel R is when another vowel or another r is added to an R family spelling. The R Family Sound is changed to /ear/ or /air/ or /ire/. /ear/ can be spelled ear, eer, ere. /air/ can be spelled air, ear, are, ere. /ire/ is spelled ire and, occasionally, yre (lyre) or oir (choir).

Big Idea Big Idea for Rebel R: An extra r or an extra vowel with an R Family spelling changes the sound of the R Family.

Slinky Vowels Slinky Vowels are vowel teams that have neither a short vowel sound nor a long vowel sound, but their own unique sounds. Students will learn which spelling to use at the end of words.

Big Idea Slinky Vowel Teams are vowel teams that have their own special sounds.

Walkers Walkers are vowel teams that are pronounced with the long sound of the first vowel.

Big Idea Walkers are vowel teams that follow this pattern: when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.

Most Kind and Wild Old Words The Most Kind and Wild Old Words. Some word families (-ild, -old, -ind, sometimes -ost) have a long vowel sound even though it should be short.

Big Idea We will read and spell -ost, -ind, -ild, -old, as Word Families.

Yellow Spellings Yellow Spellings are vowel spellings that require caution when reading and spelling. Yellows fit what we know about the basic vowel code but there is something more. Yellows include ou, ow, oo, ea, igh, y.

Big Idea Use caution with Yellow Spellings. They fit what we know about vowel spellings, but there is something more to remember.

Red Spellings Red Vowel Teams refer to the six vowel team spellings are Reds. We must stop and think when we read and spell words with the red vowel spellings, as they do not fit what we know. ei, ey are walkers that spell the /ē/ sound. However, ei, ey also spell /ā/, as does the combination of eigh. eu, ew are Last Walkers: two vowels go walking and the last one does the talking. They spell /ū/. ie is both a Last Walker and a First Walker. Thus, ie spells /ē/ and, in four words, /ī/ (lie, tie, pie, die).

Big Idea We must stop and think when we read and spell words with red spellings.

Soft C and G Multisyllabic words with soft c (/s/) and soft g (/j/). It will emphasize words that end in -ce, -ge, -dge, and - age.

Big Idea When three snake letters (e, I, y) follow C or G, they change the sound of c to /s/ and sometimes they change the sound of g to /j/.

Silent Letters Many words have silent letters. It is believed that a number of silent letters were once pronounced, but now only the “ghosts” of the letters remain. We still spell the words with these silent letters, but we do not say their sounds.

Big Idea We once said the sound for the silent letter, but now only the ghost of the letter remains.

Captain Rule For the Captain Rule, students learn to memorize a sentence that includes seven words ending in -ain. The words are not pronounced with the long /ā/ sound. The sentence is: A captain from a certain mountain town got a bargain on curtains and fountains again.

Big Idea We can remember these “captain words” with this sentence: A captain from a certain mountain town got a bargain in curtains and fountains again.

Scribal O Scribal O teaches this story: Long ago, when the scribes wrote u next to v, n, th, or m, it was difficult to distinguish the u. So the scribes began placing a small cap over the u. Later, the printing press interpreted this letter as the letter o.

Big Idea The printing press changed the u to an o before m, n, v, th.