This game has a funny backstory. Once during a reading group, one of the students told me, “An is not a real word. I asked my mom and she said it’s not real.”
It was good reminder that this word is underused and needs to be taught.
When teaching emergent readers the word “an,” it’s important to explain it in simple terms. This is one example of how you might do that:
Explain the Role of “An”: “An” is a word we use before a noun when the noun starts with a vowel sound (like “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” or “u”). It helps us say things clearly, like in “an apple” or “an umbrella.”
Give Examples:
“An apple” (because “apple” starts with the vowel sound “a”).
“An egg” (because “egg” starts with the vowel sound “e”).
“An ice cream” (because “ice” starts with the vowel sound “i”).
Contrast with “A”: You can explain that “an” is used only when the next word starts with a vowel sound. If the next word starts with a consonant sound, we use “a.” For example:
“A dog” (because “dog” starts with the consonant sound “d”).
“An apple” (because “apple” starts with the vowel sound “a”).
Practice with Simple Sentences: Help them practice with simple phrases:
“I see an apple.”
“She has an orange.”
“He wants an umbrella.”
By connecting “an” to things they are already familiar with and using it in simple sentences, emergent readers can start to recognize and use “an” correctly in their reading and writing!
Vowels are important
Vowel knowledge is essential for early learners. As educators, we often use terms like “CVC words,” but young learners may not fully understand what CVC, consonants, and vowels mean.
This is a great reminder that the five vowels are special and not the same as the other letters. The game below has the vowels marked in red.
The Importance of Correct Letter Formation: How Understanding the “C” Shape Can Help With Writing Letters Like lowercase a, g, d, q, o, and s
Learning to write is one of the most foundational skills children acquire, and proper letter formation is a key component in developing legible handwriting and decoding text. One effective way to teach this is by focusing on the shared shapes and movements that many letters have in common. This is especially true when it comes to the “C-shaped” letters—c, a, g, d, q, o, and s. These letters all begin with the same basic motion, which makes mastering their formation easier and more intuitive.
Letter is e, is also included in this group because it shares the same “c” shape curve. The lowercase letter /e/ has a rare starting place in the center of the letter between the lines.
Why Focusing on the “C” Shape is Helpful
The concept of the “C-shape” refers to the curved stroke that forms the initial part of several letters. By recognizing that many letters share this common starting point, children can develop muscle memory that will help them write these letters more fluently and correctly. Here’s why it’s so beneficial:
Consistency in Movement: All the “C-shaped” letters—c, a, g, d, q, o, and s—start with a curved stroke. This consistent motion reduces confusion for young learners who might otherwise feel overwhelmed by the differences between each letter. Once they master the curve, they can apply it to multiple letters.
Building Confidence: When children see that many letters share a similar starting stroke, they gain confidence. Instead of learning each letter individually from scratch, they understand that a large portion of their task is already the same. This helps reinforce a sense of achievement early on.
Muscle Memory: Proper formation of each letter is essential for developing legible handwriting. Starting with a consistent motion that works for several letters helps the child develop the fine motor skills needed to form these letters efficiently. Repeated practice of the “C” shape strengthens hand-eye coordination and improves control over the writing utensil.
Improved Readability: Correct letter formation leads to more legible writing. When children are taught to form letters like – a, g, d, q, o, and s with the same initial stroke, their writing becomes smoother and more consistent. The clear structure of each letter helps others easily read and understand their work.
