Long A Spelling Patterns

We know that the long a sound spells its name. But how many ways are there to spell this long vowel sound? I teach EIGHT different ways to spell the long a sound.

Knowing these different spelling patterns for this one sound is vital in developing phonemic awareness that will support students on their journey of becoming strong, confident, and fluent independent readers.

As students move from picture-heavy readers to more text-heavy books, they need to be equipped to confidently tackle words without guessing or using pictures. Targeted phonics instruction will not only help students decode more fluently, but students who have strong decoding and fluency skills also comprehend what they read more efficiently.

In this post, I list each of the eight spelling patterns as well as when each spelling pattern is most likely to be used.

a

Can spell the long a sound at the end of a syllable. Ex: acorn

a-e

Can spell the long a sound when the silent final e makes the a say its name. Ex: cake

ai

Can spell the long a sound at the beginning or in the middle of a word. Ex: aim; rain.

ay

Can spell the long a sound at the end of a base word. Ex: play

ea

Can spell the long a sound in the middle of a word. Ex: break

ei

Can spell the long a sound in the middle of a word. Ex: their

eigh

Can spell the long a sound at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word Ex: eight; neighbor; sleigh

ey

Can spell the long a sound at the end of a word. Ex: hey

For targeted practice with the different spelling patterns of the long a sound, check out this decodable reading resource in my shop.

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Making Sense of the Silent Final E

The silent final E may sometimes cause quite the conundrum. WHY is that E there? English makes no sense! Right? Well, that final silent E wears quite a few hats, and I’m going to use this post to explain those hats in a way that makes sense. 

  1.  It makes the vowel say its name.

    This is the most commonly known reason as to why the silent final E exists. It makes the vowel immediately preceding the consonant(s) before the E say its long vowel sound. When you add an E to the end of the word tap, you get tape.

    More examples: cap + E = cape; kit + E + kite; & past + E + paste

  2. Every syllable must have a written vowel — even if it cannot be heard.

    Would you write the word puzzl ? No way! It would be puzzle, with a silent final E. That’s because the word puzzle is two syllables: puz-zle, and if that silent final E were missing, there would be no written vowel in the second syllable.

    More examples: little (lit-tle); pickle (pick-le); & giggle (gig-gle)

  3. C and G can soften to /s/ and /j/ when followed by an E (I or Y, too).

    Have you ever noticed that when you add a silent final E to the word hug to make huge, the short U transforms to a long U, but the sound of the G changes from a /g/ to a /j/? This is because when a G (or C) comes before an E, I, or Y, the sound can soften.

    More examples: practice & garage

    (In these examples, see how the same letter can appear twice in the same word, but because of the silent final E, the second time the same letter appears, it is pronounced differently.)

  4. English language words do not end in I, J, U, or V.

    If you’re like me, you are trying very hard right about now to think of any and all exceptions that you can. “What about hi, flu, sushi, and ski ?” you may ask. Hi and flu are abbreviations for hello and influenza. Sushi is a Japanese word and ski is Norwegian. The true exceptions are the pronouns I and you.

More examples: olive, tie, & blue.

I hope that these examples of the many hats that silent final E wears make at least one part of the English language seem a bit less illogical. When these general rules of thumb are better understood, the English language will seem just a bit less confusing!

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Word Building Game

Games are a vital part of learning and can support learning in a myriad of ways. This image below is my screen from a recent Zoom session with one of my rising middle school students. We were ending a session playing the asked-for-over-again word building game.

WHAT IS IT?

This is a word building game I play frequently with my students. They love that they’re playing a game, and I love that they are building their vocabulary, spelling, and organization skills.

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HOW DO YOU PLAY?

It’s pretty simple. Choose a word and create 4 columns: one column each for 2-letter, 3-letter, 4-letter, and 5+ letter words. When playing virtually, I create a chart like this on my screen, and my students either a) creates a similar chart on paper or b) creates a document on their devices that they can screen share with me. Once the word is revealed and the grid is created, it’s go time. I allot approximately three minutes for students to build as many words as possible using the letters in the given word. Letters cannot be used more than once, but they can be used in any order.

You’ll notice that I have a FOCUS ON section. I do not use this with every student, but I will if my goal is to target particular spelling patterns, or if I have a student who has particular difficulty with task initiation and / or finding words, particular more complex ones.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE A WORD?

When choosing a word, I typically choose one that is seasonal, relevant to a current events issue, or related to a student’s interest. The word in this example above is from a recent session after Hurricane Isais wrecked havoc through our area and knocked out power, resulting in weeklong (and longer) power outages for many. My family is thankful that when we bought our house, there was already a generator installed. Unfortunately, the generator broke down after day 4 of working as back up. Hence, generator seemed like an appropriate word for many reasons that week: it was relevant, it targeted vocabulary and parts of speech (i.e. What are other forms of the word?: generate, generation, generated, etc…), and it honed particular spelling skills I wanted to focus on with this specific student.

This game can be differentiated for many different learning levels and needs. For extension work, ask students to pick a word to use in a well-written and descriptive sentence.

Happy Playing!

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Coordinating Conjunctions Craft Activity

Conjunction junction, what’s your function? were the famous Schoolhouse Rock words. (And it’s still impossible to talk about conjunctions without hearing them.) There are three categories of conjunctions: coordinating, subordinating, and correlative. They are all specific words that connect phrases, words, and clauses. This post focuses exclusively on coordinating conjunctions. 

There are seven coordinating conjunctions that can be easily remembered using the acronym FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. A good visual is what always helps me most, so I designed this coordinating conjunction fan to demonstrate the usage of these conjunctions for all those other visual learners out there. Also, kids LOVE putting these together.  To make this handheld fan, follow these simple steps:

What You’ll Need

  • Standard size (8.5in x 11in) sheet of paper

  • Marker

  • Ruler

  • Tape

How To

  1. Use a rule (or you can eyeball it!) to make roughly 1.5in marks

  2. Make six horizontal folds. This will then allow for seven spaces, one for each conjunction. There is enough space to also include the purpose for and / or an example of each coordinating conjunction. 

  3. Write each conjunction and purpose (see below for details) in each space.

  4. On the bottom where the conjunction FOR is written, you can flip up the to the opposite side and write COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS.

  5. Tape the bottom folds together to create a fan.

  • For a set-by-step video, you can hop on over to my Instagram page and watch it the reels section.

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For

Purpose: To give a reason.

Example: I brought my umbrella with me when I left the house, for it was supposed to rain.

 

And

Purpose: To join words, phrases, or sentences that show a similar idea.

Example: Sam finished his homework, and then he ate his dinner.

 

Nor

Purpose: To introduce or present a further negative idea or statement.

Example: Jen does not like to travel in airplanes, nor does she like to travel on trains.

 

But 

Purpose: To show contrasting or opposite ideas. 

Example: They wanted to bake muffins, but they didn’t have all of the ingredients. 

 

Or

Purpose: To show a choice or different options.

Example: We can go to the beach this morning, or we can go this afternoon.

 

Yet

Purpose: To join two ideas that are opposite. Similar to the use of the word but.

Example: Pete studied every day for the test, yet he still did not do as well as he had hoped. 

 

So

Purpose: To show the result or effect of something (not to be confused with so as an adverb, meaning to a great extent)

Example: Three feet of snow fell last night, so we were not able to leave the house today. 

 

I hope these examples and demonstration help your learners master coordinating conjunctions a bit more easily!

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