Dear Parents, Your child is learning a lot of information regarding spelling sounds and patterns in first grade. Having a secure knowledge of all these sound combinations will make reading and writing much easier for your child. If you become familiar with the sound combinations yourself, it will make it easier for you to help your child at home. Please keep this page in a safe place at home and refer to it often. I hope this helps you and your child study better together.

Consonants b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x z Vowels a e i o u (sometimes y)

Short Vowels (consonant – vowel – consonant) CVC

a (cat) e (bed) i (pig) o (fox) u (cub)

Vowel – Consonant – e (magic E, silent E, jumping E, CVCe) Long Vowel Teams a (ai – afraid) (ay – play) (a - e cake) (eigh - neighbor) (a – alien) e (ee – meet) (ea – seat) (ei – receive) (ey – key) (e – she) (e – e these)

i (ie – pie) (igh – light) (i – hi) (i – e kite) o (oa – boat) (ow – show) (oe – toe) (o – e those) (o – old) (ough - dough) u (ue – glue) (u – e tube) (ew – blew) (u – unicorn)

Y as a vowel (one syllable) sounds like i – cry (two syllables) sounds like e – baby

Other Vowel Patterns

oi – oil oy – boy oo – moon oo - book ou – house ow – cow ow - snow au - sauce aw - claw Digraphs Bossy R sh ch th wh ph R Controlled Vowels sh – show ar er ir or ur ch – chin (tch watch) ar – car th – throw or – corn wh – whale er – her ph – phone ir – bird

ur – surf

Blends

L Blends R Blends S Blends Triple Clusters Ending Blends bl - blow br - brain sc – scooter squ - squeeze ng - sing cl - clock cr - crack sk – skate spr – sprinkle nk rink fl - flower dr – drink sl - slip scr - scream ld - old gl - glide fr – freeze sm – smell spl - splat nt – rent pl - play gr - growl sn – snow st - best sl - sleep pr – prize st – stop mp – jump tr – tree sw – sweet lt – belt