How many sounds does letter u have? This is one of the rare vowels that has more than one long sound. This can make reading tricky for words like tube and use. One has /oo/ sound the other has a sharp /y/ sound.
Explore the many sounds of the letter u, with this a helpful unicorn mnemonic.
Do you know all the different sounds letter u can make?
This might be a tricky one to teach. Some students that are learning to decode by the traditional phoneme sounds have trouble with words that do not follow the normal sounds. Example words: you, push, pull, put, was, banana.
So, with that in mind. I made up this silly picture and sentence to help them.
Unbelievable the U pushed the super unicorn
The vowel can make lots of different sounds. This sentence and the silly picture is a clever way to remember some of the sounds and different spellings of the Y-oo!
The letter u can make a shocking amount of sounds. The sounds can be hidden in many different spellings. Example words: the, was, push, super. In the word unicorn, the letter u name and the schwa sound comes from the letter i.
Crazy! Right ….
This Super Unicorn Collection can be helpful for teaching and clearing up some of the sounds and spellings by grouping them together in word lists and adding colorful pictures to create mnemonic clues.
The tricky sh sound spelled ci, ti, si, xi, ss, sh, ch, s, c, can now be used as a game. Students love playing card games like War and Uno. These 144 cards were made to highlight the tricky “sh” sounds in words and added a point value to the different spellings. Including the French ch = sh, and letters like c and s, in words like ocean and sugar.
“It is a trick?”
Knowing there is a trick is the best way to avoid being tricked by it. This is a fun play on words. Words like ocean, sure, and sugar all have a “sh” sound that we can not see from the spelling clues.
144-Word cards with color-coded /sh/ (many different spellings of the “sh” sound) with single beginning syllable and ending syllables.
You can find it here on TPT . The are many different ways to play. Use the cards for UNO, War, or flash cards. Printing out multiple sets have been extra helpful for me. I work with many different students at different levels. It is easier for me to have the cards grouped into leveled decks ranging from easy to advanced.
The lesson posters can be cast to the TV or smartboard. I like to keep them all bound up in a booklet, it is handy for working with small groups or tutoring students.
We review the spelling lessons and write a few words from the word lists. Some students like to draw mnemonic pictures for different /sh/spellings. Then we play the card game to put reading into practice.
Level one starts with the main spelling of the sh sound, and explains to the students that these are single-syllable words. The next level can be introducing tricky words like: sure, sugar, and ocean. Or moving on to multiple-syllable words and compound words.
Lesson Booklet Option
Binding up the pages created a valuable handy resource for me.
These mnemonic picture-embedded spelling tips have been very helpful. Especially for the very tricky R-controlled Trigraphs.
Think of a blue tongue to remind you how to correctly spell the word tongue. They both have the same /ue/ ending.
Teaching with card games.
Spelling tip today.
Think of a blue tongue to remind you how to correctly spell the word tongue. They both have the same /ue/ ending.
The other day we were playing the CVCC Uno card game after our reading group. The word tong, was one of the cards that we took the time to discuss vocabulary and meaning. That brought us to the word tongue and blue, in a roundabout way. One student was thinking the word (tong) might be “tongue.”
They were surprised when I wrote the words tongue and blue on the whiteboard. I underlined the ue and told them to think of the word blue to remind themselves how to spell this tricky word.
There are many teachable moments in these small reading groups. It is pure joy for me to hear them working out new words that they have never read before and discuss their meanings during our games. Teaching the students with flashcard games helps them to sound out new words that they may not find in regular reading passages. When they have confidence in their decoding abilities, then they can stop guessing with the whole word strategy. It is awesome, to hear the shock in their voice when they realize they can read a new word they never knew before.
The letter /ere/ can make lots of sounds. This is a tricky spelling to teach. It is mostly one of the reasons the students start to struggle with sight words. Even for students who are good at decoding, this is a very tricky thing to understand the r controlled clip cards have helpful mnemonic images for the sound connection.
These R-controlled clip cards focus on the five sounds: ear, air, oar, er, and are. Often found in tricky sight words. Students may encounter this spelling pattern in their text long before the r-controlled trigraph is formally taught.
These clip cards can be a useful bridge or introduction to the skill knowledge.
Dual-colored spelling clip cards can be found HERE.
Teaching bossy r can be easy to explain until you get to the trigraphs. Then the rules are gone and some students struggle with reading and spelling the homophones like: stair and stare.
These mnemonics were created to provide visual pictures to help students remember and relate to the words. You can find the whole set HERE.
The spelling clip cards highlight the tricky trigraphs in red, with the question “Sounds like?” above three images to guide students.
The letter /ere/ can make lots of sounds. This is a tricky spelling to teach. It is mostly one of the reasons the students start to struggle with sight words. Even for students who are good at decoding, this is a very tricky thing to understand the r controlled clip cards have helpful mnemonic images for the sound connection.
1. The “ear” Sound– Examples
The “ear” sound often makes the “ear” sound, like in the words “ear”, “bear”, and “clear”. This combination of letters can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of words. Here are a few examples:
Ear – The part of the body used for hearing.
Bear – A large animal or to carry something.
Clear – Free from obstruction or easy to understand.
2. The “air” Sound Trigraph -Examples
The “air” sound is commonly found in words such as “air”, “chair”, and “fair”. This sound can also be spelled with the letter combinations “are” or “ere”, as in “care” or “flare”. Here are a few examples:
Air – The atmosphere that we breathe.
Chair – A piece of furniture for sitting.
Fair – Just or impartial, or an event with rides and games.