The Key Letters That Share the “C” Shape
Here’s a breakdown of how these letters are formed and why their shared beginning is so useful:
c: The letter C begins with a simple, open curve that gently curls from top to bottom. It’s the perfect starting point for understanding how a curved stroke can be controlled.
a: Starting at the top with a curved stroke similar to the C, A then forms a pointed peak. This shared beginning helps learners transition from the open curve of C to the pointed structure of A.
g: The letter G shares a similar shape to C but adds a small horizontal line at the bottom. Understanding how the curve connects to the baseline in C helps learners add the horizontal stroke to form G.
d: Beginning like c, the letter d, incorporates a straight line down the right side to complete its form. The curved stroke serves as the foundation for creating the full d shape.
q: The letter q begins like the letter c, then drops down with a straight line to create a hanging letter.
o: O mirrors the C in terms of its curved stroke, but it forms a complete circle. Once children can form the C shape, drawing O becomes a natural next step. They should start the letters in the same spot to the right. Not in the center.
s: The letter S starts with a small C-like curve that loops back on itself. This shape may appear complex, but it becomes easier once learners understand how to curve the stroke in a continuous motion. Remind students that letter /s/ starts with a small /c/ shape then turns and flips into a backward /c/ shape.
How a Video Can Support Learning
Using a video to demonstrate how to form these “C-shaped” letters is an excellent way to reinforce proper letter formation. Visual learners can benefit from seeing the motion in real time, as it helps them better understand how to make the connections between each letter. A video can also provide:
Slow-motion tutorials to break down the steps for each letter.
Interactive feedback to encourage learners to try forming the letters themselves. Using whiteboards, paper, sand, or air writing.
Multiple examples to ensure mastery of the technique.
Pure Joy Teaching the C-shaped letters
Conclusion
Focusing on the common “C-shape” in letters like -c, a, g, d, q, o, s, and e, offers a practical and effective way to teach children proper letter formation. By highlighting the shared motion and stroke, children can build confidence, improve their handwriting skills, and progress through these letters more smoothly. Using video resources to reinforce these concepts can further enhance learning, providing visual cues and demonstrations that support the development of good handwriting habits.
Use the Spelling Patterns ai, ay, a-e, eigh to Make a Game.
Teaching can be fun and flexible with games that help students review and repeat the spelling patterns that they just learned.
I like to use card games after every reading grouping. My goal is to have a game for every spelling pattern or spelling rule.
Card games are very flexible, they can be put into different groups that progressively get harder, just by removing or adding some words as they progress. The cards can be used as flashcards for reading practice or my new idea is to use the cards to move around the game board.
Long a game board
This game board is a great match to the long /a/ card game. The flashcards can be used to move players along the path to the end, instead of using a die.
Which to use ck, ke, or k for the final k sound?
These visuals are another way to remind students to look and listen for the vowel sounds and names.
Which to use ck, ke, or k for the final k sound?
Emergent readers often struggle with final k sounds and spellings, and rightly so. There is a lot to unpack here with these spelling rules and patterns.
They may start off well with phonics and individual letter sounds, they may transition to decoding CVC words, and then the rules seem to change overnight when they get to the final letter k sounds. They are often confused with the fact that ck, can make one sound. While other words can use only the letter k by itself, without the letter c. Then you add in the words that end with ke, for example the word: like, with a silent e. Bingo-bango we now have a student who is confused.
Final k sounds with a silent e
Yes, this does not happen every time but it did happen the other day on a spelling test in my class. One student started adding /cke/ to the end of the words. I think she was trying to cover all the possibilities for the final /k/ sound. I have seen this before with students who do not understand all the reasons for final silent e.
To help speed up this process, I have created a few games that I can play with the students that will help them practice some repeated reading of words that have the final /k/ sound. Grouping words together with similar spelling patterns often makes it easier for them to decode new words that they did not know they could read.
War-style educational games
They love these war-style games. To get extra use out of the game cards, I added beginning k sounds too. This is a bonus with hard c words all in the same resource.
It’s important to teach students that the really vowels matter a lot. Listening for the vowel sound or the vowel name can be the key to helping decide which final /k/ spelling to use.
If you hear the vowel sound before the final /k/ sound then use /ck/.
If you hear the vowel name before the final /k/ sound then it could be /ke/ or /k/.
