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.
I have created some hints within the letter shapes to help remind the students of words that make the same digraph sound.
Creative Picture Embedded Hints with the Letter Shapes
Digraphs might be more complex to learn than blends, especially with all the tricky sounds, silent letters, and spelling rules. I have hidden some hints within the letter shapes to help remind the students of words that make the same sound as the digraph. Example ch – one of the sounds of ch is in chomp and chicken. The letter c has teeth to chomp or chew on the chicken leg, which is very similar to the h shape.
This is the first sound of ch, as in chicken. Some kids have it mixed up with the sound /tr/. I was very surprised by this until they explained that /ch/ is for the train picture. (oops!) Some programs have a Choo-choo train for /ch/ sound and it was confusing the emergent readers.
There are many more clever hiding pictures with the digraphs and trigraphs in this set. Including the 3 different sounds for the ch.
These grapheme images incorporate the letter shapes with embedded images to help students recall the sounds that they make. Pictures aid phonemic sound recall and link to memory pathways.
3 different sounds of ch ch, k, sh:
ch – 1 st sound ch, Letter c has teeth to chew the chicken on the letter h.
ch – 2nd sound k, Christmas tree image, letter c is a sack of gifts and letter h on the tall tree has the “sh” silent hand.
ch – 3rd sound /sh/ chef, letter c shape is uncovering the food. (French Word Origins)
3 different sounds of gh:
gh – Ghost images laughing, thinking, and shhhh hand. (3 sounds on one card)
gh – Gh sleeping and coughing with h shhhh hand.
Other digraphs
ck – Duck image with bubbles on letter c and letter k has duck feet
th – Letter t is sticking a tongue out at the thumb image on letter h.
ph – Letter p using a phone and h looks like a phone.
wr – Wrench image with silent w.
tr – Covered with train tracks and a train on letter t.
and much more……
Check out the whole set on my Teachers Pay Teachers page Pure Joy Teaching
The cards can be printed with a word list on the back. Some cards have very helpful spelling tips too. Color-coded to help highlight the digraph or trigraph.
Keep watching this space, I am working on a card game to help reinforce some of these tricky sounds and teach some spelling words at the same time.
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.
R controlled Trigraphs Mnemonic Bossy r Booklet, spelling help for sounds air, ear,
Mnemonic pictures are a great way to help teach sound sorting for the various tricky spellings of the five bossy r trigraphs.
air, ear, oar, er, r . These 5 sounds can be spelled in lots of ways.
This booklet has 35 Mnemonic pictures for the vowels and bossy r – to help create a visual picture that can remind the student how the word is spelled.
