More Ending Spelling Patterns (UFLI Story Help March 31-April 4)

This week's focus on reading & writing is more ending spelling patterns looking at:

• Yy making the long /e/ sound
• -le at the end of a word

Remember, a syllable is a word or part of a word with one vowel sound. We have been learning about different types of syllables, which helps us read and spell big words. 

Closed syllables - end in one or more consonants and the vowel is short. 

Open syllables - end in a vowel and the vowel sound is long. 

Remembering this can help us with our new phonics focus for this week.  

Yy Making the Long /e/ Sound

The letter Yy can spell the long /e/ at the end of long words with two or more syllables like baby and puppy. Often, big words that end in y making the long /e/ sound have double consonants. Usually we see double consonants in a closed syllable work with a short vowel sound, like in the words puppy, mommy and sunny. There is no double consonant when the closed syllable ends in a consonant cluster or diagraph like bumpy or lucky.

In this week's text called Lily's Puppy, students are looking for all the words that have the y at the end of the word making the long /e/ sound (ie. puppy, happy, Lily). Please don't get tricked that all words that end in y make that sounds (ie. try, they).   

Ending -le 

Another type of syllable is called a final stable syllable. The name helps us remember what it is: final means last, so its the last syllable in a word. Stable means stays the same, so the sound is always the same. One common final stable syllable is consonant + le. The le spells the /l/ sound like at the end of apple and puzzle. 

To decode words with the consonant + le. we can cover up the last three letters (the final consonant + le) and look at the first syllable. We can decode this as usual with our open and closed syllable knowledge, then we read each syllable and blend it together. 

middle - mid +dle 

table - ta + ble

In this week's text called Maple Fudge, students are looking for all the words that have the le stable syllable to end the word to make the /l/ sound (ie.maple, uncle). There is a tricky on in there that has an additional ending - can you find it?   

Heart (Irregular) Words of the Week

This week we are reviewing:

• move
• both
• four 
• fourth

And we are introducing as new words:

• forty
• people 

NEW Fluency Grids

This week's stories also came with something new we are going to try called a fluency grid. These are to help students recognize the phonics rule and assist in reading it with accuracy and automaticity. We have created a little game in the classroom with this activity but at home, challenge your young reader to read the word (aim is to decode/read each word within 3 seconds) and then recall it each time they see it within the grid of mixed up, repeated words. A couple minutes of practice is all they need. If they complete this once, see if they can beat their record by timing them a second time for a fun, challenge or even offer up a reward for a little splash of excitement. This is going to be a little bit of a warm up before reading the text that also applies the same skill while building on all the previous skills as well. Each week we are building on the previous week to become more fluent readers so we can focus on what the text is sharing rather than spending all the time decoding the words. 

**If this is too much at home with all the other things you are busy with, we totally understand! We will be using it in the classroom and saving paper to keep them all together in one spot. Thank you in advance if you do give it a whirl as another way to support your little reader based on the Science of Reading.** 

Happy reading!