Here are a few example words:
-ck ending: back, peck, dock, luck
-ke ending: bake, hike, coke, puke
-k ending: bank, pink, soak, park
The letters /ck/usually follow a very predictable pattern. It is sometimes called a short vowel pointer. Meaning it points backwards to the vowel that is making its short sounds, and the vowel is not saying its long name.
To help the students learn this skill of listening for the short vowel pointer, I also added some sound sorting cards to this game. These cards can be used as wildcards in the war game or used for sound sorting during a tutoring lesson.
Beginning c pattern: a, o, u. Beginning k pattern i, e, y.
These visuals are another way to remind students to look and listen for the vowel sounds and names.
This specially designed Flossy Uno-style game can help students practice reading words that end with ff, ll, ss, zz, and recognize the irregular and regular spelling patterns of /ll/, while having lots of fun.
This specially designed Flossy Uno-style game can help students practice reading words that end with ff, ll, ss, zz, and recognize the irregular and regular spelling patterns of /ll/, while having lots of fun.
How to Teach Floss Ending Blends with Color-Coded Short Vowel Flashcards
Teaching the flossy spelling pattern seems simple, but is it? NO.
Teaching the floss spelling pattern is not an easy thing to do. Let’s unpack this. First rule number one, when a one-syllable word ends in f, l, or s, double that final f, l, or, s.
Easy! Got it. Then what about pal, gal, Sal, roll, poll?
Oops! It is not a rule, it is a predictable spelling pattern with some exceptions.
I had to look that up. It turns out pal, gal, Sal are non-formal words. It might be better to call this a spelling pattern and not a rule.
Roll and poll are words that sound like long vowels and then there is the word doll that sounds like a short vowel. This now seems harder to teach to emergent readers. We need to be careful not to call this a rule. Floss is more like a short vowel indicator. In the Uno game, these long and short vowel words are different colors to help recognize and teach the pattern.
What about teaching the -all word family?
The word /all/. The letter /a/ is not saying “ah” like in cat or pal. The vowel a has changed to the short ŏ sound. Like in the word boss. That is tricky for some students to decode. In the Floss Uno game, the /all/ cards are dual-colored to help highlight the spelling pattern.
The red-colored cards in the game all make the short ă sound. The orange-colored cards all make the short ŏ sound. The tricky ‘all’ word family has dual colored cards, the letter a (red) making the short ŏ sound (orange). This helps create a color link to the sound patterns.
There are many ways to sort these cards to play different levels of the game. Take a look at the cards here.
The long o words like poll, roll, troll, have a dark blue color, instead of orange. This set also has a large collection of pseudowords. A good mix of digraphs, trigraphs, and floss endings.
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.
C Pirate Letters: Handwriting Storybook Lowercase Letter Formation
This is the second book in the series Pirate Handwriting.
The lowercase letters are grouped to help improve muscle memory, picture a sensory experience to stimulate the brain for learning, and avoid common letter reversal errors. In a storybook style, the letters are grouped by similar starting points and curved strokes to speed up the handwriting process and improve letter print recognition for reading. Presented with a fun and memorable story to engage the interests of young students.
This is the second group of letters that they learn: c, a, g, d, q, o, s, e.
These letters all share the common c shape.
They also start to recognize vowel sounds, with the help of a colorful bird and a curious monkey they find on the island.
R’s Pirate Letters: Handwriting Storybook Lowercase Letter Formation
This is the first book in the Pirate Handwriting series.
The letters in this book all share a similar ‘r’ shape and fine motor direction with a common downstroke and slide-up hook.
Letters: r, n, m, h, b, p
Treasure-seeking pirates are distracted by a new adventure. That leads them to start learning the valuable skill of handwriting.
The lowercase letters are grouped to help improve muscle memory, picture a sensory experience to stimulate the brain for learning, and avoid common letter reversal errors. With letters that are grouped by similar starting points and down strokes to speed up the handwriting process and improve letter print recognition for reading. Paired with a fun and memorable story to engage the interests of young students.
